The Cowgirl's Chosen Love - Vivian Arend Page 0,44
up.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“Sorry in advance for being a difficult roommate.” Her nose wrinkled.
“Stop apologizing.” Zach grabbed a deck of cards off the side counter. “The only real question now is how badly I can beat you at rummy.”
“Gin or regular?” Stress slipped off her at the change in topic.
“I guess we have to try both. Or multiple variations thereof.”
Cards were dealt, pizza devoured. By the time they’d washed the dishes, wrote up their schedules for the week, and posted the agenda on the fridge, Zach’s cheeks were good-tired from his constant grin.
The contrast between his list and hers was night and day.
His—simple line by line in his happy-go-lucky scrawl, although he had managed to make it decipherable. Julia’s perfect script was embellished with small stars and moons at the edge of the page, and she’d included two side sections, one with a space for meals and one for a grocery list.
As she finished rearranging the fridge magnets, Zach grabbed another blank page and took his best shot at creating a fancy-dancy formal title.
“What’s that?” she asked, peering over his shoulder.
He held it out. “Fun Stuff Schedule. You know, the things to make time fly.”
Between her shifts and the commitments on his calendar, it took a bit of juggling, but they finally nailed it down.
Julia’s approval was clear as she pinned it beside the others. “Wednesday night riding, Thursday morning yoga, Saturday dancing, Sunday dinner.”
“At least this week. Your shifts change constantly, right?”
“For the next couple of months, I’m on two days, two nights, four days off.”
He nodded. Her job situation beyond the end of next month was on his to-do list for the next day. Not that he was telling her that.
A yawn escaped her, then she shook it off. “Sorry. It’s been a big day.”
“Big days,” he agreed as she slid toward her room.
He paused to put away the dry dishes, surprised to see her reflection in the window as he worked. Instead of vanishing, she lingered in the doorway. She stared at him, gaze drifting up and down as he moved. Assessing? Worried? Was being under one roof going to be too much?
Then her tongue slipped out, moisture painting her lips. His body hardened even as her expression turned hungry. He was one second away from turning and asking what else she wanted to add to their to-do list—he’d like to start with tasting that sweet mouth of hers all over again—when she shook her head and escaped into her room.
Damn it. Two steps forward, one step back. Zach debated grabbing a shower and dealing with his issue…
No debate. Lying in the room next to hers with a hard-on was his idea of torture.
One dirty shower, coming up.
Morning dawned clear and bright as sunshine streaked across her bed and past the curtain Julia had failed to close the night before. The sunshine was a gift, but an even greater joy was the sense of peace stealing over her.
No thumping footsteps in the hall, no listening anxiously for someone to try her door.
She’d slept like a rock—which was a miracle in itself considering how tangled her brain had been the previous night when she hit the pillow. Every step in the process had been logical by itself, but looking back, it was all so impossible.
She was married and staying that way, for a year.
Nope. Still not possible.
Moving around her room continued to make both those emotions grow stronger. Gratefulness washed in at having a clean, great-smelling, and safe place to hang her hat. Incredulous disbelief flooded in equally hard that she was here, and this was real.
No matter how easy the time had been with Zach the night before, discovering she had an empty kitchen to herself this morning let her relax once again as she dug in the fridge for breakfast. A quick glance at the schedule showed he’d been out of the cabin for a couple hours already. She hadn’t heard a peep when he left. Considerate man—just like she’d told Tony the day before.
Julia caught herself growling. Damn him, anyway.
Tony, not Zach, because the current number one source of her whirling emotions was her therapist. Good man, total hard-ass when it came to making Julia admit difficult truths.
Falling asleep, Tony’s voice had kept ringing in her head.
He’d asked how much she trusted Zach, and that question had been easier to answer than expected. They’d spent enough time together over the past months that he was comfortable to be around. With her sisters' added good