She gave me a look. “You say that about everybody. You’ve said that about me.”
“I was wrong about you. I’m not wrong about him.”
Leaning in, she cupped my jaw. “Jake,” she started gently, “You trust me, right?”
A single, willful nod.
“After last night, do you think there is any chance of me running off with Chase Patton?”
My eyes narrowed. I shook my head.
She smiled, satisfied. “Right. So I’m going to brunch with Presley, and when I get back, I am coming straight here, taking off my clothes, and getting into your bed where I will stay until you come in for lunch.”
That earned her a smile—she’d been imagining lunch together exactly like I’d been. Naked. “Fine. But just for the record, I don’t like anything that puts you and Chase in the same sentence, never mind building.”
“Duly noted. And you’re going to let me be friendly with Chase.”
I watched her. “The Pattons are capable of more than you know, and Chase is a trained liar. They want the farm. Just remember that for me.”
“I promise. As long as you let me be a diplomat so we can put this whole thing to bed once and for all.”
One of my brows rose. “I’d rather not involve Chase in any discussions involving beds, either.”
“To pasture then.”
“Better.”
She leaned in to give me a tender kiss that turned into a breathless one. When I broke away, she was pinned under me.
“I thought you were hungry,” she said with a smile.
“Oh, I am.”
So I took my fill in the hopes she would ease my fears with the devotion of her body.
And it almost worked.
21
Calendar Boy
OLIVIA
I floated to the diner like a cloud.
Not riding on top of a cloud, as one usually imagined. Not in a cloud, oblivious to the outside world. I was as thoughtless as a fluffy white cloud drifting across the horizon with a smile on my face and not a care in the world.
Jake and I had parted ways only after a very long, borderline disgusting display of affection. When we’d walked into the kitchen for breakfast half dressed, Kit took one look at us, squealed, and burst into happy tears. Jake looked terrified at Kit’s state, seeing as how it was fifty percent directed toward him. His eyes were a couple of ping-pong balls, his cheeks a little flushed, his back straight as a ruler. I wondered if he’d ever brought a girl home like this to meet everyone and decided by the level of Kit’s excitement that the answer was no.
But when the majority of her joy blast had been exhausted, she went back to the kitchen, and Jake and I had sat at the island, smiling at each other like a couple of dummies.
It was basically the best day ever.
We’d taken a shower together, and once I was dressed, he’d sent me off with that kiss and a long list of things to talk to Presley about.
I hated that Jake hated the thought of me being friends with Chase, but there wasn’t any way around it. We’d all been bred to hate each other, and deprogramming from that was no small task. Jake was probably a lost cause. But Chase and I had a rapport. I wasn’t so stupid to think he didn’t have any ulterior motives, but I believed he was genuine after coming clean and offering inside information. He’d come to me if he heard anything, I was sure.
I’d been playing devil’s advocate with Jake for months, but it’d taken us sleeping together for me to convince him to let me try to make peace.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t take that to get Chase on board. If he had designs leading that direction, he was going to be real disappointed—and maybe end up with a broken nose, if Jake happened to find out.
I hadn’t even told Jake what Chase had said about his dad and James Patton’s designs, not wanting to give Jake any more fodder for the grudge.
Jake, Jake, Jake.
I smiled at nothing and sighed like a teenager as I slid into a booth at Debbie’s.
“Well, what’s gotten into you?” Presley asked from my elbow.
She looked adorable in her little blue uniform that was straight out of the ’50s, starched collar and name embroidered on the breast and everything. In revolt of any sort of uniform, she rejected the ’50s hair, or even a conventional hairstyle. Today, it was two little buns on top of her head like teddy bear ears.
One of her dark brows made an elegant arch, and her lips rose on that side in amusement.
“Jake,” I said, mirroring her expression.
Just like that, her face fell open. “What?” She slid into the booth. “I’m sorry … what?”
“Well—we almost banged in the hayloft on the Fourth.”
She shook her head, blinking. “Rewind. Start over.”
“Banging might have been preemptive, but given another five minutes, it would have happened if he hadn’t run off like a jackass. But then …” I leaned in. “Did you know my grandpa mortgaged the farm to keep Jake in America?”
I didn’t think her eyes could open any wider, but they did. “I knew Frank helped him, but I didn’t know he had to borrow off the farm to do it. Jesus.”
“Well, I found all the paperwork last night, and I … I didn’t understand him, not until then. So I marched over there and told him as much. Let’s just say, I didn’t make it home last night.” I waggled my brows. “I got the Roman candle I was denied on the Fourth.”
She made a face. “Ouch.”
I giggled. I was officially someone who giggled at leisure. “He blew it up like—” I made an explosion sound and gestured to my hips.
“Oh my God, stop,” she said on a laugh.
“It was all blam, blam, blam.”
“That’s it—we can’t be friends anymore. I’m embarrassed for you,” she said on a laugh, pretending to leave.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
She narrowed her eyes at me in confusion. “I’m still trying to put this together. You. And Jake.”
I nodded, grinning with my lips together.
“You hate each other.”
“Turns out, we super don’t hate each other. Like at all.”
“Yeah, yeah, I think they’ve even got it in the back.” A laugh puffed out of her. “If you had a thought bubble over your head, it’d be full of doodly hearts. I do not even know what to do with you right now.”
“How about getting me a coffee?”
“I’m not your servant, ma’am,” she said too loud as she stood. “You can’t talk to me that way.” As she headed to the back, she cut me a smart look and said to Mr. Wheaton at the soda bar, “She can’t talk to me that way.”
He chewed his bacon, unfazed.
Immediately, my mind wandered back to Jake.
I daydreamed about what he was doing. Maybe he had the puppies with him. I wondered if he had a shirt on, and for once, I hoped he didn’t. Maybe he was feeding a calf with a bottle. My insides turned to goop at the thought. In my fantasy, I conveniently left him shirtless.
This, of course, wasn’t a thing he would be doing, but I put all that energy into the universe to manifest it anyway.