Gourd Enough To Eat (Alphas Fall Hard #5)

CHAPTER ONE

ELIJAH

I stared at the pink glitter monstrosity of a van that marred the Lone Grizzly Mountain the Off-Duty Rescue Ranch sat on with my mouth open, catching flies.

Hands that ached with hours of work wrangling a new horse that just wouldn’t stay put forgot to hurt as I decoded the nude oversized animal decal one side.

A Grin and Bear It slogan decorated the front.

I gazed at the pun, the naked bear—ha, the bare bear—all I could see.

The eyesore obscured everything I loved about the ranch and the landscape, right up until a blonde bombshell of a girl hopped out of the driver’s side.

She was also covered in glitter and pink, fluffy stuff as she skipped around the front to chat with Ash, who ran the place.

He gave her a hug, his arms fitting around her where she had curves in all the right places. More than a few, actually. Hell, I didn’t know jeans could look like that.

“She could rival you for a pun, gourd boy.” Anson, one of the ranch’s other workers, slapped my shoulder then cuffed at my face in play. “Fuck, man. You’re drooling.”

I jerked back with an oath. “Keep your hands to yourself," I grumbled.

Part of me wanted to watch her all day. The other part kind of admired her balls to stick a bear that big all over the front of her display—even if her display was a glitter van that looked like a pink version of the Mystery Machine, circa two thousand and one.

I swiped the back of my hand across my mouth just to check.

He was right, dammit. That irked me worse than before.

I turned my back on the glitter bomb and the girl who made a mess in the yard adjacent to the house, focusing on the rescue in front of us.

“We have work to do,” I snapped, succeeding only in frightening the creature, and probably Anson too, from the look on the man’s face.

He turned away from the calamity in the making before me, grumbling like I had before. The sparkly new shiny thing in the yard might look like the best new distraction to come in from town, but I knew better.

Nothing good came from something so pretty. Anson could take my word for it, though right now he didn’t seem inclined to ask, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to offer my philosophy on life.

Today’s newly arrived rescue horse, Daisy Duke, nuzzled my hand affectionately.

“Wanna feed, pretty girl?” I murmured, running my hand over her nose with extreme care, all too aware of the trust she put in me, offering me that first touch.

Deep scars cut into her stunning chestnut coat around her head where she’d been trapped into a halter for an extended period by a previous owner who thought they were doing the right thing but…

Yeah, well. Sometimes owners did the wrong thing even when they thought they were doing the right thing.

I was just glad that my job didn’t involve talking to said owners.

I figured my words would be too harsh for that end of a really blunt stick.

Dusty, the local vet, lanced a pocket in her cheek earlier that looked like it was just swelling, and nothing worse.

I’d stayed with her the entire time and she sort of semi imprinted onto me afterwards as her carer.

After the military shit I’d been through in the desert over the past few years, being kind to someone rather than too harsh felt…oddly good. Maybe the rescue in this case wasn’t DD after all.

“You gonna day dream about your gourds all day? Maybe you get enough time with all your curves there, huh?” Anson didn’t know when to give up.

I rolled my lips inward as Miss Daisy D gave me a fixed look that said don’t murder him in my paddock, please.

“Never, ma’am,” I muttered.

“D’you just call the horse, ma’am? ” Ash Rhodes, the man who ran the Off-Duty Rescue Ranch, clapped a hand across my shoulder blades.

I stiffened. Daisy sent me a commiserating look.

“Is there a problem with how I address a beautiful lady?” I stroked Daisy’s nose. She whickered in response, nuzzling me gently.

“She’s taken to you,” Ash mused. “I know a girl who did that once. You want to look after this one for me?”

I stroked Daisy’s nose while something uncertain coiled too tight in my gut, something that might shatter at a moment’s notice.

Something akin to trust, unfounded.

“You know I can’t be here most nights if she needs me,” I said carefully.

“And I care in the afternoons. Not that I’m not grateful.

It’s just that—” I paused, knowing his eyes were upon me.

Knowing I couldn’t screw up this chance at a slice of peace, of something more than the drifter life that had taken me from one ranch to the next, following the seasons for the last few years.

This was the first place I'd had a glimpse of what home might feel like again in a long time and I’d do almost anything not to jeopardise that.

Plus, I had a sense of purpose here. A sense of something more than just place.

“You like the part of you that you’ve found here.

And in town. I know that,” Ash said, so easily.

Much more so than I'd be able to say for myself. That rankled, but I held my silence and let the other, slightly older man finish. “I’m glad you’re here with us, Elijah Campise.

Both Off duty and Forest Grove wouldn’t be the same without you. ”

I ground my teeth, unsure why his acceptance, when I couldn't do the same for myself, bothered me so much. “Appreciate it.” I kept on stroking Daisy's nose long after Ash walked away, humming softly to her, unsure who was comforting who.

When I finished up with Daisy, had her settled for the afternoon, the yard stood empty, covered in long shadows, the glitter bus with its bare bear nowhere in sight.

And that meant it was time to get some real work done.

The night sky of Forest Grove hung over me as I sat out the back of Gourd for You , the patisserie I owned a fifty percent share of real estate in with Declan Evans.

He baked, I carved. Gourds, mostly, by hand.

None of this machine based stuff. I could control the designs if I did everything by hand, creating lacework on the outside of the hard shell.

Okay, so sometimes I baked. Declan did the really hard stuff, and I made fun shapes that fit inside lamp-like gourds that grew on the property where I worked during the day.

Moonlighting as a carving patisserie chef didn’t leave me a whole lot of sleeping hours, but it kept the nightmares away that had plagued me for a whole lot of years, and Ash allowed me the time off the ranch, so I made use of it all.

The gourd I held tonight was the traditional, elongated shape.

Hollow in the middle, it looked a whole lot heavier than it actually was.

They could be used to carry water, but I used to use them for art.

This one would hold a family of capybara pastries when it was done that would be ready for the weekend trade.

Declan had the designs, and the fillings for me.

Chocolate was one of his specialities, while I loved working with the intricate patterns on both the gourds and the sugary pastry.

“I'm closing up for the night. Are you gonna be out here for a while longer, yet?” Declan raked his sugar encrusted fingers through his dark hair, leaving white stripes through the middle.

I grinned, the pressures of today having left me hours before.

Carving and being out here always left me more relaxed than even being out on the ranch, where I’d thought I was happiest. Until I found this place, and Declan.

His story wasn’t so different from my own.

A drifter with a slightly different history, but the same end result.

We bought in on the same dream and suddenly we had a shop together.

He ran it full time and I came in to hope out most nights.

I nodded, leaning my head back to stare up at the night sky that the small town’s lights obscured. “You know you’re always welcome up the ranch if you want a break.”

“Now why would I do somethin’ stupid like that?" Declan drawled, looking down at me. “Just because you found some friendlies, doesn’t mean I have to share them with you.”

I huffed a laugh. “Whatever, old man. Go home and get your beauty sleep”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Might need that. Did you see who moved into the flat above next door? Prettiest little thing. I thought I might ask her out for a drink tomorrow night. Unless you want to crash my party.”

I made a face at him. “I promise I’ll make myself scarce. And stay up at the ranch. You gonna close early, then?” On occasion we did a roaring night trade for a tiny, small town, catching people after work when they couldn’t get away from their daily duties.

“Yeah, I thought I might.”

"Don't get all broken hearted if she turns you down,” I warned him. “I remember how your last romance went.”

Declan sent me a wounded look. “Kimberly was a fine lass, thank you muchly.”

“Except that she ran off with that banker from the city about a month later.” I looked down at my gourd, turning it around my hand. I’d finished one side, and had the next to go. Symmetry was a big thing with me.

“Yeah, that wasn’t great” Declan scratched his chin as I looked back up at him.

“Go home, D. You’re making my neck sore.”

“Whiner,” he mumbled, yawning. “See you in a few days for your bog cabybuddy thing.”

“Capybara Gourd lighting,” I corrected him, knowing he knew the name full well and was taking the piss. “Sleep well for your date.”

“Eh, she hasn’t said yes yet.”

“Have you met her?” I called to his back.

He waved, a one fingered saluted in my direction as he walked away, locking the front door behind him.

I grinned, looked down at my gourd and concentrated on making the pattern match up to the shape in my hands, but damn if I couldn't get my mind off the girl with the curves who’d been at the Off-Duty ranch back earlier in the day, the girl with pretty curves all of her own who I knew shouldn't be about the ranch, or me, but craved anyway. The girl I’d fantasize about unhealthily for the next few hours.

My glitter bomb.