Close Enough to Touch. Victoria Dahl
me.”
“Yeah.” She’d stopped eating, and when her smile faded, she stared at her plate.
“Hey, Grace?”
“What?”
“I’m sorry about that. You being fired by that asshole.”
When she looked up, he saw surprise in her eyes. Just a brief, bright flash, and then it was hidden by old anger. “It’s no big deal. Nothing new. I’ve got to learn how to keep my mouth shut.”
“Maybe not. You did the right thing.”
“Ha. The right thing. It didn’t help her. I probably made it worse. You should have seen her scrambling to defuse the situation. Begging me to stop. It was all about me, wasn’t it? Me telling myself that I’m not the kind of person who’d just stand by while a man treated a woman like a worthless dog. The worst part? Turns out I’m exactly that kind of person.”
“No, you’re not. You said something. You didn’t just sit there and ignore it because you were scared.”
She smiled again. A grimace of a smile, bitter and hurt. And then she jumped to her feet. “Thank you for breakfast. Again.”
“Hey, wait. What are you doing today?”
She was already walking toward the door, her bare feet silent against the wood. She was so much smaller without her heels. “I’ll probably walk around town some more. See what there is to see.”
“Ah. The antlers.”
She stopped with her hand on the doorknob. “The what?”
“The antlers. Haven’t you seen the antler arches yet?”
Her expression defaulted to grumpy again. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t know how you missed them. They’re right in the town square.”
“Antlers?”
“Yes. Elk antlers. Thousands of them. The National Elk Refuge comes all the way up to the city limits.”
“And there are elk there?”
“Not right now, but they’re around if you drive up into the mountains. They come down to the refuge during the winter.”
“And bring their antlers?”
He grinned. “Something like that, yes.”
“Oh.” She didn’t leave. Her hand was still on the doorknob, but she just stood there looking thoughtful.
“Want to go for a drive? I’ll show you around. There’s a lot more to see than just the town, you know.”
She glanced in the direction of the Tetons, even though the blinds were closed.
“Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Aren’t you busy?”
“Nope. I’m off work today, so it’s either you or laundry.”
“I win out over laundry, huh?”
“Only because I did a load last weekend. Otherwise it’d be laundry all the way.”
That relaxed her. An insult. That was what soothed her prickly stance and made her laugh. Another thing that set her apart from the women of his past. “Then I’d better take you up on it. I might not be so lucky next weekend, and I’ll go crazy if I stay cooped up any longer.”
“Come back when you’re ready, then.”
She was back in three minutes. Cole was still washing the dishes and shouted for her to come in.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve stayed to help, right? People don’t cook for me very often. Let me…”
“Believe me. It’s no big deal. A lot easier than cleaning a stew pot on the trail, I can tell you that.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, sounding as if the words scraped her throat as they came out.
“You can make me dinner sometime.”
She looked slightly panicked. “I hope you like sandwiches.”
“Peanut butter?” he asked.
Grace’s cheeks flamed red. “I haven’t had time for a real shopping trip,” she said sharply.
Yikes. “I was just kidding.”
She crossed her arms and wandered over to look at the books on his coffee table. By the time Cole dried his hands, her cheeks had faded to pink. He was glad he hadn’t been standing next to her and made a note to himself that she had some sort of peanut butter trigger. Maybe peanut butter was her secret high-calorie indulgence. If he was going to piss her off—and he wasn’t averse to that—he wanted it to be over something worthwhile.
“Ready?” he asked.
She put down the book she’d been looking at, but her eyes stayed on it.
“You like horror novels? I’m done with that if you want to read it.”
“Yeah?” She picked it back up again and opened it to the first page. “Was it good?”
“His best in years.”
“Okay, sure. Thanks.” She slipped it into her purse and shrugged her jacket on. “I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I read fast.”
“An expensive habit.”
“Yeah,” she said. “The library. Anyway, I’m not a resident here, so…”
“I’ll check some out for you if you like. Give me a list.”
She glanced at him as she passed him on the way out the door. “You’ve got a library card?”
“Sometimes they let cowboys in on free range days.”
“With fair warning to the public, I hope.”
God, she made him laugh. He wanted to push and goad her just to see what she’d say next. She might be a touch prickly, but, hell, talking to Grace, he felt more awake than he’d been in months.
* * *
WHAT THE HECK was she doing hanging out with the cowboy again? When she’d walked out of that saloon yesterday—being very careful not to sway or trip over her own feet—she’d given herself a little talking-to.
Yes, she was bored. Yes, she was a little lost. But flirting with a guy just to pass the time? That was stupid. Especially when he was hot and lived a few feet away from her bed. It wasn’t as if she had a history of restraint. Or wise choices. Or self-control.
Case in point? Less than a day after telling herself to stay away from him, she was climbing up into his big black pickup and settling into the leather seat.
But despite her self-recriminations, Grace felt a thrill of satisfaction as she buckled up. She was going somewhere. Getting out of the house. How many days had it been since she’d even ridden in a vehicle that didn’t have dozens of seats? Even in L.A., she’d been taking the bus or train for weeks.
As Cole started the truck, she rolled down the window, breathed in the cool morning air, and she felt free.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
Where? She had no idea. She should go to the store. She should get to know the town better. She should find the post office and the bank and the library. But she took a deep breath and said, “Just drive.”
“You got it,” he said softly.
Cole turned toward town, which surprised her, but she watched the streets pass with new eyes. It was different when you were driving. Everything so quick