Two to Tangle (A Tangle Valley Romance #2) - Melissa Brayden Page 0,53

bar and placed her hands on her hips. The cool, casual, breezy woman who’d just invited Ryan over to her home receded slowly, leaving one who was smarter and annoyed she’d given in to what she longed for over what was intelligent. After hearing the truck drive away, Gabriella locked up and took the shaded path to her Spring Cottage where she plopped onto the steps to watch the trees sway gently in the comfortable breeze.

It was only a few minutes before she heard rustling in the vines a few yards away. She blinked and craned her neck because she thought she heard voices. There, down the path, she saw Bobby step out from the field and offer a hand to none other than Loretta Daniel, who smiled at him and gave him what could only be described as the eyes. Gabriella gasped and covered her mouth. What was she witnessing? But the heated look they exchanged as they waved farewell told her everything. Loretta headed back up the path to the tasting room, and Bobby, her neighbor, strolled in her direction toward his cottage. Scandal among the vines! She looked for someone to tell. No one. Dammit. She watched in shock as he passed, nodding to her and offering his usual half smile, quiet guy that he was.

“What a day, huh?” she called to him as he approached, trying to remain normal. Did she look normal? She felt her eyes might be wide, and her voice might be shrill and loud. First, she invited Ryan over, and now Bobby and Loretta were sneaking around? What the what?

He nodded his agreement. “Gettin’ hotter, too.” He talked about the weather a lot, so she seized the topic.

“Moving toward eighty degrees, I hear.” But her mind was elsewhere, and confusion reigned. Maybe if she opened up to Bobby, he’d open up to her. Plus, she could use it, quite honestly. Bobby was always such a good listener. “I know you’re busy and tired, but here’s the thing, Bobby. I’m being dumb again.”

He blinked, took off his ball cap, and scratched the back of his neck.

“I am the captain of my own ship. I chart the course, and I decide what’s good for me and what’s not. I mean, right?” She realized she wasn’t making a lot of sense, but when she tried to express herself, that’s what came out.

“Ah. Yep,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. This was not the kind of thing Bobby, in her experience, generally said much to. He was more of the silent, head-down, and get to work type, enjoying a brewski on the porch of his cottage after a long day in the fields and maybe a ball game on TV in the evenings. He didn’t involve himself in much interpersonal conflict, which was maybe why he was her perfect sounding board.

But it felt like she’d opened some kind of vault, and it all came tumbling out. “I’m also perfectly capable of sorting things out as I go. I can have a good time if I want to, or take the smarter route and live a chaste nunlike existence until I’m ninety-two.”

His eyes went wide, but bless him, he stood his ground.

“Ryan Jacks is younger than me. Wilder than me. And probably a bad bet. I shouldn’t get mixed up with her, right? No matter the feelings I’m dealing with.”

He shifted his weight. “Um. Well. She’s nice enough. Helped me unload my equipment the other day when my guys were off in the back acreage.”

Gabriella softened. “She is kind, isn’t she? I think that comes from her mom and how she was raised. Never rude or cruel. At least not intentionally.”

“Sounds about right. Went to school with Joanna. She was smart and real nice, too.”

“Have you ever struggled where matters of the heart are concerned, Bobby?” She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to unleash on her in the same manner she had.

He took a moment, appearing uncomfortable. Finally, “Nah.”

Gabriella blinked and slowly sat upright from her relaxed position. Well, that wasn’t what she expected to come out of his mouth. “What about Loretta?” she asked, peering over at him.

“Oh no. Nothing to do with Loretta,” he said, popping his hat back on his head. “She was just helping me strip some of the buds in the field.”

“Mm-hmm,” she said.

The hat returning to his head meant he was done with the conversation. With a quiet nod, he headed off down the path to his cottage, leaving Gabriella mystified,