wanted the room to decide if she wanted it to be a date-date.
Relationships were so damn fraught, she thought as she looked over her choices yet again. At least hers ended up that way.
The Coopers were too important in her life to turn this into something fraught. That, she decided as she took out one of her go-to black dresses—not fancy—hit number one in the against column.
She discarded the black dress. Not fancy, but too New York.
Balancing out the number one against? That moment in the milking barn. Definitely a moment, she thought as she considered black jeans. If you didn’t test the waters, you never got to swim.
Problem there? Every time she decided to swim, really swim, she ended up sinking.
She grabbed the dress she kept coming back to, one she’d bought on impulse before she’d left New York because the orange poppies that covered it made her think of Big Sur.
Not fancy, but something she thought she’d wear to a family picnic.
She opted to leave her hair down, leave it straight. It fell past her shoulders now so the lack of fuss added to the lack of fancy. Low, casual espadrille wedges, her tiniest hoops for earrings.
Taking stock in the mirror, she put herself into the role. First maybe-date in the company of his friends, in a roadhouse for dancing.
She thought it worked, and the flow of the dress would have a nice swing to it on the dance floor. Not overdressed—she hoped—but showing she’d taken some care instead of just throwing something on.
Besides, she’d fiddled around so long she didn’t have time to change.
She spotted him walking down the path—right on time. Jeans and high-tops—but not the sort she’d seen him wear around the ranch. A pale green shirt, open at the collar, but one she thought of as a dress shirt that would do fine under a suit jacket with a coordinating tie.
First hurdle—dress code—cleared.
She went to the door, opened it. And liked—what woman wouldn’t—the way he paused, the way he looked at her.
“California poppies work on you.”
“I was hoping.” After closing the door at her back, she slung her little cross-body bag on. “You’re prompt. I thought I’d head up to the house, save you the walk, but you beat me to it.”
“Nice night for a walk.”
“Nice night period. Do you do this often?”
“Do what?”
“Go dancing.”
“Not especially.” Jesus, she smelled good. Why did women make themselves smell so damn good? “Unless one of my friends says, ‘Hey, let’s hit the Roadhouse,’ I don’t think about it. I’m not big on the solo hunt.”
He pressed a finger to his eye. “And that sounded all kinds of wrong.”
“No, it didn’t. Women have wingmen, too. So, you haven’t been seeing anyone?”
“Not in a while, no.”
He’d borrowed Gram’s car—at her insistence. (“Boy, you don’t take a woman dancing first time out in a pickup truck.”) He opened the passenger door, waited until she’d pulled the colorful skirts inside before closing it.
“Because?” she said when he got behind the wheel.
“Because? Oh.” With a shrug, he started the engine, headed down. “I was seeing someone last year for a while, but things get busy in the summer. It just didn’t suit her, so we let that slide. Hailey, that’s Leo’s wife, she’s always trying to fix me up. It’d be annoying if I didn’t like her so much.”
Pleased to find yet more common ground, she settled in.
“I got that back in New York. Oh, you’ve got to meet this guy, or that guy. And I’d think: You know, I really just don’t.”
He flicked her a glance. “Because?”
“I’d go out with somebody in the business, it ended up being a mess. I’d go out with somebody not in the business, it ended up being a mess. Fraught,” she remembered. “Fraught’s the word that comes to mind.
“So tell me about Hailey, and the woman your other friend’s bringing.”
“Hailey teaches fifth grade and hits that balance between sweet-natured and steely spined on the money. Smart, funny, seriously patient. We all went to school together back in the day. She and Dave were the ones always screwing the curve for the rest of us.”
Fifth grade, she thought, her personal watershed year. One she’d ended with tutors—and no childhood friends to hold through life.
“You’ve all known each other that long.”
“Yeah. You’d have thought, back then, Hailey and Dave would’ve hooked up. You know, nerd love. But that never happened. And she came back from college, and Leo dropped like a stone. They’re good together. Probably have