Chapter 10 Jesse
JESSE
‘So, you going to tell me why we’re going into town right now, in the middle of the working day?
’ I asked Cole, trying to work out why his eyes were darting all over – up to the house, the cabins, the drive.
‘Or do I get some kinda prize if I guess? Maybe you’ll finally open that dusty-ass wallet and buy me that drink you owe me? ’
Cole just side-eyed me as we shrugged our shirts back on, skin still warm and damp from working in the sun all morning.
Truth was, I was just glad to have a break from my own thoughts, especially the ones that pulled up emotion so deep, they scared the shit out of me – like the memory of Hestia meshing so quickly and easily with my family.
Not to mention the other thoughts that wove alongside them and hardly let me look at her, even from a distance, without wanting her.
‘I’ll buy you a drink if it means you shut the hell up,’ he offered, fastening buttons as the sleeves strained over his arms. He had the kind of definition gym bros trained for their whole lives and never achieved.
‘We going shirt shopping or something?’ I replied, ignoring him, ignoring my own head and enjoying the way he was fighting not to smile at me.
There was something satisfying about cracking Cole, whose hardened, gruff exterior made most folks assume he had an attitude to match his physical dominance.
But really, just below that grumpy mule layer was a guy to trust your life with – and one hell of a drinking buddy.
‘You sure that’s not one of Lottie’s shirts? It looks like—’
‘Jesse Bennington!’
We both spun round to see Bailey marching over, her face set as firmly as her words.
Now Cole smiled, shaking his head as he did up the last button. ‘What did I do –’ I began as he chuckled, taking a step to the side as if to let Bailey have a clear shot at me.
‘How long have we been friends?’ she asked, resting her hands on her hips as she reached us.
‘I . . . err . . . I don’t know? About ten years, maybe?’
My brain scrambled, flipping back through memories, landing on the rodeo season after graduating high school. She’d been in Clara’s year, the one above mine. Always a familiar face, but not one I knew well until we started meeting regularly on the circuit.
‘Ten goddamn years,’ she hissed, taking another step towards me. ‘And I have to find out second-hand from Clara that you finally took someone home to meet your mom? That Hestia, your oh so goddamn casual friend, was the one you introduced to them as the most beautiful woman you’ve ever met?’
I was gonna fucking scalp Clara.
‘I – well, look, it was actually Mom that suggested it,’ I retorted, knowing how lame it sounded. Cole’s raised eyebrows and Bailey’s glare confirmed it. ‘Ugh, okay, fine. Yeah, I wanted her to meet Hestia, and my nosy, big-mouth sisters. I just thought, well . . .’
Bailey shook her head, rolling her eyes.
‘I’m fucking with you, you dumbass,’ she crowed, her expression breaking out into a huge grin.
She punched me on the arm. ‘I’m just happy about it, that’s all.
I know what you’re like in keeping your family outta your love life.
So, y’know, it’s good to see somethin’ change.
’ I shrugged, smiling as Cole snorted. ‘Hestia’s a goddamn riot and I want her to stay around, so I’m glad she might just be finding a reason to. ’
I looked up at her, holding tight to the thought that Hestia might just stay; the thought of what was slowly unfolding between us.
‘Anything else you need to know ahead of time?’ I asked, only just dodging another punch on the arm. I turned towards Cole’s truck as he beckoned me over, the trip into town clearly still at the forefront of his mind.
‘Enough of your sass, Bennington. But yeah, when you guys make it official, if I hear that through anyone other than you or her, you’ll be wishing you were facing down a bull and not me.’
I laughed, climbing into the cab and flipping her off with a grin as she did the same.
‘I fucking knew it,’ Cole murmured as we wound down the drive, his smile smug. ‘So, are you guys . . . together, or . . .?’
‘Oh, no, no. This isn’t about me and Hestia.
You’re not off the hook, dude. Are you gonna tell me why we’re about to get half-trampled by tourists in town when it’s over eighty degrees?
’ He glanced at me, a mix of amusement and exasperation in his eyes, keeping his mouth firmly shut.
‘This better be good,’ I grumbled, turning over the possibilities, the reason why the smile at the corner of his mouth never faded out, not for the whole way in.
We parked up in Jackson, using one of the free spaces behind Dee’s store. It was on permanent loan to any of us from the Diamond Back, an arrangement Lottie had brokered recently to allow us to drop off and pick up guests easily among the hordes of tourists.
‘She’s smart, huh?’ I murmured to Cole, clarifying as he gave me a questioning glance. ‘Lottie. Everything she’s done for the ranch since she arrived. Small things like this, right up to getting us booked out for the whole season.’
Cole’s whole expression softened, just like it always did when he thought of Lottie.
‘You have no idea,’ he replied as we stepped onto the sidewalk, heading for the far side of the square, where some of the fancier shops were.
‘That’s why –’ he continued, weaving in and out of people blocking the way, most with their phones out, taking pictures or videos of the scene around them – ‘I’ve kept this quiet.
Because my girlfriend has a knack for finding out about everything, and this is the one thing I want to surprise her with. ’
I matched his stride as we reached the corner, where he slowed.
‘And that is . . .?’ I asked, trying to get a read on his face.
Finally, he stopped, gesturing towards the store. The jewellery store.
‘That I want her to be my wife,’ he said, smiling as my mouth dropped open.
‘Holy fuck,’ I whispered as I thought about how awesome that would be – the visible happiness they’d both been unable to hide since getting together, cemented for ever.
‘. . . Holy fuck!’ I shouted it this time, grabbing Cole’s shoulder with one hand and clapping him on the back with the other. ‘That’s awesome!’
He received it with a laugh, glancing back at the store window.
‘She hasn’t said yes yet. And wash your mouth out or you’ll get us thrown out of the fancy store, okay?’ he said, watching as I pinched the brim of my hat and nodded.
‘Wait – are you picking up a ring or picking out a ring?’ I asked, suddenly realizing the implications of him bringing me along.
‘The last one,’ he murmured, opening the door into beautifully cool air conditioning, which only just counteracted the clammy sensation of knowing he was going to rely on my opinion for something as important as this.
‘Cole, I don’t know shit about rings,’ I whispered, glancing around the glass display cases, the bright white walls and polished wood floors. ‘Why didn’t you ask Hestia or something?’
He didn’t reply, already talking to the saleswoman, someone I vaguely recognized. But then, as most Jackson-born residents had grown up together, it wasn’t so surprising.
‘Jesse, you remember Mrs Cornell? Amber’s mom, from high school? She was in your class, right?’
I drew a blank, smiling as I faked a, ‘Right, yeah, of course,’ response, only to remember just as I shook her hand, her eyes assessing me. She was pretty, with distinctive hazel eyes that I was sure I recognized . . .
A memory hit me: making out under the bleachers, being discovered by the football coach with her hand wrapped round my dick and mine unhooking her bra.
That Amber Cornell. Eyes just like her mom’s, apparently.
Cole’s shoulders were shaking slightly again as he leant over a glass case nearby, and I vowed to pay him back for this.
‘Are you settling down any time soon, like Cole?’ Mrs Cornell asked, the polite, cool tone of her question undone by the lift of one eyebrow that told me she remembered exactly who I was.
‘Um, maybe, yeah . . .’ I began, strolling over to join Cole. ‘Not quite at the jewellery stage, though.’
She made a humming sound that somehow implied she doubted I’d ever make it there.
‘Well, Cole, just let me know if I can help. Like I said on the phone, I’d stick to something similar to the metals she already wears, and any stones you know she likes. Otherwise, it’s usually just going with your gut, okay?’
He nodded, smiling up at her briefly as she moved over to the front of the store to welcome in another couple.
‘You’re an asshole, you know that?’ I hissed at him under my breath, ignoring the low rumble of his chuckle in response. ‘You knew exactly what you were doing bringing me here, didn’t you?’
He scanned the dozens of rings in the case, resting his hands on the side.
‘I figured you could do with a break from everything recently,’ he said, moving over to the next case on our right. ‘And a reminder of how far you’ve come since high school.’
I rocked back a little, pushing my hat up and staring at the back of his, about to protest. But the progress was undeniable – from Amber and countless encounters in high school, through to buckle bunnies, ending up with a couple of longer, true relationships.
Like Chrissy. Sweet, unassuming and . . . just not quite right.
And now Hestia. There was no mould to shape whatever I had with her, no reference point for it. She somehow felt like everything and yet, officially, in terms of labels, nothing – or no one thing, at least.
‘I guess,’ I murmured, suddenly fast-forwarding to what this scenario would look like for me and her, whether I could picture myself buying her a ring .
. . whether she would ever accept it. Glancing around, I knew this store was as far from Hestia’s vibe as it was from mine.
I smiled as I imagined asking to see some rings with colourful stones, preferably a skull or two.
‘You know how much of dork you look every time you think of her,’ Cole said, still not raising his eyes from the rings.
‘Sure I do,’ I shot back. ‘Picked it up from you, big guy.’
He snorted and we both chuckled, attracting looks from the other couple and forcing ourselves to behave. We fell silent for a moment, just the low hum of the air con in the background.
‘Why is this so fucking difficult?’ he sighed, keeping his voice low. ‘No one tells you that this is the impossible task, not the whole finding “the one” thing.’
‘How did you know?’ I asked before I could stop myself, knowing how keen I sounded and exactly what Cole would guess.
This time he looked up at me, straightening up until our eyes were level again.
‘Same way you know when the bull is gonna spin right or left, dip his shoulder or throw his head around. It’s in your gut,’ he said, gesturing to his own. ‘The whole is better than the sum of the parts, you know?’
I swallowed as he turned back to the rings again, now throwing myself into concentrating on them instead of the damn fluttering sensation in the place he’d described. The one that recognized his words and scrambled my fucking brain.
‘Even so soon after meeting her?’ I added, watching as he froze, hovering over a platinum band studded with tiny diamonds, a larger round diamond set above it.
He stood, calling Mrs Cornell over, asking to see it, utterly unflinching despite the hefty price tag.
‘The way I see it,’ he said to me, turning the delicate band over in his palm, both of us watching the diamonds reflect tiny rainbows across the wall as the sun caught them, ‘time doesn’t mean a damn thing.
All I know is that I love that woman more than my own life, and I know she feels the same way.
We’ve been together for, what, a few months?
But it might as well be years. It makes no difference. ’
I smiled, gripping his shoulder.
‘You know I’m gonna give a best man speech no one will ever forget,’ I replied, already cataloguing the details I could use to maximize his embarrassment.
‘I’d expect nothing less,’ he sighed, but it turned to a grin as he took one last look at the ring – Lottie’s ring – and handed over his card to Mrs Cornell.