A Fair to Remember (12 page)

God bless Deke.
“And what do you and the helicopters do?”

“We started as an executive charter service back in Seattle, which we still do, but we’ve already expanded into heavy lifting, rescue, and transporting hotshots to fires, which is really closer to what I want to do. We’re thinking of expanding into the Montana market. Bozeman is close enough that I can spend more time near Deke and he can participate a little more in the business. Sammy was in the military with me in Afghanistan. He’s my number one guy. We’re heading to Bozeman today to meet with some bankers about financing a new base of operations here.”

Bozeman
. So she’d been right about his coming here for more than just her. It both relieved her, and oddly, checked her bubble of confidence to hear it. Not that she’d wanted him to come just for her. She didn’t. Did she?

What did it matter? He was here now and every day she was learning new things about him. But last night had undone her and the fact that he’d be gone from her today was almost painful to contemplate.

“How long will you be gone?” she asked, her gaze, unwittingly, settling on his mouth. She wanted to kiss him. It was all she could do to keep that thought to herself.

“Truth? I don’t want to be gone at all,” he said, watching her lips as well. “But, today, at least. Maybe part of tomorrow, too, depending. Tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”

Thirty hours. She could go thirty hours without seeing him, couldn’t she? Of course she could. She had plenty to keep her occupied. Plenty.

Now you’re just ridiculous.
Weren’t you the one who said,
‘
just for this one night
?’

She tightened her fingers around his and looked out the window at the landscape sliding by beneath them. Copper Mountain loomed ahead, rising on the flat horizon like a beacon above the charming town of Marietta. There, like a dot in the distance, was her home. Her sanctuary. At least she’d thought of it as one.

How could her life have turned so upside down so fast?

She felt dizzy. Off balance. But this relationship, if that was what it was becoming, hadn’t appeared out of thin air. It had been years in the making. There were times with Jake when it felt like they’d never been apart. Like twelve years and whatever had come in between hadn’t even happened. Yet the remnants of their pasts still yawned between them. They knew each other at some deep, undeniable level, but at others, not at all.

Back at Lane’s End, he promised to call her later after his business in Bozeman.

“You remember about the dinner my mom invited you to, right? It’s tomorrow night, at seven, at Beck’s Place.”

“Of course.” He took both her hands in his. “I’ll be there.”

“Oh, and bring Doctor Ben, if he’s free and not too busy caretaking your house or saving lives. My sisters will be there and we should introduce them. Not that I’m any good at matchmaking, but it sounds like Ben needs to get out. And Kate tends to fall for men she meets in bank lines.”

Jake laughed. “I’ll do my best. See you soon,” he promised, then dropped a kiss on her that left her breathless before driving off with Monday in his father’s old truck.

She’d leaned against the corral, watching him disappear down the road, feeling giddy and scared and foolish, wondering what they had just done.

Somehow, the idea that they could keep it all on the up and up, best-friends-to-the-end and all that rubbish had all slipped out of her control. A fallback quickie gone terribly wrong and devastatingly right.

She’d awakened in his arms, thinking now what?
Now that you’ve laid yourself bare—literally—how do you go back? And even if you could, do you
want
to?

Now, she was back in the land of childhood bedrooms and hiding places, feeling like an outsider. It was as if she’d had an out of body experience and was just now coming to her senses. Or, maybe it was just the opposite. Maybe she’d come to her senses in Jake’s arms and
this
was the way of madness.

*

She spent the
day working in the ring with Magic, teaching a couple of students, and generally keeping herself too busy to think about Jake and what had happened between them. She’d heard nothing from him all day, not even a text, and she assumed that he’d been right about needing another day in Bozeman.

She shouldn’t expect him to check in with her, after all. Why should he? She’d set the rules, after all. They were just going to fall back that once. Then… what?

Still, she tried not to mope at dinner with her parents, who headed out to the movies for the evening. She had just settled into her favorite reading chair when her phone rang. The caller ID read
Jake Lassen
and she grabbed for her cell.

“Hi,” she said, trying not to sound too anxious.

“Hi,” he answered. “I just got back.”

“You did? How’d it go?” she asked.

“Well. Very well,” he said. “You wanna play?”

She smiled at the sound of his deep voice, asking the question. “What, exactly did you have in mind?”

“Oh, some cotton candy. A corn dog. Maybe a few rides? I’ll leave Monday with Ben.”

She hesitated. She
hated
that she hesitated. “What time?”

“Yesterday.”

She bit her lip and smiled. “I’ll meet you at the horse barns in twenty.”

*

Jake spent the
evening prowling the fairgrounds with Olivia, tasting the fair food—the good, the bad, and the decadent—sipping Dalton Orchard’s apple cider and feeling mostly anonymous in the crowds, which were thick, even for a weeknight. For a few hours, they put aside everything from their pasts and just had fun.

Of course, Olivia wanted to wander through the cow and horse barns, where she marveled at the baby pigs and lambs. He was interested in touring the huge exhibit hall where every business in Marietta, and then some, had a booth hawking something. He bought them some chocolate, caramel, and sea salt confections from Sage Carrigan’s Copper Mountain Chocolates and they devoured them before they made it back outside.

Jake took her on the Ferris wheel and the Swing-Around and he tried to talk her into the Zipper, but she chickened out halfway through the line. But he didn’t care.

He loved hearing her laugh, loved the way she looked at him when he caught her eye. The look they exchanged was ripe with what had happened between them the night before… something he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind the entire day of meetings with bankers in Bozeman. He’d wrapped it all up quickly, determined to get back to Marietta, and Olivia, before nightfall. Because any distance farther than the one between them now just wasn’t working for him.

If he closed his eyes, the memory of their lovemaking last night overtook him. He’d get hard just thinking about it. It had been a long, long time since he’d lost himself in a woman the way he had with her. Allowed himself to
feel
again. She was different from the girl he’d left so long ago. Different from what he’d expected, even. But she was exactly what he needed. She had him thinking the craziest things, like building her a home and having babies with her.

The idea scared even him a little. But not more than the thought of being without her. That possibility lingered under his skin like undetonated ordinance.

Rushing her seemed risky, but what the hell? If the past decade had taught him anything, it was that life was short and you never knew what waited around the next bend in the road. He wanted Olivia for more than just tonight or tomorrow or even next year. He was feeling forever-ish about her. He just hadn’t worked out when to let her know yet.

*

Olivia asked Jake
to buy her a
churro
as they walked through the midway, with the screams of laughter and self-imposed terror echoing around the crowded walkway. Teenaged reminders of them strolled together in packs, looking full of angst and hormones.

Olivia grabbed his hand and threaded her fingers through his. Being with him here at the fair made her unreasonably happy. “So tell me the truth. When we were kids, did you actually have a crush on me?”

“No,” he said, staring straight ahead. “Nope.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling a little deflated.

“A crush is quick…” he began, “like a grenade. Flash, and it’s gone. A rush of lust. I won’t deny there was some lust involved then and there still is, because right now I’m having trouble keeping my hands off of you in a not-so-polite way.” His fingers tightened around hers. “But a crush? No. It was always more than that for me with you.”

“Really?”
Was it?
“But… you were always dating someone else.”

“That’s ‘cause
you
were always dating someone else.”

She laughed softly. “We always did have bad timing, didn’t we?”

“Past tense, I hope.”

Olivia smiled, staring out over the crowd, seeing people she hadn’t seen in years. Some with children, some just coupled up, looking happy. She hoped he was right about the timing, thing. But it was still too soon to tell.

They passed the stage area where a great band she’d never heard of had started playing a country set and a crowd was already on the makeshift, dirt, dance floor, doing a Watermelon Crawl line-dance to a cover of a popular Big and Rich song.

“I haven’t done that in a long time,” he said, leaning over to talk in her ear over the loud music. “Wanna?”

“A long time is an understatement for me,” she said with a laugh. Dancing was something Kyle detested, claiming it made him look foolish. “I would probably just step on your toes.”

“They can take it. C’mon.” He tugged on her hand and dragged her out there where couples had formed a few lines and they ducked into a free spot.

“Toe, heel, triple step, toe, heel, triple step,” someone was shouting as the dancers clapped to the beat of the song. “And slide. And slide.”

They were both as lost as pennies under a sofa cushion, but they persevered until they mostly caught on, laughing along with everyone else who was doing their best to keep up. By the time the song ended, they had it, but she fell into his arms, giggling, when it was over.

The next song was slower and the dance floor got crowded with couples. Jake pulled her tight up against him. This, he apparently knew how to do.

“Do you realize this might be the first time we’ve ever slow-danced?” she said, letting him hold her close.

“A crime that has not gone unpunished,” he murmured against her ear, and he felt her smile.

“
Aww
. You were never lacking for a pretty girl to dance with, as I recall.”

“Not the right pretty girl.”

“Now you’re just sweet talking me, Lassen.”

“God’s honest truth, Liv.” He tightened his arms around her as they moved together across the floor and she knew he must be able to feel the slam of her heartbeat against his chest.

When the music stopped, she pulled away from him with a little blush, glancing at a pair of women whispering to each other and looking their way.

“Who are they?” he asked, dipping his head down beside hers.

“Um…”

One of the women, a brunette with a forgettable face and too-large, horn-rimmed glasses, arched a knowing look in his direction. Jake frowned as she and the other woman, plainer and thinner than the first, approached.