Before Cole even knew he was heading toward them, he was on his feet, determined to put some space between the two of them. He approached the small circle, motioning to her. “Hey, Jess? Can I get your help over here?”
It couldn’t be his imagination how fast she jumped up, leaving Ben hanging. Or how her face looked relieved as hell. She followed him away from the guests, over to where the horses were grazing near the falls.
“You okay?” he asked.
She drew her eyebrows together, crossing her arms in a defensive gesture. “Yes. Why?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “You just looked like maybe you could use an extraction over there.”
She looked over at the guests. “Extraction might be a strong word. He was okay.”
“He looked like he was bothering you.”
She shrugged, but the casual action didn’t seem completely genuine to him. “I was fine, Cole. I can take care of myself.”
He tried to look into her dark eyes, but instead of meeting his, she looked off to her left, toward the falls.
“Okay. I apologize. But watch yourself, okay? Just because he’s here with a church group doesn’t mean he won’t try to put the moves on you.”
Jess smiled. Then her eyes grew serious in the beat of a second. “I have no intentions of getting cozy with the guests, Cole.”
“I know.” Did he? “Just—watch yourself, okay? These guys aren’t always as clean and innocent as they pretend to be, just because they say grace before dinner.”
“Okay.” Her voice softened. “Thank you for watching out for me.”
“Anytime.” Cole shook his head and walked back to the guests, loading the picnic gear into the saddlebags as he pointed toward the falls and gave his oft-recited spiel about the Native American lore surrounding the rocky outcroppings above, and the iridescent water of the pools below.
His mouth was saying the right words and his hands were pointing in the right directions, but his eyes weren’t on the falls at all. Instead, they were firmly glued to Jess, who had walked back to her horse and was leaning quietly against her flank, murmuring words Cole couldn’t hear.
He blinked hard and rocked his attention back to the guests. They had eight relative novices on horseback, and as soon as they remounted, they’d be heading for the rocky part of the trail just north of the falls. His mind needed to be focused on guests and horses.
Guests and horses.
But God, what he wouldn’t give to have Jess leaning on him that way, to have Jess’s soft, mesmerizing voice in his ear.
—
“Okay, here we go. Promise you’ll love it?” Kyla paused her hand on the doorknob of the someday-spa that afternoon.
Jess rolled her eyes. “It’s gorgeous, fabulous, and perfect. I can tell already.”
Kyla laughed. “Okay, good. You may now enter.”
She pushed open the door, and Jess felt her own eyes go wide as she stepped into the big open space. “Oh my God, Kyla.”
“You like it?”
Jess stepped slowly into the middle of the room, breathing deeply. To her left, a wall of windows looked out on a glorious stand of firs outlined against the deep blue sky. To her right, a matching set looked out toward Whisper Creek’s rolling meadows and the northern Rockies in the distance. The afternoon sun slanted through the western-facing windows, making the hardwood floor practically glow.
She slipped off her shoes, curling her toes against the warm, polished wood as she spun in a slow circle and breathed in the mixed scent of fresh lumber and drywall. From every spot in the huge room, you could see calming forest, big sky, and the majestic mountains in the distance. It was an unbelievable spot, and she’d never seen anything like it before.
“So?” Kyla’s voice sounded concerned. “You’re not speaking. Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? What do you think?”
Jess stopped turning. “It’s magical.”
“I knew you’d love it!”
“It’s beyond words, Kyla. The light, the views, the fresh air—if I didn’t know better, I’d think I’d died and landed in heaven’s version of—well, heaven.”
Kyla walked over to a pile of lumber and set down the notebook she seemed to carry with her everywhere these days. “I made Cole stop working on it until you could get out here. I wanted you to see the space like this, with no walls, so you could give us your ideas about how we should best configure the space.”
Jess spun around again. “Do there need to be walls?”