Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
BOOKER
M y hands tightened on the steering wheel to the point where the leather creaked beneath them. I couldn’t stop sneaking glances at Reece out of the corner of my eye as I drove us into town. She was staring out the window, her fingers lazily threading through Val’s fur, and for the first time in my life I was jealous of a damn dog.
And that didn’t make me feel good.
Not because I wished I was a dog, but because I wanted to feel her fingers lazily drifting across my skin, and that made me a huge goddamn creep.
I wasn’t that guy.
But there was something about her.
I could see the pain, the broken parts of her she was desperately trying to hide. But I could also see her sheer determination to get through it, no matter what. And that was the part of Reece that drew me in. She was strong, even if she didn’t feel like it right now. She was fighting in her own way, with that bright smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and would usually have annoyed the hell out of me.
“The ranch hands make $2000 a month with accommodation,” I said, desperate to find something to take my mind off my dick. “The days can be long, but the new horses will be coming in slowly so you can work up to a full day.”
I didn’t really want her to work at all. I was needed out on the trails this week to make sure they were all still passable, but I wasn’t about to let Reece do any heavy lifting when she was clearly in pain. Despite what she said, I wasn’t convinced that she didn’t have a couple of broken ribs. Whoever had done it to her and been thorough, and that thought alone made my blood boil.
“That’s…Wow, are you sure?”
“Yes, that’s definitely what I pay them.”
“That’s not what I meant!” She stopped when she saw the corner of my mouth tick up in amusement. “Oh, fine. Be obtuse about it.”
“Obtuse?”
She stuck out her tongue, and I rolled my eyes.
“I think you should cut the pay down to match my decreased hours,” she said reasonably.
“No.”
“No?”
“Agreed.” I was purposely aggravating her now, but the little wrinkle in her nose that she got when she was annoyed verged on adorable.
“I don’t know what to say,” she muttered.
I didn’t respond, and we drove the rest of the way into town in silence. I knew what it was like to be in a situation you didn’t see a way out of. I also knew what it was like for someone to step up and give you a solution. My grandfather had done it for me when I inherited the ranch and enough money that I’d never have to worry about how to run it. I swore there and then that I’d work to pay it forward in any way I could, and that was why the ranch was changing into what it was.
I pulled the truck into a spot near the grocery store, and we both climbed out. I told Val she needed to stay in the back of the truck and then gave her some fuss to take the sting out of it. She’d probably nap the entire time, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t feel bad for leaving her behind. We went everywhere together, but she wasn’t allowed inside the store.
“Will she be okay in there?” Reece asked, looking back at Val sadly, who’d already laid down on the blanket I kept in the flatbed for her.
“She’s already asleep.”
“She won’t jump out and run away?”
“No.”
Reece pouted for a second, but then her attention was fully on the town as we walked to the store. “Wow, this place is so pretty.”
I guess it was. Growing up around here probably meant I didn’t appreciate Willowbrook as much as I should. For a small town with little tourist traffic, it was clean, busy, and surviving from the local community alone. For now. My brother and his fiancé were on a mission to change that, though. They had big plans to bring in the tourists and get the town’s economy booming.
It needed it. Because as pretty as Willowbrook might have been, the signs were showing that we were slipping in the wrong direction. Starting with the fact that the local doctor had retired, and no one had taken up the practice. The dark windows concerned more than just me, but the townspeople seemed in denial, if not completely oblivious, to what it could mean.
I held open the door to the grocery store, and Reece stepped inside. I watched as she tensed, looking around at her surroundings as she made sure she knew the layout and who was inside.
She walked straight past the carts, so I grabbed one. I wasn’t here to be her damn bag boy.
Reece wandered the aisles of the grocery store, every so often glancing over her shoulder at me as if to check I was still there. By the time we’d made it to the end of the third aisle, there wasn’t a single thing in the cart, and I’d had enough.
“What is wrong with you?” I growled.
She came to an abrupt halt and looked at me with wide eyes.
I nodded at the empty cart. “Why is this empty?”
Reece looked confused for a moment. “I don’t know. Why are you following me and not putting anything in it?”
She sounded annoyed, and I’d have smiled at the glimpse of fire inside her if I wasn’t so annoyed right now.
“I’m not shopping for you. I don’t know what you like. You need to do it yourself.”
“Shopping for me?”
“Why else would we be here?”
“Because you told me I had to come.” She looked confused again, and I cast my mind back to earlier. Surely she knew we were here because she had nothing to eat in the cottage.
“You don’t have any food, and I’m not watching you starve.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the first aisle before I turned her to face what was offered. “Shop,” I said, nudging her in the direction she needed to go.
Reece looked at me with a bemused look on her face, pulling her bag tighter to her side, and then slowly walked down the aisle, actually looking at the shelves this time. When we made it to the end, and she still hadn’t put anything in the cart, I was ready to shake her.
“What’s happening now?” I asked through gritted teeth as I stopped the cart and refused to go any further.
There was barely any meat on the woman, and if I had to sit her down for every meal and watch her eat, I’d do it.
“I just need bread, peanut butter, and maybe?—”
“No.”
“No? Is that your favorite word or something?”
“No.” The corner of my mouth ticked up again, and now I was ready to shake myself. “You need proper food.”
Reece shuffled awkwardly. “I don’t really have much. I can survive for a while with just?—”
“No.”
When her eyes flicked up to me, I could have sworn she was getting ready to punch me. It lit a fire in me in response that I didn’t want to acknowledge.
“I’m paying,” I told her. “Think of it as an advance.”
Reece opened her mouth to argue, but then it slowly closed before she said a word. She knew she needed this, and I could see how hard it was for her to accept it. Instead of waiting for her to say something, I headed back to the beginning of the aisle again. This had better be the last time today because people were already looking at us funny.
Reece followed quietly, and then she finally shopped. Every time she picked something up, checked the price, and then put it back on the shelf, I grabbed it and put it in the cart while she wasn’t looking.
She didn’t notice until we’d made it to the end of the aisle, and when she went to thank me, Marie from the bakery stepped into view.
“Booker! Why don’t you introduce me to your lovely friend,” she said warmly.
My presence in the grocery store with an unknown woman would be all over town in less than an hour. The gossip would go wild with this.
“Hi! I’m Reece Graham,” Reece said, stepping forward to shake her hand.
It probably wasn’t a good sign that this was the first time I’d learned Reece’s last name.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, dear. That’s a nasty bruise on your face.”
Oh hell, I really hadn’t thought this through.
“Erm, yes,” Reece said awkwardly, her fingers coming to her eye as if to remind herself it was there. “Hopefully, the last one I get.”
I hated the sight of that thing on her face. It made me want to punch something every time I saw it. It was definitely the last one Reece would ever get because as soon as I found out the name of the guy who’d given it to her, I was breaking both his arms. And there was no doubt in my mind this had happened at the hands of some guy.
Marie looked at me, her head cocking to the side as she thought. The scowl on my face actually made the strange woman smile. “Well, by the looks of it, Booker is going to make sure of that. Now, my name is Marie, and I run the bakery in town. Make sure you stop by soon, and we’ll have some cake and a chat.”
Reece thanked her, and then they hugged before Marie walked away. What was with this girl and hugging random strangers?
The rest of the time we spent in the store was a test of my sanity and patience—of which I had none.
Every person we came across stopped and introduced themselves to Reece, and she had a standing invitation to four people’s houses, the bakery, and apparently a discount at the beauty salon waiting for her.
Every. Single. Person.
I was pretty sure I was about to crack a molar with how hard I was grinding my teeth. The whole while, I’d pushed the cart silently behind her, praying that the world would end.
When we finally approached the register, Reece turned to me with a smile. It was the first genuine smile I’d seen on her face, and it made her breathtakingly beautiful. A simple trip to the grocery store shouldn’t be able to have this effect on a person.
“If you grumble any louder, people are going to talk,” she quipped.
“You’ve never been to a small town before, have you?” I asked, and she frowned in confusion. “They’re already talking. They never stop talking.”
She grinned again, and I rolled my eyes. This couldn’t be a normal response.
“I think I like it here.”
That simple statement shouldn’t have made me as happy as it did, so I grumbled in annoyance just to balance it out in case this happy shit was catching.
“Do you know if they have any magazines?” Reece asked, looking around. “I was hoping to get something for the cottage.”
I could have cursed then. She didn’t have a TV. In fact, the cottage was lacking in most things electronic because I hadn’t had time to set it up. There wasn’t even a coffee pot. Damn.
“I know a place,” I said, internally cursing myself for forgetting something as simple as that.
I had enough stuff in my kitchen to stock her up with the pans and stuff that she’d need, but I’d need to order her a coffee pot and some other things. Reece wouldn’t like it, but the cottage needed it, anyway. Maybe I could just put it in the kitchen without her noticing.
When Reece squinted at me in suspicion, I almost smiled. At least she had some vaguely normal reactions. So I did what any other normal person would do, and I turned my back to her and loaded the groceries onto the register.
It could be a surprise. She’d probably like it. And I refused to acknowledge how happy that made me.