if you’ll ever tell me. But whatever did happen—or hell, whatever is happening, if that’s what it is—I wish there was some way to convince you that you can trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
He put up a hand. “To a point, you do. And that’s great. But there’s this invisible line, and I keep crossing it, and I keep regretting it.” He shook his head. “But I don’t know where it is, and I don’t know why.”
Oh, no. Jess’s stomach hurt. On top of everything else, now she’d hurt Cole, without even meaning to. She’d spent the week—heck, she’d spent the past two years—falling head over heels for him, and what he was taking away from that was a loud, clear go-away message.
“I’m so sorry, Cole.”
“I am, too. I just wish you could…trust me. Really trust me.”
She nodded slowly as she watched a couple of last embers fizzle out, then catch again. She stood up and stepped closer to him, placing a careful hand on his arm. “I want to,” she whispered. “I really want to.”
“Okay.” He placed his hand over hers and squeezed it. “Then let’s start with some wings. I’ll warn you, though. I go hot. Way hot.”
Her eyes flew open wide and he laughed.
“The wings, cowgirl. Hot wings.”
Five minutes later, as Cole gathered up the rest of their supplies and checked on the horses, Jess watched the kids running around. It looked like the game had dissolved, but some of the boys were playing tag, while two girls did cartwheels and another picked flowers. Then, apparently on some invisible signal, all ten of the kids stopped what they were doing and made a beeline for Cole.
He sensed them coming—or heard them—and at the last second, he turned around with a ginormous roar, his hands up in the air. They all screeched and ran the other way, and he took off after them, scooping up one after another, then letting each one go when he reached the next.
As Jess watched, her smile fell slowly. He was so natural with the kids. They loved him from the moment they arrived at the ranch, and they cried when they left. Whether he was teaching horseback lessons or leading a trail ride or cheating in a scavenger hunt, he just had some sort of aura around him that drew them close. She’d seen it in the reviews on the Whisper Creek website, but seeing it in person made her stomach ache with longing.
She wondered if he really envisioned himself having his own children someday, and then kicked herself for wondering. Of course he did. Why would he not? Whisper Creek was a family operation handed down through generations. Surely he and Decker planned to pass it along to their own children someday as well. And that would mean—having some to pass it down to.
She put her fingers to her mouth, feeling again the soft brush of his lips on hers, feeling his whispers in her ears, his fingertips on her face. Then she looked down at the loose shirt she’d chosen to wear today.
If only her scars were just on the outside.
Chapter 21
“Red or white?” Cole pulled two goblets from the rack above his granite counter.
Jess slid onto a cushioned barstool across from him, trying not to notice how good he looked in a crisp oxford shirt and dress pants—trying not to notice how good he smelled, fresh from the shower.
She cleared her throat carefully. “Hmm. Which goes better with wings?”
“I don’t know. White meat, red sauce. Could go either way.”
“Let’s go with the white.” She smiled as he expertly popped the cork and poured the wine. Clearly this was an old routine for him, entertaining women at his counter. “So do you have an old family recipe for—wings?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Decker and I’ve been perfecting it over the years. Salty’s tried to buy it from us, but we keep holding out. If this whole ranching thing doesn’t work out, we can always go into the wings business, right?”
“Absolutely. Huge money in wings.” She rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her wine. “So”—she looked around the cabin, which was homey, comfortable, and incredibly tidy for a bachelor pad—“is this place always so neat?”
“Yup. Just me living here, after all. No one to mess it up.”
She narrowed her eyes and put her index finger on her nose. “I call bull.”
He laughed out loud. “Fine. I spent the last half hour running around pushing beer cans and damp