Close to You by Kara Isaac

thing he heard before he took a deep breath and went backward into the glop, ending up in it up to his neck. Beside him, Allie floundered around, a flurry of arms and matted hair.
    Getting to his feet, he looked around their surroundings, trying to work out what had caused her to scream like a dying banshee.
    A large cow stood at the other side of the bog, chewing some grass and looking at them with large, curious eyes. That could not be it.
    He kept turning, but nothing else met his gaze except for rolling pastures and rustling trees.
    He turned back to her. “A cow? I’ve lost my hearing over a cow?”
    She swiped a hand over her forehead, moving some hair out of her eyes and leaving a streak of brown in its wake. “Ihate cows.” Her gaze challenged him. “What? You don’t hate anything?”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Not cows.” He sighed. “Give me your arm.” Reaching out, he grabbed her right forearm and hauled her up to standing.
    She stumbled, slamming into his chest. This time he was prepared and managed to remain upright, his hands tightening around her slim waist.
    Allie blinked up at him, long lashes and green eyes set against her dark-brown face. “I’m sorry I screamed.”
    â€œCan you say that again? I seem to have lost the hearing in my right ear.”
    She scrunched her nose at him. “Ha ha. Very funny.”
    They were standing close. Too close. His senses hummed. He still had to be jet-lagged. He grasped at the pitiful explanation. It was a hundred times better than the alternative.
    * * *
    T he guy was a moron, but a good-looking one. Even more so close up. He reminded Allie of the plastic surgeon guy on Grey’s Anatomy with his blue eyes and light olive skin . What was his name? Avery. That was it.
    This was ridiculous. She was standing in a mud bath, in the middle of a field, being chaperoned by a cow, having weird feelings for a guy she couldn’t stand.
    Allie forced her eyes away from his. Solid ground was now only a meter or so away—where they’d landed, the mud wasn’t as deep as where she’d been stuck. She didn’t need any more of his help. Breaking his hold on her waist, she forced her feet to move.
    Wading through the sludge, she was hyperconscious of himright beside her. She made it almost all of the way when the blasted cow let out a loud bellow, causing her to scream and stumble, her hands flying out in front of her as she went face-first onto the bank. Pushing herself up, she refused to look to her side as she hauled first one leg, then the other, out of the pit, ending the whole mortifying episode with her hand slipping out from under her and flopping onto her back like a dying fish.
    Jackson clambered up beside her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him sitting down, knees up to his chest, feet planted on the ground.
    He was absolutely filthy; the only part of him remaining untouched by dirt was the space from his eyebrows up. “Your middle name isn’t Grace by any chance, is it?”
    Allie shook her head. Then hysterical laughter bubbled up from her chest and out of her mouth as she imagined how ridiculous she must look.
    Jackson stared at her for a few seconds, as if uncertain whether she was laughing or crying, then threw his head back and started to laugh as well.
    It was a good laugh. The kind that came from deep inside and held nothing back. She suspected he hadn’t had one in a while. Just like her.
    Worst of all, something about it snagged at her heart and pulled it toward him. She slammed her mouth shut. So the guy had a small halfway decent part of him buried deep down. So what? It made no difference to anything.

Nine
    â€œI ’M SORRY. W E’RE OFF TO do what?” The next morning Jackson stood in the parking lot in front of the farm B and B and stared at Allie like she’d asked him to strip naked and do laps. Quite frankly, he almost would have preferred