Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,29

Jess, how’s Buttermilk doing?”

He wanted to talk about horses? She supposed he had asked her where she’d grown up and about her siblings in texts over the past couple of weeks. Still, she didn’t want to talk about her job—or anything ranch-related at all.

“Good,” she said. “Did you get the offer?”

“Oh,” he said, a bit of life and energy coming into his eyes. “Yes, it came through about four-thirty. It’s a full price offer, and I already accepted it.” He glanced up as the waitress arrived with their drinks. He lifted his to his lips and took a long drink of it.

“That’s great,” she said. “Houston, right?”

“Yep,” he said, nodding. “I’m going to have to get up there and go through everything.”

“That doesn’t sound fun,” Jess agreed, though she honestly had no idea what it would be like to live through a divorce and have to go back to the house she’d shared with her husband, box everything up, and clean everything out. Alone.

Moving was hard enough, and to add that emotional weight to it felt entirely unfair to her. She reached across the table and covered one of Dallas’s hands with both of hers. “I’ll go with you, if you want.”

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to ask Nate and Ted to go. With the three of us, it’ll go fast.” He nodded, keeping his head down so the brim of his cowboy hat blocked his face from her view. “But I’ll probably need help with the kids.”

“Lots of people to help with that.”

He lifted his eyes to hers. “Do you like kids, Jess?”

“Yes,” she said, disliking how she had to defend herself again tonight. “I really like your kids, Dallas. They’re great.”

“Thank you,” he said, smiling softly. “I’m still figuring out a lot of stuff. Parenthood isn’t something you learn once and you’re good to go.”

“I’m sure that’s true,” she said. “My mother sometimes says I was the easiest and the hardest to raise.”

“Oh, I can see you being the hardest,” he said, the mood at the table lightening considerably.

“What does that mean?” she demanded in mock outrage. She squeezed his hand and let go, pulling hers back across the table.

“It means you have fire inside you,” he said. “That doesn’t like to be tamed.”

Jess considered him, because he’d just spoken straight to her soul. “Do you like women with untamable fire inside them?”

“Yes,” he said simply.

The waitress returned for their orders, but Jess hadn’t even picked up the menu yet. Dallas hurried to do so, and they quickly decided on what they wanted to eat. The conversation turned to his kids, and how school was going for them. He came alive when he spoke about the mechanic work he did in the equipment shed, and he even got him to say, “I taught classes in prison for the other inmates.”

She learned a lot about him, including that he didn’t speak too fast or too slow. He cleaned his plate, claiming that his pine nut and pesto ravioli was some of the best pasta he’d ever put in his mouth, and that he had quite the dislike for popcorn.

“It always gets stuck in my teeth,” he’d said, and that had made him more human in Jess’s eyes.

The waitress had just asked, “Dessert for you tonight?” when his phone rang. He reached for it while Jess considered ordering one of every dessert on the menu just to prolong the time she had with him at dinner.

“It’s Martha,” he said, already sliding out of the booth. “I have to take this. I’ll be right back.” He swiped on the call as he stepped away, but Jess could clearly hear him say, “Hey, sweetheart,” in a tender voice he surely only used for those he loved.

Jess sat back in the booth, dumbfounded. She managed to wave away the waitress and say they just needed the check.

Sweetheart.

Martha.

She was his ex-wife, but Jess got the very real feeling that Dallas did not think of her as his ex-anything.

In fact, everything in his life would go back to normal if he could get Martha back. Perhaps that was what he’d been trying to do these past couple of weeks when he’d been too busy to text her back.

“He answered a call from her while on a date with you.” Jess sighed, negativity crowding into her lungs. She wanted to flee this ravioli restaurant and never come back. That was a real shame too, because it was one of the better places to eat