"Nice to see you again, Jenna. I hear you've been doing sterling work at the ranch."
"I've just been helping Blue with the horses."
"So he said and doing a great job, too." Chase smiled down at her. He was slightly taller than Blue and his muscles were less well defined, but the resemblance between them was obvious. "Once the ranch is up and running, I might want to talk to you about signing on as the vet on staff."
"For the whole of Morgan Ranch?"
"Yeah." He considered her for a long moment. "We'd pay you and everything."
She grinned. "Pay? Wow, that would be a novelty. My uncle makes me work for nothing."
He gestured at her vacated seat. "Have you got five minutes?"
She checked her cell and messages and there was nothing urgent. "Sure. As long as I'm back by three I'm good."
January sat down, too, and Chase hooked an arm out to snag another chair. "Blue's around here somewhere."
Jenna looked toward the door and saw Blue talking to Yvonne, his face relaxed, his body language leaning toward her friend as though he was listening intently. Her earlier faint spark of hope that he might be persuaded to become interested in her died. Yvonne was definitely his type-sophisticated, educated, and way more sexually experienced than Jenna would ever be.
Blue patted Yvonne on the shoulder and stood back to allow her to precede him into the shop. She went into the kitchen and he strolled over to their table with his usual smooth grace. He nodded at January and Jenna as he sat down.
"Yvonne's going to try and join us in a minute as well."
"Why, what's up?" January asked.
"Just something I thought of doing that might benefit the community," Blue said. "Actually, Jenna gave me the idea."
"To do what?" Judging by the way his eyebrows went up, Jenna thought she might have sounded a bit snappy.
"Self-defense classes."
"Oh." So much for her getting some one-on-one time with him. He'd obviously decided to go far wider with his act of generosity.
"I thought we could hold them here one evening a week." Blue blithely continued as if oblivious to the fact that he needed to shut up right now. "Yvonne thinks it might work really well."
"What a great idea!" January said. "I'd love to learn how to take a man down, wouldn't you, Jenna?"
"Oh yes, I'd like that a lot," Jenna replied. "I'm sure there are a lot of folks here who would benefit from that kind of knowledge. Maybe you could include instructions on how to kill a man." She grabbed her bag. "Sorry, I have to go. I forgot I promised to help Uncle Ron clip his cat's claws."
Blue and Chase automatically rose to their feet and then she had to practically clamber over Blue's knees to escape. Yvonne was coming toward her, a pot of coffee in one hand.
"Where are you going? What do you think of Blue's idea?"
Jenna smiled. "It's great. Hey, you can offer to be his class model or something. Gotta run!"
Yvonne frowned at her. "What about those feminine wiles I mentioned you using? Running away isn't going to help your cause."
Jenna executed a slick move worthy of a quarterback stepping outside his box and managed to get past Yvonne and out into the fresh air. Blue's idea was awesome, and her disappointment that he'd decided to make his abs and strength available to all the females in Morgantown-and she would bet her last dollar that the class would be full-was negligible.
Hadn't she learned early on in life that there was always someone more interesting and attractive than her around and that stepping back into the shadows was for the best? At least he had no idea that she'd been building some pretty darn unrealistic daydreams around him during the last month or so. She was so glad she'd kept those to herself.
* * *
Blue turned from watching Jenna exit the coffee shop to find Chase shaking his head at him.
"I don't know exactly what you did, BB, but something made Jenna rush off."
"Why does it have to be because of me? Maybe she got scared off by one of your stupid spreadsheets or something."
"Jenna mentioned Blue had offered to give her self-defense lessons." January squeezed Chase's hand.
Blue frowned. "That's right, I did."
"And now he's offering to teach every female in the town and surrounding area."
"So?"
Chase nodded at January. "Jenna probably feels bad about that."
"Why?"
January sighed as if he was a super-slow learner. "Because you asked her first."
"Because she inspired the idea. I mentioned that. Are you saying Jenna thinks I'd rather teach a class load of women than her?"
Yvonne had come up behind him and set the coffeepot on the table. "Yes."
"But the two things have nothing to do with each other."
"Yes, they do," January and Yvonne chorused.
Blue rubbed the back of his neck. "I still don't get it."
"Abs," January said, nodding cryptically at Yvonne.
"Yeah, I have abs." Blue patted his flat stomach. "I also have the ability to teach proper self-defense techniques-something I think everyone should know."
"So would you expect Jenna to come to this class?"
Blue shrugged. "If she wants to, sure."
"So your offer to teach her by herself is no longer on the table?"
Blue stared from January to Yvonne and then looked at Chase. "Have you any idea what they are getting at?"
"I think they are saying that Jenna might feel hurt that you enlarged on your original proposal to teach her to include the entire female population of Morgantown."
"You nailed it." January kissed Chase's cheek. "I'm so proud of you right now."
Chase smiled complacently at Blue.
"But that would imply that Jenna . . ." Blue stopped speaking.
"That Jenna?" Chase repeated. "What?"
Blue stood up. "Can you get a ride back with January, Chase?"
"Why, where are you going?"
January grinned up at Blue. "Don't worry about your brother. I'll make sure he gets home safely. You go and do what you have to do."
Blue nodded, made sure he had the keys to his truck, and went out the door.
* * *
"Stupid, stupid," Jenna muttered to herself as she sat down in the back office to catch up on some paperwork. It was quiet for once, as most of the staff was at lunch or on call. She'd flat out lied to Chase and wasn't needed for at least an hour.
The back door opened, and assuming it was Dave, she didn't bother to look up until a large shape sat opposite her at the table.
"Big Mac doesn't own a cat."
Her head came up and she locked gazes with Blue.
"Did I say cat? I meant rat, his pet ornamental rat."
His eyebrow went up. "I think you just wanted to get away."
"Now why on earth would you think that?"
"Because I put my big foot in it."
She shrugged. "I didn't notice. I just assumed you wanted to talk to Yvonne about your idea and that my presence was superfluous."
"And superfluous means?"
"Redundant, unnecessary."
"So you wouldn't join my self-defense class?"
"Whatever gave you that idea? I think it's a great thing to do for the town."
"So you'd come?"
"Sure!" She picked up her pen again. "You didn't come all the way over here just to clear that up, did you?"
He was watching her intently. "I got the impression that I might have offended you in some way."
"You didn't."
"Okay." He hesitated. "Just because I suggested running a class doesn't mean I don't want to teach you one-on-one."
A tingling awareness of dread coalesced in her gut. "Have you been talking to January?"
Now he looked downright uncomfortable. "She and Chase might have mentioned that I might have screwed up here."
"Did she send you?"
"No, I came by myself once I realized that you might have read more into my offer of teaching you than I'd meant. I like you, Jenna, but-"
She held up her hand. "Stop right there."
"Before I say what?"
"Before you totally humiliate me and give me your little speech about how you like me and all that, but the thought of anything more makes you break out in hives, or that you're already married, or you're off to explore the Antarctic or any of those million and one excuses a person uses when they think someone else likes them a little too much."
She almost ran out of breath completing her way-too-complicated sentence. "I don't need to hear it because I'm not stupid, and I'm not interested in you like that, okay? So maybe you should just go."
Yeah, like he would move before he'd said his piece. He was nothing but direct.
"Jenna, I do like you."
"We've already established that. We make a great professional team." She shot to her feet and headed for the door. "Can I show you out? I'm sure you've got way better things to do than sit here chatting with me."
He carried on speaking. "The thing is, I'm not in the right frame of mind to consider a serious relationship with anyone at this moment."
She turned to stare at him. His gaze was directed downward to his clasped hands.