“Yeah, I kind of liked it the one and only time I tried it. It would be nice to experience it again.”
Lauren hooked her arm in mine as we made our way to her kitchen. As we walked through the house, I couldn’t help but smile. Everything about the house screamed Lauren. It was decorated in a French country theme, like something straight out of a home and garden book.
Walking into the kitchen, I looked around. “Did you paint your cabinets?”
Lauren glanced over her shoulder and stared at me. “No. They’ve always been this color.”
“Huh. Well did you do something different in here?”
She placed two glasses on the counter and pulled out the orange juice as she looked around the kitchen. “Nope. Nothing’s changed.”
With a frown, I brushed it off.
“Okay, so talk to me. I thought you had a date last night. No go?”
“Oh, it was a go. I mean he certainly thought it was a full on green light.”
With a giggle, Lauren took a sip of the orange juice and then sat on a stool at the kitchen island. “Do tell.”
Chewing on the corner of my lip, I replied, “There’s really nothing to tell. David is a nice guy, cute, a good sense of humor, kisses okay.”
“But . . .”
“But nothing. He’s just not . . . he’s not . . .”
“Jase?”
With a frustrated sigh, I mumbled. “Oh, not you too.”
“Okay, well help me understand why you didn’t have sex with this nice, cute, good sense of humor, good kisser.”
“Because I’m not about to jump into bed with every guy I date.”
Lauren grinned. “And . . .”
With a roll of my eyes, I huffed. “And he moved too fast. I mean, he had his hand up my dress before they served dessert.”
With a snicker, Lauren shook her head. “Damn . . . well, you can’t blame him. Look at you. What guy wouldn’t want to stick his hand up your dress?”
With a weak smile, I looked away.
Jase.
“Change of subject. How’s work?”
Ugh. That subject isn’t any better. “It’s okay. My grandfather is driving me crazy, and if my grandmother tries to set me up with one more guy, I may have to leave my job.”
Lauren perked up. “Seriously? Because if you’re serious, I could really use your help here.”
I chuckled. “Oh, right. Like you could use a financial analyst on the payroll of your breeding business.”
The smile that spread across Lauren’s face caused my breathing to hitch. “You’re serious?”
Lifting the glass to her lips, she finished off her juice and set it down on the counter. “I’ve never been more serious in my entire life.”
Jase
“Damn, dude, you never want to do anything anymore. What happened to you?”
Pulling the hay bale off the trailer, I wiped the sweat off my face. “What do you mean what happened to me?”
Rick lifted his hat and wiped his forehead. “I’m just saying, before you went off to Paris last summer you were fun. Now you’re a stick in the mud.”
“I’m not a stick in the mud.”
The smell of the hay caused me to take in a deep breath. Something about that smell brought back memories of following my father and Reed around the ranch, trying to be just like them.
“You never want to go out. You never want to hook up with anyone either. When was the last time you got some *?”
With a roll of my eyes, I shook my head. “Nice, Rick.”
He pointed his finger at me and shouted, “See! Like that. The old Jase wouldn’t have cared less if I had said the word * or not.”
“I don’t care if you say *.” I shrugged and grabbed another bale. “I’m not in the mood to date any of these girls we grew up with. All the good ones left and moved on with their lives.”
“Damn. The good ones?”
“You know what I mean.”
We worked for a few minutes in silence and I enjoyed every second of it, until he started talking again.
“You remember Jill Gates?”
“I should hope so. I dated her senior year and took her to prom.”
Rick laughed as he unloaded another bale of hay and stacked it in the barn. “Yeah well, she’s back in Llano.”
“I thought she moved to Oregon or something.”
“Washington.”
“She didn’t like the rain?” I asked with a smirk.
Rick shook his head. “She didn’t like that her fiancé was sleeping around. My mom said she decided to come back and work for the elementary school. She’s a teacher.”
“Huh. I bet she hates that. All she ever talked about was leaving Llano.”
“Well, she’s back and rumor has it . . . she was asking about you.”
I stopped and looked at him. “Me, huh?”
With an evil smile, he nodded and said, “Yep. I bet I’d be right in saying she’ll probably be at Joe’s tonight.”
Thinking back to what my dad had said to me last week, I knew I needed to decide what I was going to do. It was time to either move on and let Taylor go, or go after her. Going after her meant trying to work a relationship living apart from each other and I wasn’t sure how easy that would be.