A Fallow Heart (Tommy Creek #2)(51)

Cooper sucked in a loud breath. “Jesus, Jo Ellen. What’re you doing to me?”

Guilty, she focused on her sandaled feet, her pink toenail polish totally out of place among the dirt and rock shoreline. She didn’t belong here either; it’d only land her into trouble, but she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “I’ve never been this turned on while fishing before.”

Cooper laughed, then groaned. “Don’t say that.”

“I’m sorry,” she immediately apologized, flushing, then glanced over her shoulder at him. “I just…I find I keep saying things to you I would never say to anyone.”

He studied her, his brown eyes piercing and intent. “But you mean them?”

She couldn’t immediately speak, so she dipped her head down, then back up. “Every word.”

A heavy breath shuddered from his lungs. Glancing across the water toward Emma Leigh and Branson, he pitched his voice low. “If I asked you to follow me now and go somewhere private, would you do it?”

She didn’t even have to think the question through, though she had to wait to gain the nerve before whispering, “Yes.”

His Adam’s apple jerked and his gaze grew fierce. “Jo Ellen,” he started, his voice so hoarse she could barely hear him. “Would you—”

A jubilant cry across the lake broke into his question.

Jo Ellen was never so disappointed yet relieved to see her brother-in-law hop up and down, exclaiming he had a fish hooked on his line while Emma Leigh tried to calm him down enough to talk him through the process of reeling it in.

Forgetting his conversation with Jo Ellen, Cooper sprang to his feet and raced around the edge of the bank to assist the new fisherman.





Chapter Fourteen


By the time they stopped fishing for the day, dusk coated the countryside. At final tally, Jo Ellen had caught two fish and the married couple had snagged five between the two of them—Emma Leigh being kind enough to let an over-zealous Branson reel in the crappie that found her bait. Cooper had been so busy helping everyone else that he’d missed the one time anything had nibbled at his line. He came away from the evening empty handed.

As their party made its way back to the house, Emma Leigh was in a rush to get home to her baby. “We’ll see you,” she called to Jo Ellen as she shut her door and Bran started their car.

Jo Ellen waved them off but dallied by her Kia, loath to climb in it just yet. Entranced by the sunset, she wandered a few feet to the nearby white picket fence lining Cooper’s driveway. Crossing her arms over the top rail, she breathed in the summer air, taking in the scent of sweet corn and wildflowers.

The taillights of Em’s car glowed red in the distance before they disappeared and still, Jo Ellen lingered, exhaling a silent sigh of relief and excitement and fear when Cooper joined her at the fence.

Finally. They were alone.

Her heart beat heavily in her chest. She knew she should go; she could never put enough faith in him to trust him with her heart. But the temptation to draw closer to him was too heady to resist.

Maybe…

Maybe a short meaningless fling would do her good, maybe boost her self-confidence.

“Pretty amazing scenery, huh?” His low voice sent a tremor of nerves through her.

She nodded. “It’s beautiful. This is what I miss most about Tommy Creek…besides my family.”

“When I was a kid, I used to camp out every night during the summer and bunk up in the hayloft so I could fall asleep to the setting of the sun. There’s a great view of the entire farm up there.”

Jo Ellen bit her lip before glancing at him. “Can I see it?” She rushed the words, all the while wondering what the heck she was doing, inviting disaster this way. Yet deep inside, she didn’t regret her request in the least, was even eager to have it all play out.

Cooper glanced sharply at her. “You…you mean the hayloft?”

“The view from the hayloft,” she corrected, barely managing to hide a smile. But he looked so startled, so hopeful, her insides turned to liquid mush, preparing for what her body already knew was to come.

He opened his mouth a good five seconds before his answer came, and when it did, the word, “Sure,” sounded like it’d been slathered in a thick coat of rust.

He turned toward the barn and she followed. When he slowed his pace for her to stroll next to him, she glanced over and smiled. He returned the glance but not the smile. It killed her, not knowing what he was thinking. But he hadn’t rejected this, so she didn’t back out either.

“Watch your step. I’d flip on a light, but you can’t see the sunset quite as well with it on and there’s no switch up there.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find my way.” When he took her hand to help her locate the ladder, she held his warm fingers a second longer than necessary. Then she climbed. Once she reached the top, she paused in the dark, waiting for him.

He took her hand when he joined her and led her to the opened loft door, where he regretfully let go. Her fingers felt chilled without his large, rough flesh wrapped around hers. Their knees almost touched as they dangled their legs out the opening of the hayloft and stared out at the moon and stars. Well, Cooper stared at the moon; Jo Ellen couldn’t take her eyes off their bare hands. A scant inch separated their pinkies as they both clutched the edge of the barn wall.