was warmed by more than his palms as he helped her stand, and their fingers lingered together for an extra moment before he let go to close his tailgate and pull his keys from the ignition.
They began walking side by side toward her parents’ ranch along the road, the mare walking along behind them and occasionally batting Amy with her nose, as if anxious to move faster. Amy, though, wasn’t in any rush to finish the half mile or so walk. She didn’t want this intimate moment to be over too quickly.
“I can’t believe you still have that old truck,” she told Jack, glancing back at the vehicle parked beside the field. “After all the times it broke down in high school, I never would have imagined it would last so long.”
“I had to put a lot of work into it over the years, and it still has a few quirks,” Jack said, giving her a sidelong smile that went straight to her heart, “but I’ve loved it since I was a teenager. I could never just give up on it.”
Amy blushed, feeling the words resonate through her, sure he was talking about more than just the truck.
But no. Even if they did, the facts of the situation had not changed. She still couldn’t have children, and he still deserved the chance to find a woman who could give him the family he’d always wanted.
He had the chance, and it seems he never took it, she thought to herself. She couldn’t stop the heat from blossoming in her chest. It turned to ice as she put back up the walls she’d built around her heart in the past few days. She knew now better than ever that she couldn’t let herself get carried away with a man. Even if it was Jack.
He stopped walking and turned toward her, and she did the same. Suddenly, she felt as if he was much too close, and at the same time too far away, and she longed to move closer. To touch his lips with hers. She took a step back.
She was sure the feel of their lips, their bodies, together would also be on the list of things that hadn’t changed, and it scared her.
“Will you go out with me tonight?” he asked, his voice low and deep.
The word yes was on her tongue, but Amy balked. She couldn’t let them fall right back into the relationship she’d run away from, could she? What about all that had happened since? Would there just be too much between them? And she had no idea who he was now. He could be every bit as despicable as Armand, the person she least wanted to think about.
Jack seemed to realize her indecision, because he turned and started walking toward her house again. After a moment, she pulled herself out of her shock and hustled to catch up with him. When he spoke, he sounded lighthearted, confident. Exactly the Jack she knew from high school. “How about this—we go out tonight just to get to know each other. We start fresh. No expectations. No baggage. No past. Just us, two twentysomethings who met while I was out for a drive and you were going for a ride on your horse.”
She had to smile at his antics. “No past? So you saw a random woman riding a horse in the middle of nowhere and stopped to ask her out?”
His eyes danced with laughter. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so great. How about I was driving along when I saw a beautiful woman and a beautiful horse, and I felt compelled to speak to her. The woman, not the horse.”
Amy wasn’t sure if she was amused or panicked. For a moment he sounded just like Armand. Charming, flattering...but this was Jack. He was being sincere.
Wasn’t he?
They grew quiet and walked a little longer, until her childhood home appeared down the street.
“So I’ll pick you up tonight at seven?” he said, his voice serious as he turned toward her again.
Amy nodded, though a large part of her yelled that it was too much, too soon. Jack’s face lit with a smile, and he turned his attention back to the house that loomed before them. She was glad he wasn’t looking at her any longer, so he wouldn’t see just how torn and confused she was.
She tried to tell herself she was being stupid, worrying over nothing. She’d known Jack almost as long as she’d been alive. Armand was—well, he was a blip on the radar of her life, not worth thinking about. So she would just stop.
The likelihood of that was so far-fetched that Amy couldn’t stop a snort from escaping.
“What’re you thinking about over there?” Jack asked, the gleam in his eye making him so devilishly handsome she wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or run away.
“That wasn’t me, that was the horse,” she said, turning away so he wouldn’t see the flow of emotions she couldn’t control.
He snorted skeptically in response, and she felt the tension inside her break as a laugh broke from her throat. She’d forgotten how easily he could make her laugh, regardless of her mood. She had missed that.
They arrived at the house, and even though the mare was pulling Amy toward the barn, she couldn’t pull herself away from Jack, as if something magnetic about him forced her to stay close to him now that she’d found him again.
He looked in her eyes again, making her stomach drop somewhere near her toes. “Seven, right?” he asked.
The note of insecurity in his voice sent a pang through her heart. It reminded her again of how much she must have hurt him. She nodded. “Seven.”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, sending a shock wave of hormones rushing through her body. Her mind recoiled at the feeling, and she almost called the date off right then and there. The idea of being vulnerable again so soon, even with Jack, made her more than nervous.
Jack seemed to realize he’d crossed the line. He tilted his hat and said, “I don’t normally kiss ladies I just met. I assure you, I’ll be a perfect gentleman on our date.”
He turned back toward the road and began walking away, but she wasn’t ready for him to disappear. Not quite yet.
“You haven’t even asked my name,” she called to him, desperate to see his face again for a few more seconds.
He looked at her with a smile and bowed. “Where are my manners? Name’s Jack, miss. And you are...?” he asked.
God, he was so cute she could hardly speak. “Amelia. Friends call me Amy.”
“Amelia,” he repeated, as if tasting the word, and she felt such an overwhelming urge to kiss him she was glad he was already several feet away.
Reluctantly, she started toward the barn, following the horse’s insistent pull. Before she could get too far, though, she realized something. “This is all I have to wear for a date,” she said to his retreating figure, raising her voice so he would hear and gesturing toward her jeans and old T-shirt. “I’ve been living out of a backpack in the African desert for the past year.”
He just smiled at her again. “Sounds like you’ll have some mighty interesting stories to tell me at dinner, miss. You can just wear that,” he said, eyeing her carefully. “I like the cowgirl look.”
Before she could say anything in response, Jack had chuckled and waved. “See you at seven,” he called as he turned away a final time.
Once he was gone, she spun toward the barn and practically ran the rest of the way, making the horse move quickly to keep up. Even so, Amy was unable to outrun her thoughts.
What was the matter with her? Jack was not Armand. He wasn’t the type of guy to seduce her and manipulate her into falling for him. He wasn’t a selfish liar. He was Jack.
Still, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from panicking every time he said something sweet or she felt desire rise up.
She knew she was still hurting from what she’d been through, and that it was far too soon to go on a date with Jack. She knew she should’ve said no. But it was too late now, and a part of her wanted so badly to be with him again, to feel his arms around her. To be safe and secure.
She