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“At least no wild animals are going to sneak up on you,” Jase murmured.
They’d be lucky if they saw a spider with those two along. They’d never get a glimpse of a deer or a bighorn sheep or an antelope.
The girls, who attended the University of Texas in Austin, would graduate—or so they said—next spring. This was their last trip together before they got jobs or, as Gina suspected was their true mission, husbands. Why they’d picked a dude ranch for this quest was anyone’s guess, although they did seem to know how to ride.
“We’ve been riding since we were itty-bitty,” Ashleigh had told Jase that afternoon when he’d attempted, at their insistence, even though it wasn’t his job, to help find them mounts. “You put a saddle on any old thang, and we’ll ride it all day.”
That statement had apparently caused Jase to swallow his tongue, because he’d
started choking so badly he’d left the barn, abandoning the girls to Gina’s ministrations until supper time. They hadn’t been amused.
From what Gina could tell, the two could only relate to men and each other. Every other woman in their universe was either a nuisance or competition. Gina had learned quickly which group she belonged to when, earlier, Ashleigh flicked a dismissing hand in Gina’s face, then, at Gina’s blank stare, snapped, “Move!”
As soon as Gina did, the girls had begun to preen and posture like wild turkeys in mating season. When she’d glanced over her shoulder, she’d seen why.
The girls had decided what they really, really wanted to ride was Teo. He hadn’t had a moment’s peace since. Right now they were talking at him as if he were hanging on their every word instead of focusing all his attention on grooming an already well-groomed horse.
“They call us the As,” Amberleigh said.
“Because of our names,” Ashleigh confided.
“Not ’cause of our grades.”
“No shit,” Jase muttered.
Gina cast him a quelling glance. He widened his eyes and lifted his shoulders. “What?”
“They’ll hear you,” she whispered.
Jase snorted. “They aren’t going to hear anyone but themselves, which I think is just how they like it.”
Gina didn’t comment, since she had to agree.
“I’d almost feel sorry for pretty boy there, if he wasn’t going to get his pole shined so sparkly he goes blind from the glare.”
“You could have had your pole shined if you’d played your cards better,” Gina said.
Jase, who’d been grinning in Teo’s direction, stopped. “Why would I want to do that?”
Gina considered the As, whose artificially blond curls bobbed above equally artificial breasts. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“Disease, loss of self-respect.” One of the girls laughed again, and he winced. “Hearing damage. Hell, I’d probably shed IQ points just from listening to them breathe.”
“That’s harsh,” Gina said.
“Truth hurts. Besides, what happened to the ‘no bopping the customers’ rule?” Jase’s gaze narrowed on Teo. “Find someone you want to break it with?”
“We were talking about you.”
“Were we?”
Gina sighed. Jase could be so damn … Jase sometimes. And while his supposed Ute sixth sense was mostly BS, he did have a sense about Gina that was often dead-on.
Gina contemplated Teo. Did she want to break the rules with him?
Oh yeah.
Was she going to?
