Chapter 2 #2
After his funeral I cried for a week because he was the only family I had, the only person who truly made me feel love aside from Wren.
She and I had been friends forever and I loved her like a sister.
That woman who’d birthed me didn’t exist in my world, so I moved through the house packing up everything she left behind, including the photos my father cherished so much, and burned them in a fire pit.
A week later, the actions of erasing her from my life were justified when she showed up staking claim to the land that belonged to my family.
Luckily, my father had been smart enough to ensure I was the only person who would ever have ownership.
He loved her more than he should have but deep down inside he knew the woman she truly was and refused to let her take his family’s land from me.
The worst part was, she didn’t even care enough to show her face. Blew into town, demanded her share, and when the estate attorney made it undeniably certain she had no claim to what little money was left behind or the ranch, she left without so much as a fuck you to me.
“Not too much on my baby, Wren.”
She scoffed. “If you love her so much, then how about you drive on over and drag her out of bed.”
“Nope, that’s all you.” I laughed, having no interest in waking a teen who would rather spend her day in bed. Hell, I would too but life was unfair like that. I had a ranch to maintain.
“Then don’t hit me with the not too much on your girl. At this point, with Christmas break slowly creeping around, getting her to school is by any means necessary.”
“Okay, fine. Do what you have to do.” I paused and focused on the sound of tires crunching gravel, which meant my help was possibly here.
“I think that’s him.” I yanked my gloves off and tossed them on the bales of hay before lifting my phone. Wren wasn’t on camera, because like me, she was multitasking.
“Him who?”
“The guy Mrs. Mel sent. Hang on, let me go see.”
“No, flip the camera and hold it up so I can see too.”
“Hang on.” I did what she asked and held the camera at an angle that would allow us both to see this in real time.
When I stepped out of the barn, I looked toward the gravel road that turned off the main street.
My ranch was decently sized and had been owned for five generations so the street that led to the ranch had been marked by the city as Allen Drive.
If anyone turned off the main road headed this way, they were looking for the ranch and not just wandering around.
So unless someone was lost, this had to be him.
A silver Toyota Tundra slowed to a stop nearby and a few seconds later a massive body stepped down from the driver’s seat. He was dressed in dark gray jeans and a slate colored thermal covered by a quilted brown and gray flannel button up.
The black hat on his head clashed with the earthy tones that covered his body but still somehow all worked. Why was I so invested in what this man was wearing?
Because he’s wearing it well…
“He’s big, Reece. Got that I can toss you around or fuck you in the air type of thing going on.
You sure you don’t want to let him work you.
” Wren thankfully was conscious of being on speaker and spoke lower than she had been moments before.
But that didn’t stop my mind from considering the prospects of being tossed around by this man.
Because shit, he was him…
“Not happening,” I mumbled lowly, watching as he rolled his broad shoulders and headed my way with the sexiest lazy gait I had ever seen in my life.
Even with him slightly favoring his right side, his walk was big and demanding.
What the hell that even meant was beyond me but it surely applied to his sexy ass.
When he was close enough to speak at a normal tone, he lifted his head and hit me with a shot of adrenaline.
Well, shit! He looked so damn good the offense was criminal.
He was surely a cowboy based on the ruggedness of his appearance, the Jaxson on his head, and the worn, custom leather boots peeking from under his jeans.
His deep brown skin color was a few shades lighter than the jet black beard that covered his jaw and extended from his chin and his eyes were dark, piercing, and locked on me.
The problem was, I couldn’t read him. He was assessing the situation and me, same as I was in the process of doing to him, but he managed to keep his thoughts from being exposed on his face.
I prayed I was doing the same but seriously doubted that, because again, this damn man was fine.
He looked more like a model playing a cowboy than an actual prototype of a man who got his hands dirty on a ranch.
“Oh wow. Mrs. Mel definitely had an agenda when she sent him to you. You better let him stay too. That man is fine as hell. Well, I can’t see his face just yet but I just know he’s fine, and that walk, friend. It’s sexy.”
Very sexy…
“Sareece.” My brain flipped that one word a few times and my core tightened. The rough gravelly tone of his voice was nice.
“I have to go, Wren. Call you tonight?” I rushed out and tapped the screen to get her off my line. She was going to curse me out about that later but oh well.
“I’m Reece.” I pushed my phone into my back pocket, curled my fingers into my palms, and dropped my balled fists to my hips. He lifted his head and hit me with a narrowed gaze before his eyes moved down my insulated utility coat and jean clad legs.
“I’m Ro. Melvina sent me to help you with a barn door. Did she call you?”
“She did. She said you were trying to get on at Phoxes but missed the deadline.”
He nodded, looking past me at the barn and around the part of the ranch visible from where we were standing.
There was a barn and horse stables about thirty feet apart.
The stables housed my horses Good Girl and Bad Boy along with some of my equipment and the other one was used for storage by the hay farmers.
Aside from that, there wasn’t much else nearby besides a paddock for my babies. The house was half a mile away.
“You want to get started?” It was so cold that even our breaths clouded up. I focused on that so I wouldn’t just stare at the man. His jaw was set and there was a crease between his brows. When I didn’t respond right away, his eyes narrowed more and danced over my face. “Or should I leave?”
I frowned dramatically and lifted my chin. His height and the rim of my hat blocked a direct view of his face.
“Well, I mean… you’re the one here for the job. That’s pretty much your call.”
His head tilted a bit and I was blessed with my first smile and oh fuck.
“Is it really a job? She said you weren’t paying?”
I straightened my spine and my expression dropped. “You plan on working for free?”
His smile expanded and became even more arrogant and beautiful.
I wasn’t sure if a man’s smile should be considered beautiful but his certainly was.
“To my understanding, we’re supposed to negotiate.
At the very least, you would be willing to offer a place for me to stay and home cooked meals while I help out with repairs around here. ”
“I don’t cook.”
He shrugged. “She said you did.”
“She thinks it will get me a husband, no matter how many times I tell her one won’t just fall out the sky,” I mumbled out loud, regretting it when he spoke.
“Considering I have no interest in a wife, you’re safe. Now, we fixing the barn door or not? I’d like to shower and relax when we’re done. I had a thirteen-hour drive to get here and my back isn’t happy about it.”
I arched my brow. “Slacking on your first day.”
“In order for this to be my first day, you’d have to agree to letting me stay. Are we done negotiating?”
Oh, you can definitely stay, with your sexy ass…
“Did we negotiate?” I countered.
“Room and board and all the free labor you can handle. That’s all I need and what I’m willing to offer in exchange.”
“Doesn’t seem like you’re getting much out of this.”
“You could put the food back on the table…”
I smiled and rolled my eyes. “We’ll see. Would you like to check out where you’ll be staying before you decide?”
Originally I planned on allowing him access to the ranch hand lodging ,which was further from the house near the pastures, but my mind shamelessly changed the minute I laid eyes on him.
Melvina had been right about having something nice to look at.
He surely qualified which was what had me willing to offer the foreman’s quarters right beside my house.
“I trust you.” He glanced at the barn, assessing the work that needed to be done. “Let me get my gloves.”
I watched as he headed back to his truck, opening the compartment near the windows on the bed.
He removed a pair of thick canvas and leather gloves similar to mine and worked his massive hands into them.
He made his way back to where I stood as I shamelessly watched him like I had the right to invade his personal space.
I didn’t pull myself together until I found some sense and walked away.
He fell in step with me as I started toward the barn.
He lingered at my side until we reached the barn then somehow found himself incredibly close when I paused to point out that the hinges which held the door on track had rusted and snapped.
His body ended up behind mine and my brain blanked while he lifted an arm over my head and pointed to something.
“The track is rusted too. Needs to be cleaned at the least but the best decision would be to replace the entire kit.”
I moved away and turned to face him. “I don’t think we can get that done today. We’ll have to head into town to get what we need. What about a temporary fix to get the door up for now and we can head into town tomorrow. Temperature’s supposed to drop to the teens tonight.”
“Let me see what you have to work with and I’ll try to rig something to anchor it until I can replace the hardware.”
I nodded and motioned toward the small shed at the back of the stables.
My father kept a slew of things that didn’t make sense or have a rhyme or reason to why he stockpiled them.
But I’d learned over the years that there was always something in there that found itself useful.
As much as I wanted to protect my babies from the icy temperatures, I also had buckles to finish.
So a temporary fix was going to have to work.
Jubilee was two weeks away and I was already behind.
Without waiting for me to lead the way, he allowed his eyes to linger on me a little too long then started toward the shed.
Ro had me feeling edgy and restless which wasn’t a good thing.
If he was going to live and work here, even temporarily, I didn’t need to feel anything at all.
This anxious energy that somehow found its way under my skin was a clear sign that Ro being at my ranch was a terrible idea.
But I was going to let it happen, regrets be damned, and oh would there be regrets.