Chapter 14
JAKE
“Okay, listen up, everybody!” I hollered as loud as I could, attempting to gather this week’s guests at the entrance of the horse barn. Shelby and I were set to take them horseback riding this afternoon.
“In case we haven’t been properly introduced, my name’s Jake. I’m the foreman on the ranch, and I’m the guy who will be making you do all my chores this week.”
My eyes scanned the crowd, and I was pleased to see that this week held a lot more men in attendance than cowboy-obsessed females.
Though I didn’t let my gaze settle on the tall redhead holding a camera in the back, I felt her presence.
Like she was still forcing me to hug her.
To go off contract with a touch I hadn’t been ready for.
After our movie night last week, I’d kept myself scarce.
I chalked it up to needing a break from the smell of coconut shampoo that seemed to be infused into my brain.
I spent most of my evenings teaching Sophie to swim in the pond nearby.
If I was going to be both parents for my daughter, that meant that some days the fun had to win out.
Occasionally, that meant Sophie stayed up later than normal, which meant we both went to bed at the same time, making it too late for flirting lessons.
“By show of hands, who has ridden a horse more than once in their life?” I asked.
Four hands in the crowd went up. “Alright, line up here, and we’ll get you assigned a horse.”
It took half an hour of Shelby and me assessing skill levels and assigning horses appropriately before the trail ride was finally underway.
She was there to take pictures. I’d never asked her to help me with this part of my job, but I was grateful she was there.
I led the pack of fifteen horses along an easy trail up into the mountains.
Shelby brought up the rear, falling behind to take pictures of the group with the mountains as her backdrop.
There were no clouds in the sky, and I felt the sun heat my back as we rode.
I had fun teasing and laughing with Dotty and Valeen, two elderly sisters just behind me in the front of the pack.
Every time I glanced back to check on the group, I noticed a taller guy letting other riders pass him so he could be closer to Shelby.
“You’re not looking at me, are you, Cowboy Jake? Because I’ve got to tell you, I’m probably thirty years your senior, young man,” came the voice of Dotty.
Thirty years was probably being generous.
I laughed and held up my hands in front of me. “Just checking on the herd, Dot. I promise.”
“If I had a dime for every time I heard that.”
I laughed and told her to behave.
Which she did not.
“You sure it’s not that cute redhead in the back?”
For a moment, I sat puzzled at her statement.
What were Shelby and I doing that would give someone that impression?
I’d hardly spoken to her all day. We worked as a team getting horses lined out for guests.
I might have teased her a bit, but I couldn’t remember anything specific.
She’d laughed a few times. But that wasn’t unusual.
I moved ahead of Dotty at the pretense of scouting ahead to find our picnic spot by the river. When we stopped for lunch, I hung by the horses, taking them each for a drink at the river while the talk and chatter of the group went on all around me.
It turned out the guy paying attention to Shelby was named Easton, and he was from Boise. The whole group on the ranch this week was his extended family. Dotty, the grandma, had grown up in Challis and wanted a way to bring all of her kids and grandkids back for a visit. Enter the dude ranch.
He was from Boise.
The same city Shelby would be moving to after the summer.
The fact that Shelby could practice flirting with a guy she could easily see again put a different spin on this whole thing.
A good spin.
But a definite spin.
But it might not matter at all if Shelby kept on talking to Easton like she was.
Dang my conscience. I needed to save her.
“Shelby, can you help me with these horses for a sec?”
A relieved expression lit her face. She grabbed the reins and followed me to the river.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“Why are you bringing up other girls talking with that guy? He’s talking to you. He doesn’t care about your friends.”
Her cheeks colored. “I hate when you listen to my conversations.”
“If you smack his shoulder or bring up another girl while you talk to him, I’m firing you.”
Her mouth dropped in indignation. “You can’t fire me.”
“That guy has been working his tail off to talk to you all day, and you still assume he would rather be talking to someone else. I want you to go back over there, but this time, tell yourself that he likes you.”
She brushed a wayward strand of hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. “I don’t know if you’ve ever met me before, but that’s got disaster written all over it.”
I leaned down to get in her face. I had so many things I could have teased her about just then, but my eyes caught on the smattering of freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks and the tiny scar below her nose she’d gotten once from tripping on a rock. I swallowed and regained my focus.
“Tuck. You’re hot. You’re funny. You’re smart.
He wouldn’t go out of his way to talk to you if he didn’t think you were at least two of those things.
” Her mouth opened, like she was going to protest. She was always protesting.
But I beat her to it. “Let yourself have a win. There’s zero pressure here.
He’ll be gone by the end of the week. If he wants to flirt with you and you want to flirt back… then it’s good practice.”
“What if somebody sees us flirting back at the lodge? You forget that we have a very confusing image to uphold.”
I smiled. “We’ll be fine.”
“What if I’m so good at flirting that he keeps doing it?”
The thought of Easton continuing to flirt with her made my back stiffen ever so slightly.
“Let’s worry about you suddenly having amazing flirting skills when we need to.”
She pushed me and left me watching her walk back to Easton with a smile on my face and a clench in my gut.