Authors: Carter Ashby
She drove faster, the wind stinging her eyes so that she had to wipe the tears away. As she approached the tree line along the creek, she slowed.
His truck was there on his side of the fence, but he wasn’t in it. On second glance, she saw a pair of booted feet dangling off the open tailgate. She let out a breath, parked her bike, and killed the motor. She walked with as much control as she could, climbed the fence, and stood by his tailgate.
He was flat on his back, staring up at the trees above him. “Didn’t think you were coming,” he said.
“Well, I’m here. What did you want?”
“I wanted a roll in the hay, but I’ve since changed my mind.”
Ivy’s face went hot. “A booty call? Your stupid note was a booty call? Who do you think I am?”
He sat up, hopped off his tailgate, and towered over her. “I think you’re a girl who doesn’t mind screwing around, that’s who I think you are.”
She was as much surprised by the sound of her palm across his cheek as he was. She held her hand in her other hand, staring down at it as tears blurred her vision. Her palm stung, so it was some comfort knowing his cheek probably stung, too.
“Ivy, I…”
All she knew was that she didn’t want to hear it. She stomped on his foot and turned, leaving him hopping and cursing behind her.
She made it all the way over the fence and to her bike before he caught up to her. He didn’t touch her, but reached around and grabbed the key out of the ignition. She turned to face him, distraught that she couldn’t keep a couple of the tears from showing.
His cheek was red and his expression was stern. “Tell me what I’m supposed to think. Dallas has been going on and on about how you two have been sleeping together. I don’t wanna believe him, but the fact is, I don’t know you, Ivy. I don’t know what you’re capable of. And you sure didn’t have any hesitation about jumping me—”
She raised her hand, again instinctively. This time he caught her wrist.
“Ivy, I know I deserve it. I know. But don’t hit me again. Come on, let’s just talk about this.”
“I hate you,” she snarled through her teeth.
His jaw ticked. As she relaxed her arm, he loosened his grip on it. “I can see that. But I gotta know. What’s going on with Dallas?”
“I don’t owe you anything.”
“I know that, too. I know, Ivy, I really do. But the fact is, I ain’t been able to get you out of my head since that day. I don’t know why, but I’ve got it in my head that you belong with me. Did…did you feel that way after…?”
Damn him and his earnest expression and his blatant honesty. Ivy’s heart melted like butter on a hot biscuit. She slumped and sat back against the seat of her bike.
“Just…please tell me what kind of girl I went and fell for,” he said softly.
Ivy took a deep, cleansing breath, and exhaled slowly. “You’re right. We don’t know each other. So this once I’ll defend myself to you. But if that doesn’t earn me some good faith with you, then I don’t want anything to do with you.”
He nodded quickly. “I understand.”
She stood, rolled her shoulders, and took one more breath. “Okay, I can’t tell you what Dallas is hiding, but for some reason he’s decided to hide it under the pretense that he and I have been sleeping together. Which is the furthest thing from the truth because…eww.” She shivered.
Jake smiled.
“So he fake broke up with me and I had no idea what was going on. I still don’t.”
“So he’s using you for cover? Do you know what it is he’s hiding?”
She looked at him, hoping he wouldn’t ask her any more on the subject.
His expression grew more stern. He nodded. “Okay. Why can’t you tell me?”
“It’s a confidence. You wouldn’t want me telling your secrets, would you?”
“I don’t have any secrets.”
She grinned, arching a brow. “You have one, at least.”
He bit his bottom lip and looked her up and down. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
Ivy felt herself blush down to her toes under the heat of his appraisal.
“Okay,” Jake said. “Then, whatever he’s hiding has worse consequences than sleeping with you would.”
Ivy shrugged. “I guess that’s a matter of perspective.”
He studied her for a long moment, eyes narrowed. After what felt like forever, he relaxed. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Ivy was filled with the urge to tell him everything. Of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to give in to such an urge. Just because he was approaching her with honesty and the most gorgeous brown eyes on the planet didn’t mean it was time for her to bare her soul to him. So she shrugged and said, “Nope. I think that’s it.”
“Doesn’t solve the mystery of why your truck’s been seen parked next to one of our trucks at that motel.”
Ivy pressed her lips together.
Jake raised his eyebrows.
Ivy slumped back. “I do know the answer to that, but I can’t tell you.”
“You could if you set your mind to it.”
She grinned down at her boots. “Jake, I ain’t sleeping with any of your brothers. Or anyone else, for that matter. That’s really all you want to know, isn’t it?”
“It’s part of it.” He reached down and tipped her chin up. “Do you like me, Ivy?”
Her face went hot again. She shrugged, looking down at her boots once more.
Jake chuckled. “If you want me to walk away, just say so. But you gotta look me in the eyes so I know you’re serious.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “I don’t want you to walk away.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. He nodded once. “Good. I won’t.”
“Good.”
She shrugged.
He shrugged.
They stood there, suddenly unable to hold eye contact.
“So, uh,” Jake stammered, kicking at the ground, “how do you want to do this?”
“Reverse cowgirl?” Ivy said, hoping to shock him, even though she blushed to her ears doing it.
His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. And then he laughed. “Shit,” he said to the sky.
Ivy laughed with him. “You don’t like doing it that way?” she asked, moving into him.
“I like that way just fine.”
She giggled, holding onto his hips, her head dropping almost all the way back as she looked up at him.
He brushed her hair aside. “Obviously that wasn’t what I meant.”
“Obviously.”
His expression sobered, some. “How do you want me to, um…court you?”
“Court me?”
“Yeah. Do you want to take it slow? I mean, we can’t go on traditional dates, but we could meet. Have picnics here at the creek. Hold hands.”
“Hold on, why can’t we go on traditional dates?”
“You kidding? My old man would disown me.”
Ivy stepped backwards, dropping her hands from his hips. “You’re a grown man. You’re almost forty, for Christ’s sake.”
“I’m thirty-six…what’s that got to do—”
“You’re standing there, a grown man, telling me you can’t date me because it might upset your daddy?”
Jake’s cheeks reddened slightly. “I said he would disown me.”
Ivy snorted. “You’re being overly dramatic.”
“That ranch is my life, Ivy. I date you, it’s gone. Do you get that?”
“That’s ridiculous. He’s not going to take that away from you just because you date someone he disapproves of. He’s all talk, Jake. He loses you, he loses his livelihood.”
But what she saw on his face was that, whether Gideon would or wouldn’t disown his son in actuality, Jake genuinely believed he would. And as a result, Jake wasn’t going to take a risk that might lose him the one thing he loved more than anything else in the world.
Ivy pondered on this. She turned it over in her mind. Turned it over in her heart, drawing from a deep well of compassion. She took in a deep breath, met Jake’s vulnerable gaze, and said, “Fuck you, Jake Deathridge! If you’re too afraid to so much as have a beer with me in public then you can go fuck yourself! God, I can’t believe I even came down here.”
She hopped on her bike and reached for the key, which wasn’t in the ignition. She shoved her open hand out to him.
Jake’s stone cold gaze didn’t waiver as he dangled her key in front of him and took a step backward. Then another. And another.
“Stop screwing around and give me my key,” she said.
He frowned, seemingly thoughtfully, and shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’re gonna talk common sense like adults, you’re gonna apologize for being mean to me, and then we’ll have a nice, passionate kiss goodbye. Then you can have your key.”
“You condescending son-of-a-bitch! I’ll…I’ll…I’ll…”
He laughed. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll tell your mother!”
All humor left as his jaw dropped. “What the hell is with all the low-blows? You ever try being nice?”
“Give me the key, Jake!”
“No! You’re so damn self-righteous, you stand there and tell me why I should risk my livelihood to go on a date with a woman I hardly know?”
“Because I’m a woman you want to get to know. You just said you liked me. You said I belong with you. So?”
“So let’s see each other quietly…discreetly for a while. Figure out what we want from each other. Figure out if there’s even anything we can work with here. Then we can talk about going public and the consequences of that.”
Ivy frowned at him as she got her temper under control. It made sense. He wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable. But damn it, there was no romance in it!
She should sacrifice her ideas of romance for him. It was the right thing to do. “I don’t…” she stopped, thinking her words through. When she spoke again, she was quiet. “If you and I were to become something long term, I don’t think I could look back on this moment and respect myself for agreeing to what you’re asking.”
His eyebrows went up. “I’m asking to get to know you. How is that unreasonable?”
“I want romance.”
“Romance?” he said the word as if pronouncing it aloud for the first time in his life; uncertain, unsteady.
“Yeah. Romance. Gestures. Boldness. Courage.”
She may as well have been speaking in Swahili. He stared at her blankly for the longest time. “I don’t think I understand.”
She fisted her hands, but worked to keep control of her emotions. “It’s not rocket science, Jake. If you wanna see me, you can knock on my door, hat in hand, like a gentleman. If not, then we got nothing more to say to each other.” She lunged forward and snatched her key from his unresisting hand. Though she moved fast, she hoped he would stop her. Wished he would step forward and give her what she wanted.
But she rode home, angry, tired, and deeply disappointed.
Jake remained in a perpetual state of shock all the way through dinner that night. As he stared sightlessly at the plateful of roast beef with carrots and potatoes his mom had dished out, he kept going back to that word. Romance. Was it reasonable for her to want romance from him? Especially when they didn’t even know each other. Jake was no Romeo. Never even wanted to be. And Ivy was a born and bred ranch girl as well as a business woman…she should be above such ridiculous notions.
“I do hope Ivy isn’t too brokenhearted,” said Clara.
Jake looked up and opened his mouth, but closed it swiftly when he realized his mother wasn’t talking to him.
Dallas let out a heavy sigh, his cheek resting on his fist as he dished second helpings onto his plate. “Of course she’s brokenhearted, Mom. We were falling in love.”
Jake frowned at his blasphemous brother for taking the name of Love in vain. He himself couldn’t exactly say he was in love with Ivy just yet, but he knew for sure the seeds had been planted. All that wanted was some nurturing and, apparently, some romance.
Boone snorted at Dallas’s remark.
Clara smacked the back of Boone’s head. “Don’t mock your brother. Love isn’t a joking matter. Why, I can’t imagine how I would have survived if I hadn’t been allowed to see your father.”
“Thank you, Mom,” Dallas said. “Your understanding means so much to me.”
Punching him in the face would only elicit more questions that Jake couldn’t answer. He’d watched Ivy, earlier that day, take control of her temper by breathing deeply, so he decided to try it. He made it to the end of his inhale when Gideon spoke again.
“I did you a favor, son. Ivy may be a pretty girl, but she ain’t a lady.”
Clara gave a sad, resigned sort of nod.
“Ivy’s a lady,” Jake said, because his brain-to-mouth filter tended to malfunction at the sound of Ivy’s name.
Gideon snorted in response. “If she was a lady, she wouldn’t have been sleeping with Dallas, now, would she?”
Dallas darkened at the insult, but otherwise remained silent.
Clara reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t say things like that, dear. Our Dallas is every bit the gentleman, aren’t you?” She pinched his cheek. He grinned at her.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Gideon merely shook his head and speared a forkful of roast beef. “Nah, that girl’s smart. Only reason she’d go after Dallas is to weasel her way into our good graces. He’s the only one dumb enough to think her sincere.”
Jake could no longer inhale or exhale, his teeth were ground together so tightly. Dallas pushed his plate away, leaned back in his chair, and got that distant look in his eyes that all the boys got from time to time. It was a way of shutting down, anesthetizing against Gideon’s cruelty. Clara sat up straighter, glancing between Dallas and Gideon as though confused by the situation; as though she hadn’t sat in that same spot all their lives and heard Gideon call Dallas “dumb” nearly every day.
“I guarantee you,” Gideon went on, jabbing at a piece of potato and a carrot, “that if she thought she could get her hooks in Jake, here, she’d have done it. She probably tried. Am I right, boy? Did she try flirting with you?”
Jake stared blankly at Dallas. “Not that I can recall.”
Gideon ignored the response and pointed his fork at Dallas. “I repeat…I did you a favor. She was playing you for a chump. You ought to know better than to think a girl like that would want anything to do with you. She’s a social climber, that one. Got her fancy clothes and college degree. You just go ahead and thank me right now, son, and be done with her. Go on.”