Page 91 of The Vet's Unconditional Love
"No.Why?What do you—"
She answered the question by sitting on his lap, bracing her hands on the couch on either side of his head, and leaning in until her forehead rested against his.
"Is this a better angle?"
He chuckled and slid his hand into her hair."It is."He closed his fingers around the back of her neck and held her there as their lips met again.This time the brushing of lips became something deeper.Something real, and new.
When she finally lifted her head, she ran her finger over her lips, and he followed it with his thumb.
"Well!That was… wonderful."Her eyes shone as they looked down into his.
"It was.It was… perfect."
She leaned in close and pressed her cheek to his."I don't dare hug you just yet, so this will have to work until your ribs heal."
He wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her as close as he could to his chest, loving the feel of her warmth against him.
Over her shoulder he looked up at the now dark sky, all the stars shining—not a single one twinkled.
Chapter Twenty
When they arrived at the MacFarland place on Sunday, Tanya jumped out of the truck, calling, "I'll be with Nat.If you can't find me, we'll probably be out at the barn."
"Come back up to the house and check in every now and then, would you?"Emmett called after her.
"I'll go check on her," Alana offered when Tanya simply turned around and waved before sprinting over to where Nat was sitting on top of the fence at the round pen."Do you want a hand down?"
Harper kept quiet; she'd intended to come around to see if Emmett wanted help getting out of her truck.She held her breath but let it out when she saw Emmett smile and rest his hand on Alana's shoulder as he got out.
"Thanks, Sprout."
This time, Alana didn't rebuff his use of the name.She rested her head against his shoulder for a moment as she said, "You're welcome, Dad.Do you need anything else?"
Alana had been quiet yesterday.Harper kept imagining that she somehow knew about—and disapproved of—how things had gone between her and Emmett on Friday night.There was no reason for it—no way Alana could know, and no reason to believe she'd have a problem if she did.
She relaxed a little when Alana turned to her."I know you can do it—whatever he needs—but I thought you might want to catch up with your friend.Shelley, she's here, right?And Uncle Cash was saying that Uncle Jim misses seeing you around at his ranch.I can hang with Dad if you want while you go talk to people."
"Thanks."She glanced at Emmett."I think I'll take you up on that."
Emmett gave her a slight nod.
As she headed over to where Jim was sitting in a big rocking chair on the porch of the main house, she glanced back over her shoulder.Emmett had his arm around Alana as they made their way to where Blane and Trip were chatting with Kolby and Wade.She smiled at the sight of Emmett laughing at something Alana said.It was good to see them together like that.She just hoped Alana wasn't closing her out.She felt guilty even thinking it—it wasn't as though she wanted to muscle her way in.But she had no real frame of reference for how this might all work.Her heart sank at the thought that maybe it wouldn't, but then she straightened her shoulders and waved at Jim.Even if things didn't work out for her and Emmett in the long term, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it for now.
Jim met her gaze as she approached."There you are.I've been missing you, young lady."
She went right to him and leaned in to kiss his cheek."I've missed you, too, Jim."
He chuckled."Then tell Emmett he'd better start paying you more attention.I was hoping you wouldn't have a spare minute to give me a thought."
Harper glanced at Banner, feeling a little embarrassed, but he grinned at her."You just don't get it," he told Jim."We're all the same with you.No matter how busy we get, no matter what else we have going on, we miss you when we don't see you."
"He's just trying to make me feel better," Jim told Harper.
"About what?"
"I'm going to be away for a couple weeks next month," Banner said.
"Aye, and I already told you: If you go and meet yourself a pretty young thing, you make sure she's willing to move back here with you.Don't want to lose you to the city; that'd be a waste."
