KIMBERLY AWAKENED SLOWLY THE NEXT MORNING. A dream tried to pull her back into sleep. A pleasant dream, though it hastened into foggy corners of her mind with the arrival of full consciousness. Stretching, she opened her eyes. Daylight seeped between slats in the blinds. She rolled onto her side and looked at the clock. It was already after eight. Despite the hour, she was in no hurry to get out of bed.
She closed her eyes again, remembering the previous evening. It had been close to midnight by the time Chet walked her to the door. They’d stood, facing each other, for the briefest of moments. Then Chet had leaned down and kissed her lightly on the mouth. Little more than a brush of lips against lips, but it had sent an unexpected jolt through Kimberly. The memory of it made her feel the same jolt all over again.
A groan escaped her. A cowboy. Really? Really? A horse-riding, horse-training, horse-loving cowboy whose family roots were over a century deep in this mountain community. Chet Leonard was wrong for her for those and so many other reasons.
A soft rap sounded on her door, then her daughter’s voice. “Mom?”
Kimberly rolled onto her back again. “I’m awake, honey. Come on in.”
Tara entered the room, carrying a large mug of steaming coffee.
“Bless you.” Kimberly pushed herself upright and leaned against the pillows and headboard, her arms outstretched to take the mug from her daughter.
Still in her pj’s, Tara joined her mother on the bed, sitting cross-legged near the footboard. “How was it?”
“How was what?”
“Mom, you know what I mean.” Tara rolled her eyes. “How was last night?”
Kimberly smiled, sipped her coffee, then answered. “If you’d stayed up, I could have told you when I got home. Are you sure you’re interested?”
Tara reached out and lightly slapped her mother’s shin beneath the covers.
“I had a very nice time, thank you very much. We both did. The concert was terrific.”
“So did he kiss you?”
Kimberly cocked an eyebrow. “Not sure that is something you need to know, Miss Snoopy.”
“Which means he did kiss you.” Tara grinned, a look full of self-satisfaction. “I knew he would.”
“Didn’t you hear me, young lady? I don’t want to have this conversation with my daughter.”
“Oh, come on, Mom. I’m not some dumb kid. And you’re not so old you don’t like getting kissed by a handsome guy like Mr. Leonard.”
“Not so old? Well, thanks for that.” And yes, Chet is definitely a handsome guy.
“Pete kissed me on my birthday.”
“What?” Kimberly nearly spilled her coffee as she straightened. She set the mug on the nightstand.
Tara nodded.
“But you never said a thing last week.”
“When you were sixteen, did you tell your mom everything?”
Kimberly opened her mouth to reply, then pressed her lips together.
Tara grinned again. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Kimberly grabbed a pillow and threw it. Tara dropped sideways onto the bed, laughing. Feeling young and silly—and happy—Kimberly pounced forward, wrestling with her daughter.
“CHET LEONARD, YOU HAVEN’T HEARD A WORD I’VE said.”
Lost in a fog of pleasant thoughts—which was nice, for a change—Chet tried to blink his way back to full attention. “Sorry, Anna. Do you mind starting over? My thoughts were wandering.”
“Oh, my dear boy.” She smiled, understanding in her eyes. “I can see that. I’ll bet I even know where your thoughts have gone.”
“You know what.”
He shook his head, trying to deny the truth—that he’d been thinking about Kimberly and their evening together.
Anna laughed softly. “Have it your way. I said I want you to give some serious thought to this notion of glamping. I’ve looked at the Internet, and I believe Tara’s idea has real merit. I have a little nest egg put away that I could contribute to getting things off the ground. It isn’t a lot, but it could get us started on the right foot.”
“I couldn’t risk your savings, Anna.”
“Why not? You’ve given me a home and family. Who else do I have to spend my money on if not you and your boys?”
Chet rose from the table and went to pour himself another cup of coffee. He should be outside, helping Sam and Pete with the morning chores, but he couldn’t seem to get himself into gear.
Anna intruded before his thoughts could wander too far a second time. “If I can get some sort of business plan drawn up, will you look it over and see if it doesn’t convince you to try? If we act quickly, we could be open for business by mid-July.”
“Nana Anna, you’re the limit.” He leaned down and kissed the crown of the old woman’s head. “I promise to look it over.” He set his mug back on the counter, coffee untouched. “But right now I need to get to work. We can talk more at lunch.”
A short while later, as he strode across the barnyard, he whistled a tune he’d heard the previous night. Which immediately made him think of Kimberly again. During the concert, he’d found himself looking at her instead of at the performers on the stage, her face bathed in the soft glow of colored lights. If not for the stage lighting, they would have been in complete darkness, lending a sense of intimacy to the evening. He’d had to stop himself more than once from putting his arm around her shoulders.
And, of course, there’d been that goodnight kiss at the door. He didn’t know how he’d even dared to do it. Brief as it had been, the kiss had sealed something in his heart. He tried to deny it, still wanting to protect himself from hurt, but the attempt was pointless. He was a goner.
It surprised him, the depth of his feelings. He’d expected falling in love at forty-seven to feel different from falling in love in his twenties. Apparently he’d been wrong about that. The real difference now was that he had two teenage sons whose mother had abandoned them. She had a teenage daughter who had lost her father and home and everything familiar. He owned a ranch with cash flow issues. She had come to Kings Meadow out of desperation rather than out of choice. He was an Idaho cowboy, through and through. She was a city girl.
Lots of good reasons for him not to feel the way he felt.
Good reasons that didn’t seem to matter at all.