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“You want to kiss me? As an experiment?”
“Yeah.” But it wouldn’t be an experiment to him. It would be something he’d been wanting to do again for years.
She shrugged. “I’m as crazy as you are. Okay.”
“You won’t regret it.”
“So you say. I have a feeling I—”
He stopped her mouth with his. He took it slow, and easy. Traced her lips with his tongue, then toyed with her, seeking out her tongue until she opened her mouth and kissed him back. He wanted more, but he knew better than to rush her. Leave her wanting. At least, he hoped she’d be wanting more. He sure as hell was. He pulled back and smiled at her. “Well?”
He couldn’t decipher her expression. “Come on, Damaris, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“It wasn’t terrible.”
“Gee, thanks.”
She patted his cheek. “Cheer up. I’m sure it will get better with time.”
“Your enthusiasm overwhelms me. What do you say? Will you be my girl?” He held out his hand. “Shake on it?”
Hesitantly, she put her hand in his. “I’ve lost my ever-lovin’ mind. It’s a deal. Don’t make me regret it.”
*
Nate left not long after that. He said he had some ideas about how to go about this cockamamie idea of his and he’d see her soon. Of course, he didn’t call it a cockamamie idea, but it was.
I’m an idiot. I should never have kissed him. And I’ve set myself up for more. Worse, she couldn’t talk to anyone about it. Considering that, she decided it really was better she didn’t tell anyone the truth. She didn’t think her family would be terribly surprised. Jaclyn, who was Marshall’s wife and one of her best friends, was convinced there was more between her and Nate than simple friendship. But whenever Damaris denied it and insisted there never would be, her friend simply smiled in a way that made it clear she didn’t believe her.
There could have been more. But she’d put the brakes on quickly. Not because she didn’t like him but because she liked him way too much. And she’d been right to stop things before they started. Damn, that kiss today…it shouldn’t have been a big deal. But if it had gone on any longer, she wasn’t sure what she’d have done. Thrown her arms around him and kissed him back enthusiastically, probably.
Oh, get over yourself. He didn’t think anything of it, so neither would she. As for the future and PDAs, well, surely it couldn’t get too hot when they were in public. She’d just have to make sure they kept it public. God, why had she agreed to this?
Because she loved Grandma Kershaw for one thing. She reminded Damaris of her own grandmother whom she’d dearly loved. Grandma K, as she’d told Damaris to call her, was a hoot. She loved horses and dogs and while she hadn’t ridden since Damaris met her—after all, she was over ninety when they met—she’d clearly ridden a lot in the past.
Grandma K had a big, beautiful golden retriever who was the best-trained dog Damaris had ever known. Damaris bet Grandma K brushed Murphy daily. Her own dogs were lucky to get a bath when she bathed one of the horses, but then they owned a lot of dogs. They kept damn near every stray who got dumped on the property. Some of them Marshall found homes for, but Damaris admitted she was a sucker when it came to a stray dog. So sue her. What was an extra dog or two on a ranch?
She and Grandma K had bonded over horses and dogs when they first met. The older woman loved both but had to give up horses when she moved into town a number of years ago now. She still talked about them and wanted to know all about Damaris’s horses. Grandma K had volunteered at the animal shelter for many years as well. Murphy was the latest in a long line of strays Grandma K had taken in and trained.
But back to Nate. He was a good guy, even if he couldn’t settle on one woman. Though she set him up with every single woman she could find, she was always secretly relieved when it never worked out. Stupid, but there it was. Nate liked them. All of them. But never enough to be serious about any of them.
Which made her feel so conflicted. On the one hand she knew it would be best for both of them if Nate found someone he really cared about. On the other hand, sometimes she wished it could be her.
But it couldn’t. She couldn’t let it.
Well, at least she wouldn’t need to worry about how to deal with Nate’s eventual serious girlfriend for a while. Not since she was to be that girl. At least temporarily. And pretend. She hoped she didn’t regret this. But she had a feeling she’d bitten off way more than she should have.
She’d given Nate Kershaw free rein to kiss her—in public—and romance her as much as he liked. With no specific end date in sight.
*
Nate showed up at the barn the next day, bright and early. He knew Damaris got up at the crack of dawn to take care of the animals. Not only horses, but dogs, cats and who knew what else. The Walkers had had a goat and a pig at one point though he thought they’d found homes for them. He had a flight, but it was a short one and didn’t leave until eleven, so he was able to catch her early.
He tracked her down to the tack room where she was in the alcove that held food for the dogs and cats. “Hey.”
She looked up from scooping food into bowls. A boatload of them, so it was probably for the dogs. Since the number of barn cats varied, she put out a few big bowls of kibble for them in the loft. “Hey. What are you doing here so bright and early?”
“I have a flight later, but I wanted to set some things in motion.”
