Cathy Thacker - The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!'

He put up both hands before she could touch him. “Just don’t, Kelse. Just don’t.”

Without another word, Brady stormed from the room. Kelsey had just started to run after him when the phone rang. Frowning, she went to get it. Rafe Marshall was on the other end of the line. An old school chum of Kelsey’s, and former boyfriend, he was now principal at the elementary school and father of eight-year-old twins. “I really need to talk to you,” he said. “I’ve got a big favor to ask. Do you think you could come over to the school and meet me?”

“Now?” She couldn’t imagine what Rafe would need to see her about.

“Well, yes,” Rafe said, “if it’s convenient.”

Why not? Kelsey thought, her curiosity piqued. All she was going to do here was sit around and feel bad about what had not happened with Brady. “Be right there,” Kelsey said.

She went to her closet, put on a fresh set of clothes, retrieved her boots from the bottom of the stairs and headed out the door. She saw Brady come out of the barn just as she was climbing into her pickup truck. Ignoring the way he was looking at her—as if he’d had second thoughts and wanted to talk to her after all—she gunned the truck and sped off.

Rafe was waiting for her when she entered the empty halls. He led her into his office and gestured for her to have a seat. “Shouldn’t you be home having dinner with your twins?” Kelsey asked. Since his wife had died a couple of years ago, Rafe had tried to give his kids as much stability as possible. Most nights that meant he was with his kids.

“My mom is visiting and with them. I told her I’d be late.” Rafe sank down behind his desk. He was a handsome man, given to wearing his shirts and ties in the exact same color, but the stress of the past few years had left him with wings of gray just above his ears, and at his temples, and a hint of sadness around his eyes. Lately, Kelsey had noted happily, that sadness had been disappearing, bit by bit.

“Kelse, I need your help.” As usual, Rafe got straight to the point. “You know Patricia Weatherby?”

Kelsey nodded. “She works at the chamber of commerce, has a little five-year-old girl named Molly.” As she recalled, they had stopped in Laramie en route to California when Molly had to have an appendectomy, and liked the town and the people so much they decided to settle here permanently.

“Right. Well—” Rafe paused and drew a deep breath, as if already working up his nerve “—I want to ask her out.”

Kelsey shrugged, not sure where she fit into all this. It wasn’t as if Rafe needed her permission. The two of them had been over for a long time. “So what’s stopping you?” she asked.

“I’m afraid I’ll mess it up.” Rafe frowned, worry darkening his eyes. “I haven’t had a date since I got married and that was years and years ago. I’m afraid if I go out with her, without a little practice, I’ll mess it up and blow my chances with Patricia permanently.”

Rafe could be a little physically clumsy at times, but Kelsey didn’t hold that against him and she couldn’t see a nice woman like Patricia Weatherby doing so, either. “You’re being a little hard on yourself, aren’t you?”

He didn’t think so. He picked up a pencil and turned it end over end. “Do you know how many other guys have asked her out since she settled here? Fifteen. No one’s made it past a first date. She won’t go out with them after that—she says she’d like to be friends, but beyond that, she can tell it’s not going to work out. She’s real nice about it, from what I’ve heard, but she’s firm. Once she has decided you’re not the one for her, you’re not the one.”

Ouch, Kelsey thought, taking off her cowgirl hat and laying it in her lap.

“And since you sort of operate the same way… Well,” Rafe amended quickly when he saw he had offended her. He leaned forward urgently. “You know what I mean. You’ve dated a lot of guys, Kelsey, and turned ’em all down eventually, usually after just a date or two or three yourself, so…I figured maybe you could clue me in as to what it is exactly that turns women like you and Patricia off to men in the first place. Then I would know what not to do and I could just not do it.”

Kelsey could see he was dead serious. “Well, it really isn’t any one specific thing, Rafe,” she said, being careful not to hurt his feelings, even though she did think he was worrying about this unnecessarily. Still, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to help him build up his self-confidence. She sat back in her chair and fingered the brim of her hat. “A lot of things turn a woman off to a guy.”

“Such as…?” Rafe pressed.

Kelsey shrugged and did her best to explain. “Sometimes it’s a chemistry thing. I get that kiss at the front door at the end of the night, and I know…we haven’t got a shot.” Unlike with Brady. When he had kissed her, she had known they not only had a shot…that it was damned likely they’d end up together at some point, for at least a certain length of time.

“But it’s not always as simple as a lack of chemistry,” Rafe said.

“No.” With effort, Kelsey forced her mind away from Brady and his kiss, and their near tumble, and back to the conversation at hand. “Sometimes it’s the way a guy forgets to open a door for me,” she said.

Rafe looked stunned. “You want guys to open a door for you?”

“Well, not always. Sometimes. Why?” Kelsey found herself getting defensive. “You got a problem with that?”

“No. I’m just surprised. That’s all.” Rafe paused. “What else?”

“Well, honestly, Rafe, I don’t know.” As restless as could be, Kelsey shot out of her chair and paced his office, slapping the brim of her hat against her thigh as she moved. “I haven’t even had a date in a while, not since the guys in town stopped asking me out.”

“Well, yeah—” Rafe was quick to jump to the other men’s defense “—none of them thought they had a chance.” He stopped and made a face when he saw he had offended her again. “Sorry. Listen, would you do me a favor? Would you have a secret date with me?”

Kelsey sighed and sat down in her chair again. “Why does it have to be secret?”

“Because I don’t want Patricia to think I’m interested in any woman but her when I do ask her out. Besides, what I want you to do is sort of give me a dating lesson. Let’s just go somewhere where nobody knows us, and we’ll pretend we’re on a date, and I’ll do all the things I intend to do for Patricia, you know, like holding the door and having dinner table conversation and maybe even asking her to dance if you think that’s a good thing. You can critique me. And that’ll give me a chance to get all my ducks in a row and build up my confidence before I actually do ask her out. I really, really don’t want to blow this, Kelsey. I think Patricia’s the woman for me, and I haven’t felt that way about a woman since my wife died.”

Rafe seemed so sure about what he wanted. Kelsey could only admire him for that. Besides, she figured she owed him. He had steered a lot of kids who wanted riding lessons her way. “I would be happy to help you with that, Rafe,” she said.

“How about tomorrow night then?” Rafe asked.

Kelsey hesitated. “Tomorrow’s pretty busy. Brady and I are going on a buying trip and I’m not sure how long it will take, or when we’ll be back, but Wednesday evening is definitely free.”

“Wednesday evening is good for me, too.” Rafe smiled. “Meet me at the Gilded Lily, around seven.”

Kelsey frowned at the mention of the restaurant he had selected. “There are a couple of waiters over there who are known to be a little snooty, Rafe.” In Kelsey’s opinion, it was not the place to be if you were as nervous as Rafe was likely to be on his first date with Patricia Weatherby.