Chapter Six
Hayes … not so much.
When Trev pushed the door open, it hit a stack of boxes. He pushed harder, shoving the boxes out of the way, then stepped back to usher Mac into the chilly interior.
“Cold in here,” he muttered as he turned up the thermostat.
“It’s not bad.” She pushed her hands more deeply into her pockets.
“If you don’t mind seeing your breath.” He was sure that the truck had been much colder, especially in the mornings after sitting in the damp next to Fremont Creek all night, but he hated leaving her in a house that would take at least an hour to reach a livable temperature. “Sorry about all the boxes.”
Hayes and Bailey, his fiancée, didn’t own a lot between them, but what they did took up most of the small living area. Trev wove his way across the room to open the bedroom door. It was freezing inside.
“The sheets are in that cupboard.” He pointed to the router on the small desk. “There’s internet unless the red light is blinking … which happens more often than we like. The passcode is written on the painter’s tape on the side.”
“Internet. Fantastic.” She dropped her backpack on the mattress.
“Bathroom.” He opened the door. As a poorly insulated 1940s add-on, the room was the coldest in the entire frigid house. “That little heater under the shelf will save your life.”
Maclyn smiled but didn’t say anything.
“That’s the tour,” he said, returning to boss mode as they took the three steps back into the living area.
“What happens when Hayes returns?” He was about to tell her that Hayes wouldn’t be kicking her out of the place anytime soon, when she added, “Will you stay on?”
He shook his head. “I’m on leave from my job.”
“What do you do?”
He gave her a surprised look. “Something where I get by on charm and good looks naturally.”
Her mouth pulled tight at one corner as she looked down, obviously considering whether she wanted to banter or just get him the hell out of there.
He told himself that regardless of her decision, he needed to leave.
The vibe he’d felt between them at the campsite was not only back, it was growing and, frankly, he didn’t know how to handle it.
It didn’t help that when Mac raised her head to meet his gaze, she had the look of a woman who was about to solve a problem. He, of course, was that problem. Definitely time to say good night and leave in the name of employer-employee relations.
Mac had other ideas.
She took a step closer, and he swallowed before he could control the reaction. Mac had trust issues. Was he going to break what little trust she had in him?
Was she going to give him an option?
“I told myself on the drive over that you were trouble.” She spoke musingly, as if talking her way through a tricky situation.
“I might be, but I’m not going to take advantage of your situation.” The husky edge to his voice made his words sound like a lie.
“That’s why you didn’t follow through earlier? Power dynamics?”
“Well … I am your boss.” Lame.
“Yes.” The toes of Mac’s boots were now only a fraction of an inch from his. “But I’m off the clock. You aren’t in charge of me.” She brought her hands up to frame the sides of his face, sending a pleasant warmth down his spine. “Let’s get this over with. Okay?”
“Over with?”
But even as he spoke he was lowering his head to touch her lips.
“It’s time,” she murmured before he covered her mouth with his.
Her lips were crazy soft and when her tongue touched his it sent a jolt through him.
After a split second of indecision, his hands settled at her waist and he pulled her close, losing himself in the taste and touch of this woman he’d mistakenly thought of as privileged and aloof.
Two kisses in, his hands left her waist to touch her face, tangle in her hair. He was easing her backward, toward the naked mattress, when Raisin scratched his pant leg. He gave the dog a mock frown and she answered by scratching again.
“Raisin, no,” Mac said. She met Trev’s gaze, and he knew that the moment was gone, destroyed by a curly little dog who had her mom’s best interests at heart. His hands fell away, and Mac stepped back, pushing the hair that he’d messed up over her shoulders.
“This isn’t going to make you bolt, is it? Because I don’t want you sleeping in a truck by the river and I need you to keep working here.”
Her expression softened. “There is no this, Trev. There’s a few kisses, followed by me walking you to the door and thanking you for giving me a place to stay and a job.
” As if to make her point, she started across the living area toward the door, skirting the boxes. Trev followed. She turned at the door.
“You were serious about getting this over with?” he asked.
“Well … it did kind of break the tension, don’t you think?”
“Yeah.” He wanted to laugh. “In one sense anyway.”
Maclyn got his meaning and put a hand on his upper arm. “We both have enough issues in our lives without making this another.” Her expression shifted toward uncertain for the first time since she’d set foot in the place. “I wasn’t trying to use you or anything.”
“I didn’t take it that way.” She looked like she very much wanted to ask him how he was taking it, but he didn’t give her a chance. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow. You know … when I am your boss.”
He leaned in to kiss her cheek, then opened the door and stepped out into the night.
Get it over with. Right. He felt like he was just beginning.
*
Mac lifted her eyes to the ceiling as Trev’s footsteps echoed on the porch steps.
Way to take control.
Well, she had been in control until she’d kissed the man.
She went to peer out the door’s narrow window.
Trev was already out of sight, probably headed out to check the cows.
Mac leaned her forehead on the glass, wondering if she’d screwed up by taking charge.
She could still taste the man, still feel the pressure of his mouth.
Wanted to feel more of the same—and why not?
Perhaps that trouble thing?
Which would be trouble only if it impacted her future on the ranch over the next few weeks. Things would have to move pretty fast for that to happen.
What if you don’t have a new job by the time Jordan comes home?
Maybe Trev would keep her on longer, but she couldn’t count on that.
She walked to the center of the room and turned a slow circle, taking in the interior of her new abode—the surprisingly comfortable-looking leather sofa with a wool rug in front of it; the vintage stove and fridge separated by a length of counter with cupboards above and below; the small mid-century dining table with two chairs.
She had a place to stay and internet so she could job hunt.
She also had a hot cowboy in the house next door.
Just keep your hands to yourself.
Why did those feel like famous last words?
Because kissing Trev had not been the get-it-out-of-her-system move she’d intended. Instead, it had kind of lit the fuse. The only positive was that Trev was probably no more anxious to muck things up than she was because, even though she was not his dream employee, he needed her.
Needing each other for their own purposes was the middle ground they shared. They might mess around, play a little, but neither of them was going to do anything to jeopardize their current working relationship.
And yeah. Now they knew what they were dealing with.
Fire.
*
Trev spent the night in and around the barn before abandoning the new mothers and cooking breakfast for Wade, who’d enjoyed a full night’s rest. Four cows had chosen to calve—two the easy way, and two that took so long he drove them into the birthing pens in the barn to monitor.
Eventually they calved without Trev having to intervene or wake Wade to help.
A good night, all in all, but long, with lots of time to think about Maclyn and what was happening between them.
He’d never kissed an employee before. Of course, looking back at his employees, there was a good reason for that.
Would he be kissing this one again?
He would leave that up to Mac, at least for as long as she was his employee. The ball was firmly in her court.
“I put out some feelers and nobody knows anything about this Carl Jordan guy.” Wade slathered jam on his toast.
“How’d you go about putting out those feelers?” Trev had a bad feeling about this.
“I said, ‘Are you familiar with a guy named Carl Jordan? Lived here a while ago?’”
“And who did you say that to?”
“Few guys on my trip to town yesterday. Don’t worry. I wasn’t obvious. I just said that his name had come up and I couldn’t remember the guy. Even when I went to the courthouse to look at the plat, they didn’t know anything.”
Of course, he’d gone to the courthouse and looked at the plat. While he wasn’t being obvious.
“Where’s Jordan’s inheritance located?”
“About ten miles southeast of the Tree Fork. Squeezed in between a nature conservancy and a herd district. If he wants to sell to some rich guy who wants privacy, he’d be in good shape.”
“You think he wants to sell?”
“I think he needs some time to wrap his head around this.”
“Agreed.”
Silence fell, interrupted only by the crunch of Wade’s toast as he ate. The Jordan situation was strange, and Trev had meant what he said about being there if his brother needed to talk. So far he hadn’t.
“It looks like Maclyn got here early.”
Trev drained the last of this cup then got up to get the pot and refill both of their cups. “I offered her the foreman’s house.”
Wade’s gaze came up. “You did.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t want to tell him that she’d been camping so he simply said, “Motels are expensive, and they charge extra for pets.”
“Makes sense.”
Trev didn’t like the way his uncle looked at him.
“She’ll take a couple of the night shifts so we can get more sleep.”
“Sounds good.” Wade spoke as if he was dying to share the punch line of a joke.
“But …” Trev prompted.
“Just thinking about what happened the last time a woman showed up with a horse on this ranch.” Trev frowned and Wade hummed the first bars of the wedding march.
“Stop.”
“Just saying.”