Near & Far (16 page)

Scared she was going to injure herself yet again, I slid the griddle down the counter and myself along with it. The girl was accident prone.

“Do you need any help with those?” Jolene hobbled a couple steps closer. There was no more cord for me to scoot it any farther out of the way.

“Nah, I think I’ve got it. Why don’t you sit down and get comfortable with the rest of the girls? It’s our morning to serve you all. Or at least
try
to serve.” Looking around at the breakfast efforts, I thought maybe it was time to throw in the white flag.

Jolene stepped closer. At that proximity, her arm was literally half a foot away from sizzling against the fry pan. I wasn’t in the mood for another E.R. visit. Maybe Garth would fill-in. Oh, wait. No, not likely. I felt like Jolene was waiting for me to look at her, but the pancakes were so close to being done that I couldn’t spare one moment of distraction.

Her hand curled around my forearm. “And what if I want to serve you?”

I don’t know what I was more confused by: her words or her hand on my arm. How in the world was I supposed to respond? I don’t know if it was Jolene or women in general, but I never seemed to get what they were saying between the lines. I was just looking to Garth for a little help when I felt that familiar jolt. I actually sighed with relief. I dropped the spatula, forgot about the pancakes, and turned to find Rowen hovering in the kitchen doorway. Her gaze wasn’t on me—it was on Jolene, and she didn’t look especially thrilled. When her attention moved my way, her whole face changed. Mine mirrored hers.

“Hey, Cowboy. You haven’t said good morning yet.” Rowen crossed the kitchen toward me like a woman on a mission.

I shoved off of the counter and wrapped my arms around her once she was close enough. “Good—” That was all I got out before Rowen’s mouth crushed into mine. I was self-conscious about kissing—well,
making out—
with my girlfriend in front of twenty people for about two seconds before everything faded away. All that was left was Rowen, me, and that kiss. Her fingers played with the hair at the nape of my neck as mine focused on holding her as close as one person could be against another.

“Go get a room. It’s going to be hard enough to hold this breakfast down without having you two sucking face two feet in front of me.”

I heard Garth’s words, but his message didn’t register until he hurled a spoonful of pancake batter at my face. That was enough to bring me back to reality, and a smirking cowboy over my girlfriend’s shoulder wasn’t the reality I wanted to be in. Especially after that last one I’d been enjoying.

“Jealous?” I glared at Garth, keeping Rowen close.

“Not even close.”

“Here you go, Jesse. Let me get that off for you.” Jolene lifted a wet washcloth.

Rowen’s arm flashed in front of Jolene, stopping her and the washcloth. “I got this, Jolene. If you want something to wipe clean, why don’t you wipe that smirk off of Black’s face?” Then, wiping some of the batter from my face, Rowen lifted her finger to her mouth. Giving me a coy smile, she slipped her finger in her mouth and sucked the batter right off.
Slowly
sucked it off.

A shiver ran down my back. Sliding her finger free, she leaned in and whispered, “The pancakes are burning.” She shot me a wink before heading over to the table to take a seat. “Oh”—she stopped, snapping her fingers—“and good morning.”

Putty in her hands. From the smile she gave me, she knew it, too.

Once Rowen had taken a seat and I was able to move again, I rushed to the griddle to discover that the pancakes weren’t just burning. They were burnt to a crisp. So buttered toast and coffee it would be. It was pretty pathetic that that was the best a handful of guys who’d been hard at work for an hour could come up with.

“Hey, Dad? Do you think it would be all right if I did a half day today?” I tossed half a dozen slices of bread in the industrial-sized toaster while Dad and a few of the guys poured coffee.

“Sure. It should be quiet enough around here that I was planning on giving everyone a half day. Even you.” Dad almost dumped a full cup of coffee on Josie, but thankfully, she was ready for the worst. She grabbed the cup with both hands, gave Dad a half smile, and lowered it to the table. Carefully.

“What did you have planned for this afternoon, Jess?” Josie asked, taking a sip of her coffee before handing it to Rowen to share. Someone had forgotten to give her a cup.

“I wanted to take Rowen down to the swimming hole.”

“It’s going to be freezing this time of year. Why in the world would you want to do that?” Josie gave an exaggerated shiver.

Because I want to be with my girlfriend, alone, and I wouldn’t mind repeating some of the things we’ve done there before. Like skinny-dipping. And what follows skinny-dipping . . .

“Sounds like fun. Sign me up.” From Rowen’s twisted smile, I knew she and I were on the same wavelength. For the love of God, I hoped she’d changed her mind about the whole “not letting Garth win” thing. What Garth didn’t know didn’t have to affect the bet.

“That’s sounds fun to me, too. What time’s everyone going?” Jolene said.

Rowen visibly prickled at Jolene’s words, but I tried not to be so obvious. What part of taking
Rowen
to the swimming hole hadn’t been clear? I guess if you were Jolene, none of it.

“Well, I was kind of thinking just Rowen and—”

“You know what, that does sound like a good time. I’m in too.” Garth smiled widely when I glared at him. I knew he wasn’t oblivious; he was just being obnoxious.

“Okay, fine. I’m in, too,” Josie added. “I’ll just make sure to wear my snowsuit.”

Jolene clapped. “Yay. This will be fun.”

Rowen grimaced like the clapping or excitement or the combination was worse than nails clawing down a chalkboard.

“This will be fun.” Garth elbowed me in the ribs as he headed to the garbage can. Turning the fry pan upside down, the scrambled eggs that could have been dropped inside.

I worked my jaw. “Can’t. Wait.” I’d just gone from having the entire afternoon and evening open to spend with Rowen to adding a couple more to the mix.

The day pretty much had to be uphill from there, right?

“I hope you like your toast black, ladies, because that’s the way Jesse here likes to make it.” Garth tossed a piece of charred toast at me, and I caught it before it slapped my cheek.

On second thought, uphill might not be the state of things.

I WAS IN one of my favorite spots in the world—pressed tight against Jesse—as Old Bessie rumbled down a country road and Johnny Cash flowed in the background. What was to my left and in front of me was as good as it got. What was to my right and behind me . . . not even close. So much for an afternoon alone.

Garth stuck his head through the open rear window, and he had no qualms about hollering six inches away from my ear. “Think you can get this beater past twenty? I’m going to grow a full beard before we get to the swimming hole at this pace!”

“Your mother should have drowned you at birth,” I said, thumping Garth’s hat over his eyes.

“She tried. Didn’t work.”

“Obviously
and
unfortunately.”

“So much anger toward me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a crush on me or something.” Garth did that eyebrow wiggle that had driven me up a wall so many times I’d seriously considered shaving off his eyebrows while he slept.

“Okay. Enough. I have to put up with you for the rest of the day, but I’m not going to put up with you irritating Rowen.” Jesse shoved Garth’s face through the window before sliding it closed. For the fifth or sixth time. No matter how many times we slammed the thing closed on him, the crazy SOB wouldn’t take a hint.

“Josie, you really must be one of my best friends.” I threw a warning look at Garth when he went for the window again. So help me . . . One more time and I would crawl into the bed of the truck and toss him over the side. Right after I pushed Miss Montana out. I doubted she had blinked while eyeing Jesse through the window. After the stunts she’d pulled that morning at breakfast, she was seriously on my shit list.

“Duh.” Josie rolled her eyes. “But what’s making you bring it up?”

“Because if you weren’t, I would hate you right now for inviting yourself and the two tagalongs in the back.”

“Garth, A.K.A. The Ass of Hole, invited himself. And Jo I couldn’t really un-invite.” Josie stuck out her lower lip and even made it wobble. “And I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have invited myself like that, but you’re one of my best friends too, you know? It’s not fair that Jesse hogs you the whole time you’re here.”

“I feel like I should apologize for that, but it wouldn’t exactly be a heartfelt one,” Jesse said, slinging his arm around my neck before whipping down another country road. It was so overrun I could barely make out which part was road and which part wasn’t.

I knew Josie was mostly teasing but not completely. My visits to Willow Springs had been few and short, and I only had a handful of hours to spend with Jesse before I had to get back on that bus to Seattle. But Josie was right; it wasn’t fair. Even though I knew fair wasn’t a guarantee in life, I tried to even the score whenever I could.

Winding my arm around Josie’s neck like Jesse’s was around mine, I gave her a squeeze. “Two things. Actually three. I’m sorry I haven’t made time for one of my best friends this year. I
suppose
I’m glad you’re going to the swimming hole with us even though I was planning on making up for lost time with my boyfriend.” I nudged her as she giggled. “But I do not and cannot understand why you couldn’t un-invite Jolene. It’s not like she’s your best friend or family.” I was cool with Josie tagging along. Garth . . . well, I’d accepted it. But Jolene the Jesse Worshipper? I don’t think so.

“Actually, we’re both.”

“You’re both what?”

“Best friends and family,” Josie answered with a shrug.

“You’re shittin’ me, right?” I glanced between Josie and Jolene.

“Shittin’ you not. We’re cousins.”

Well, shit.

“We’re only best friends because when you share every summer together with another girl, sharing the kinds of things girls share, well . . . you kind of become best friends by default.”

“Did you know this?” I looked at Jesse, still baffled.

He lifted a shoulder. “Yeah. I mean, Jolene’s stayed with Josie’s family every summer, except last year when she was with the Peace Corps. You’re the same age, too, right?”

“Save for three months,” Josie said.

“My, aren’t you the Jolene expert,” I grumbled. I wasn’t really upset with him but with the situation. The girl I was sure I didn’t want within a ten-foot pole of my boyfriend was pretty much tied to him by circumstance. “And Jolene comes here every summer because . . . she likes the scenery?” That last part wasn’t exactly a question. It was obvious how much she enjoyed the “scenery”.

“She grew up in Missoula but likes spending her summers in the country. She usually just spends the summer messing around with me, but when she found out Mrs. Walker needed a hand this season, she practically jumped at the opportunity.”

I slumped a little farther into my seat. “I bet she did.”

The window whooshed open again. “Hey. My dick is about to fall off from underuse back here. Think we could speed it up and arrive sometime this year?”

“Good-bye, Garth and Garth’s dick. Rest in peace.” I didn’t bother to make sure his face was out of the way before sliding the glass closed. “Josie, you’re telling me every morning, Jolene gets up and drives close to twenty miles to slave away in a kitchen because she couldn’t think of a better way to spend her summer?” Not. Buying. It.

“She isn’t staying at my place, Moody.” Josie looked between me and Jesse like we were clueless.

“Then where the hell’s she staying? In a tent?” Maybe that was the Peace Corps way. To cut down on carbon emissions or something like that.

“She’s staying at the Walkers. Where did you think she’d be staying? You ought to know. You were the one working there last year.”

“But I stayed there because my home was two states away, Josie. They had to go out of their way to make a room for me . . .” And then something I really didn’t want to click into place did. I twisted in my seat all the way so I could look at Jesse full on who was humming along to Johnny Cash, trying to stay out of the conversation. “Oh, hell no. Tell me—please tell me—she is not sleeping in your room.”