Chapter 10
CHARLIE
Olivia’s bright green eyes latched onto mine.
Her hand found her hip and exasperation crept onto her features, telling me she was about to launch into a lecture.
Whether it would’ve been about why she felt so strongly about opening her own door or about why she’d chosen to introduce herself to me again, I didn’t know and I wasn’t going to find out.
I tipped my hat to her and turned around. I had actual work to do and I was already starving. Lunch was still a couple hours away, but I wanted to get back here for it as soon as possible, which meant getting work done first.
As I walked away, my head was still spinning. I could barely believe Liv had turned out to be Olivia, Nathan’s daughter. Why the hell would the universe not toss another curveball my way? The revelation had come as an unpleasant surprise.
“Why do I get the feeling you don’t want to work together?” she asked from right behind me. I recognized her voice much too easily.
Sighing, I lowered my head and turned to face her, but I didn’t look up into those eyes again just yet. I focused on the dirt beneath our feet, the clumps and the dried sticks of hay mixed in with it. Whenever I looked at her, I felt that draw, and right then, I needed to not feel it.
“I can’t tell you why you have that feeling,” I drawled lazily. “I do know it’s important to always trust your own gut.”
When I finally brought my gaze up to hers, exasperation was making her eyes sparkle like the clear water down at our creek.
Something lurched deep inside me, calling to her from some hidden place that had never been stirred before.
It was an uncomfortable feeling, to say the least. Sure as heck not something I wanted or was used to.
For her part, Olivia seemed immune. Whatever part of me was calling to her, she clearly wasn’t hearing it. Instead, she tilted her head and a slight frown furrowed her brow. “Okay, so why don’t you want to work together?”
I shrugged, slid my hands into the pockets of my jeans, and stared back at her just as intently as she was staring at me. “There are a few reasons, starting with the fact that I like the way your father does things, and knowing you, a few of those things will change.”
She arched a plucked, dark blonde eyebrow at me, indignation flashing in her eyes. “You don’t know me.”
“Maybe so, but I can tell just by your personality that you’re not just going to keep doing everything the way he’s always done them.
” I shifted on my feet but never moved my gaze away from hers despite the sense of discomfort growing in my chest. “Working with women in the past also hasn’t worked out well for me, so I’m naturally wary. ”
Olivia hesitated, but then she smiled. “You don’t know me like you think you do, Cowboy.”
A smirk tugged at my lips. I couldn’t help it. She was so darn cute when she was being sassy. “I bet I do, Liv. Most city folks are pretty predictable.”
“Challenge accepted.” She winked at me, turning and tossing her hand up in a casual wave without looking back as she walked away.
As much as I hated to admit it, I watched her go, drinking in the slight sway of her hips and the way her skirt hugged her behind. My body reacted to her just like it had the other night, my dick and heart both swelling before I turned and walked the other way.
That deep pull to her that I’d felt before was still there, though. There was also some tension between us, but we truly were opposites. The tension was natural. To be expected.
The pull?
I couldn’t explain it.
All I knew was that I wasn’t going to allow the past to repeat itself. I wouldn’t open myself up to the marketing girl.
Engines purred to life behind me, letting me know that the cavalcade was leaving—and taking Olivia away from the ranch with it. A modicum of relief eased some of the tension from my muscles, but I also wished that she would’ve just remained a girl I’d had a great night with and might see again.
Working together complicated everything.
I also absolutely did not count this meeting as the universe putting her on my path again. Sure, I’d thought that if it was meant to be, we’d run into each other at some point, but this wasn’t what I’d had in mind. This was like some kind of cruel, karmic joke instead.
The first woman in a long time that had captured my interest like this, and the first ever that I felt so drawn to, and she turned out to be Nathan’s daughter. A woman I not only had to work with, but who was related to my dad’s longtime friend—and she was in marketing to boot.
That was as complicated and messed up as things got.
For the rest of the day, I wrestled with the reality that she was going to be living on the ranch for a few days.
I knew she wouldn’t be here forever, but it would sure feel that way once she arrived.
She was going to be everywhere, and although Dad hadn’t asked or told me this yet, I knew he was going to put me in charge of her.
I would’ve said no if I could stand the thought of him attaching her to one of my brothers or Dallas, but since I couldn’t, I was going to have to suck it up and do it myself. Standing behind the grill in my parents’ backyard, I flipped the burgers and listened to my brothers’ shooting the breeze.
Since the weather was good, Mom had decided we were having dinner out here and she’d set the long table on the grass for the evening. She and my brothers were already seated while Dad sipped his beer beside me.
“That marketing chick is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” Cody said with a hint of trouble in his voice.
Wyatt jumped in immediately. “Seriously, I had a hard time concentrating.”
I shook my head at them as I lifted the last of the burgers off the grill and slid them onto a waiting plate. “Grub’s up!”
Colt cheered and Mason fixed me with a questioning look, silently asking why none of us were telling Dad we’d met her and her friends before. The answer to that was simple.
Both Dad and Nathan would flip the hell out if they knew we’d all been out drinking together. They’d assume things had happened that hadn’t, or they’d jump to conclusions about our intentions with one another.
They’d sit us down and lecture us after a thorough inquisition, and they’d probably decide to handle at least next quarter’s marketing themselves. None of us wanted any of that to happen.
Not that I’d discussed it with Olivia, but as much as she thought I didn’t know her, I did. I knew she’d hate to lose this campaign simply because she’d agreed to dance with a stranger that night and had gone to a bonfire after.
Considering neither London nor Lacey had let on that they’d met us before either, I was pretty sure we were all on the same page about this one thing. In response to Mason’s unspoken question, I gave my head an almost imperceptible shake.
If Dad and Nathan found out eventually, then so be it. We were all adults and nothing had happened that should prevent us from working together. It was simply a matter of not rocking the boat unnecessarily.
Nathan was retiring and turning his company—his life’s work—over to his daughter.
Dad had been struggling for years with the idea of giving us more responsibility around here.
We’d been working on the ranch since we were kids and we’d been involved with the business side of it for just as long, but when it came to the decision-making, Dad had kept a tight grip on the reins.
Neither man needed to be given any reason to doubt us. Both had worked their asses off all their lives, and I wasn’t going to be the one who stole even a fraction of their peace about delegating and trusting us with more than they had before.
End of story.
It would only serve to create drama none of us needed in our lives. A storm in a teacup, so to speak.
Dad sat down at the head of the table with Mom on the other end. My brothers, Dallas, and I sat three to a side, filling out the entire length of the table. Heaven only knew what would happen once one of us started bringing a girl home for dinner.
We liked our space. I couldn’t think of many things worse than being crammed around a table with elbows smacking into me while I was trying to eat. Almost immediately, my mind put Olivia at the table with us—and not in the way she would be next week.
I put her next to me, as my guest. My girlfriend.
But then I realized what was happening and stopped that train of thought in its tracks. Just don’t go there.
Once Dad had made his burger, he folded his hands on the table in front of him and looked around, deliberately making eye contact with each of us in turn. He didn’t need to say a word for us to keep quiet.
It was obvious that he had something to say, and he shut us all up with just a look. As silence fell across the table, he nodded. “Before we say grace, I’m going to address those comments I just heard about the marketing chick.”
Wyatt and Cody exchanged a glance, but Mason, Dallas, and Colt all looked at me. I shrugged them off and returned my focus to my dad.
“Nathan and I have decided that Olivia will be coming to the ranch in two days’ time,” he said. “While she’s here, I need all of you to be on your best behavior. She’s not only our guest, she’s a professional who’s coming here to observe us and to learn more about how we do things.”
Mom smiled. “I’m sure they understand, darling. They’ll be fine. They’re just a little excited about a pretty new girl.”
“Some of us are more excited than others,” Cody joked under his breath, winking at me.
Dad scowled at him. “Be excited on your own time. If I find out that any of you boys have done so much as held her hand, I’ll personally have you do all the chores on the ranch on your own for two weeks.
This is my friend’s daughter as well as the new head of our marketing team. No playing around with her.”
I winked back at Cody as I reached for his hand, assuming we were finally going to say grace. As Mom extended her hands toward Colt and Mason’s, she glanced at me with a soft smile on her lips.
I knew she didn’t know anything about the other night but there was something about the way she was looking at me that suggested she might know something after all.
Her graying blonde hair framed her face in the same straight-cut bob she’d worn since I was a baby, but it was the look in her blue eyes that was different.
She bowed her head just in time for Dad to lead us in prayer. I wondered what she knew and how. Or if she was potentially only thinking back to what had happened with me and the last marketing woman.
Either way, I knew I was going to have to be careful. Dad had warned us all against her, but if Mom caught even just a tiny whiff of that pull I felt to Olivia, she wouldn’t stop until she saw me make her my wife—and that would be disastrous for all of us.