Chapter 14
Here we go again.
Marshall walked the familiar path, exhausted.
He crammed dinner in his mouth as quickly as he could upon his return home.
Colette wanted a meeting. After one of the guys filled him in about the herd of cattle almost escaping, he was gobsmacked at hearing how she was the one to contain the cattle.
And that somehow, Hank had played the hero.
The dog enjoyed special slices of beef with his usual kibble as a treat that night.
If only he could figure out how to thank Colette that simply. She was here to do a job and somehow had been roped into herd management. Marshall still didn’t believe it.
Dr. Moore had reassured him that the herd was healthy. No cow had gone lame, which was one of their primary concerns. Quite a few of his cows were pregnant too, a harbinger of a good return on recent investments.
Investments that would go to waste if someone was tampering with gates and fences on the ranch.
The first few times, it seemed like just regular maintenance.
But he had studied the gate Colette had secured with her belt.
He originally scoffed at the idea of someone tampering with the chain.
When his ranch hand, Chip, had shown him the damage, it was impossible to deny it.
It wasn’t regular wear that made the chain break.
They never used that gate, so the fact that it opened at all was mystifying.
That old chain and lock had held the gate closed for ages.
There was no denying it had been cut. The cut marks painted a damning picture.
Sabotage.
Colette was right. Someone was screwing around with operations at Rosebud Ranch, and he had no idea why. It was time he paid more attention to her warnings and tonight, he was going to tell her so. Marshall had no problem admitting he was wrong.
Huffing, he braced himself, ready to be kind and careful with Colette.
She had endured a difficult day. Marshall would keep things light, have her repeat the story, since he didn’t even believe it fully yet.
He would thank her for her service and hope to prevent her from packing up and returning to the city.
She had good reason to leave already.
Marshall would keep his heated gazes to himself, keep things professional and distant. Have a quick beer and a reassuring visit. She had been through a lot.
There would be no staring at her lips. Or ogling her clothing.
Absolutely none.
Not that he had done a great job of that during their horseback ride, but this time, he would really try.
He would ignore that she scrambled his brain, and how his words came out jumbled.
Those captivating lips, the way her skirts and her jeans…
He had almost forgotten about the jeans…
How they hugged the curve of her hips, hiding what he imagined were legs he would love to wrap around his waist. All these things should and would be ignored in favor of a calm, dignified interaction.
Here we go again.
Clearing his throat, he walked up to the house, doing his best to clear his thoughts.
Thoughts that reminded him again that he had been without a woman much too long.
It was time for a fun night out with his buddy Evan Thomson.
Evan would help him get over his hang-ups.
No one played the field better than him.
Marshall’s body and his mind were acting out.
More distracted. His gaze drifted by the window as he walked up to her front step.
He was instantly justified in the warnings he had given her.
This was exactly what he had cautioned about. Any creep could just casually walk up to her window and get an eyeful. His mouth dropped open as she slid the spatula beneath whatever she had baked and deposited it on a rack nearby.
Fuck.
Colette was baking cookies. Good thing he had stumbled upon her and not one of the other guys.
His cousin Lachlan and the ranch hands were going out for drinks tonight.
Watching her move to her loud music as she scooped the cookie dough, shoulders wiggling and that ass…
That gorgeous round ass swaying behind the kitchen island, where it was just out of his sight line.
And of course, she had another pair of pajamas, this time they were light pink and covered in roses. His mouth went dry. Unbelievable.
Marshall raised his eyes to the heavens, begging for strength.
She was pure temptation. Her presence was stoking some part of him to life and though he resisted, it was pure torture.
Ten years ago, if he had met Colette at a party, he would have had his way with her.
That’s for damn sure. At the time, no woman could resist him, the star athlete.
He made zero effort to resist them, either.
But the hookup culture he had gotten used to left him feeling rather empty…
and alone, once he wasn’t such a hotshot anymore.
Rather than always having his arm wrapped around the waist of a beautiful woman, he was convincing himself to get out of bed each morning.
Did any of those partners stick around? Hell, no.
He had hurt himself by not putting any effort into building a connection that was real.
Not that any woman would have stuck by his grumpy ass during his recovery.
He had been a miserable person to be around.
Watching his athletic build go soft with his inability to walk well.
To go from training seven days a week, to gritting his teeth in pain walking to the kitchen fridge.
His family had helped him pull through by supporting him and at times—he gave Mumsy, his grandmother, full credit for this—telling him to get on with his life.
How had she said it? Ah, yes, his melancholy was dreadfully boring. No one wanted to marry a wastrel.
Marshall snorted at the memory.
Marriage had been the furthest thing from his mind, but her words stuck with him.
It was time to build a life he could be proud of.
His own life. It was time to take the challenges he had been given and use them to make him stronger.
More resilient. He needed to create a life that suited him, instead of satisfying ambitions and expectations that had been placed on him in the past.
Yes, he may have hooked up with a woman like Colette in the past. There was no way he would be able to resist her. And sure, they would have had a good time. But he wasn’t that man anymore. Sticking to his new rules kept him from falling into old, destructive habits.
When he left the city behind, he desperately tried to escape that man.
It wasn’t the man Marshall had been raised to be, and he was damned if he would go down that road again.
He would rather be single than chase skirts again.
Or ruffled pajama bottoms, for that matter.
He swept a nervous hand through his hair and stepped up to the door.
Part of being a better man wasn’t standing and watching a beautiful woman in the window.
It was reminding her, gently of course, to close the damn curtains.
The patter of her footsteps toward the door after he knocked had an alarming effect on his crotch, a jolt of excitement shooting through him that instantly needed to be suppressed. He was a professional, he was a rancher, and he was a reformed fuckboy. Reformed. Marshall reminded himself sternly.
Colette opened the door, her gaze warm and welcoming. A small smile teased her glossy lips. “Hey, Marshall. Thanks for coming,” she said. Her eyes darted to the beers he clutched in his hand. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders, lifting the beers.
“My mother always taught me to never show up empty-handed at someone’s home. Sorry, I wasn’t there when the cows got out. We had to visit some in a few different locations with the vet,” he said, waiting for her to invite him in.
She padded toward the kitchen, leaving the door open for him to follow. Marshall was instantly hit with the most intoxicating scent of her fresh-baked cookies. He slammed into a wall of delicious aroma and his mouth watered. This was too much.
“I won’t stay long, you’re obviously busy,” he said, kicking his boots off and placing the beer bottles on the kitchen island. Her dark curls bobbed as she returned to sliding cookies off the pan and humming along to the music.
“I’m almost done, just have to bake one more pan of cookies.”
He peered over her shoulder at the perfect mounds of warm cookie sliding onto the cooling rack and suppressed a groan. They looked so delicious.
“Oatmeal?”
“And chocolate chip, obviously. I had an urge to stress bake today, as you can imagine,” she explained.
Marshall gritted his teeth together, nodding.
Once the tray was cleared, she finished scooping the final cookies and placed them into the oven.
The oven beeped as she set the timer. She pulled a glass for her beer and poured it perfectly once again, then stood across from him.
Her eyes widened as though she had an idea, and she plated a few cookies for them to share.
“Not sure if these go well with beer, but who cares?” she said with a shrug, bringing the plate close to Marshall, offering him more temptation. “Give them a minute, or you might get burned.”
He lifted his gaze to meet hers, the words sending a ripple of electricity dancing across his skin. She smiled and pushed the plate toward him.
“Worth it, I bet,” he choked out.
“Up to you, I guess. If you wait, it’ll be pure pleasure, I promise.”