One conversation later and here she was, snuggled up to him, breathing in this manly scent that she would never be able to scrub from her brain or detach from her thoughts associated with that night.
Josie’s life was sure a series of unexpected—often bewildering—events.
“You smell good.” Seth’s nose pressed lightly into her hair.
“I showered.” Josie felt stupid the instant the words left her mouth. “Not that I don’t usually shower. I do. Often. It’s just that I smelled worse than a fat pig in a muddy barnyard after working with the horses earlier today. I was in desperate need of a good bathing.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad.” His chest vibrated with a laugh she could feel rumbling against her. “But I’ll take your word for it.”
How weird was it to be so close to a person that you could smell them? Breathe them in and out. Inhale. Exhale. Josie wondered if all couples did this or if they were just in this new phase of exploring one another, all the way down to their scents. It nearly had her dizzied.
“I was just thinking that you smelled good, too,” she admitted.
“I probably smell like a gingersnap. I’m kind of a messy baker and tend to get the ingredients all over me when I’m in the kitchen. I should’ve changed first.”
That did explain the spicy notes she’d picked up on. “There are much worse things than smelling like a cookie, Seth. Do you mind me asking what the whole deal with the cookies is, anyway? Why all the baking?”
“It’s something I used to do with Gramm back when she still lived at the ranch. You’ve heard the saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?” Josie nodded, which prompted Seth to continue. “Well, Gramm used to say the way to a woman’s was through her sweet tooth. When I was in eighth grade, I had the biggest crush on this girl named Chrissy Denton. I tried all school year to get her to notice me, but it wasn’t until I showed up on Valentine’s Day with a dozen frosted, heart-shaped, sugar cookies that she paid me any attention.”
“The lengths a man will go to be noticed,” Josie interjected in jest.
“Right? But it worked. For a while, at least. But then summer break came and her family went on a big RV trip so I couldn’t really send her cookies or anything after that. Things just fizzled out from there.”
“So she only hung around for the sugary treats? You alone weren’t sweet enough? That’s really sad, Seth.”
“Well, when you say it like that, it is.”
“I’m only kidding…sort of.” Josie laughed but stopped suddenly, unable to keep from wincing.
“What’s wrong? You okay?”
She vigorously shook her arm with the cast as a pins and needles sensation shot clear up to her shoulder. “Dang thing keeps falling asleep. I’m telling you, three weeks cannot come soon enough.”
“I know you said you broke it in an accident, but do you mind me asking just how?”
“You can ask, but it’s not really anything I care to answer.”
Understanding clicked across Seth’s face, filling his chestnut eyes with a compassion Josie felt in the pit of her stomach. “Fair enough. We’re all allowed our secrets. I respect that.”
“It’s not so much a secret as it is a reminder. One I’d like to forget.”
Seth just nodded and didn’t press it further. Comfortable silence enveloped them while they continued playing the role of a couple in love cozied up by the fire.
She could see why he had picked this particular spot to occupy for the night. It was the best vantage point, by far. From this chair, one sweeping gaze could take in the entirety of the deck, the yard, the rolling foothills now highlighted by the burgeoning glow of the risen harvest moon. Seth was an observer. An introspective man. Quiet in confidence but a leader, nonetheless. If Josie was able to recognize this after only knowing the man a few short days, how could his family go an entire lifetime without that acknowledgment?
She understood not fitting in with your own kin, though. It had been that way for Josie, too. She loved her sisters—all three of them—but she wasn’t quite like them. Where they were flowers, Josie was a stubborn weed. Where they were graceful, Josie was undeniably awkward. Where they were kind, Josie was sometimes not so understanding. Her temper was short. Her opinions were strong. Her words were often spoken without fully thinking them through.
But her father had understood her. Or he had tried to, at least. And there was something to be said about a father’s approval. Josie knew Seth was ultimately after that. And it was why she had no hesitation in helping him achieve it.
“You about ready to call it a night?” Seth leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Josie to give one quick squeeze before nudging her off of his lap. “I think we’ve put on a sufficient show for the evening, yeah?”
“I definitely think we did. I’m ready whenever you are.”
They said their goodbyes, hand in hand, and Josie made sure to keep hold of Seth’s until they were a good distance from his parents’ house, just for believability’s sake. Only then did she loosen her grip first, then felt Seth’s fingers relax to let hers slip through.
Instantly, a shudder skittered up her spine. It was cold and she hadn’t registered just how cold until she finally stood apart from him. Throughout the last hour as the temperatures had dropped, she’d been warmed both by the fire and by Seth’s arms, and without that comfort, she felt the true chill of the night air.
“Here.” Josie sensed the weight of his Sherpa-lined jacket lower onto her shoulders before she could process the words accompanying his action. “Take this.”
“Thank you, Seth.” She pulled the collar close around her neck and burrowed into its warmth. “See? We’re not all lies. Now you actually have let me borrow your jacket.”
“I guess we could try to make a little more of our story come true.”
Josie’s eyebrow quirked up. “How so?”
Seth’s hands were deep in his pant pockets when he shrugged his shoulders to his ears in this uncertain, tentative gesture. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe go line dancing at The Rusty Spur for starters.”
“You a big country line dancer, Seth?”
“Not sure. I’ve never tried.”
Josie whirled around so fast, Seth’s jacket almost spun out and fell from her shoulders. He reached out to fit it back on before it slipped off completely. “You’re kidding!”
“I’m not.”
“But you at least know the Electric Slide, right? I mean, everyone knows the Electric Slide.”
“I don’t know the Electric Slide.” His mouth curved up in a grin. “Is this something I should be ashamed to admit?”
“Not ashamed. But maybe a little embarrassed.”
“Oh, Josie, it takes a lot more than that to embarrass me.”
“Noted.” She snickered, packing that knowledge away for later. “You know—you don’t have to walk me all the way to my trailer. I can find my way around the property just fine.”
“Umm, yes, I do. You are my girlfriend.”
That word was like a zap of electricity through Josie’s veins. In all her years, she’d never been called that, and even though she knew it was all a façade, the feelings she experienced in hearing that were as real as the hairs on her head. It was like her senses suddenly weren’t all on the same page. Like they hadn’t been given the memo that this was one big, manufactured relationship. They hadn’t been warned not to react. She needed to get them all up to speed so her heart didn’t continue to race in excitement upon hearing silly words like girlfriend.