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She bit her bottom lip, heat shifting from her lips to behind her eyes.

“It’s not because I don’t want to. I do. Kissing you was the highlight of my damn year. Decade even.”

“It was?” Her eyes still stung with the immediacy of the rejection.

He chuckled, but any hint at humor was missing from the empty gesture. “Doesn’t that figure? I find you when everything has changed. Jill, I’m sorry. For all of it.”

She took a step toward him, but he kept the distance between them. “Don’t be. We can work out whatever’s going on. Just talk to me.”

“I can’t. Not yet.”

“Okay, then I’ll wait.” He had to feel the sparks shooting between them like live wires sat too close together.

So much for not being desperate, her head grumbled.

“Please don’t make this harder than it is. I like you, Jill. A lot. But I won’t be here long. Maybe another month.”

She shot back as if the energy buzzing between them had ignited.

“You’re leaving before the winter ride?” Of all the possibilities, she hadn’t considered he’d actually do it, actually leave his family just before he became an uncle. What a stupid oversight on her part.

He nodded, silent.

“To the new job?”

Jax shook his head, a sardonic smile where there should’ve been fear of unemployment. “I start right after the CAF closes down shop. The offer I got a while back from a rodeo team in central Texas that is too good to pass up, but I can’t keep it forever, not with—not with how things are now. After that, though, I’m a free agent.”

“Rodeo?!” She laughed, but like his from earlier, it was laced with irony. “Ha! You’ll die out there—the guys are half your age on the circuit.”

“That’s not what I’ll be—”

“But I knew this was coming, didn’t I? You said you hated your job, your life here, that you’d taken a job, so why would a couple kisses—damn good kisses, I might add—change your mind?”

It wasn’t the playful arrogance he carried like a jacket around his shoulders. Nor was it the fact that he’d left a fabulously successful career without anything in its place. No, it was the carefree, whatever-happens shrug she used to find adorable. That he thought he could do whatever he wanted without regard for the consequences.

Probably because for him, there wouldn’t be any.

As the only child of the Henleys, and a daughter no less, expectation sat on her chest like a weighted vest. Because even if she didn’t take over the company, she was still a Henley and everything she did or said was scrutinized.

“So what? This was your idea of a going-away present?” She gestured to the basket behind her. Her bottom lip trembled with the effort of swallowing the rage sitting at her sternum. “Nice, Jax. Real nice.”

“Wait. What am I missing here?” he asked. “This isn’t about you, that’s what I’m saying. I’m dropping off food so I’m not a deadbeat asshole and I’m the bad guy? Jill, whatever this is, or was, between us, can’t happen. And it’s not you—”

“Jesus, Jax, at least come up with something original. And you might’ve dropped off food, but you’re leaving me to deal with a brood of puppies alone. Not to mention the multimillion-dollar deal between Steel Born and MBE that will continue beyond the fair. Should I just say goodbye now?”

Confusion blossomed in his furrowed brows and the corner of his lip he drew between his teeth. “Jill, the deal will be long over, the machinery will be delivered to each ranch, and, hell, ranchers will even have a full week to check out the equipment before I go. I wouldn’t make you handle it on your own.”

“What about Lily? I’m supposed to set up the adoption process while I’m single-handedly running Maggie’s business?”

“I’ll get Bennett or my mom to pitch in. It’ll be okay. Or you could just let the two lovebirds raise their pups.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and kept her gaze. Her skin erupted in goose pimples under his scrutiny.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Um, because if everything is done here,” and she did mean everything, “I’ll be going back to the city. Which means Lily will, too. What, should they share custody? It’s not even Gander’s puppies. Why should he get any claim to them?”