Dreaming of His Pen Pal's Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,55
first question.”
“You kind of cushioned my fall.”
“Kind of?”
“Yeah. Kind of, because you’re hard. And I’m not sure whether it would have been softer to land on the ground or to land on you.”
“I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere.”
“Probably. But I think you’re gonna need to dig for it.”
“I can do that.”
He brought a hand up, pushing her hair away from her face, running his thumb along the line of her jaw, and bending a little closer. “Glad you’re okay,” he said, wanting to say more but realizing that this was terrible timing.
“Are you?”
“Yeah. I feel like the little bit of pain on my backside right now is completely worth it.”
“Pretty sure you’re lying.”
“No. I’m not.” By this time, Blakely had caught the horse and was leading it back, and he didn’t have nearly enough time to tell her everything he wanted to, but maybe he shouldn’t. He tilted his head just slightly and brushed his lips along her temple.
She stiffened, and he figured he probably moved too fast.
He decided he’d better lighten the mood. “I think I’ve fallen for you.”
He wanted to say it light and teasing and make fun of the fact that they’d just fallen off the horse, but his words came out with far more raw emotion than he ever intended, and rather than tease, they sounded just as serious as he meant them.
“I better get up.”
Blakely had just reached them, and Journee scrambled to her feet, Dante climbing up behind.
He’d pushed her away again. She wasn’t like the girls that he knew, the ones that he’d been with. Plus, he had a bit of an advantage over her, because he knew who she was.
For all she knew, he was some random football dude who had not been in her life just days ago. No wonder she was backing away.
Should he tell her?
He wanted to. But he wasn’t sure whether that would make a difference. Maybe she wasn’t having the same feelings for him that he was for her in their correspondence.
Or maybe that was what was making her pull away.
Regardless, Blakely offered the horse, apologizing, “I had no idea you couldn’t ride. Or I would have gotten something else.”
“No problem. I guess everyone around here rides. It’s a natural assumption that I would.”
“That’s true.”
“Thanks so much for bringing the horse,” Journee said to Blakely, “but I think if it’s okay with you, maybe Dante and I will just walk to get our tree?”
He’d managed to find the saw that he dropped on the ground, and he held it at his side. “What happened to the saying if you fall off, you need to get right back on?”
“Really? You want to get back on?”
“Sure. I think that’s where I went wrong when I was a kid. I never got back on.” Maybe he wouldn’t be afraid of horses if he’d gotten back on when he was younger.
“Okay. If Blakely will hold the horse, I’ll bend my knee, and you can use that as a step to get on.”
It was a little more complicated than what she had indicated, but he’d finally struggled his way onto the horse.
“Great job!” Journee said, and it was almost like she was struggling to act normal and pretend that whatever had passed between them when they were sitting on the ground hadn’t happened.
He didn’t really want to do that.
But again, he couldn’t blame her.
Blakely helped Journee get on, and this time, she sat behind him, her arms around his waist and her head next to his shoulder.
He kinda liked this way even better.
He did not say that to Journee though.
He managed to get the horse going—a slow walk—and they went a little ways, out of earshot of her sister, before he said, without looking around, “Sorry about that back there.”
“It’s okay. Part of riding horses includes falling off once in a while.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that too. But that wasn’t really what I was talking about.”
She didn’t say anything, and he got the feeling she just wanted to ignore it. But he wasn’t going to.
“Sorry for going too fast. I guess...I guess I got a little more serious than you want to be. And I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Maybe it’s not that you do scare me so much, it’s just that I was kind of thinking about someone else. And I’ve had a lot of fun with you today, but that other person is in the back of my mind.”
“Other person?” His stomach dipped. Was there someone else?
“I’ve never