Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
R eid hadn’t intended to threaten a teenager. But when JC headed toward him, he couldn’t help stepping out of the trees and issuing a warning.
“Stay away from Sophie, you little shit.”
The kid startled and stumbled back, tripping over a rock and landing hard on his butt with a look of terror in his eyes. The terror grew when Reid’s words were repeated in a loud, screeching voice.
“Little shit! Little shit!”
If the spreading wet spot on the front of the kid’s jeans was any indication, he was scared pissless. Reid couldn’t very well blame him. He was feeling a little scared himself as he glanced up into the dark trees where the voice had come from. As the teenager raced away like the hounds of hell were after him, Reid saw a movement on an oak limb.
“Who’s there?”
“Bullshit!”
There was something about the tone of the voice that made Reid realize it wasn’t human. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the flashlight, directing the light at the tree branches. Sure enough, a bird sat on the limb. A gray parrot that had no business being in an oak tree in the middle of a Texas ranch.
“What the fuck?”
The bird’s beady eyes blinked. “Fuck! Fuck!”
Reid glanced around, wondering how the cussing parrot had gotten there. No one from either the Holiday Ranch or the Remington Ranch owned a parrot to his knowledge. It was too damn late to be calling around to see if they did. Which meant he would have to wait until the morning to figure it out. Until then, he’d just have to leave the bird where it was. Especially when he didn’t have a clue how to get it down from the tree.
Turning, he headed back to the springs. He pulled up short when Sophie and Sunny weren’t where he’d left them. Splashing had him glancing at the springs where he saw two bobbing heads in the water. One dark and one the color of a moonlit penny. He frowned. They shouldn’t be having a swim party when Sophie needed a stern lecture about what she’d done.
But then Sophie laughed and all thoughts of lectures disappeared.
When was the last time he’d heard her laugh? Had he ever? Of course, why would she laugh around him when he’d done nothing but make her feel like she was an inconvenience—something he wanted out of his life? He’d given her nothing to laugh about. All he’d done was dish out orders and punishment . . . and resented her for keeping him from his dream.
But she wasn’t responsible for her mother getting cancer. Or even for him becoming her guardian. He had made that choice. He had made it because his conscience wouldn’t let him do otherwise. Which was a shitty reason for becoming a guardian.
Sophie was his only kin. The only one left in his family. He should be happy to have her in his life, instead of blaming her for inconveniencing him. She was just a kid. A kid whose entire life had changed overnight. Her mother had been sick and dying and, suddenly, this stranger showed up and started taking charge. No wonder he hadn’t heard her laugh. He hadn’t given her any reason to. He’d been an angry jerk who set down rules and didn’t give an inch. A jerk who was all work and no play.
He needed to change that.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a clue how to go about making a teenager happy.
Another peal of laughter rang out and he glanced at the springs where Sophie and Sunny were frolicking.
But, obviously, Sunny did.
Maybe it was time to stop being such a stubborn fool and ask for help.
The next morning, Reid got up early and made pancakes. He wasn’t what anyone would call a great cook, but pancakes were something he could handle. Once he had the stack of pancakes plated, he decided to add a chocolate chip face to the top one like his mama had done for him as a kid.
It wasn’t well received.
Sophie took one look at the grinning pancake and stared at him as if he’d grown horns.
“You don’t like pancakes?” he asked.
“No. I like them . . . it’s just a smiley face.”
He shrugged. “You don’t like smiles?”
She stared at him for a long moment before she shook her head and picked up her fork. She might not like the smiley face, but she seemed to like his pancakes. She finished the stack in record time and asked for seconds. He made a mental note to make pancakes more often—without the chocolate chip face.
On the way to school, he wanted to apologize for the way he’d been acting, but once again, he found himself tongue tied as he searched for the right words. It wasn’t until he’d stopped in the pickup line and she started to get out that he finally spoke.
“Look, Soph, I get that I’ve been a real jerk. And I’m sorry. I’m gonna try to do better.”
She stared at him again as if he was some kind of alien before she grabbed her backpack and jumped out. As he watched her merge into the crowd of teenagers, he thumped the steering wheel.
“Real smooth, Reid.”
Before he headed back to the ranch, he stopped off at the sheriff’s office. He figured if anyone knew what to do with a lost parrot, Melba would. As soon as he stepped in the door, she threw him a bright smile and held up one finger to indicate she would be with him after she finished the call she was on. He turned to sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting room and stopped short when he saw Sunny sitting there cuddling a little white-and-gray rabbit with one lop ear and deep brown eyes that matched Sunny’s.
She looked as surprised to see him as he was to see her.
“Hey. What are you do—” She cut off and her eyes lit up. “You came for Patsy Cline!” She jumped up and pulled him into a hug that had him sucking in a deep breath of her sunshine scent. Before his brain could completely register how nice it felt to be in the arms of a beautiful woman—even with a wiggling rabbit between them—Sunny stepped back and gave him a devilish smile. “Thank the Lord you came to your senses. Now I don’t have to implement my devious plan.”
He blinked. “What devious plan?”
“I was going to leave Patsy in a basket on your stoop. I figured once you saw her, you wouldn’t be able to resist her. I mean who could resist this sweet ball of fur.” She lifted the squirming rabbit up to him.
He had to admit the bunny was cute. And the missing back foot did tug at his heartstrings. But he already had enough to deal with. He didn’t need to add to it. “I didn’t come here for Patsy Cline. I don’t have time for a rabbit.”
“Don’t worry. Sophie has already promised to take full care of Patsy. We already worked it out.”
His eyes narrowed. “You already worked it out?”
“Now don’t be getting all grumpy. If Sophie has a sweet little bunny to keep her busy, she won’t have time to sneak out.” She cuddled the rabbit close, but Patsy wasn’t having it. She started kicking her one back leg and wiggling to be put down. No doubt because Sunny was holding her wrong. As much as he shouldn’t, Reid took the rabbit from her.
“Rabbits don’t like to be held too tightly. You need to support their front paws and hips, but let their back feet dangle free so they don’t have anything to instinctually push against.” He demonstrated and Patsy stopped fighting and settled into the crook of his arm.
Sunny laughed as she smoothed the rabbit’s ears. “I didn’t realize you were a rabbit wrangler as well as a cow wrangler.”
“The last ranch I worked at raised them.”
She beamed. “Then it’s a match made in heaven.”
“Just what I was going to say.” Melba came around her desk. “I’ll just get Patsy’s food, litter box, and crate.”
Reid opened his mouth to stop her, but then quickly snapped it shut. Maybe Sunny and Melba were right. Maybe a pet was just what Sophie needed to help ease her grieving . . . and her dislike of him.
He didn’t say a word as Melba scurried about collecting Patsy’s things. Until he remembered the real reason he’d come to the sheriff’s office. “Have you heard anything about a lost parrot, Melba? There seems to be one living in a tree by Cooper Springs . . . yelling out profanity.”
Sunny stopped petting Patsy and stared at him. “Wait a second. That was a parrot yelling bullshit the other night?”
“It appears so.”
Melba laughed. “Sounds like a smart bird.”
“Not smart enough to find its way home.”
Melba set all of Patsy’s things in a chair before she headed back to her desk. “I’ll put the word out and see if I can’t locate its owners. Until then, you might want to set out a bowl of water and some cut-up fruit and vegetables. We don’t want the poor thing to starve to death.”
Great.
Now Reid had a rabbit and a bird to care for.
A few minutes later, Patsy was in her crate and Sunny was helping him carry everything out to his truck. He made sure the crate was secure in the backseat before he closed the door and turned to her.
“I don’t know if I should thank you or yell at you for sticking me with a pet I don’t have time for.”
“Now don’t be a spoilsport. You’re going to make Sophie one happy teenager.”
He sighed. “I don’t think one rabbit is going to fix all the damage I’ve done.”
“Everything is fixable if you’re willing to put in the time.”
Reid wasn’t so sure about that, but he appreciated Sunny’s positivity. And that wasn’t all he appreciated. “Thank you—not for the rabbit as much as what you did last night. You handled the situation much better than I would have.”
Sunny’s eyes widened. “Wait a second. Who are you? Gratitude and compliments? That’s not the Reid Mitchell I’ve come to know.”
He sent her an annoyed look. “You couldn’t just accept my gratitude without making me feel like a jerk?”
“Nope.”
He laughed. Her smile faded and she stared at him like he was a grinning chocolate chip pancake. “What?”
“I just haven’t ever seen you laugh before.” She reached out and pressed a finger to his lips. “I didn’t think these had it in them.”
All humor vanished as every cell in his body focused on the warm finger pressed to his mouth. He had tried damn hard not to think about how she had felt beneath him the other night—how all her soft curves had filled all his hard voids. But her touch had those repressed thoughts flooding his brain like a tidal wave. All he wanted to do was press her back against his truck and feel that perfect fit again.
She seemed to be of the same mind. It was easy to read the hot desire swirling in the depths of her pretty brown eyes. After a long, heated staring contest, her gaze lowered to his mouth and her tongue swept out and wet her lips.
It was a sultry invitation. One he really wanted to take her up on. His mouth watered at just the thought of tasting those lips that were once again painted a soft pink. Would they taste like strawberry or bubble gum? He wanted more than anything to find out. But he had enough common sense left in his fantasy-filled brain to realize that would be a bad idea.
An extremely bad idea.
Unfortunately, before he could make his excuses and get the hell out of there, Sunny took matters into her own hands. With a needy moan that Reid felt all the way down to the toes of his boots, she replaced her warm finger with her soft, warm lips.
It was like pulling the trigger on a cocked gun.
The need and desire he’d been holding back exploded. Before he knew it, he had her shoved back against the truck, his hard body pinning her as his lips took what he wanted.
He wanted a lot.
He ravished her sweet mouth with hungry pulls of his lips and deep strokes of his tongue. She didn’t taste like strawberries or bubble gum. She tasted like . . . sunshine, and he basked in her glow and heat like a man who had been living his entire life beneath a dark cloud. He never wanted to go back under that cloud. He wanted to stay right here, surrounded by this vibrant woman’s energy forever.
He might have done just that if they hadn’t been interrupted by a loud throat-clearing.
He drew away from Sunny to see Mrs. Stokes standing on the sidewalk in the ratty-looking fur she always wore. He blinked back to reality and realized what he’d been caught doing—mauling his boss’s little sister smack dab in the middle of town.
He untangled his fingers from Sunny’s hair and stepped away. He didn’t know what to say so he just stood there feeling like a fool. Thankfully, Sunny came to his rescue. She pinned on a bright smile as if he hadn’t almost taken her against his truck.
“Hey, Ms. Stokes! How are you doin’ this fine day?”
Mrs. Stokes cocked a dark red eyebrow that matched her bouffant hair perfectly. “Not as good as you seem to be doing. A new gallery and now a new beau. Lucky girl.”
Reid finally snapped out of his speechlessness “No! I’m not Sunny’s beau. That was just . . .” He scrambled for an explanation for what had just happened, but came up empty.
Once again, Sunny jumped in. “All me.” She shrugged. “What can I say? I have a hard time controlling my impulses.”
Mrs. Stokes chuckled. “I understand completely. I never could control my impulses with hot cowboys either.”
Sunny laughed before she sent the woman a pleading look. “I hope you’ll keep this between us, Ms. Stokes. I would hate for word to get back to Corbin. He’ll never let me hear the end of it if he finds out I accosted his foreman in the middle of town.”
“It looked to me like Reid didn’t mind much.” Mrs. Stokes shot him a calculating look before she returned her gaze to Sunny. “But you don’t have to worry about me saying anything to Corbin. I have firsthand knowledge of how well your brother likes to control everyone in his life. Which reminds me. Please inform him that time is ticking on his part of our bargain. I understand he’s been distracted by his new wife and their growing family, but a deal’s a deal.” She adjusted her fur around her shoulders. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a hair appointment.”
Once she was gone, Sunny turned to Reid. She looked thoroughly kissed. There were whisker burns around her mouth and her lipstick was completely gone and her lips slightly puffy. Even though she had been the one to make the first move, he owed her an apology for how quickly he’d let things get out of control.
“Look, Sunny, I’m sor?—”
She pressed a finger to his lips once again. Once again, he had to fight the liquid desire that spread through him like a fast-acting drug.
“Let’s not ruin a pleasant little interlude with a bunch of excuses for why it shouldn’t have happened and why it can’t happen again. I get it. You have a lot to deal with right now and you don’t need any more complications. Believe me, I don’t need any more complications in my life either.” She removed her finger from his mouth and tapped his nose. “Now you better get your bunny home. I wish I could be there to see Sophie’s face when she gets home from school and sees Patsy.” She playfully socked him in the arm. “Good job, Uncle Reid.” She turned and headed to the big ol’ monster truck that was parked a few spaces away.
He should be overjoyed that she hadn’t made a big deal about the kiss.
But all he felt was a sad disappointment that he’d never taste sunshine again.