Chapter Seventeen
After that awkward morning when Trish had realized Brett had waited up for her, he’d been careful to keep his distance from her.
He only went near the bunkhouse and the petting zoo barn when she was in the house or off somewhere with Frankie or Maci or Elise.
He didn’t want her to worry that he was getting too involved with her or attached or interested.
But he was beginning to worry that he was, because even though he hadn’t seen her that often over the past couple of weeks, he thought about her all the time. Keeping his distance wasn’t working for him at all.
Maybe if he just checked in and had a real conversation with her, he would be able to stop worrying about her and about himself. So once he returned from the pastures, he took care of his horse and was just about to leave the barn when he noticed the wagon with hay bales on it.
Except it didn’t just have hay bales on it. A certain curly-haired woman sat on the back among the bales with one black kitten on her lap and the other on the hay bale behind her.
Had that wagon just come back from the fields? The tractor was still hooked to the front of it. And then it began to move. As it jerked forward, Trish slid off one bale and onto another, and she scrambled to hold on to the kittens, as if worried they might fall off.
Brett was more worried about her. And those babies.
His heart pounding madly, he ran to catch up to the wagon, then grabbed on to the edge to hoist himself up and onto it.
He fell across the straw that had come loose from the bales.
Then he scrambled up to wrap his arms around Trish, holding on to her as she held on to the kittens.
“Are you all right?” he asked with concern.
He tried to peer over the hay to see who was driving the tractor.
“What’s going on? Don’t they know you’re on here? ”
He couldn’t imagine anyone would have driven off with her sitting on the back like this. She could fall off so easily.
“Of course they know,” she replied. “This is a test run for the hayrides we want to have.”
He shuddered. “Not we. This isn’t a good idea, Trish.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking about the hayrides or the way he’d wrapped his arms around her, holding her so close that she had to feel the pounding of his heart.
“What do you have against hayrides?” she asked.
“Liability,” he said. “Kids could fall off.”
“We’re going very slowly,” she pointed out.
And it was true that the tractor was putzing along. But still…
He shook his head. “Someone could still fall off and then the wagon or the tractor could run them over.”
“It’s not going to back up,” she said. “We’ll make sure we have a route mapped out, and we’ll have plenty of adults onboard to watch the kids.”
She was determined. He could hear it in her voice. So, knowing he was going to lose, he sighed. His breath stirred her hair, and she shivered despite the warmth of the day.
Or maybe he was just hot from running after the wagon. Or from holding her.
“Let’s look into maybe getting higher sides on the wagon, so that nobody can fall off, and a gate on the back,” he suggested.
“Okay,” she said. “That makes sense.”
At least he was talking sense because he sure didn’t feel like he was thinking it right now. Because all he could think about was her and how close he held her and how much he wanted to kiss her.
And that would not be sensible at all.
* * *
Trish wanted to be annoyed that Brett kept jumping in to rescue her.
She wanted to be independent. She wanted to be able to handle everything on her own.
But he’d looked so worried about her when he’d run after the wagon.
And the way he’d vaulted onto it and then wrapped his arms around her had her melting into a gooey mess.
Nobody had ever acted this way with her. Not even Nolan Stokes. He’d sought her out to warn her about the Lemmons for some reason as if he’d been concerned they were conning her dad. He hadn’t even known her dad.
After Frank Dempsey had felt her mother had conned him, there was no way he ever would have let anyone else do that.
And while her dad had certainly loved Trish, he hadn’t rushed to her rescue like this.
Maybe if he had actually come to her wedding she wouldn’t have married the man he hadn’t approved of.
He had been right that Harold Trent had love-bombed her in the beginning to win her over.
He hadn’t really wanted any of the same things in life that she had.
He’d just lied and told her that he had.
Whereas Brett was doing the opposite. He said he didn’t want the same things, like the petting zoo and the camps and now the hayrides, but he kept helping her anyway. The only thing they really agreed on was that getting married was too risky and not worth the pain.
Her heart was beating fast like his as he held her. And she felt more like she was falling now than when the wagon had first lurched into motion. But she wasn’t falling off the wagon.
Brett’s strong arms wrapped around her were making sure of that. She couldn’t remember anyone ever holding her like this, so close but yet so carefully, too. Like he didn’t want to hurt her.
If only she could trust that…
If only she could trust anyone…
Most of all herself.
But she was trusting herself. She had so many hopes and dreams and plans. And she had no intention of letting anyone derail them again.
Not even Brett Lemmon.
Though he hadn’t really tried to stop her from doing anything.
He just wanted her to be safer when she did it.
She let herself relax against him and enjoy the ride.
And when the tractor finally lurched to a stop, she turned her head and skimmed her lips across his square jaw.
The stubble on it tickled her lips, and she smiled.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?” he asked. “Overreacting?”
“For caring,” she said.
He tensed.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I know you’re just being a good partner…
” But she wasn’t thinking of the partnership they had in the ranch.
She thought instead of the partnership that Elise and Liam had, and that Sadie and Lem had: a marriage.
“Uh, partnership in the Four Corners,” she said. “That’s what I meant…”
He nodded. And his gaze, with his dark eyes so very intense, dropped to her lips. Then he leaned forward and kissed her back.
She forgot about everything except the sensation of his mouth on hers. She could have kept on kissing him forever if someone hadn’t suddenly cleared their throat, causing them to jerk apart.
She was glad the wagon had stopped because she might have fallen off otherwise, with how quickly he released her.
Then he scrambled off the back. But he didn’t rush off.
He held his hand out to her, to help her down.
But when she put hers in his, she noticed that his hand was shaking just like she was shaking.
What in the world was happening between them?
And why?
This wasn’t part of her plan for her future. This was the exact opposite of what she’d said she wanted. She didn’t want anyone in her life but her babies.
And her business partners.
She didn’t want a life partner.
* * *
Frankie didn’t know what to think of the kiss she’d just witnessed. At first she’d been too stunned to do anything but stop and stare. She hadn’t even known anyone had been on the wagon but Trish.
When she’d hopped on the tractor for the trial run, only Trish and the kittens had been riding back there. But when she stopped the tractor and came around to help Trish down, she’d found that her cousin was no longer alone.
Brett had joined her.
And they looked like they were really together. What in the world was going on with them?
They broke apart the minute she cleared her throat. Maybe she shouldn’t have done that. Maybe she should have just walked away.
But this wasn’t like Blake and Maci, who she loved together. Or Elise and Liam, who were perfect together.
This was Trish and Brett.
Brett, who Frankie had once thought would never forgive Trish for not being there for her dad when he got hurt and then for his funeral.
But he must have forgiven her if he was kissing her.
Or maybe he hadn’t.
But even if he had, this wasn’t a good idea. Trish was newly divorced and very pregnant. And Brett wasn’t much better with kids than Frankie was.
She couldn’t believe these two people, of any two people she knew, would be able to make a relationship work. And if it didn’t, the fallout would make life at the ranch messy for everyone.
The only more unlikely pair Frankie could imagine would be her and Nolan Stokes.