you’d be making actual money instead of just watching your savings account slide to zero, and you’d get to help create this amazing getaway paradise.”
Jess bit her lip. “Wow.” She sighed, but couldn’t help but let a smile escape. “You are good.”
“I know. I got Hayley out here, after all. And that girl was some hard sell.” Kyla put her hand on Jess’s. “Please, Jess? I want you to stay. Decker wants you to stay. Hayley sure as heck does, and—y’know, there’s Cole, too.”
“But no pressure?”
“Oh, tons of pressure. I make no bones about that.”
“Where would I stay? I certainly couldn’t keep that cabin all summer, and it might be tough to take up one of Ma’s guest rooms for a month straight. I’d feel like I was encroaching on the only personal space that poor woman has left on the ranch.”
Kyla raised her eyebrows. “I happen to know the gal who handles reservations. Don’t worry. If you say you’ll stay, I can work it out.”
“I’d be happy to put a sleeping bag in a corner of the spa, to be honest.”
Kyla straightened up, a gleam in her eye, huge smile on her face.
“Oh, no. I know that look. I didn’t say yes.” Jess laughed. “Down, girl.”
Kyla laughed with her. “I have the perfect idea.”
“It seems to be your specialty.”
“When I showed you the spa, I didn’t take you upstairs, did I?”
“No.” Jess shook her head. “I didn’t even know there was an upstairs.”
“There’s a stairway behind that far wall, where I was saying the bathrooms would need to go. Right now we’ve got it slated to stay unfinished—a sort of future expansion space. But oh my gosh! We could totally turn it into a little apartment type of thing.”
“That sounds like an awful lot of work.”
Kyla shook her head. “It wouldn’t be! Let me talk to Decker.”
Jess suddenly felt like she’d stepped on a train that had lost its brakes and was headed downhill. “Hold on, sweetie. I haven’t said yes yet.”
“But you haven’t said no, and that’s a very, very good sign.” Kyla picked up her cup and took a long drink. “You can’t sit here and tell me you wouldn’t rather stay out here for the rest of the summer. We’ve got mountains, fresh air, no humidity to speak of, hot cowboys—”
“It’s the hot cowboys you’re hoping will seal the deal, right?”
“Absolutely. One of them, anyway.” She set down her cup again. “Ooh! Speaking of which, I forgot to show you!” She reached into her purse and extracted an envelope. “You have got to see these shots I just turned in for the Whisper Creek calendar.”
She fanned out the pictures, and Jess dutifully oohed and aahed over them, but didn’t see Cole. “I think you’re missing one, sweetie.”
“Nope.” Kyla smiled, then pulled a last one out of her purse. “Just saved it for last so you could better appreciate it.”
She slid it toward Jess, who felt her pulse crank up about ten notches when she looked at it. Oh, Cole was going to kill Kyla. It was the shot she remembered from last summer, the one where his ridiculously chiseled abs and pecs were framed by a cascade of water coming out of a hose he held above his head.
Jess cleared her throat carefully. “Just a quick question here, but how big is your telephoto lens, anyway?”
“It’s a pretty good shot, isn’t it?”
“It’s crazy good. So good you could probably sell it for big bucks, yes. Posters, calendars, romance novel covers. This shot could probably get Cole an agent in three seconds flat. However—”
“No howevers. It’s a perfect shot.”
“It most definitely is. But it’s also a shot I’m pretty sure he didn’t know you were taking.”
Kyla tipped her head, feigning innocence. “Maybe?”
“Kyla, seriously. Cole never would have let you come within fifty feet of him with a camera if he’d known what you were up to.”
“But he’s gorgeous! How could he really mind, given how this shot came out? I think I’m going to use it for the cover, actually.”
Jess stared at the photo, watched the rivulets of water snake down to where his dark hair disappeared into his jeans, marveled at the droplets collected on his biceps, like they were reluctant to leave his body. She sighed involuntarily, but did at least manage not to stroke the photo with her fingertips.
“You’re going to be in huge trouble for this.”
“I can handle it. It’s for a good cause.”
Jess stared at the picture again, wondering for a moment