Chapter 2
CADE HAD BEEN unanimously volunteered for the trip to Amarillo.
His protests hadn’t made a bit of difference.
Eli had argued as only a lawyer could, defending his ability to manage the contractors and keep them lined out.
Reagan’s efforts were split between working with the installers on the placement of the commercial kitchen appliances in the new dining hall and assisting Tyson, whose favorite, and most valuable, mare had gone into labor.
The animal had been in hard labor for about an hour before Cade left, and Ty wasn’t about to let something as mundane a surprise visit from some public relations exec pull him from her side.
Reagan might be an entirely capable large animal vet, but the horses were Ty’s life.
He was there for every major event, beginning with their birth and ending with either their sale or their death.
Singing along with the radio, cruise set on seventy-five and air conditioner blowing hard to combat the afternoon heat, Cade adjusted his rearview mirror to keep the slowly sinking afternoon sun from blinding him.
He crested a slight hill, and Amarillo spread out before him.
The city sat ensconced beneath a gritty haze, the dust driven by winds he’d guess were easily thirty miles per hour and gusting higher.
While there wasn’t much in the way of a traditional city skyline, the view still left him with the impression of people surrounding him on all sides.
Compared to Roy, the tiny town closest to the ranch, he supposed it was more reality, less impression.
Harding County, New Mexico, had a total population of less than seven hundred.
Last he’d heard, Amarillo was pushing two hundred thousand residents.
She answered on the third ring. “Emmaline Graystone.”
Her voice, now more cultivated than irritated, was sultry enough he couldn’t help but take notice. It warmed a body from the inside out, same as a good whiskey sipped on a cold night.
A small, internal voice reminded him that even the smoothest liquors could deliver a vicious bite.
Worse, if a man let the drink go to his head, that same warmth could make him do things he’d regret come morning.
Still, Cade couldn’t help but wonder how that rich voice would sound in the dark.
It wasn’t hard to imagine her whispering against his skin, the whisper of her breath hot and moist over bared skin. To consider how she might—
“Hello?”
Cade shifted in the driver’s seat, irritably adjusting his fly and trying to stop the path his out-of-control imagination had barreled down.
The last thing he needed was to get caught up in a fantasy about an unknown woman’s voice—a contractor’s voice, no less.
That particular realization did little to cool the inexplicable lust flooding his system, but it was more than sufficient to clear his mind. “Hi.”
“Is...everything okay?” she asked, curiosity unchecked.
“Fine.” He cleared his throat. “This is Cade Covington. We spoke earlier when you called the ranch. The dude ranch. Lassos she’d needed him to let go so she could get her bearings.