Chapter 12
JAKE
“I brought popcorn,” Shelby said by way of announcing her entrance into my cabin. I glanced behind me from my spot on the couch to see that her feet were bare and she was wearing gray joggers and a white t-shirt with her basketball team’s logo on it.
“Homemade?” I asked, training my eyes to focus on the TV instead of the red hair bouncing around my apartment.
“I knew you wouldn’t eat it from a microwave like a normal person.”
“Microwave popcorn is the greatest travesty of this nation,” I supplied while I scrolled through movie options.
When I called Shelby about the movie, I told her to hold off coming over until I put Sophie to bed.
I thought of all the nights Shelby had dinner at my home growing up with my mom and me, but I resisted the urge to call her over to join us.
I hadn’t seen my daughter all day. We could use some bonding time that didn’t include a distracting old friend.
The image of watching Sophie and Shelby interact the other morning had been picking at me for some reason.
Shelby always claimed she wasn’t good with kids.
But it didn’t seem like that was the case.
Sophie had been laughing with her. And as much as it was good to see her laugh, her becoming too friendly with Shelby also terrified me.
So here we were, hanging out like old times with Sophie asleep in her room, none the wiser.
“Let’s go, it’s movie time,” I hissed softly, very aware of my fitfully sleeping daughter in the next room.
“What is this? Were you invited to do a rodeo?”
I looked behind me to see her pick up the invite I’d thrown on my counter a few days ago.
“Going through someone else’s mail is a crime.”
“They’re inviting all the old greats from Eugene back for a big rodeo night?” she asked, studying the paper. “Is Dusty coming?”
I scoffed. “Why do you automatically think Dusty is the rodeo great? I taught him everything he knows.”
She ignored me. “Are you doing it?”
“Probably not.”
“Why not?” she demanded, a bossy edge to her tone.
“I don’t want to. I’ve got Sophie now.”
Her brow furrowed. “All of the people invited have kids. It’s just one night. It’s not until mid-August. Plenty of time to get ready. You should do it. Rodeo was your life before—“
She broke off, but we both knew what she was about to say.
“Just tell me you’ll think about it,” she added.
“Sure,” I agreed immediately.
“You're such a liar.”
“Come on, Tuck, I’m turning ninety over here.”
She finally meandered her way to the couch before plopping down on the farthest corner away from me—just as I suspected she would.
“Try again,” I said.
She threw me a curious glance. “Huh?”
“Try again.”
“Try what?”
“If a guy asks you over to watch a movie, is that where you sit?”
Light dawned in her eyes. “Oh. Wait. Are we doing that now?”
A smile came before I could stop it. “Just for fun, maybe you should tell me the thing you think we’re doing? Should I go shower?”
At the deer-in-the-headlights look she gave me, I immediately regretted my teasing. I looked away and vowed to be on my best behavior. A guy could have a lot of fun with a girl this adorably naive, but I was trying to build her confidence.
“Okay, I didn’t know this was that kind of hangout.”
“When you watch a movie at a guy’s house, is that where you sit?” I asked again.
She glanced down at her body curled in the corner. “Yeah. Because the guys are all busy cuddling with their girlfriends.”
“Okay, this time, then. Are you really going to sit all the way over there?”
“You never told me this was a lesson.”
“I needed to see you in action. Try again.”
She sighed, stood, and grabbed a handful of popcorn before she launched herself…near me.
I motioned toward the inches of distance she’d left between us. “A real man like me can work with that space, but I’m still calling you a chicken.”
“I can’t make it that easy for you. Maybe I need the coach to prove himself.”
I eyed her proudly. “Good flirting, Tuck. But I don’t think making things easy for guys is your thing. Why is your foot moving like that?”
Immediately, her leg that was twitching uncontrollably on the floor stopped. There was a beat of forced stillness before her hands began sliding back and forth down her legs as though she had a bundle of energy to be released.
“Why are you nervous?” I asked her, wondering if I was making her nervous in some way I could fix. “It’s just me.”
“I don’t know. I just get like this around guys.”
“You were fine two minutes ago. Why is this any different?”
“Because now I know you’re going to make moves on me, and it's messing with my head. But even this isn’t the same as the real thing.”
“Why not?”
“Because guys don’t want to do that with me. You’re only doing it because you're teaching me.”
“I haven’t actually done anything yet because now I have to figure out a way to scoot a half a foot closer to you first.”
I was rewarded with a grin. “I thought a real man could figure it out.”
“Oh, he will. But we could already be cuddling right now if you weren’t such a big wimp,” I teased.
She smiled again. This time, a softer, quieter kind of smile.
The shyness of it all suddenly made my heart feel like it was pounding a thousand nails into place.
I cleared my throat and forced my body to stop responding like I was a fifteen-year-old kid about to make my first move.
This was Shelby, I told my unrepentant body.
We’d probably watched a hundred movies together in our lifetime.
This one was not going to break us.
She nodded toward the TV. “Why are you looking for a movie? We both know the one you’re going to pick.”
I couldn’t help the smile as she remembered my favorite movie from my childhood. “Joke's on you. We’re watching the sequel tonight.”
During the opening credits, I attempted to keep my thoughts in order and take my coaching job seriously by giving her all the pointers I could think of.
“I’d say a movie usually happens on date two or three.
By then, you probably know if you like the guy.
Or at any rate, you’re there, so you’re hopefully somewhat interested in him. ”
“I’ve rarely made it past date two, so that’s probably why I’m clueless.”
“And these lessons are only for guys you’re interested in. If you’re not interested, then ignore all of this. But if you are, then you gotta help him out a little bit. At least come halfway.”
Suddenly, a cowboy on a horse moving a herd of horses through the mountains took over the big screen, and my attention was so taken that I almost didn’t hear her question. Her voice was so soft.
“What if he doesn’t want me to?” She refused to meet my eyes, keeping her gaze steady on the sweaty Australian. Maybe this movie was a bad idea.
“You think he invited you over just to hang out?”
“Maybe. What if I misread all the signals, and he really just wanted some company to watch a movie with?”
“Okay,” I relented. “Maybe. But what if he does want you to?”
My foot bumped the coffee table in front of us, and we both watched as the bowl of popcorn began to tip, spilling popcorn on the floor at our feet. We scrambled upward and saved it from completely capsizing. We each quickly grabbed handfuls to put back into the bowl.
“Five-second rule?” I said, leaning back once my area was picked up.
“Obviously.” Shelby popped a handful in her mouth as she picked up the last of the popcorn at her feet before settling back onto the couch, directly into the crook of my right arm.
Her body stilled, and I watched in secret delight as it all slowly clicked into place. She tried to hold it back, but her smile would not be contained.
“Maybe you are easy,” I teased. “We’re not even five minutes into the movie yet.”
Shelby refused to look at me, instead turning her face to the other side, but I smelled a rat. I turned toward her, trying to catch a glimpse, but she kept her face suspiciously averted.
“Are you blushing, Tuck?”
“No! Shut up!”
It wasn’t until Jim Craig from the movie, Return to Snowy River, began to speak for the first time on screen that I realized I still had a sloppy grin on my face.
Eventually, she turned back and, with some hesitation, slowly relaxed against me.
“So, the popcorn spill was on purpose?”
“Yeah.”
She admitted defeat with a smile, and I left her alone for a bit to watch the movie.
It was one of my favorites, but for all my effort, my mind paid very little attention to the screen before me.
Shelby gradually grew more and more comfortable leaning against me.
Ever so slowly, she curled toward me, her head more fully on my chest.
“What do I do with this?” She held up her hand.
“Sit on it.”
“Huh?” She raised her head to look at me, but I pressed her head back down on my chest before grabbing her hand and resting it on my stomach, intertwined with mine. That’s how any good coach would have taught her.
I had planned to hold it there, but after only a few seconds with my thumb caressing her knuckle, I moved my hand back to my side.
My eyes flicked down to the red hair fanning across my shirt before I flicked them away again. For the first time since we made our deal, I was beginning to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew.
I sat up and carefully removed my arm from around her shoulders. She glanced up, and for a second, I imagined she looked disappointed before she smiled up at me.
“Too sexy for you?” she taunted.
I ignored the insinuation. “Alright, Tuck, you passed that one pretty well.”
“What’s next?” she asked just as Sophie’s sharp cry from the back bedroom broke into our quiet night.