before I ever came to Coral Canyon that I would never move here. It’s going to take some time for that mindset to change.”
She nodded, a shiver running through her. “Can we head back now, please? I’m tired, and it’s getting late.”
“Sure.”
She moved first, and Ames got the hint by the way she huddled into her own arms as she picked her way through the orchard. She didn’t want to hold his hand. He wouldn’t be kissing her before she got in her sedan and drove back up the canyon.
He’d messed up—again.
You’re so…. He didn’t even know how to finish the thought. He wasn’t stupid, and he was tired of beating himself up that way. He was inconsistent. That’s what he was. And Sophia obviously didn’t want a man who changed his mind about where he’d live every six weeks.
If only she knew he didn’t want to be that man either.
He followed her all the way back to her car before he realized he’d left his cowboy hat on the edge of the orchard. Part of him just wanted to leave it, but Cy had spent hundreds of dollars on the matching cowboy hats for his wedding, and Ames couldn’t just leave it to rot in the mud.
Sophia already had her hand on the door handle when he reached her car, and he decided to be bold by putting his hand over the seam where the door pulled away from the car. “Can you wait a second?” he asked, hearing the bite in his tone.
She looked up at him, the fire flashing in her eyes. “I suppose,” she said coolly.
“Look, I obviously messed up back there,” he said. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
She cocked her hip and folded her arms. “I don’t want you to say anything.”
“That’s just not true.” He could fold his arms too, but he deliberately kept his hands at his sides. He didn’t need to turn into the big, bad cop who huffed and puffed and ruined everything.
“No, it’s one hundred percent true,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re going to move here unless you’re absolutely, positively, without a doubt going to move here. Like, don’t even start to say it until you have the truck packed and you’re on the way.” Her words carried plenty of frustration, and Ames thought he detected an undercurrent of hurt.
“Okay,” he said. “Fair enough. I can do that.” He’d just thought he could talk to her about it, but this was probably a better topic for someone like Colton, or Wes, or Gray.
His mind seized onto Gray. He’d decided to make a home in Colorado and Coral Canyon, and Ames wondered why he couldn’t do the same. He blinked, and he was looking at the reason why. The beautiful woman in front of him would not want to leave Coral Canyon and her job at Whiskey Mountain Lodge, even for a few months out of the year.
“Thank you,” Sophia said, and Ames acted out of bravery once more by embracing her. He lifted her right up off her feet, which caused her to squeal and giggle.
“Forgive me?” he asked while she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck.
“Yes,” she whispered, and he set her on her feet and gave her a moment to find her balance before he released her.
“Thank you, Sophia,” he said. He stepped away from her car, because he’d already shared the most amazing kiss with her, and he wanted that to be the thing he thought about as he fell asleep that night. “I left my cowboy hat out there, so I’ve got to go grab it. Good-night.”
“Good-night, Ames,” she said.
He quickly retraced his steps through the small patch of orchard, collected his hat, and hurried back to where the wedding had taken place. He was supposed to take Blue Velvet with him back to Colton’s that night, and then tomorrow, he’d move over to Cy’s with the dog.
The festivities had mostly been cleaned up, and Ames thought that had happened really fast. A few workers loaded up the chairs from the party rental store Cy had used, and Patsy’s sister stood at the dessert table, loading the leftover cookies into plastic zipper bags.
He went that way, and as he approached, he asked, “Have you seen Cy’s dog?”
Her sister—Ames could not think of her name to save his life—looked up at him. She did a double-take, which Ames was actually used to. He put a smile on his face