Last Chance Wedding

Chapter 3

“Sawyer,” Jeri said, scanning him again, and Sawyer felt like he’d put his shirt on backward. Checked and everything. His clothes looked right, zipper was zipped up, all of that.

“I was just thinking,” she said, her voice like music to his ears. “I guess I came in the wrong house.” Her wide eyes softened, and she laughed, driving Sawyer’s thoughts into a frenzy.

He’s been texting with his mother about the family picnic at his childhood home in Newport Beach, and she’d been pressing him about who he was bringing. As if showing up to a family event alone wouldn’t be tolerated.

Of course, for his family, it wasn’t. He’d taken so many women to events, it was a miracle he hadn’t simply kept one of them as a girlfriend.

“It’s fine,” he said, chuckling with her. “I did just shower, but I’m dressed, obviously.” Why was he talking about showering? His face heated, and he didn’t say he’d only gotten in the shower so he wouldn’t be able to text.

He’d prayed for a solution to his problem, and the next thing he knew, Jeri had walked in his house. Was she the answer to his family situation? Would she be willing to drive a couple of hours south for some bad potato salad and an overcooked hamburger?

Why couldn’t he ask her?

He’d asked probably half a dozen other women to stand in as his girlfriend in the past.

Probably because you’d like to take her out for real, he thought.

Probably because you’d like to take her out for real, “Obviously,” she said, her eyes still crinkled with laughter. He sure did like her jovial attitude and hardworking spirit. He’d lived next door to her for just over three weeks, and he’d already asked out another woman here and been turned down.

Sort of. Adele was dating Carson, but Sawyer hadn’t realized that when he’d asked her to dinner. Was Jeri dating someone he didn’t know about?

He didn’t know, and he wasn’t going to ask. He hadn’t dated anyone seriously for a long time, but he knew there were some rules to dating and asking point blank if someone had a girlfriend wasn’t how it was done.

“You want to stay for dinner?” he asked. “I put one of those frozen enchilada meals in when I got home.”

“Oh, I don’t need to do that,” she said, turning back to the door. “I’m sure I have pizza or something in my freezer.”

“So you could eat my freezer food just as easily as yours,” he said, wondering if that was obvious enough for her. Heat spiraled through his body, his air conditioning struggling to keep up with the hot California summer as it was.

No matter what, he didn’t want her to leave quite yet. He wanted to go to the picnic, if only to get off the ranch for a couple of days. He loved Last Chance Ranch, he did. But he’d been here for seven years, and sometimes he missed the beach, a society where there were more people than animals, and a faster pace of life.

He’d left horse racing for a reason, and he reminded himself of it each time he started to feel antsy on the ranch. His parents lived only a couple of hours away, and it was the perfect distance for a weekend trip to remind himself of how much he loved the quiet peace of the foothills where the ranch was located.

“I guess,” Jeri said, something sparking between them. He wasn’t sure what it was. He’d waved to Jeri loads of times. Spoken to her and admired her beauty from thirty yards away, standing on his porch while she stood on hers.

She’d never given him any indication that she was interested in him—or anyone really. Sawyer had lived on the earth long enough to know that everyone had a story, a past, especially when they got to be as old as him and Jeri.

Not that he even know how old she was. He wanted to find out, and his fingers tingled in anticipation as he moved into the kitchen to check on his pre-made dinner. They could spend hours together in the truck, getting to know one another, as they drove down to Newport Beach.

“Looks like it’s almost done,” he said, though he had no idea. The timer said ten minutes, so he figured it was almost done. “How are the chickens?”

was“Just fine,” she said, glancing around. “Where’s Blue?”

“Oh, he’s outside somewhere,” Sawyer said, unconcerned. “Hudson was saddling up, and he thought maybe he’d go with him.” Sawyer grinned at her, suddenly self-conscious about the state of his cabin. He wasn’t the neatest man on the planet, and now every item that sat out of place bothered him.

He opened a drawer and swept the dental floss and tape sitting on the counter into it, trying to find something else to ask her about. “So, Jeri, what did you do before you came to the ranch?”

“I owned a construction company,” she said, and Sawyer turned around to find her stepping into the kitchen. The cabin was nice, and he was happy for the housing, but it wasn’t exactly high-end. He gestured to the dining room table that only had two chairs, and she moved over to it and sat.

“Your own company,” he said. “That’s great. You don’t anymore?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head, an edge entering her eyes. “Not anymore.”

“I sense a story there.”

“Oh, there’s a story.” She flashed him a smile that only lit her face halfway. How he knew that, he wasn’t sure. Oh, yes, he was. He’d been watching her for a while now. “But I don’t want to tell it tonight.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “Maybe you’ll tell me another time.”

“Sure,” she said, but he detected a bit of falseness in her voice.

His phone buzzed, and they both looked at it. “It’s my mother,” he said, sighing. “She’s having a big barbecue this weekend, and she’s bugging me about coming.”

“You don’t want to go?” Jeri asked.

“I do,” Sawyer said slowly, trying to get the words to line up right inside his mouth. “My family is a bit…peculiar.”

“All families are,” she said. “My nearest sibling is ten years older than me. I’m the caboose baby.”

“Wow,” he said. “And how old is that?”

Their eyes caught again, and he smiled at her this time as the electricity pulsed between them.

“My older brother, Ricky, is fifty-two.”

So she was even older than him, and Sawyer wasn’t sure why, but he did like that. “I’m the middle child,” he said. “One older sister. One younger brother. Rosie’s married with a couple of kids.”

The timer on the oven interrupted them, and Sawyer seized the opportunity to walk away from Jeri, trying to center his thoughts. It certainly was easier when she wasn’t so close, perfuming the air with sawdust and something floral.

“Anyway,” he said. “My mother is…neurotic about significant others.” He pulled the pan of enchiladas out of the oven, almost dropping the tented foil lid on the floor in the process.

“Meaning?” Jeri asked, joining him in the kitchen. She opened two cupboards before she found the plates, and she pulled down two.

“Meaning we don’t go to family events without a guest. A partner. A…girlfriend.” He swallowed, and he couldn’t seem to look away from her. She pulled a couple of forks out of the drawer next to the fridge and faced him.

“Are you asking me to be your guest?” Her eyes danced with amusement. “Partner? Girlfriend?” She pealed out another wave of laughter, and Sawyer joined her.

“No, of course not.”

“Oh, who’d you ask?”

“I, uh, haven’t asked anyone. I probably won’t go.” His phone buzzed again, and Jeri glanced back to the table where he’d left it.

“That’s too bad,” Jeri said, retreating out of the kitchen, giving him room to breathe and work. “I kinda like family picnics.”

“Do you?” He stared at her. Maybe he’d messed up already. “It’s this weekend,” he said. “Like, in two days. It’s a couple hours of driving. Each way.” He wasn’t sure why he was trying to talk her out of it instead of into it.

“Well, if you can’t get anyone else to go, I’m free.” She shrugged those sexy shoulders, the purple straps of her tank top covering her bronzed skin in thin strips.

“Let’s plan on it then,” he said, his throat raw. He kept his eyes down as he served them each a couple of enchiladas. He slid a plate in front of her and sat down in his spot. “We don’t have to leave too terribly early. Maybe like nine or ten.”

Jeri smiled at him, and Sawyer couldn’t believe things had worked out so easily. He hadn’t had to make a fool of himself on her front steps, and he could pretend like he didn’t have budding feelings for her, the way he’d been doing.

Still, when their eyes met again, that charge roared to life for the third time. Without hesitating, he said, “Maybe we can go to dinner tomorrow night,” he said. “Get to know each other better before we have to hold hands in front of my family.”

Jeri dropped her fork with a clatter, her eyes widening again. “Hold hands?”

He chuckled, which relieved some of the tension. “Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had a girlfriend, I’ll admit. But I’m pretty sure the kids are holding hands still.”

She picked up her fork and cut a bite of enchilada. “I mean, I heard you say girlfriend. I guess I just wasn’t expecting….” She let her voice trail into silence, and now she wore a calculating look.

“It would just be for an afternoon,” he said, his spirits falling. She didn’t like him. The heat between them was just him. One-sided.

A dog barked outside, and he got up to let Blue in. “There you are, bud,” he said. “C’mon in.”

“Hey, Blue.” Jeri let the Australian shepherd come over to her and she scrubbed him down in hello. “Can he eat enchiladas?”

“I’m sure he can,” Sawyer said, liking the way she interacted with his dog. He wasn’t sure why everything Jeri did seemed dipped in gold, but her feeding Blue a bit of chicken and cheese seriously got Sawyer’s heart thumping in his chest.

The conversation moved to happenings around the ranch, and Jeri stayed for another hour before saying, “I’ve bothered you all night,” and getting to her feet.

“It wasn’t a bother,” Sawyer said, walking her to the front door. He opened it for her and stepped back, grinning at her in what he hoped was a friendly, next-door-neighborly way.

“So dinner tomorrow.” She looked up at him, hope shining in her eyes. And she hadn’t asked. “I love that bistro on Clover Street. Have you been there?”

“No, ma’am.”

She swatted at his bicep, a laugh following. “I may be old, Mister, but I’m not a ma’am.”

“You’re not old,” he said, hoping he still knew how to flirt.

“Older than you, I’m sure.”

“A few years,” he said, shrugging. “I’m thirty-eight.”

She nodded, her smile revealing her pretty white teeth. “What time tomorrow? I tend to get lost on a project and I don’t remember to look at a clock.”

“Seven?” It had been a really long time since he’d been out with someone. Longer than he wanted to admit.

really“Sure, seven.” She shuffled forward and stepped back. “All right. See you then.” She committed to leaving then, and stepped fully out onto the porch.

“Bye,” he said as she went down the steps and across the lawn to her house. He sighed and picked up his guitar from its spot just inside the door. For the first time in a very long time, he didn’t feel like the evening hours were too long.

His fingers plucked a tune out of the strings without him thinking about it, and he hummed a love song in the back of his throat, his thoughts centered firmly on the beautiful Jeri Bell.