“Crushes are a whole thing. Especially when you’re working with a good-looking guy,” McKenna said. “I promise I’m not being ironic or anything. Not referring to me and Grant. I’m serious. Sometimes you have moments of insanity, but then you pull it together.”

“Well, and sometimes crushes are serious,” Bea said, looking even more worried now.

“You really are just talking about yourself,” McKenna said.

“Thank you,” Jamie said crisply. “But I can handle it. I can handle Gabe Dalton. It’s not a big deal. But I would like to talk about something else now. Anything else.”

“Well, Bea and I can talk about wedding plans.”

Jamie treated them to an overly fake smile. “Okay, maybe not anything else.”

Beatrix smiled happily and started plaintively discussing Dane’s objections to trying to train Evan the raccoon to be a ring bearer.

And Jamie was completely fine with the long, ludicrous story, because she loved that about Beatrix.

And she gave her a chance to take a breath.

To clear her head and decide what she was going to do next.

CHAPTER TWELVE

AFTER ANOTHER HOUR Jamie drove Bea and McKenna back to their respective homes. She dropped Beatrix at Grassroots Winery, where she lived with Dane, and then headed toward Get Out of Dodge, where both Jamie and McKenna lived.

McKenna took the opportunity of the two of them being alone to put in another endorsement for Jamie to have a little fun.

Jamie stretched her shoulders back, shifting her hands on the steering wheel.

“Bea worries,” McKenna said. “She’s soft.”

The implication, of course, being that Jamie wasn’t soft. And she wasn’t. She had never thought of herself as soft. Never.

“Well, if I decide to,” she said, giving her future sister-in-law a long look, “I’m not going to tell you, because you’ll tell my brother.”

McKenna pressed her hand to her chest. “Ouch. I feel wounded.”

“You’ve earned it. Why don’t you just go get some beard burn from my brother,” Jamie said, pulling up to the cabin that McKenna and Grant shared.

“A mighty fine idea, Jamie,” McKenna said, getting out of the truck and stumbling a little bit, reminding Jamie that her friend was slightly tipsy.

She imagined that would translate to a good time for Grant.

It didn’t even gross her out. It just made her feel oddly morose.

Jamie pulled away from their cabin after McKenna was safely inside. Then she drove slowly back to her house. She pulled in, feeling restless and antsy.

Both of her friends had obviously gone home to get busy. And Jamie...

She could. She could be with a man she wanted if she felt like it. He put that on the table. Had kissed her until she couldn’t breathe.

And yeah, maybe putting first kiss and first time into one night was a little bit of a tall order, but she was twenty-five years old. She didn’t think it was past time, or anything silly like that. She didn’t think there was a time.