Definitely, Maybe in Love(49)

Mel released me and raised a crooked smile. "You don't say."

"It's unforgivable for me to be here. He thinks I'm a creeper." I  covered another shriek with my hands. "I didn't want to see him again  like this. We have to go," I begged through clenched teeth. "Now.  Please."

"All right, all right. But the shuttle down isn't for another two hours."

I pounded my fists against my head.

"Spring." Mel laughed. "It's not the end of the world."

I stopped pounding long enough to glare at her.

"Oh." She tittered. "Maybe it is. Come on, babe." She took my hand. "Let's get out of here."

I nodded, exhausted from exerted emotion, and smoothed the hair out of my face.

"We'll walk back to the car," she said. "You could use some more air, yeah?"

With her arm around me, we set off. We hadn't taken thirty steps before I  heard my name being called. Pretending I didn't hear it, I kept  walking, faster, pulling Mel along. She stopped abruptly and yanked my  arm, causing me to spin a very inelegant about-face.

"Spring," Henry said, trotting toward us. "Hey, Mel."

Mel stared at him, looking a little stunned. Then she giggled under her breath. "Hi, Henry."

"Where are you headed?"

When I didn't answer immediately, Mel jabbed a finger into my ribs. I  jumped and squeaked. "We're uh, we're just … " I aimed my gaze down the  hill.

"You're leaving?"

He was much tidier now. In the ten minutes since he'd left me, he'd lost  the hat, chaps and saddle, and changed into a dark green T-shirt and  faded jeans. His face was clean and his usually immaculate curly hair  appeared as if it had been hastily combed through with wet fingers. Much  to my dismay, he looked sexier than even my imagination thought  possible.

"You just got here," he pointed out. "Have you seen the horses or any of the shows?"

"No, umm … "

"You need to see the horses. Do you ride?" His brown eyes were moving  back and forth between Mel and me. I think I nodded at his question, but  who knows. "I've been dying to take a ride. We should all go."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mel's smile widen. "We'd love  that!" she exclaimed. I jerked her arm. She poked me back. "I just love  horses."

I forced one side of my mouth into some kind of smile. "Sounds like fun."

"Great." His hands were on his hips and, like me, he was breathing a  little hard, maybe from his run down the hill. "Why don't you two stay  over at the house tonight? There's plenty of room."

I mumbled some kind of refusal that apparently no one heard.

"Fab!" Mel beamed.

"We're having fireworks over the lake for The Fourth," he said. "My  parents are due in tomorrow night, but Dart and Lilah are coming in  later today." His gaze held on me for an extra second.

"I just love Lilah," Mel said with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"It's settled, then. Where's your car?"

"Where the bus picked us up," I answered.

"Keys?" he prompted, holding out his open hand. I dug in my pocket and  handed them over. "I'll meet you up at the house. Twenty minutes." He  shot off like a cannon.

Still pretty stunned, I kept my eyes locked on him until he disappeared down the hill.

"If the boy keeps up that speed," Mel noted, "he'll make Canada by nightfall."

"Thanks a lot, Mel," I snapped, wheeling around. "What did you do that for?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about a thing." She grinned.

"We can't stay here. It's too weird. I … can't … " My voice petered out helplessly.

"It's cool. He invited us. If he never wanted to see you again, he  wouldn't have bothered. He's not that polite. So, this is good, right?"

I tried to nod, but a tiny, high-pitched whimper seeped out of my mouth as she took my arm and led me up the hill.

"Spring Honeycutt, the way he was looking at you. Woo." She fanned her face. "I really do need a cigarette now."                       
       
           



       

"He didn't recognize me at first."

Mel ran her hand down the back of my hair, then grabbed a fist-full.  "Can you blame him?" She put an arm around my shoulders. "Look, we don't  want to be rude, so we're stuck here. Just think about it that way.  Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed as we made our way toward the house. "I shudder to imagine what he's thinking right now."

"Oh, babe," she said, giving me a little squeeze. "I know exactly what he's thinking."





Chapter 32

"The one by the fence is a solid seven," Mel said. "I could do without the mullet, but … when in Rome."

Mel and I waited in front of the three-level-stacked house with the  wrap-around porch. Flanked by tall pines and quaking aspens, it backed  up to a skyline of pointy, tree-covered ridges. The whole scene was very  picturesque in front of the wide blue Montana sky.

A lop-eared chocolate lab padded over. Mel knelt down, taking its face  between her hands. Dangling off its collar, the dog had a red and silver  tag. "Its name is Spring," she said, reading the tag.

My hand flew to my throat. "Are you serious?"

She laughed, petting the dog behind the ears. "I'm just messing with you. Calm down. You look like you're about to stroke out."

"I might need you to check my vitals in a minute." I was only half kidding.

Mel knew I wasn't in the mood for a talk, so she'd been occupying  herself by checking out then rating the ranch hands as they paraded by.

"And this one's a ten-plus," she murmured, ogling over a blond cowboy in tight jeans.

I laughed, grateful for the distraction, until I heard the familiar  sputter of my car. Knowing Henry would reappear in a matter of seconds,  my heart went banging like a bass drum. Just as he and my Subaru came  roaring up the driveway, another car arrived, pulling up behind it.  Henry was walking, already halfway to me, when the passenger side of the  blue BMW flew open.

"You," Lilah said, staring across the driveway at me. "What are-" She  cut herself off, turned her chin to glance at Henry, then back at me.  Slowly, her puckered lips stretched, revealing a very toothy smile. "How  amazing. You're here, too." She rushed to me, overtaking Henry. That  was weird. "Henry didn't tell us you'd be here." She cast her glance  over her shoulder at him. "Naughty boy."

Henry stood in place, watching me, gauging my reaction. Was he afraid I  was going to pummel her? Well, maybe the thought did cross my mind, but  after I gave him a tiny nod, he walked back to the cars.

"Spring, hey!" Dart waved from the driveway. "Hi, Mel. Still rockin' that Cardinal crimson?" He pointed at her Stanford T-shirt.

"Yeah, boy!" Mel extended her arms like a cheerleader.

"Lilah." Dart sounded frustrated. "Get your own bags. I'm not your slave."

Lilah's painted-on smile tightened for an instant before turning to her  brother. "Coming," she replied sweetly. "We must catch up later, dear."  The old sneer was back, which made me more at ease than her smile had.

Henry was behind my car, his expression puzzled, staring at my keys in his hand.

"Maybe you should give him a hand," Mel suggested.

I moved toward the Subaru. "It's the silver one," I said, coming up beside him, "with the square head."

"Thanks," he said, his eyes on the keys. He popped open the hatchback door.

Mel was hanging back by the porch steps, knowing that, left to my own  devices, I would not be aggressive enough in my present state to arrange  being alone with Henry. And I'm sure she knew that was what I needed  most in the world.

Lilah was a different story. Even with no one answering her, she was  prattling away as she dragged two huge suitcases from the trunk.

My mouth was ajar, ready to speak as I watched Henry fishing around  through my cluttered trunk area. Even if I did manage to get my mouth to  work, I didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry" didn't seem sufficient,  but I had to start somewhere.

"Yours?" he asked from halfway inside my car. He was holding up my Green  Peace tote bag. Under other circumstances, I might've been embarrassed  by all the empty cans, bottles, and Mel's "emergency" candy wrappers  that were strewn about the seats and floor.

"Yes," I replied. The rest of his body was already on the way out, Mel's  knock-off Gucci suitcase in his other hand. He stood, facing me, a bag  in each hand. "Thank you," I said, tucking the front of my hair behind  an ear.