When the Heart Falls (35 page)
Read When the Heart Falls Online
Authors: Kimberly Lewis
Jason tossed his head back and laughed. “So you do remember me.”
Andy shrugged one shoulder playfully. “It might be coming back to me.”
“Do you see your brother very often?” She couldn’t help herself; she had to bring up Josh. Maybe it was to make herself remember who she was talking to, maybe she needed to know if Jason knew how she and Josh broke up, or maybe she was just plain twisted and liked picking the scab.
“No.”
Andy waited for him to say more. For a moment they stared at each other until it became uncomfortable but she wasn’t sure what to say to restore their friendly banter.
Jason stood up abruptly and took her empty glass. “Your drink’s empty and I remember promising we’d get drunk together.” His voice was harsher than the joking words he spoke. He flicked a half-hearted smile and walked away in the direction of the bar.
Clearly Josh was a sore subject for Jason. Andy wondered if Josh had been as big of an asshole to Jason as he had been to her. By the way he closed down when she brought Josh up it was obvious something had happened between the two of them.
Andy watched as Jason sat back down, handed her the drink with a warm smile, then took a long swallow from his bottle of Corona.
Sensing his good mood had returned she smiled back at him. “I thought cowboys drank Coors or Budweiser.”
“I’m not a cowboy,” he stated blandly.
“Oh. But I thought...” Andy shook her head. “Don’t you work your family’s ranch?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Andy drawled. The man was infuriating with his one-word answers.
He ran a hand over his mouth and relaxed in his chair with a huff. “Cowboys live on the back of their horses and spend their time on the prairie roping their cattle, playing harmonicas, and sulking. I prefer to call myself a rancher.”
Victory! Andy felt heady with it. She looked at his shiny black cowboy boots to the black Stetson resting on the table. There was no visible sign of a harmonica in his pocket and she was only assuming that he drove instead of riding a horse to town, but from everything else about Jason McCoy screamed cowboy. Even a bit of the sulking was present.
After she finished her third Long Island iced tea, Jason pulled her back out onto the dance floor and whirled and swept her along. Their bodies moving in perfect time with each other as the music journeyed from fast to slow to fast, from Brooks and Dunn to Faith Hill to Kenny Chesney.
Her mind and body relaxed from the strong alcohol sliding through her bloodstream, silencing her inhibitions just enough to allow her fascination and intense desire for Jason to surface and emerge.
She reveled in the feeling of his strong arms around her waist and warm voice against her cheek, whispering through her hair. She felt the heat from his body mixing with hers and drew in the intoxicating musky scent of male that came from the peppering of sweat all over his skin.
Also gleaming with perspiration, Andy wondered if it came from the endless round of dancing or from the heat coursing through her from Jason’s touch. Or both. She didn’t care, it was a glorious thing and the dual sensations of comfort and excitement collided inside her.
Jason spun her out, then back into a dip, staring intently into her eyes. He lifted her up and swept away the strand of hair sticking to her lips, grazing her cheek and lips softly with his finger.
A jolt of sensation screamed through her with the skim of his finger over her skin. She unsuccessfully tried to steady herself, but the room was spinning from the liquor, the dancing and the riot of overwhelming emotions.
AC/DC came over the speakers. It clashed with the sweet moment and Andy wanted to get away from it. Jason gently took her hand, leading her from the dance floor and out the side door. She followed unquestioningly.
She tipped her head back with a sigh of relief when the cool prairie breeze swept over her heated face, cooling her moist skin. He walked further down the length of the building, still holding her hand until they turned the corner.
She watched Jason casually scan the area; only the DJ’s van was backed up to the sliding door. A small bluff sloped upward directly behind the building making it a cozy, secluded area. Twinkling stars dotted the inky sky and the moon illuminated tufts of grass and spikes of yucca in the prairie night. It was a dream world.
At first Andy didn’t really notice they were alone although she was curious what they were doing there. Jason stopped walking. So did Andy. She looked up at him as he rounded on her, pressing her against the cool metal of the building. With his hand on her hip he swooped down to capture her lips in a hard, demanding kiss.
So stunned by his quick actions, her eyes still open, Andy stiffened with the surprise. And then the smooth pressing feel of his finely molded lips moving hungrily over hers snapped her senses sending a line of fire racing to her belly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rose up on her toes to return the fiercely passionate kiss.
A groan rose from Jason’s chest when she shifted in his arms and he pushed her further against the cool steel, grasping her hips and pulling them tightly to his. As his tongue filled her mouth, tasting her, she sighed with sheer pleasure and with growing urgency her hands raced over his strong shoulders down his defined, muscular arms to his hips and up his back.
Their tongues and mouths dueling intensely, their hands shifting, clinging, stroking. Demanding more, giving more. Andy felt the pounding of his frantic heart beneath her hand. She grew aware of his heat and the pressure of him against her lower abdomen. Everything else was drowned out, only she and Jason existed and this mind drugging kiss she was swept away in.
Andy drifted back to the present and removed her hands from her face. Her body was overheated, her heart pounded, even her breasts ached from the mere memory of their night in her hotel room.
It was the most intense night she had ever had. Earth-moving, life-altering love-making. No, she told herself, it was just sex, between old friends who’d both had too much to drink. It didn’t mean anything.
Her practical side said that, but her impetuous side said something very different. Either way it didn’t matter. They could never be together. Not that she wanted that, the practical side demanded.
Andy splashed her face with water again to cool her cheeks, grabbed her baseball cap and left the bathroom. She reached back to shove the brim into her back pocket but her hands slid over smooth fabric. Totally baffled, she looked down, finally noticing what she had thrown on for clothes in the bathroom at the hotel. She pursed her lips and closed her eyes.
“Perfect.” Andy shook her head at the black skirt she wore last night, paired with the ratty grey UNL Huskers t-shirt intended for her nightshirt and her red ballet flats with the bow.
She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up inside her. She covered her mouth and clamped her lips shut, but it was no help. This was just the topper to her banner weekend. Her shoulders rocked with irony and disbelief, but she was careful to keep her laughter to a quiet hissing sound.
The sad laughter subsided on a deep sigh. Reaching inside herself she restored some semblance of order to her face and with a wry smile congratulated herself that at least she was color coordinated. And if anyone asked she’d tell them this carefree look was totally in style now. They’ll just think it’s another of Andy’s crazy lack-to-conformity bouts.
She re-entered the kitchen determined to make it through breakfast with her family and then leave for home quickly. Surprisingly no one at the table commented on her outfit while they passed around the waffles, bacon, sausage, and fresh fruit. They did, however, spend an embarrassing amount of time focusing on her dancing and especially her dancing partner at the reception.
Her mother, of course, made critical remarks about her drinking and cavorting with Josh’s brother, which Andy ignored.
She tried as casually as she could manage to change the subject several times. She could feel her grandma’s analyzing gaze on her and knew that she knew, but wasn’t letting on to anyone.
She and her grandma Betty were kindred. They had a special bond that was more than blood; they were from the same mold which enabled them to know what the other was thinking. Betty had the fortune of years and experience and was Andy’s counsel and conscience on more occasions than Andy could count.
When breakfast was over she gave her grandparents big hugs and kisses and lesser ones to her parents who would be following her home after stopping out at her uncle’s house for the gift opening.
“Of course you’re better off not attending,” her mother said with a pat on Andy’s shoulder. “Considering you’re not dressed for the occasion.”
And there it was, Andy smiled to herself. The comment her mother had been dying to make all morning about her clothing.
Andy gave another hug to her grandparents before getting in her car and starting down the road. She drove right past the only gas station in town, for safety’s sake. As she passed the hotel she couldn’t help glancing to the parking lot to see if he had left yet.
There was no sign of his truck. He was gone. Her heart sank in misery and yearning. Why couldn’t he be someone else? Why couldn’t she be someone else?
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