The Delivery of Decor (Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers #7) - Liz Isaacson Page 0,91

going to live with Grandma, and all the papers are in the bottom drawer of the nightstand.” She plucked her coat from the back of the dining room chair and started to put it on.

Judge stepped forward and helped her, and June quickly pulled her hair out from under the collar. She’d worked on her curls for an hour, and they’d barely last through an appetizer as it was.

“I love Lucy,” June said, giving her daughter the line they’d been using since she was old enough to understand English.

Lucy Mae rolled her eyes again. “I love you too, Mom.”

Satisfied, June grinned at her daughter and then turned toward Judge. She pulled in a breath, because oh, my, she’d forgotten how magnetic and dashing he was in the flesh. She could tell herself she wasn’t attracted to him when she wasn’t face-to-face with him. It was why she’d let his calls go until the very last day she could stand it. Why she only went to Shiloh Ridge when she only had a two-hour window to stay. Why she’d said yes when he’d asked her to dinner on Christmas Day.

She hadn’t been able to say no. He’d been pulling on her for months now. Years, and June was tired of resisting the man. He called to every female cell in her body, and she reminded herself to stay cool.

Judge offered her his arm, and June slipped hers through it. “Good to see you, Lucy Mae. I like what you’ve done with your hair.” He smiled at her with the wattage of the sun, and June couldn’t help smiling again.

“Thanks, Judge.” Lucy Mae cocked her left eyebrow at June, who chose not to say anything. The walk to the front door seemed to take an hour instead of ten steps, and the moment he’d closed the door behind them, June exhaled.

“We don’t have to go to dinner.” Judge didn’t touch her again as he went past her to the top of the steps.

“Why wouldn’t we go?” She moved to stand beside him, her right hand twitching toward his left. He really was a North pole to her South.

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Seems like you and Lucy Mae might need to have a little talk.”

“She’s real mad at me over this summer engineering camp.” June sighed. “I also didn’t tell her about this date….” She let the words trail off, especially when Judge turned and looked at her. She really couldn’t stay standing with the weight of his gaze on her face.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” June said, though she did know why. “Actually, I wanted to keep you all to myself.” She tucked herself back into his arm and put her other hand on his forearm too.

Judge leaned down, creating an intimate space. “June, you best not say things like that if you don’t mean them.”

She swallowed, because he was absolutely right. She couldn’t lead him on again, and guilt stuttered through her that she’d done so last time. It had been a few years now, but that didn’t mean her gut felt good about what she’d done.

June cleared her throat and said, “I mean it, Judge.”

He nodded, lifting his head to face the front yard again. He was so handsome, so strong, and so amazing. He went to church every week, and she’d heard him singing last time she’d gone up to the ranch. He’d very nearly lost his jeans that day, but tonight’s pair seemed solidly in place.

She grinned out into the night, the possibilities stretching for miles in every direction.

“All right,” he drawled, taking the first step down to get to the sidewalk. “Maybe you should start by tellin’ me about this summer engineering camp and your reservations about it.”

June appreciated that he wasn’t just going to sweep away her concerns. He wasn’t going to focus the date on himself, though Judge never had. She hadn’t been out with anyone but him in a solid eight or nine years, and her dating skills felt as rusty as her aging body.

“For starters, the one she wants to attend is in California,” she said. “And she’s not a legal adult until way next year.”

“Mm.” Judge opened her door for her, and June boosted herself up and into the truck using the runner. He moved into the doorway after her and leveled his gaze at her. “I think those are valid concerns, June. Doesn’t her father live in California?”

How Judge had remembered that, she wasn’t sure. The man had