Page 77

“I will. But not here. Now that you’re not selling, though, why do you keep him on? You know he’s gonna go wild when you tell him you’re staying in Deer Creek. Why don’t you send him on his way now and avoid any confrontation later?”

“I don’t want to sound rude, especially in your family’s home, but that isn’t your concern, Bennett. I can handle myself. I always could.”

He took one of her hands and rubbed it affectionately. “I know you can; that was never in doubt. But a guy can care about your well-being, can’t he?”

The lines around her lips flattened even more. “He can.” She blushed as he took a step closer. “As long as he understands that I’m an independent woman who has goals and aspirations I can tend to myself. He can support from the sidelines.”

“Of course. He understands completely and will toe the line.” He closed the gap even further, bringing to mind the interrupted kiss they’d shared in the canyon. She hadn’t been ready then, but now? Her skin tingled with anticipation. His eyes were trained to hers, but they dipped when she licked her lips, wetting them.

Only a breath and a sliver of hope separated them at this point, and any sense of propriety she had about kissing him in his mom’s house evaporated—just like it had when she was a teenager. Was she really no better than she was back then? Or stronger at least?

As he tilted his head toward hers, she realized she would never be strong where Bennett Marshall was concerned. He was her kryptonite. She pushed up on her toes until their lips fused and then it was like a fire had been started with kerosene and a flame thrower. She teased his tongue out with hers and lightly traced his bottom lip with her teeth.

“Hey there, Mom. Sorry I’m late; I had a helluva time with the cattle in the south field—”

Maggie gasped and broke the kiss just as Jackson strode in, mud covering the whole right side of his jeans. It’d been so dry Maggie hadn’t seen mud since she’d been here, not of that magnitude. He stopped midsentence when he saw Bennett’s hand on Maggie’s waist, their heads tilted toward each other, both of them out of breath. Maggie stepped back, creating distance between her and Bennett, but it would have been obvious to anyone what Jackson had walked in on.

“Um, sorry. Didn’t realize I went to work and woke up fifteen years in the past.”

“Jax,” Bennett growled.

Jax just smiled, his impish grin as infectious now as it was back then. As mischievous, too. “Mom around?”

“Outside. Grilling. You should shower up before she has your head.”

“And miss this? Not a chance. How you doing, Maggie May? I sure missed you.”

He snatched Maggie up in a hug and twirled her like she wasn’t a thirty-something-year-old adult. Nostalgia coursed through her.

“Jackson Howard. I missed you, too. You still up to no good?”

“Only when my mom isn’t looking. Man, you look the same as you did when you and my brother were sneaking around together. No wonder Benny’s still obsessed with you.”

“For eff’s sake, Jax,” Bennett said, rolling his eyes.

“Is that so?” Maggie asked.

Jax slugged his brother’s shoulder and walked over to the sink, washing his hands and as much of his arms as he could fit in the deep farmhouse wash basin.

“Yup. He just moons around the house like he’s haunting it. I’m just glad you finally came to dinner so my mom and I can get some rest.”

“Get out of here and shower or I’ll tell Mom who you went out with last week.”

“Who was that?” Maggie asked.

This was so much like old times her heart ached. The brothers teasing each other—about her, mostly—the easy way they made her feel at home around them. It was so comfortable it was almost like there wasn’t a decade and a half behind them.

“Deidre Rockwell,” Bennett said. Now he was the one with a smug half grin and Maggie’s stomach sank.

“No. Not her again,” Maggie moaned. “She was horrid to you.”

“Well, it seems giving people second chances is all the rage these days, so I’d thank you two to stay out of it.”

Bennett chuckled and shook his head.

“That would be fine if your situation was like ours, where you were lied to by someone else. But that woman has told you more half-truths than you did to Ms. Hess about why your history paper was late,” Bennett said.

“Maybe. But she’s fun. Which is more than I can say about you these days.”