least Johnny appeared to be taking her revelations with courtesy and maybe a touch of humor, which, Jenn thought, said a lot about the kind of man he was. He didn’t seem mad at her.
Yet.
He hadn’t heard the whole story. Johnny might appear to be a nice enough man for an unpolished cowboy, but he still had no idea how big a quandary he’d innocently walked into.
There were limits to any man’s patience, and Johnny’s, she had to think, must already be stretched close to its limit.
Jenn was about to continue her convoluted explanation when her mother interrupted. Clearing her throat loudly to announce her presence, Jenn’s mother entered with two steaming mugs of freshly ground and brewed coffee. Jenn inhaled the lovely aroma of hazelnut and crème, her favorite.
Mom didn’t say a word. She set the mugs on the table and, with an encouraging smile to each of them, backtracked into the kitchen, closing the French doors that separated the rooms firmly behind her.
“I sent myself flowers,” Jenn announced as soon as she and Johnny were once more alone.
“That’s it?” Johnny asked, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s all you did? Signed the card Johnny and let everyone think what they may?”
“Not exactly,” she said, chuckling. “I signed the card, Love, Me.”
He laughed heartily, and Jenn was certain her family could hear that from the next room.
“Clever,” he said. “Ingenious. This story gets better and better. So what happened when the flowers arrived?” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, as if anxious to hear the rest.
In that, he would be disappointed. “There isn’t much to tell. The family made a big deal of it, of course, and started nagging me for a name. I’d only just blurted out Johnny when you and Scotty showed up.”
“Hmm,” he said, stroking his strong jaw between his thumb and forefinger. His face was unshaven, as he’d been out on the range for a good week at least, Jenn thought.
She wondered why she didn’t find the scruff unattractive. Stubble had never appealed to her before.
He sat back in the chair. “My showing up puts you in a bit of a pickle, doesn’t it?”
“Let’s just say it was a major jolt to my system, and leave it at that. I was really freaked out there for a while. But now that I’ve had a chance to settle down and think about it—and to talk to you—it’s really not so bad. We—I, that is,—just need to come clean with the facts. I simply have to tell my family there’s been a misunderstanding and you are not my Johnny.”
“And yet, here we’ve been sitting alone all this time like we’re catching up.”
The man did have a point. Jenn felt herself blushing again. She hated that. “I can’t think of how to explain that part—yet.”
Johnny grinned. “I can.”
But before he could say more, the family emerged from the kitchen, flooding back into the living room with expectant gazes on their faces. Apparently, they’d collectively decided they’d waited long enough to get the scoop on Jenn and her new beau.
Even Scotty looked curious. How could he think for one second that…
Her thoughts were cut off when Johnny stood, and with the athletic agility of a rugged cowboy, slid into the spot next to her on the sofa and slipped his arm around her shoulders, effectively sealing the deal.
She couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe. The temperature in the room seemed to suddenly have spiked to well over two hundred degrees.
What was the crazy cowboy up to now? Didn’t he realize he was making things worse by the second?
And how was she going to explain herself to her family, when Johnny was acting so cozy with her?
There was only one answer to that question.
She couldn’t.
Chapter Two
“Relax,” he whispered close to her ear, his soft drawl sending a shiver down her spine for any number of reasons. “I’m doing you a favor.”
What? Her mind scrambled for an answer to his riddle, but she couldn’t put two thoughts together rationally to save her life.
Steady, she coaxed herself mentally. Relax. Think. Try to locate your brain.
“Thanks, folks,” Johnny said, addressing her hovering family. “It was nice to have a few minutes alone with Jenn to get—er—reacquainted with this lovely lady.”
His arm tightened around her shoulder for just a moment. She didn’t know if the gesture was meant for the family’s benefit or if he was sending her some kind of unspoken message.
Maybe both.
Because she was sure, now, what he was doing.
He was playing her game.
The game she had initiated and no longer wanted any part of.
She tried to speak, to lay it all on the line for her family, but Johnny’s statement sent the whole clan abuzz, and Jenn couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
“A cowboy,” Granny said, looking from Johnny to Jenn, and then back at Johnny again, assessing them before giving Jenn a nod of approval. “Who would have thought?”
Who would have thought, indeed? Jenn wouldn’t hog-tie herself to a ranch hand in a million years. Rough-and-tumble cowboys just weren’t her type, and her family, of all people, should have known that.
“The flowers are lovely,” her mother offered.
Especially picked for me, by me, Jenn thought.
“And how romantic for you two to meet up this way,” Auntie Myra added. “Johnny must have done some real fast talking to surprise you like this, Jenn. All in all, I think this whole reunion is going to be one surprise after another.”
More than Auntie Myra could possibly know.
Granddad settled into the chocolate-colored armchair Johnny had vacated. “So, son, tell us more about you. Jenn was going to fill us in when you arrived. Where do you hail from?”
Jenn noticed Johnny’s hesitation, and the way his grip on his cowboy hat tightened. He rolled the rim as he spoke. “I’m originally from Nebraska, sir, but I’ve lived all over the country at one time or another.”
That explained the slight but unidentifiable drawl, at any rate—the accent that made her heart do that tiny, annoying flutter she was trying to ignore. Johnny spoke firmly and quietly, but the tension was definitely still present.
Jenn wondered if anyone else had noticed the way he’d suddenly stiffened. But no, of course not—they were all flying off in this wild fantasy she had created for their benefit. She wanted to crawl underneath the nearest chair and hide, but Johnny’s arm was still firmly about
