“In that case, I accept.”
She laughed, a sound that was light and airy. He’d forgotten how her laugh wrapped around his heart.
“Hopefully, bridal shots are enough,” she said. “I already spent half the day dragging my tripod around.” She let her eyes linger on him, still smiling. “You really thought Mr. Gunther was my type?”
“Just promise me you’ll never do something as impulsive as up and marrying someone without a proper engagement period.”
“Impulsive doesn’t always mean wrong.” She brushed off a piece of straw that had found its way onto her skirt. “I might be impulsive if the right guy asked.”
She was clearly torturing him as payback for the way he’d broken up with her. And it was working. “The right guy can be patient,” he said flatly.
The pasture gate clanged shut. Samantha was heading over to them. The time for personal conversations was over.
Kitty touched Landon’s arm, drawing his attention back to her. “Thanks for everything you did.” Her sincerity almost pained him. She used to talk to him like this when they’d been dating—her voice soft and intimate andfull of promises of tomorrow.
Samantha appeared at Landon’s side. “Ready to go?” Her gaze bounced between him and Kitty, trying to read the situation. Landon wished his cousin luck in that regard. He was having a hard time reading Kitty himself. She flirted with him and in the next breath told him her parents couldn’t abide the thought of them being together.
“Yeah, I’m ready to go.” Landon held out his hand for the keys.
“Thanks for your help,” Kitty told Samantha, “It was nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.” Samantha tossed Landon the keys and headed to his truck.
Landon stayed for another moment, delaying his goodbye. “If you don’t find a hole in your fence, you’d better figure out how many people have your gate code. Change it anyway to be on the safe side.” Probably unnecessary instruction, but he’d missed talking to her. He missed hearing those tomorrows in her voice.
“I will. Thanks, Landon. Really.”
Landon didn’t have a reason to say more, so he said his goodbyes and headed to his truck, replaying her comments on eloping. He’d always taken it for granted that she would still be single come next September, that he would have a chance to set things right between them. Now he wasn’t so sure.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“So you roughedup a German tourist in a fit of jealous rage?” Jaxon asked.
Landon, Jaxon, and Preston were moving irrigation pipe from a pile in front of their barn onto a trailer.
“I didn’t rough him up,” Landon clarified. “I just yelled at him and inadvertently accused him of human trafficking. But that’s not the point of the story.”
Preston took hold of the ends of two pipes and waited for Landon to pick up the other sides. “Yeah, the point of the story is that you can start the day being so cool you take down cattle rustlers, but if you’re in love with the wrong woman, you’ll end up making a fool of yourself.”
“That,” Landon said, “is also not the point of the story.” He hefted the pipes up.
“That’s the point I took from it,” Preston said.
Jaxon had just finished hitching the trailer to the back of the truck. “So what were we supposed to learn from the story?”
Preston and Landon carried the pipes to the trailer and dropped them into it with a clank. “When I saw Kitty in that dress, I was willing to do just about anything to stop her from marrying the wrong man.”
Preston headed back to the pile. “You mean the forty-year-old, already married German tourist?”
“I mean anyone who isn’t me.” Landon adjusted his gloves and joined Preston in carrying the next set. “The next time she wears that dress, I want her to be walking down an aisle toward me. Can’t stop thinking about it, in fact. And that means, despite what everyone thinks, I don’t have commitment issues. At least not since Kitty moved back.”
Jaxon wiped his hands on his jeans. “That would be good news if the two of you were actually dating, and her parents didn’t hate you, and she wanted to stay in Arizona.” He headed over to help with the pipe. “But congratulations on getting over your commitment issues.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kate rodeMarigold next to the fence line in the front section, searching for any sort of break. She’d changed into her jeans and boots. The only remnants of her photo shoot were the loose curls in her ponytail and her smoky eyeshadow. Gary was riding the ATV, checking a different section.
She imagined a stream of cattle making their way out of a gaping hole in a bid for freedom. If they wandered onto the freeway, they could be hit and killed. Or worse, they could cause an accident that injured others.