LITMIR.BIZ

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that far away and once they got there, they’d set up camp. Jess had a camper on the back of his truck that he’d borrowed from Gus. Since Em was short, and grateful to be along for the ride, she’d volunteered to sleep in the truck, thus giving him privacy.

      They pulled into the Union City rodeo grounds a little after seven. Jess leveled the camper while Em rolled out her sleeping bag in the rear seat of the truck. Once the bag was in place she walked back to the camper and knocked on the frame of the open door. Jess was already testing out the stove. They’d agreed to take turns cooking on the road and tonight it was his turn.

      In Emma’s mind, he was lucky to have her along. He didn’t have to partner up with anyone to share the driving and he was assured of a decent meal after competition. If he ended up in the hospital, he had someone there to watch his back. Though, honestly, after losing Len, the idea of anyone being in the hospital kind of froze her up.

      Emma shoved the thought aside and stepped up into the cramped confines of the camper. Jess continued fiddling with the cooktop, so she stepped to the opposite side and scooted behind the built-in table, the upholstery on the bench catching her jeans and making it hard to slide properly. She propped her elbows on the table as Jess lit a match to test a burner—something she was certain he’d done before they’d left, because he was that kind of guy. He’d no doubt changed the oil on the truck and had the tires rotated, too.

      “A little cozier than your last place.”

      “The price was right.” After the burner caught, he leaned back, turning the knob to adjust the flame from high to low before turning it back off again. “Gus Hawkins used it when he was on the circuit.”

      “Before he came to his senses and started tending bar?”

      He gave her a sour look that made her want to smile, but since she was taking pains to steer them away from their old roles—Jess, the rule guy, versus Emma, the rule breaker—she settled for a mere twitch of the lips. Although she’d noticed on more than one occasion that Jess wasn’t so much about him following the rules, as he was about Emma following the rules.

      Whatever.

      “Since the stove is working, can we make some coffee?”

      He sent her a look. “And stay up all night?”

      “Coffee doesn’t affect me that way.”

      “Then I’ll make you some coffee.”

      “Going to have trouble sleeping?”

      “Not if I don’t have coffee.”

      “You don’t have to make coffee for me. I can do it.”

      She started to slide out from behind the table, but he shook his head. “Stay put.”

      Emma shrugged and scooted back, where she leaned against the upholstered foam cushion behind her. Darion would have stepped back and happily allowed her to make coffee. Darion probably wouldn’t have minded being in that tight space with her. Jess, on the other hand, had never liked being too close to her—little sister cooties or something.

      She let out a low sigh. Why couldn’t things have been...better...with Darion?

      “You okay?” Jess frowned as he filled the small coffeepot. He must have heard her sigh. Well, there were sighs and then there were sighs. This was a sigh of frustration, not a sigh of unhappiness, but she saw no sense in trying to explain that to him.

      “I’m fine.” She spoke lightly. “Just going over some things in my head.” He scooped coffee into the basket, then set the pot on the burner. “What’s the schedule tomorrow?” she asked.

      “I ride. We leave.”

      “That’s what I thought.” So much for making conversation, but as awkward as this felt, it was nine hundred times better than dodging her mother and brothers. Not that her brothers were that much of a problem, but they were being nagged by Selma, too. And things would start to feel less uncomfortable between her and Jess as they put more miles behind them.

      She tapped the tips of her fingers together as she tried to remember a time that things had been good between them. Couldn’t come up with one, which made her wonder why she trusted him so implicitly.

      Maybe because he was the one guy she’d never been able to pull one over on?

      Or maybe because he was such a Dudley Do-Right, as opposed to his twin, Tyler, who looked for and found trouble on an almost daily basis?

      Did it matter?

      Silence hung until the coffee started perking and Jess filled a ceramic mug up to the brim.

      “Thanks.” She wasn’t about to ask for cream, but she’d be buying some tomorrow.

      He nodded, then seemed to be at a loss as to where to perch himself in the confines of the camper.

      “Do you want me to take my coffee to the truck and drink it there?”

      “Why?”

      “You look uncomfortable.”

      “I’m not uncomfortable. Just...cramped.”

      “If I went to the truck—”

      He let out a pained breath, which seemed to be his favored way of communicating with her, and then sat down on the short L of the bench around the table so that they were perpendicular to one another. She smiled at him over the top of the coffee cup.

      “You make a decent cup of joe.”

      “Thanks.”

      She sipped, reminding herself again not to do what came naturally and trigger him. She owed him for this opportunity to escape, and since he’d said they would evaluate the situation rodeo by rodeo, she didn’t want to screw things up too early.

      “I brought cards,” she said. “I assume that strip poker is out, but maybe cribbage?”

      “Did you bring a board?”

      She cocked an eyebrow at him. Selma was an amazing cribbage player—something to do with her utterly controlling personality, no doubt—and she’d taught all of her children to play and play well. There had been no allowing the kids to win in order to build their confidence in the Sullivan house. Definitely a dog-eat-dog card-playing world that Jess had been introduced to when he’d become Len’s friend.

      “Stupid question,” he muttered.

      She reached for her giant Western purse with the silver and the fringe and the bling and pulled out a folding cribbage board made of bird’s-eye maple. Jess reached out to run a finger over it.

      “Len made it for me.”

      “I remember.” A shadow crossed his features, but Emma pretended not to notice. Grief had been her partner for too long and, while she acknowledged it, she no longer let it take over her life—for the most part, that is. There were always weak moments, but she wasn’t going to let this be one of them.

      She pulled the cards out of her purse, shuffled once and set the cards between them. Jess cut a deuce, she cut an ace and picked up the deck. “I think we should play for money.”

      “You don’t have any money.”

      “Exactly. I need some.” She picked up her cards, quickly choosing two for her crib. Jess debated, chose his cards, then cut the deck. She turned up a jack and pegged two points. “A dollar a point?”

      “No.” He played his first card and Emma paired it, pegging two more points. And so it went. They played two games, with Emma continuing to have crazy luck. After pegging her last point and skunking him, she drained the last of her coffee.

      “This is good,” she said as she gathered the cards and put them back in the box. “You used up all your bad luck tonight, so you’ll have a good ride tomorrow.”

      He didn’t look convinced.

      Emma

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