And Then You Kiss (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 3) by Heather A Buchman Read Free Book Online Page A

would be spotlighted on him.
    He closed his sketchbook, but took one last look before he did. He almost didn’t recognize the woman he’d spent the last half hour drawing. She didn’t look like the woman he’d started to draw; she’d morphed into someone else. Someone who looked more like Blythe than her.
    God, he hated holidays, but this one more than most. When he woke this morning, it wasn’t the first thing he thought of. No, he thought about Blythe instead, and how it felt to hold her the night before.
    When he’d gone upstairs to find she wasn’t there, that she and Jace left and no one knew where they were, his thoughts turned inward. Back to her. Back to that night. He’d gone out on the porch to be alone, and then Jace came back, briefly, and told him they were going skiing.
    He asked if he was okay. What the hell? Did he need to ask? Of course he wasn’t okay. He knew Jace felt it. This wasn’t something Tucker could bury deep enough for Jace not to feel it. There wasn’t a deep, deep enough for this.
    Mama’s gonna send dad lookin for you, Jace texted.
    Headed back, Tucker answered.
    ***
    Blythe didn’t need to turn and look when Tucker walked in. She knew he had. She could feel him. Jace reached over and covered her hand with his, as though he felt her reaction. Her cheeks burned when she looked up at him. What was it about these two men? It was as though there was a current running through the three of them, a connection.
    She felt it with Tucker last night. It wasn’t as though they didn’t need to speak; it was more that they shouldn’t. What passed between them was more than words could communicate.
    She felt the same way with Jace today. And now that Tucker was back, she felt it with both of them. She wasn’t sure she liked it.
    He brushed against her when he walked past. She felt the heat of it spread throughout her body, in an instant. She looked up at him, but he didn’t look back at her. Jace watched the whole thing; she didn’t need to look at him to know it.
     
    “Dinner,” Liv announced, and they made their way to the table. Blythe felt more as though she was floating than walking, she wasn’t sure her feet even touched the ground. Jace pulled a chair out for her, and sat to her right. She gasped when Tucker sat in the chair on her left. It wasn’t him sitting there, it was the feeling that spread over her when he did, that made her lose her breath.
    Jace put his hand on hers again, the hand that was resting on her lap. But she didn’t look at him; she looked at Tucker instead. He looked different. His eyes were dark. Instead of green, they looked brown. His face was tight, like it was the day before, when they first met. She’d seen his darkness then, and now it was back.
    “Hi,” she said softly.
    He turned to look at her, but didn’t answer. Instead he brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. When he did, she took her hand away from Jace.
     
    Blythe pushed the food around on her plate; she wasn’t hungry. She looked across the table at her dad, who questioned her with his eyes. She shrugged her shoulders.
    With so many people and conversations flying around the long table, she didn’t feel the need to talk. Even if she had, she wouldn’t have known what to say. Jace and Tucker were quiet too, but she could feel them on either side of her.
    The truth was she was uncomfortable; she wanted to leave the table. Even worse, she wanted to leave Crested Butte and go home, and escape the heat emanating from these two men.
    Jace put his arm across the back of her chair, and when he did, Tucker glared at him. It didn’t deter him. Instead of moving his arm away, he reached further and laid his hand possessively on her shoulder.
    She wanted to shrug it away. She didn’t want him touching her. She didn’t want Tucker to touch her either.
    Tucker looked at her plate. “Not hungry?” Those were the first words he’d spoken since he sat down at the table.
    “I’m not,”