“Nick asked me to help.” She smiled up at him. “Besides, I think he wants to make sure you didn’t bump your head.”
“I didn’t.” Daryl sighed. “The kid punches like the child he is.”
Kara laughed as the house grew quiet.
“How are you holding up, old timer?” Nick asked from the doorway.
“Shadow did me worse just last week,” Daryl joked. “That horse is going to be the death of me. Mark my words.”
“You say that about every horse you break.” Nick’s smile was fast and over before she could fully enjoy the view of it. “I think there are a lot of leftovers in the kitchen. You should take some out to the boys. I’m sure they’d appreciate the pies,” Nick suggested.
Daryl stood up and rubbed his hands together. “I was just heading into the kitchen to get me a slice of that rhubarb pie anyway.”
Daryl quickly disappeared, leaving them alone in the bathroom. Kara turned and started cleaning the mess she’d made.
“You can leave that,” Nick said behind her.
She dumped the tissue into the trash and turned to him.
“I didn’t mean what I said earlier,” she blurted out. Nick’s dark eyebrows rose in question. “About the other night just being a bet.”
Nick seemed to relax slightly. “Okay.”
“I mean…” She leaned against the sink and crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t come over just because of the bet.”
Nick’s eyes moved to her mouth as she licked her lips in frustration.
“What did it mean?” he asked, moving closer to her.
Her breath hitched as her eyes lowered to his lips, remembering what it had done to her when he kissed her. She wanted to feel that way again.
“What did it mean to you?” she asked, her voice breathless, like she’d just run through the fields.
“Kara.” Nick’s hands took her shoulders. “This… means something.” He pulled her into his arms. “I can’t think straight. Not yet. But… I just want you to know that.”
She held onto him and closed her eyes tightly as she listened to his heartbeat next to her ear.
Then, just as quickly as he’d held onto her, he pulled back. She instantly missed the feeling of him. The sound of his heartbeat.
“Thanks for helping out.” He turned to leave the room. “Feel free to take some leftovers.”
“Nick?” she said, and he paused at the door.
“I’ll be over after my meeting with my uncle,” he said when she didn’t say anything more. Then he walked out of the bathroom, leaving her shaking and wanting.
The next morning, she woke and ate half-burned waffles and coffee before checking on all the animals.
When she walked outside, she noticed a truck parked outside of Nick’s place and wondered what they were talking about while she completed her chores.
“Oh, to be a fly on the wall,” she told Wilbur, who had turned into a rather agreeable pig since Nick had worked with him. Wilbur looked up at her from his slop and oinked loudly at her in agreement. She was thankful that Liz’s dad had informed her he’d already bought a wild turkey from his neighbor, who had killed two on a hunting trip. “You know, maybe I’ll just bring turkey for Christmas this year,” she said, sitting on the edge of the fence as she watched the pig.
“I bet he likes to hear that,” Nick said from a few feet away, causing her to squeal and almost fall off the fence.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Don’t sneak up on someone like that.” Kara held her hand over her heart until it settled down in her chest.
Nick chuckled and moved over to stand next to her, leaning on the fence and looking down at Wilbur.
“If you’d been paying attention, you would have seen me riding across the field towards you.” He motioned to Crash, who was tied up just outside the barn.
“Right,” she said and took a deep breath. “How’d things go with your uncle?”
“Until the official reading of my father’s will… things are strained,” Nick answered.
She frowned. “What did the lawyer tell you yesterday?”
“He was there to tell me that my father requested his will not be read until Christmas Day,” he answered. “That was all.”
“He can do that?”
“Lawyers will do anything their client’s request. If they’re paid enough. Naturally, my uncle thinks this is a good sign. He wants to make a deal with me before the will is read.”
“A deal?”
“He wants the ranch. He’s pretty sure my father left it to him if I wasn’t married before my father’s death.”
“Which you aren’t.” She sighed, then turned to him. “You aren’t, are you?” She smiled.
He smiled back at her. “Nope.”
“Are you sure you didn’t sneak off to Vegas and marry a stripper?” she teased.
He shook his head. “I’ve never been to Vegas.”
Her eyebrows arched. “You haven’t? You should go sometime.”
“And marry a stripper?” he teased back.
“Hey, they’re just working girls,” she pointed out.
“True, but I don’t think any stripper would be comfortable living out here in the middle of nowhere in a small town, on a ranch.” He motioned to the pig. “Taking care of farm animals.”
She laughed. “You never know. I’d wager there are a few that would love to live on a ranch, have a handsome husband who can cook and can foods, not to mention make homemade jelly.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
His smile slipped slightly, and his eyes dipped to her lips again.
“Kara.”
Just hearing her name come from his lips had her heart racing again. She jumped for a second time when her cell phone rang loudly in her pocket.
Seeing her father’s number on the screen, she sighed before answering the call.
“Hey, Daddy, how’s the trip going?” She jumped down from the fence and walked away from the noise of the barn animals.
“Good, sweetie. We just heard about Nicholas,” her father said.
Kara glanced to where Nick was talking softly to Wilbur.
“Yeah, the services were yesterday.”
“I hope you had flowers delivered for us,” her father said.
“Yes, I did.”
“How’s Nick holding up?”
She glanced at Nick again. “He’s holding up. He’s here right now.”
“He is?” Her father said something to Luanna as he held his hand over the phone, but she still heard it perfectly. “Nick’s there with her right now.” Luanna answered, “Well, get off the phone and leave them alone. This is just what we planned.”
When her father came back, she asked, “What did you have planned? What does that mean?”
Her father was quiet for a moment, then he said, “Um, honey, I can’t… hear you…” and hung up.
She frowned down at her phone and was about to call them back when she realized Nick was watching her.
“How about a ride?” she asked him. “The sun is finally out, and I want to exercise Bella.”