“I was thinking that I could make it if you didn’t want to. I guess I should’ve said something, but with getting the corn in before the rain started, I wasn’t really thinking about it.”
“We could probably do both. If all of your brothers are going to be there, we’re going to need lots of food. I’ll check the cupboard to make sure we have all the ingredients. If we need anything, you can get it while you’re out tonight.”
“Thanks. Love the way your mind works.” He hadn’t even thought about checking to see if they had all the ingredients.
He wouldn’t think about it until he actually started making it. Then, if he didn’t have something, he’d just search the cupboards for an acceptable substitute. Once, he’d tried substituting mustard for mayonnaise, and that didn’t work.
Sometimes his substitutions were a big fail.
Actually, most of the time, his substitutions were a big fail. But he had never seemed to master the ability to actually think ahead, at least with cooking, and figure out whether he had the ingredients before he started making something.
That’s an area where Emerson really complemented him.
One of the many ways, he thought as he realized that, over the last twenty minutes, they’d worked together the whole time they were making hamburgers, without even really thinking about it and without talking either.
Then that attraction, that almost-explosion, that happened between them.
If they could just get to where they could be civil to each other...
Or maybe not civil, exactly. To where they weren’t stilted and guarded, like they were afraid they were going to get hurt.
One of them had to let down their guard first.
He wished it could be him.
He wanted to be the leader, but after everything that he had done, and after the way they’d parted, and after the way she was acting now, he figured it was more than likely she would reject him.
“I’m starved. Is it time to eat? Is it ready?” Dallas asked.
Houston gave him a look, which Dallas returned with an innocent shrug of his shoulders.
Reid wasn’t sure why they were trying to get Emerson to go to the meeting with him. As she passed behind him with the plates of lettuce and tomato and onions, he turned his back on the boys and said, “Did you notice they were trying to get rid of you tonight? Did you see anything out at the barn when you were out there with them?”
He hated to think that the boys were actually plotting something. Maybe it wasn’t bad, but now that she’d mentioned it, his eyes were kind of open to the fact that they were trying to do something. He just couldn’t figure out what.
Her voice was pitched low, and she leaned into him. “Yes. I noticed. But I didn’t see anything out in the barn, although they were talking low and gesturing.”
She talked in front of him to keep the boys from hearing. Her breath brushed his cheek, and her scent drifted up, and he breathed deep. Familiar, and beloved, and yet new and exciting too.
She was the same Emerson, and yet she was completely different.
He didn’t remember being this strongly attracted to her in high school.
Of course they were teenagers, with all the hormones that involved, but this was almost a physical pull that he couldn’t resist.
It was all he could do to not take his hand up and put it on her back, drawing her closer to him.
“I think you’re right. I definitely think we need to be keeping an eye on them. There is no telling what’s going to happen or what they could be plotting. We’ll definitely want to be on guard.”
“I’ll make sure I watch them extra close tonight, maybe walk out of the room and see if anything happens. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Good idea. If you need me, I’ll come straight home. If there’s anything going on, we’re gonna want to nip it in the bud. We don’t want them to get the idea that they can get away with stuff behind our backs.”
“Agreed. We definitely need to stick together on this.”
“Exactly. Present a united front. We’re adults, they’re only ten. We can definitely outsmart them.”
“Obviously. We’ve been there, done that, and we know exactly what’s going on. We just need to figure out what it is.”
He wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he nodded anyway. Because he was supposed to be agreeing, and they were also conspiring together. He liked that. It felt way better than