Yeah. He imagined it was like that.
He should never have touched her. But then, he knew that. He had known it then, and he had still done it.
He might have known it, but what he hadn’t done was think ahead. Hadn’t thought past the moment when his mouth might touch hers. He had wondered what it would be like. Had—for all the years before this one—told himself that he couldn’t ever let it happen. But then he did.
He’d done all this warning himself, all this self-flagellating for finding her attractive. But he had never thought to where it might leave him if he got to the place where he acted on the attraction.
So now here he was.
It was hell.
Because a kiss was one thing, but his body wanted more, and there was no way he could ever...
Rose was innocent.
I’ve never been kissed before.
Her words echoed inside and he closed his eyes for a moment. Trying to breathe past the temptation.
He wasn’t in a position to be the first.
The thought of that sent a kick of arousal through his body and he gritted his teeth. Called himself ten kinds of son of a bitch. Though, it wasn’t the first time. It still hadn’t stopped him from kissing her, so he didn’t know why he was bothering with the castigation.
It hadn’t kept him from committing that first most deadly sin.
Volunteers had set their booth up, and because of that, Logan had managed to avoid Rose so far for this endeavor. And he had a bit of time before he had to be there yet. The parade itself was about to begin, and he didn’t need to sit out on the street and watch it.
He’d had to park way off Main, up by the little patch of grass and playground that had been put in about ten years ago. He walked down the hill toward Main, and saw all of the parade participants lining up and getting ready.
He never went to the Christmas parade, so he hadn’t seen the spectacle before.
Girl Scouts, dance troupes, bagpipe players, ROTC, the garden club and the Rotary. The equine drill team from Gold Valley High, a classic car club with members who had clearly come in from surrounding areas, all being facilitated by the local church youth group, who were raising money to go to Disneyland.
Logan had never been part of groups like this growing up. He and his mom had been a two-man team and that was all he’d needed. He had never played sports, hadn’t taken his enthusiasm for adrenaline and riding to the rodeo like Jake and Colt had. Hadn’t ever been part of the church, though after his mom died he’d gone to midnight mass with the Daniels, because they went, and he tended to do what they did.
He wondered what it would be like, to be part of a strange community like this one, bonded together by a common interest. They were bonded together by tragedy.
It was a timely reminder, he thought, as he continued to walk down the sidewalk, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He was part of the Daniels family because they had lost together. But he wasn’t bonded to them by blood. Rose was.
And if he did anything to hurt her, he would be the one out on his ass. And he didn’t have anything else. Anyone else.
His soul was bound up in Hope Springs Ranch, his years of work. A lot of his money went back into the place, just like Ryder. He owned a portion of it, it was true, and he could always sell it back to Ryder and make his own way if it came down to it.
But he built his life around that place, around that family.
He’d decided a long time ago that biological family didn’t matter. He’d gotten used to tuning out the biological family he knew he had in town. It had been a little more difficult over the past few months, sure. But he told himself, over and over again there was no point getting wound up about it.
He had a lot of things he was trying not to get wound up about right now. Instead of heading straight to the parade route, straight down to the booth, where he feared Rose might already be, he pushed open the scarred black door to Sugar Cup and walked into the rustic coffee shop.
It was all roughhewn wood, aged barn floors and a chalkboard menu, with a chandelier hanging down from the ceiling. It was somewhere at the intersection between practical café and avocado toast. He had to admit, he didn’t really mind the avocado toast, considering they still served coffee the way he liked it.
The usual barista wasn’t around, so the cook, a large, broad man with a beard, and his hair tied up in what a person might be tempted to call a man bun, but wouldn’t considering who it was attached to, took the order.
The door opened, and in scampered a petite figure, clasping her hands in front of her, rubbing them together, obviously to ease the chill.
Damn that Rose Daniels. She had the exact same solution for avoiding him that he’d had for avoiding her.
She saw him. And he could see that she was strongly considering scurrying right back out, and not even pretending that she wasn’t hiding from him. Then she didn’t, God knew why. He watched as the same steel came into her eye that he’d seen a dozen or so times before. When she was approaching a particularly recalcitrant horse, or dealing with a frightening bull that she had to get moved, scary or not.
Yeah, Rose Daniels was about to approach him the way she did every problem animal. Filled with piss and vinegar and damn well certain she would get her way.
“What are you having?” he asked, figuring the best way to deal with her was to pivot.
Because again, he’d seen this before.
Come at Rose head-on and she’d lock horns with you till
