Folding my arms, I said, “I didn’t hear any complaint from him.”
“He’s just happy to get some.” He motioned to where he was standing. “Let’s go.”
I glanced around. “What about Sophie?”
He nodded toward his cabin. “I opened her window. I can hear if she calls for me.”
“What are you teaching me?”
“Kissing.”
My body stiffened as my surprised eyes landed on his. “I thought you said we wouldn’t need that lesson.”
“Well, that was before I saw you send off your date tonight.”
“That wasn’t my fault. He just planted one on me. I had no idea it was coming.”
“Then you should have kicked him where it hurts. Or I should have.”
I thought about the surprise feeling of Easton’s lips on mine. While it wasn’t groundbreaking, it had been kind of…fun. In a shocking sort of way. Now, I just wish he hadn’t done it with my audience of one nearby. Jake had already seen too many of my humiliating moments.
“Let’s just say, I’ve had worse surprises.”
“I just want to teach you a couple of things.”
I swallowed, feeling the breeze lift a flyaway piece of hair off my forehead. “I’m not sure we should…”
He shook his head, looking so different without his cowboy hat on. Not different in a country musician sort of way, where they take their hat off at a concert and you’re shocked at seeing their balding heads—Jake had a full head of brown hair—but in a…softer kind of way. Approachable. His hat gave him a manly, defined look. Sexy. A true Idaho cowboy, and it was so much a part of him on the ranch that it almost felt like he was telling me a secret without it on.
“Tuck, this is just one pal helping another pal out. Can you handle that? Andthis?” His eyes teased as he motioned down his body with his hands.
“The friend zone and I are so tight I’m probably going to marry it. So, yeah. No problem on my end.” The words didn’t sound like a lie when I said them, but the way my stomach took an aggressive dive gave me pause.
“Alright. Come on, then.”
Full disclosure, speaking with Jake about kissing while a window separated us felt much different than walking up next to him on my porch, knowing that the only thing about to be separating us was a thin shirt of silk and one of white cotton. The windowpane back in my room seemed to hold the keys to all of my bravado.
He watched me approach with a look I couldn’t quite discern, and I wondered if the no-windowpane thing was giving him pause too. I stopped in front of him. For a moment, we just stared at each other, a strange tension filling the space between us. It didn’t help that Chad’s words from tonight were running through my head on repeat.
I lifted my chin. “So, what did I do wrong? I didn’t hit him or talk about my friends, so I thought I was doing pretty good.”
Jake’s eyes were on my hair when I spoke. He blinked, and with some effort, he shook his head and opened his mouth again, turning into teacher Jake. “No movement. No touching. You reacted badly.”
“Well, it took me by surprise.”
“Fair enough. Let's pretend you didn’t get taken by surprise, and it was a kiss you were waiting for.”
“That has never happened to me before. Not quite sure how to imagine it.”
There was a slight pause in the air before a slightly bewildered Jake Evans asked, “How is that possible?” His voice was soft, almost like a caress. Almost like he meant to think it but not say it out loud. But I heard. As did the goosebumps suddenly rising on my arm.
“It’s possible. Trust me. So, how are we doing this?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Now I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
“Can’t resist all of this?” I teased, pointing up to my hair, pulled up in a messy top knot with tendrils falling all around my face—and not in a cute, messy type of way. It was literally everywhere. I had been so flustered after Easton left that, in the shower, I had gone on auto mode and washed my hair, two days early, and then thrown it up with no rhyme or reason beyond getting it out of my face. I most definitely hadn’t thought I’d be invited outside to kiss Jake.
His hesitant eyes left my hair and roamed my face once more. He cleared his throat, sounding more like himself than a moment ago. “Alright. First thing. How are your allergies tonight?”