and grabbed a towel.
“On his key chain; it’s with him,” Cade handed her the towel.
“Thanks,” Amanda wiped her face.
“So settle in for a visit,” Cade invited.
“Guess I will,” she smiled.
“Go find something dry to put on first,” he nodded toward the stairs.
“Thank you,” Amanda kissed him lightly on the lips before bounding up the stairs.
As soon as she had stepped into Cade’s room and shut the door behind her, Amanda peeled her wet clothes from her body. Her skin was covered in goose bumps and she vigorously toweled the moisture away trying warm her skin. Her skin dry, she toweled her hair, squeezing excess water from it as she crossed the small room to the closet. She selected a white western shirt, one of her favorites on Cade, and buttoned it; she already felt warmer with the long sleeves covering her arms. Her legs, however were still cold. Amanda shut the closet and moved to the dresser; she finally found a pair of sweat pants buried under jeans, jeans, and more jeans. Come to think of it, she’d never seen him in anything other than jeans.
She closed the drawer, the sweat pants forgotten on top of the dresser when she spotted a wedding band a chain. His mom’s wedding ring! Amanda stepped closer and fingered the gold band; she was smiling as she did. After his mom’s death and after beginning his merry go round in the foster system, he had begun wearing the ring on a chain around his neck. He had shared that items of value often vanished and he hadn’t wanted his mother’s ring being pawned for cash. The ring was all he had left of his mother; he never let it get far from him. He had started hanging it on his dresser mirror after he had moved to the ranch. Amanda knew all of this because he had written her of it.
Amanda turned and glanced around the room. She hadn’t been in here since Cade moved in. It felt different with his things in here; different and yet familiar because she knew the man they belonged to. Amanda moved to the bed side table and smiled as she lifted a framed picture from the night stand. It was of Amanda, Jenny, and Cade; the girls on either side of him kissing him on the cheek. Jenny had asked a friend to take it one evening in town the summer before Cade and Trent had started college. She replaced the frame and turned to finish dressing; Cade was going to wonder what had happened to her. She’d no more than had the thought than a knock sounded on the door a moment before it opened.
“You get lost?” Cade teased.
“Side tracked,” she admitted as she came to stop in front of him. She watched his gaze slide over her. His eyes sparked with heat and her heart doubled in tempo. She felt shy and self conscious; her mouth was suddenly dry. Amanda reached to push the hair from her face, only to find her hand was shaking. She swallowed hard and tried to calm her nerves as she stepped closer. It took another moment for her to muster the nerve to slide her arms around his neck and kiss him; his arms came around her. Amanda was on fire again; what were the rules tonight, she wondered. She tugged his shirt loose from his pants and slid her hands along his belly and hips a moment before she reached to loosen his belt and unfasten his jeans. When he let her, she stopped and leaned back to study him.
“Why’d you stop?” Cade asked her.
“I just wondered if you’d let me get away with it and what tonight’s rules are; I hadn’t thought about it beyond that,” her cheeks were pink.
She watched Cade smile.
“You’re funny, Manny,” he reached for her and pulled her back close. Amanda sank against him, his hands were caressing her hips and her legs had just turned to mush.
He kissed her deeply and it suddenly wasn’t enough for her, she tugged impatiently at his shirt and he paused to pull it off for her; he pulled his belt off and tossed it onto his dresser as well. She watched impatiently as he removed his boots. Her nerves seemed to have fled, at least mostly. Cade reached for the hem of the shirt she wore and pulled it off and Amanda felt her nerves return with a vengeance. Her hands fluttered, her reflex to cover