Laying the magazine aside, Gwen rose from her seat and placed her hand in the crook of his elbow as he took care of the bill and stuck the little piece of paper in his wallet.
They walked out into a sunny but cool spring day and he rubbed the tops of her fingers with his, loving the way her hand felt on his arm as they walked side by side. He couldn’t help but sense the clock ticking down on the week. “Want to grab an early lunch with me and then head back to the ranch?”
Gwen pulled him to a halt with merriment in her eyes. “Not just yet, cowboy. We have one more stop to make.”
“Shit.”
She steered him down the sidewalk to the optician’s shop next door. Thirty minutes later, he walked out with a lighter wallet and the receipt for a brand-new pair of wire-framed bifocals.
She scratched his back as she walked beside him and he damn near purred at the sensation of her fingernails gently scoring his back. “Damn, that feels good, woman.”
Scratching some more, she said, “If you hate the thought of glasses, you could’ve gotten contact lenses, you know.”
He shook his head and held his hand palm up so she could see it as he said, “I think that’d be even worse. Can you picture me handling a tiny contact lens with these big fingers, and jabbing it in my eye? Besides that, I’m up to my elbows in horse and cow shit on a daily basis. Probably not a good thing for me to be touching my eyes any more than absolutely necessary. What if it slipped during the day?”
“Good point.” She placed her little hand over one of his. “And by the way. What’d I say about talking down about yourself? I happen to lo—love these hands.” She cleared her throat a couple of times and blushed. “Sorry. You have big hands, yes, but they’re also gentle hands. I know that for a fact. So you stop putting yourself down, you hear?”
He didn’t want to make light of the sincerity in her eyes and nodded. “I hear you, darlin’.”
She leaned her head against his upper arm as they stood by the truck, after he’d opened her door for her. “Promise me that you’ll follow through and pick them up next week when they’re ready, and that you’ll use them?”
Damn, when she looks up at me like that and uses that tone, I can’t refuse her anything.
“I will, darlin’. Now let’s get you fed.”
He’d purposely not said anything about the ranch auction which was happening that day. He knew she was on edge about it. She’d already called Roger once that morning. She’d explained that Roger had told her that they had a bad connection and that she should wait for his call. The furrow between her eyebrows and the slight flush in her cheeks told Chris that she hadn’t appreciated the brush off. She was also expecting Wilbur, who had run into a travel delay, later that day. If he made it home at a decent hour, she’d planned to move all her things over to the bunkhouse.
After lunch, he drove her home and kissed her good-bye before he went back to the Cooks’ place. Julián had left the night before, and with him gone, the bulk of their chores fell to Chris.
He felt antsy as he locked Wilbur’s gate behind him, wanting to be done with the workday so he could get back to her. At least he had a full afternoon to keep his hands busy, even if he couldn’t get his mind to settle.
Chris was looking forward to that night but the itch he had was for so much more than just sex. He wanted to sit next to her while they ate supper and to hold her while they watched television. He even wanted to wash her hair for her and rub her scalp just the way she liked until she practically purred for him. And he wanted to sleep with her wrapped in his arms all night.
He climbed back in the truck and put it in gear before he turned the truck around, went to her, and made a complete fool of himself.
* * * *
Chris tugged Gwen’s hand as they walked through the parking lot of The Dancing Pony and smiled down at her. “Let’s just go in for a couple of dances and a drink to get our minds off of everything for a while.”
She looked up at him and the worry rolled off of her in waves. “Chris, why wouldn’t he have called me by now?”
Chris stopped to wrap her in a big protective hug. He already knew why Roger hadn’t called her. The bastard obviously had a sadistic streak and he was enjoying leaving her hanging. Julian had said that where he was going he might have poor cell phone reception so they hadn’t heard from him either and might not until the next day.
They settled into comfortable seats at the long wooden bar which was mostly empty, and Ethan smiled in welcome as he placed coasters in front of them.
“They got the boss man tending bar?” Chris asked after he placed his order for a beer and a Divine Margarita for Gwen.