Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(17)

Made sense. Up until this year, her life hadn’t lent itself to relationships either. It made her wonder if he ever felt the same loneliness she did, and if so, maybe she’d invite him along to the hike tonight.

No, that made no sense at all. After all, she was changing her life, settling down . . . and he wasn’t. In fact, he was temporary here, very temporary, and he’d just admitted he wasn’t relationship material. “There’s a midnight full moon hike tomorrow,” she heard herself say. Apparently her mouth wasn’t taking direction from her brain.

His eyes cut to hers. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He just held her gaze.

He was going to make her ask him. “Do you want to go?” she asked.

“With you?”

She narrowed her eyes, her “never mind!” on the tip of her tongue, but she caught the glint of humor in his eyes and realized he was teasing her. “No,” she said. “With Santa Claus.”

He laughed, and . . . still didn’t answer.

“You know what? Forget it.” She stood to gather the plates. “It was a dumb idea.”

He put his hands over hers to stop her and then took over the job of repacking everything up, doing it with greater efficiency than she could’ve managed. “I’d like to go,” he said. “Thanks for thinking of me.”

Good thing he wasn’t a mind reader or he’d know just how much she’d been thinking of him.

Reaching for her hands again, he drew her closer and bent his knees a little so he could look right into her eyes. “And thanks for breakfast.”

She nodded and then licked her suddenly dry lips, which were shockingly close to his. At the movement, his gaze dropped to her mouth. And like magic, hers trembled open.

That’s when someone cleared their throat from the doorway.

Caleb.

Ivy yanked her hands from Kel’s and grabbed her bag, flinging it over her shoulder. “I was just leaving.”

Caleb didn’t move from the doorway. Instead, he divided a gaze between the two of them. “Interesting.”

“Nope,” Ivy said, lips still tingling from the near kiss that she’d wanted shockingly badly. “Nothing interesting to see here.”

Caleb, eyes on his cousin, just grinned. “Uh-huh.”

Kel didn’t grin back, or react at all. Nope, the cowboy was calm and stoic, giving nothing away. Apparently they taught ’em well in Idaho.

“Thought we decided you should go see your sister and your new baby niece tonight,” Caleb said. “Or your mom.”

“Thought we decided you were staying the hell out of it,” Kel replied.

“Fine.” Caleb lifted his hands. “Staying out of it.”

“If only I could believe that,” Kel said.

The banter was light. There was an ease to their interactions that spoke of a very long and very close relationship.

Ivy both envied that and felt the need to run far and fast. Because she didn’t have that kind of easy affection with . . . anyone.

Although in the deep, dark of the night when they’d been in the small space of her truck, side by side in the mess, working together in a way that had seemed shockingly intimate . . . that had felt very intimate.

And so did right now in an office where they weren’t even alone.

Scary stuff. Really scary. So much so that she could feel a mini freak-out coming on. She was good at that, very good. So while Kel and Caleb were still exchanging barbs in the way that only men seemed to be able to do without getting their feelings hurt, she made her escape.

See, look at that. Something else she was good at.





Chapter 7




I promised sweat, let’s see it



The next morning Kel ran with Caleb and Jake while it was still dark outside. And drizzling. His body felt less achy about it though, which was a good thing. He wasn’t fond of running, or early mornings, but Caleb was.

His cousin was a nut. So was Jake, who raced alongside of them in his wheelchair, arms pumping.

It was possible Kel was just tired. He’d been restless the night before and had gone for a drive. He’d thought about going to Ivy, but after the way she’d abruptly left his office that morning, he knew she needed space.

Or maybe that was him.

He wasn’t sure. But he did know that right before she’d left, she’d flashed a vulnerability, like she was surprised to find that she liked him.

Too much.

He recognized it only because it was the exact same for him. Which meant they were at a bit of an impasse. Maybe with a little distance, they’d both come to realize it was just physical attraction. They could explore that—in great detail, he hoped—and then when he left, there’d be no bad feelings.

So he’d driven up to Sonoma to visit an old friend. He’d gone to middle school with Donovan, and even back then, the guy had always wanted to move outside the city and have a horse ranch. He’d recently bought property, and when Kel got there and rode around with him over his hundred acres, he got it. The rolling hills were rich and lush and gorgeous, but more than that it was about being on the land with the horses. There was a peace to it that was missing from his life. They’d stayed up late talking about old times, and Kel’d had a hell of a time getting out of bed at the butt crack of dawn.