he said.
“It was.” Every part of her wanted him to kiss her. Before that afternoon, she couldn’t even say when she’d last had a passing thought about Ben Hartley. Now she was having thoughts that would make the knitting club that met at A Good Yarn blush. Or maybe they’d remember their own youth and cheer her on. Was she daring enough to steal that kiss herself? She was just beginning to lift onto her toes when Ben set her farther away and stepped out of the nook where they’d hidden.
“We better get out of here while the getting’s good.”
He didn’t take her hand, and she had a ridiculously hard time not reaching for his. That was it—she needed to go home and get a good night’s sleep. Maybe she’d wake up and not feel on the edge of throwing caution to whatever wind happened to blow by.
They stayed quiet as they walked back to where he’d parked his truck. She opened her door and hopped in before he could open it for her. Best to leave her sudden attraction to Ben back there in their dark hiding place. If he wasn’t interested, she sure didn’t want to make a complete fool of herself. Not in a town the size of Blue Falls, anyway. Somehow someone would be able to read the truth on her face and she’d never hear the end of it. Worse, town matchmaker Verona Charles would move the potential pairing to the top of her matchmaking list regardless of Mandy’s or Ben’s feelings about getting together.
When the quiet stretched too long for her comfort, she said, “Well, I think the streamer antics have finally worn me out. I’ll probably conk out before my head hits the pillow.”
“Looking forward to some sleep myself.” He didn’t even glance toward her and sounded more distant than he had a few minutes before.
Maybe he was simply as tired as she was, but it was also possible that he was concerned she’d felt more in that up-close-and-personal moment than he had and perhaps expected something from him. She didn’t force any further conversation, instead leaning her head back against the seat and staring out the window. Before the lights of Blue Falls even faded into the darkness of ranch country, she felt herself drifting and her eyelids drooping.
* * *
MANDY JERKED AWAKE when something shook her. Had she been having a bad dream? About to fall out of bed? Movement out of the corner of her eye startled her so much that she jumped and in the process banged her elbow.
“Ow!” She rubbed the offended body part as the truth settled in her mind. “Oh, jeez, I fell asleep?”
“Vandalism is tiring.” Ben smiled a little, relieving the awkwardness that had settled between them as they’d left town.
“Yep. That excursion will probably last me another decade. Thanks for taking part in my temporary insanity.”
“I’m blaming the pigeon.”
She laughed. “That excuse expires at midnight.”
“I’m going to expire before then.”
“Me, too,” she said as she clasped the door handle. “Good night, Ben.”
“Wait.”
Her heart leaped, but then she saw him reaching for the rifle.
“I’ll walk you to the door.”
That sounded very chivalrous. Part of her wished it had romantic overtones, but she’d picked up enough of who Ben was in the last several hours to know it was instead his need to make sure she was safe before he left. Of course, that was nice in and of itself. She needed to focus on that and not on the part of her that was disappointed.
They walked side by side up to the porch. When she passed her frog statue, she thought about how he wasn’t who she wanted to kiss tonight. Just a few more minutes and she’d be safely inside her house, away from her sudden abandonment of good sense. One didn’t end the day by kissing the person who wrecked your car earlier in the day, especially when you’d known that person forever and would likely know them the rest of forever.
“You know how to use this?” he asked.
She eyed the rifle. “Only in the vaguest of terms.”
Somehow she managed to pay attention to the instructions, enough that she was confident she wouldn’t, in fact, shoot off her foot. That had to be an A plus for effort, considering how much her senses were demanding she ignore his actual words and instead focus on the warmth coming off his body, his undeniably male scent, the deep rumble of his voice, the memory of how it had felt to be pressed close to him with his strong arms around her.
“Got it,” she said too suddenly, judging by the startled look on Ben’s face. “Sorry, but Cinderella is about to turn back into a pumpkin.”
“I know I’m a guy, but I’m pretty sure Cinderella wasn’t the one who turned into a pumpkin.”
“Whatever—it sounded better than ‘poorly dressed, mistreated orphan girl.’”
Ben’s amused smile caused a fluttery feeling inside her, as if she’d swallowed a migration of butterflies who’d taken up square dancing.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.
“Yep.”
Yep? Really? She supposed that was better than the other thought that had been near the tip of her tongue—that he might as well stay over since it was only a few hours before he had to be back here. Instead, she gave him a nod and stepped inside the house. She resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall, instead storing the gun safely in the corner.
She finally let out a long breath and sank onto the couch when she heard Ben start his truck. As the sound of the engine retreated into the night, an aloneness she’d never felt since moving to her own piece of land descended. The night surrounding her tiny house seemed darker, quieter, more filled with potential danger.
How could she feel so different from when she’d gotten up that morning? She was the same person with the same job, the same home. And yet as she sat there, there was no denying that something had changed within her sometime since she’d looked up at the sound of her car being crunched.
And she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it.
* * *
WHEN BEN REACHED the porch of his family’s home, his sisters were sitting in two of the rocking chairs in the dark.
“Thought maybe the mountain lion had eaten you,” Sloane said.
He leaned against one of the porch supports. “Glad to see you were so concerned you decided to lounge out here with a glass of lemonade.”
“What? I’ve got two other brothers.”
“Sloane!” Angel said and kicked at her older sister’s foot.
“What? He knows I’m just giving him a hard time.” Sloane looked over at him. “Seriously, though, did you find the mountain lion? I’m not about to bring any more kids out here to camp in tents if it’s still running around.”
“I didn’t see him, but there were tracks. He’s not a small animal.”
“Did
