20. Katie
KATIE
I t'd be a damn shame if I didn't love it...
"Does that mean you're going to open your heart to it?" I ask quietly. My question has a double meaning. If I were being honest, I'd admit I'm wondering if he'll open his heart to me, too. It'd be a shame if we don't learn to love one another in the amount of time we're going to spend together.
He grunts a non-answer. "Right now, I resent it," he clicks his tongue, pulling the reins to the right. "We're headed down there. Are you ready to get off the back of this horse?"
My hips are screaming when we come to a stop along the fence row. The same way he helped me on the horse, he helps me off. It's equal parts hot as fuck and painful when my feet his the ground. "I feel like I'm going to walk bow-legged for the rest of my life," I laugh.
"When was the last time you were on the back of a horse?" He smirks.
"Obviously too long if that small ride hurt this bad."
"Probably has something to do with me being between your thighs last night," he quips.
My cheeks heat, and I wonder if I'll get used to the way he speaks to me. "Maybe it does, but what is it you do on the fence line?" He looks at me as if I should know, but the fact of the matter is, I was mostly left in the house. Expected to learn how to be a wife, and not taught much about the business side of things. "They didn't allow me to, but I'd like to learn. I've got a sharp mind, and I used to help my brother keep the books. They were a mess when I started them. I'm sure he's going crazy without me being there to help him."
He walks slightly ahead of me, giving me a nice view of his ass. "To answer your question, we look for pieces of the fence that need to be reinforced, or completely redone. It's one of the only ways we have to keep our calves safe. The fence keeps wild animals out and the calves in. The calves are what help us make the money when they get older and we sell them, typically. This time we're going to sell the calves. With the breeding program, they'll be top stock. They should be able to grow bigger and stronger, which means they'll weigh more, and in the end they'll bring more money to the ranchers who purchase them from us. This is going to be an easier way for us to keep the ranch in the black while hopefully not having to put too much capital up."
My stomach aches with the pressure of what all this means. There's a lot riding on all these factors coming together and working. That pressure is on us. I don't see my in-laws getting in the weeds on any of this. "Will this work?"
He eases the hat back on his head. "It has to. If it doesn't, we'll never hear the end of it. It'll be our fault this didn't work out, and I'm not ready to take the responsibility for it," he sets his hands on his trim hips. "We've already had to take responsibility for shit that didn't begin with us. I'll be damned if it ends with us."
"What do we need to do?" I look over at him, trying not to notice how hot he looks standing there tall and full of life. It's reminiscent of seeing him the bar and not knowing him, but realizing just looking at him shot my temperature up fifty degrees.
"Walk this fence line, and see if there are any weak parts. If you're unsure what constitutes weak, let me know."
"Okay."
He throws me a pair of gloves. I wish I could say I caught them, but I don't. They fall in front of me. "Nice throw."
He grins. "Not my fault you can't catch."
There's something about the way he doesn't make excuses. Not for me and not for him. It's hot in that asshole kind of way. Can't say I've ever found it hot before, but with him? It's a definite turn on. "Haha. Meet you in the middle?"
"Sounds good, start over there," he points to the far corner edge, where the fence is connected by a gate.
Walking down to where he's indicated, I start checking the fence line. Almost immediately I wish I had brought my phone so I'd be able to listen to a podcast or one of my favorite music playlists. The silence is deafening in my ears, the bugs louder than I can ever remember them being. Probably because I have nothing else to concentrate on, except the man across the field from me. I'm trying not to notice him, but it's almost as impossible as it is not to notice the sun beating down from overhead. When I come to a part of the fence where it appears there's a weak spot, I whistle, to get Trace's attention.
"You got something?"
"I think so, if you could come look?"
"Be right there."
I purposely turn away from him so that I'm not ogling him as he saunters across the grass. The way he walks, the authority with which he swings his hips, it's hot as fuck. I never realized how much a man in charge turned me on until I got to know Trace Miller. When he reaches me, he goes down on one knee. The jeans tighten against his muscular thighs, he's shed the button-down he was wearing, and now just has a plain white t-shirt over his upper half. His biceps strain the fabric, and I have to tell myself to calm down.
"This is really good," he praises me. "This would've broken completely in the next couple of weeks, and that's about when we would be putting the hopefully pregnant cows up here. Good job."
"Thanks," I beam at him.
"You sure you've never done this before?"
"I was told that I shouldn't let my skin get too tanned. It would cause wrinkles and that wouldn't be good for my soon-to-be-husband; AKA you. I couldn't be outside too much," I admit. I hated those summer days where I saw my brothers and their friends swimming in stock tanks and riding without shirts on. I'd wanted to be out there with them.
"I take it you haven't swam in a stock tank, then?"
Is he reading my mind? "No, I haven't, but I've always wanted to."
"We can do that. Maybe even today."
I wish I could see his eyes behind the sunglasses he wears. If there's one thing about this man who likes to hide his feelings isn't able to do, it's keep his feelings out of his eyes. He flashes me a smile. "Okay, let's keep moving."
Excited, I get back to work, ready to prove I'm in this with him, and together we'll make everything work out exactly the way it's supposed to.