who’d agreed to stay on when he’d bought the ranch, and Clip, a brawny twenty-five-year-old who wasn’t afraid of hard work. Jerome, the third member of the crew, was tackling the regular chores today.
“Morning,” he greeted them. “Kenny Tripp, the irrigation specialist I hired to install our new system, should be here soon.”
While they waited, they stood around, sipping coffee from thermoses and talking about their weekends.
“Hey, how’s Dani doing?” Clip asked.
She occasionally visited the ranch, and the crew knew that Nick had gone to her place Saturday evening, to console her after her breakup.
Unsure how to best answer Clip’s question, and preferring not to discuss about what had happened between him and Dani, Nick took a long pull on his coffee. He wasn’t often confused by his own actions, but kissing her...
What the hell had gotten into him?
Yeah, he’d been half-asleep when it happened, but that was no excuse. Over the years they’d fallen asleep beside each other plenty of times without him ever making a move on her. She meant too much to him to wreck their relationship by getting physical.
But then, he’d never guessed that kissing her would be so mind-numbingly powerful or that she’d get under his skin the way she had. The feel of her lips under his, the sweet press of her breasts against his chest...
“She’s doing okay,” he said gruffly.
He drained the last of his mug, screwed the cap on the thermos and gave himself a mental kick in the butt. Dani was his best friend. Kissing her or anything beyond that was off-limits. He’d had no business pulling her as close as he could, and no business wanting to strip her naked and get even closer.
At the mere thought, his body tightened. Turning away from Palmer’s narrow-eyed scrutiny, he set his empty thermos on a shelf near the door. Tonight he would call Dani and assure her he wouldn’t be crossing the line with her ever again.
Clip grinned. “Now that she’s single again, I just might ask her out.”
The bachelor cowboy was full of himself.
Nick gave him a warning look. “I wouldn’t.”
“Why not? She’s available.”
“Because she deserves a man who’ll stick around and build a life with her.”
“Heck, I’ll stick to her.” Clip chuckled at his joke until Nick glared at him. The cowboy sobered right up. “Chill out, Nick, I’m only funnin’ around.”
The sound of a truck rumbling toward the shed drew Nick’s attention. “That must be Tripp now. Let’s go.”
He opened the door and Palmer and Clip followed him out.
* * *
ON MONDAYS, BIG MAMA’S CAFÉ was closed. As much as Dani loved going in to work, a day off was always a welcome relief. A chance to relax, read the newspaper from cover to cover and sleep in....
Scratch sleeping in. She’d been getting up before dawn since high school, and the habit was hard to break. Plus, she had a lot on her mind, first and foremost the meeting at Big Mama’s house this morning. Her mother didn’t handle change well, but today, Dani was determined to persuade her that making needed alterations was critical to the restaurant’s survival.
The very thought of that conversation gave her hives.
Then there was Fluff, who expected his breakfast no later than five-thirty. Sitting on her chest, all twenty pounds of him, he batted her chin with his paw and meowed. Loudly and plaintively. “Oh, all right, Mr. Alarm Clock,” she muttered, moving him aside so that she could flip on the reading lamp on the beside table. Yawning and stretching, she fell back against the pillow again.
She’d spent a long, restless night, and not just because she was stressing over the upcoming conversation with Big Mama. Nick Kelly had played a big roll in the tossing and turning.
They didn’t get together all that often, but they touched base frequently, either by phone, text or email. But since Saturday night, Nick hadn’t called or texted her once. Dani hadn’t contacted him, either. Their friendship was hugely important to her, and she hoped those unforgettable kisses hadn’t made things between them all wonky.
Key word: unforgettable. A man didn’t kiss a woman as thoroughly as Nick had kissed her without making a huge impact. And what an impact it had been. Dani wanted more of the same. A lot more.
Which was just too bad, because she wasn’t about to kiss Nick like that again. Ever. The smartest thing to do was to forget the other night had ever happened.
Fluff amped up his cries to earsplitting level. “Will you stop?” she snapped in a sharp tone that caused the cat to grow quiet.
He fixed her with an accusing look that caused an instant case of the guilts. None of this was his fault.
Gentling her voice, she rubbed behind his head. He promptly forgave her and began to purr. What a pushover. “You’re such a sweet boy,” she crooned. “Let me stop in the bathroom on my way to the kitchen. Then I’ll feed you.”
By the time she threw on a robe and padded into the kitchen a few minutes later, the cat was pacing anxiously in front of his food dish. Her heart went out to him. Roughly two years ago she’d adopted him from a cat shelter, not long after he’d been found abandoned and starving. He still worried about his food, and if she didn’t feed him first thing in the morning, he tended to get upset.
Dani needed coffee, but it would have to wait. “You know how I am before my morning dose of caffeine,” she said. “But just this once, I’ll give you breakfast before I put the coffee on.” She filled his bowl. “There you go. This just proves how much I care about you.”
Busy scarfing down his meal, Fluff ignored her. Wasn’t that just like a male? Once you gave him what he wanted, he didn’t spare you a second thought.
“Story of my life,” she murmured.
Twenty minutes later she felt human again. Sipping her second cup of coffee, she read most of the Prosperity Daily News instead of skimming it, an indulgence she had time for only on Mondays.
After a leisurely shower she dressed in jeans and a pullover sweater, then grabbed her purse and a coat, and blew the cat a kiss. “Bye, handsome. Behave yourself while I’m gone.”
When she pulled out of her parking space in the apartment complex, ominous clouds filled the sky. Dani groaned. Not more rain.
Big Mama lived in the same two-story bungalow where Dani had grown up. When she arrived at the house some ten minutes later, rain was coming down hard and the wipers were working overtime.
Jewel Sellers’s old Lincoln Continental was parked behind Big Mama’s SUV, which was in the carport. Jewel was her mother’s best friend and they often palled around. Dani hoped the woman wasn’t planning on staying. She and her mom were supposed to talk about the restaurant.
She parked beside the Lincoln. At the Pattersons’ house next door, Gumbo, a ten-year-old mixed
