Lost and Found (19 page)

After a few more miles, I found what I was looking for. Even from a good football field length away, I made out which of the guys on horseback was Jesse. The white tee and straw hat were a dead giveaway, but it wasn’t just that. It was almost like I was . . . pulled to him. Almost like he was what my eyes were trained to find. Man, it was a cheesy thing to think, but Jesse was the only one I saw out there.

The cattle were stopped and grazing in the large field, and the riders just trotted around them, checking them over. A few of the hands must have noticed the truck because one shouted over at Jesse on the far end of the field. Everyone glanced over before steering their horses toward the truck. Those cowboys took their mealtimes seriously.

I parked Old Bessie under a large shade tree and jumped out. I checked my cell phone and, no big surprise, there was no reception In-the-Middle-of-Nowhere. If I’d gotten lost, Rose wouldn’t have been a simple phone call away.

Most of the guys’ horses trotted over. Jesse’s horse galloped. If nothing said “obvious” like a smiling guy riding his horse balls-to-the-walls toward an equally smiling girl, I didn’t know what did.

When he and his horse were so close I could make out the color of the horse’s eyes, Jesse pulled back on the reins. His horse came to an immediate stop. So immediate, a cloud of dust erupted from his hooves.

I smirked up at Jesse. The rest of the guys weren’t even close. “Hungry?” I asked, shielding my eyes as I looked up at him. Jesse made “cowboy” look good like no other, but him on a horse . . . I couldn’t imagine anything sexier.

He flashed me a knowing smile. “Like you wouldn’t believe. Especially after seeing you pull up in my sweet ride.” He winked before swinging his leg around and dismounting. He came toward me, horse in tow, and didn’t stop until his body was almost against mine.

“I missed you today,” he said as his eyes scanned my face. “I missed touching you.” Jesse’s hand dropped to my hip, and the breath I’d been holding rushed out. “I missed talking to you.”

My eyes closed for a moment when his thumb drew circles into my side. Jesse’s touch was hard to explain, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed it any less. When my eyes reopened, I noticed a few bobbing heads over Jesse’s shoulder getting closer.

“Cowboys on the horizon,” I said before stepping back. Jesse’s hand fell from my side, but I still felt it there. I swung around the truck and opened the tailgate before taking the cooler lid off. I heard Jesse’s footsteps and his horse’s hoofsteps follow me.

“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” I could tell from his tone he was teasing, but it was a delicate topic for me.

“No,” I replied instantly. “I’m embarrassed for
you
to be seen with
me
.”

Jesse’s eyebrows came together. “Well, that makes a whole lot of no sense.”

“It makes a whole hell of a lot of sense,” I said, giving his chest a gentle shove, “and you know it.”

He studied me for another moment with a furrowed brow before his expression cleared. “What are you doing right now?”

I swung my arms toward the cooler. “Serving lunch.”

“These guys know how to reach in and grab a few sandwiches,” Jesse said, tilting his head back at the guys dismounting behind him. “So it looks like you’re on break.”

“And what do you have planned for my break?” I crossed my arms. “You want to hide behind the tree and make out the rest of the afternoon?”

Jesse’s dimples made their appearance. “That sounds nice.
Really
nice,” he said, smiling at the tree behind me. “But I was thinking I could take you for a ride.”

“Oh, really?” I crossed my arms tighter.

Jesse lifted the reins in his hand. “A
horse
ride,” he said in an amused tone. “But if you’ve got another idea, I think I could be persuaded.”

I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the thick band tightening around my stomach. “A horseback ride sounds nice.”

“It doesn’t sound all that nice now that you’ve got me thinking of something else.”

That comment earned him a soft elbow to his hard stomach. I walked around the side of his horse and wondered about how to go about it. Jesse made it seem so easy. His movements were seamless whenever he got on or off of a horse.

Inspecting the saddle and all its gadgetry, it didn’t look anything close to easy or seamless.

“Wait,” Jesse said, coming up behind me. “Don’t try to get up on Sunny unless I’m already in the saddle.”

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have. I might as well have tried to climb Everest.

“So this is Sunny?”

“This is Sunny boy,” Jesse answered, patting the giant horse’s muscled neck.

Sunny was white with big, black patches scattered over him. His mane and tail were streaked black and white, and he had one blue eye and one brown. He was beautiful in a very . . . odd type of way.

Jesse stepped in front of Sunny and ran his palm down the horse’s face. “Hey, boy, this is Rowen. We’re going to go for a little ride and I want you to be a good boy. She’s special to me.” His eyes shifted to mine when he said the last part.

Special?
Special
? No one had called me special once in my entire life. At least not in the way Jesse had meant it.

Sunny’s big head flicked into the air a few times before Jesse came back toward me. In yet another seamless move, Jesse swung up on Sunny before I even noticed his foot was in the stirrup. He held his hand out and waited.

“Come on, Rowen. You’ll be fine. Besides, if he didn’t like you, you couldn’t be as close to him as you are now.” Jesse reached his hand toward me again.

I glanced over at the truck. The guys were already tossing around sandwiches and water bottles. A few of them looked as though they’d already finished their first ones. Lunch was served. Time to live a little.

I took Jesse’s hand, and his fingers wove through mine. “My life and limbs are in your hands, Cowboy,” I said.

Jesse chuckled. “Put your left foot in the stirrup.”

I inhaled and followed his instructions.

He chuckled louder. “Your other left.”

I was off to a great start. I did, contrary to appearances, know left from right. Dropping my right foot back down, I tried again.

“Okay, good. Now just step up, keep your weight in the stirrup, and swing your right leg up and over Sunny.”

“I’m sure it’s nowhere near as easy as you make it sound,” I said, gripping onto his hand like it was a life ring.

“It’s not,” he said. “It’s easier.”

I narrowed my eyes at him which only made his smile widen. I felt everyone’s eyes on me. I was sure I was quite the spectacle. After blowing out a breath, I tightened my hold on Jesse’s hand and got after it.

Jesse’s bicep flexed as he curled his arm up, and once I found myself magically on top of Sunny, I knew it had more to do with his effort than my own.

“You did it,” Jesse said, looking over his shoulder at me.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” I said as I shifted in the saddle. The thing was really only made for one backside, but I couldn’t exactly complain. The front of my body was pressed tight into the back of his. The apex of my legs was pressed into that perfect butt of his, and when Jesse shifted in the saddle, I suddenly became
very
aware of the spot below my belly button.

“You want to back out of this adventure?” he asked, sounding like even if I wanted to, he wouldn’t let me.

“I think it’s a little late for that,” I replied, feeling every eye on me. I hoped no one could hear the way my heart pounded, or noticed the pick up in my breathing. I’d never felt like such an open book before. Usually I controlled my emotions and the physical reactions accompanying them, but with Jesse, I could do neither. The way I felt about him wouldn’t allow me to hide it.

“Wrap your arms around me and hold on tight,” he said, grabbing one of my arms to wind around his torso. We hadn’t taken one step and I already loved horseback riding. “And don’t forget to enjoy the ride.”

I wound my other arm around Jesse’s middle and clasped my hands together. “If I had a dollar for every time a guy gave me that line . . .”

It took a moment for that to sink in since Jesse’s head wasn’t as sick and twisted as mine, but he shook his head and laughed when it did. “I will gladly take you for any and every kind of ride you’ll let me, Rowen.”

Before my stomach had a chance to bottom out, Jesse clucked his tongue, and Sunny lunged forward.

The ride was surprisingly smooth, and I could, literally, feel the wind breaking over my face. Jesse held the reins in one hand and covered mine where they were locked together around his stomach with the other.

Riding through a grassy green field at a breakneck pace while wrapped around Jesse Walker’s body on a warm summer afternoon was the closest I’d come to perfection. It was the closest by a long shot.

I didn’t do perfect. I didn’t believe in it and, up until right then, I hadn’t wanted it either.

My whole life was shifting, like I was experiencing my own personal earthquake. I felt the plates shifting and rearranging below the surface. I felt the fire and heat molding and shaping them. I felt change, whether I wanted it or not. It was happening, and I might as well embrace it.

So while my instinct was to push someone away if they tried getting too close, I rested my head on Jesse’s back and breathed in as much of him as I could. It was a powerful moment and over much too soon.

Jesse pulled back on the reins a few minutes later as we approached a fast-moving stream.

“Still back there?” Jesse’s voice was light, not a worry in the world.

“You feel that death grip around your body?” I loosened my hold just barely. We might have stopped moving, but I was still five feet from the ground on a horse.

“I’m feeling it,” he said. “I’m feeling a lot more than just a death grip around my body, though.” Jesse’s back did a little wiggle to prove his point. Hello, Jesse’s back, meet Rowen’s front.

“So much for all those sweet county boy manners I
thought
you had,” I said, pinching his side.

“It’s a tough act to keep up with you around.” He looked over his shoulder and winked. In yet another super cowboy move, Jesse swung his leg up and over Sunny’s neck before hopping off. “Are you planning on staying up there all day?”

“I’m thinking about it,” I said, taking in the landscape. Nature as far as the eye could see was growing on me. “Why? Do you have any other suggestions?”

Jesse’s eyes gleamed. “One or two.”

“In that case . . .” I planted my foot in the stirrup and swung my other leg around Sunny’s backside. By nothing short of a miracle, I managed to get off of that horse without falling on my duff.

“Impressive,” Jesse said with a nod as I dusted off my hands. “You must have an amazing teacher.”

I lifted a shoulder. “Maybe I’m just a really kick-ass student.”

“Maybe,” he said, coming toward me.

I didn’t step back the way I knew I should. I didn’t step forward the way I wanted to. I stayed where I was and waited for him.

“So, now that you’ve got me out here, wherever
here
is,” I said, waving at the nameless landscape, “what did you have planned?”

I’d barely finished my question before Jesse’s hand formed around the bend of my waist. With his other hand, he slid his straw hat off and lowered his face until it almost touched mine. Everything inside of me quickened. Jesse’s skin hadn’t touched mine yet, and my body was rushing like a runaway train.

His mouth was so close to mine, I felt his warm breath on my lips when he said, “This.” His lips covered mine for such a brief moment it was more of a tease than a kiss. “And this.” His mouth moved over mine long enough to be in the kissing category. “And this, too.” He separated from me just long enough to get those words out before his lips settled back over mine. That kiss wasn’t a tease; it wasn’t anything close to a tease. It was the kind of kiss a girl would forever measure against. It set the bar for all future kisses. That kiss made me want to do nothing but keep my mouth firmly planted on Jesse’s until the day I died.

The kiss made me moan when his tongue gently touched mine. Even with our mouths combined, I felt Jesse’s smile move into position at my response. He was still smiling when we both came up for air.

“That good, huh?” he said, settling his hat back onto his head while I struggled to fill my lungs.

“That’s some gloat you’ve got going on, Jesse,” I said, circling my finger around his face. “And here I was under the impression you were humble.”

“When a woman moans while a man’s kissing her,”—he lifted an eyebrow—“that’s grounds for a full-on gloat if ever there were grounds.”

“Fine. Take it all in. Yes, your mad kissing skills made me moan. Soak it up and let’s move on.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, believe me, I’m soaking it up.”

I crossed my arms and waited a few seconds. “Done soaking?”

Jesse’s dumb smile kept shining until he tapped his wrist where a watch might have been. “And done.”

It was about time.

“What are we going to tell your parents?”

Jesse’s face ironed out. “Wow. You really know how to kill a guy’s soak.”

I waited.

“Are you talking about us?”

“No, I’m talking about me and Sunny.” I motioned toward the resting horse beside me while Jesse’s forehead lined. “Yes,” I said with exasperation. “Yes, I’m talking about us.”

He shrugged. “What do you want to tell them?”

“Nothing yet,” I said. “But we’ll have to tell them eventually. We’re sleeping together, after all.”

“That’s true. We
are
sleeping together,” Jesse said. “I’m not usually that kind of guy.”

“That’s not what your exes say,” I threw back.

His eyes rolled to the sky.

“No, really. In all seriousness, I like you, Jesse.” I narrowed my eyes as I concentrated on finding the right words. Expressing myself,
truthfully
, had never come easy. “I don’t want to feel like we’re going behind your family’s backs because I like them, too. But this is all so new to me. So totally different that I just want to take it slow until I figure it out.” I almost gave myself a pat on the back for that whole soul-bearing bit.