"Don't what?" he asks, his hands moving to my hips. "Admire the most beautiful woman I've ever seen?"
My heart flutters at his words. I reach for my clothes, suddenly shy. Tyler helps me dress, his fingers lingering on my skin as he fastens my bra.
"You know," he says, his voice low and intimate. "I think the steaks might be ready for the grill now."
I laugh, the sound surprising me. "Is that your way of saying I've distracted you from dinner?"
"Nope, it's my way of saying we know how to use time until the coals are ready." He grins, tugging up his jeans, tucking himself away, not bothering to snap them back in place.
I barely get my panties in place before Tyler takes the rest of my clothes away and dresses me in just his T-shirt.
"You don't need to bother putting clothes back on. After we eat, we're gonna go to the bedroom, and I'm finally having you in bed for once."
The promise in his voice sends a shiver down my spine in a very good way.
"What about Dash and Lexy?" I didn't want to be in just a shirt and panties when they get home.
"We've still got time before they get home," he assures me and places a gentle kiss on my lips. "Now, I'm gonna get dinner finished up so we can eat."
"Okay," I agree on a breath as my stomach makes itself known.
"Guess that's my cue." He chuckles, steps away, grabs a pan, then heads for the patio door.
While he does that, I watch him, unable to move from my spot in the kitchen. My mind whirls with all sorts of thoughts, all of them good. Great even.
For once, I block out the negative thoughts and let myself enjoy the glow of the moment without any doubt about what we just shared.
Chapter Twenty
Tyler
"Tyler, if you don't stop standing over my shoulder, I'm going to kick you in the shin," Delaney threatens, not bothering to look up from her task at hand.
"I'm not standing over you, Laney," I lie. I’ve definitely been hovering this morning. What can I say? I don't want her ass bent over the flower beds, weeding and cleaning them out. It’s not that she can’t do it, but I prefer it if she were up at Maddox’s with Della. At least then I know she’d be closer than she is here.
My place isn’t far from Maddox’s ranch house, only a few minutes, but still, she’s too far for my liking. It’s like a gut feeling I’ve got that’s bugging me. Other than the text messages she’s gotten, we haven’t heard or seen Philip. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t be up to something.
The past couple of days she’s been coming with me over to the barn only to go up to the house where she’s been working with Della on anything and everything that she needed help with. The two of them seemed to enjoy being in each other’scompany and working together. I think it’s helped Della to have someone assisting her. It took some of the stress off her. More than once when I checked on her, they’d been cackling like two teenage girls over boy bands.
Best of all, it seems Delaney has enjoyed doing all the things she’s been working on with Della. She hasn’t seemed to worry about the rest of what’s going on around her. Not the fire. Not the attack from Philip. Not his constant texting her. Not even the school board meeting coming up. This has been good for her.
“I don’t need you standing over me while I pull weeds,” she insists.
“I know you don’t, but why aren’t you helping Della this morning?” I ask.
“I’m helping her later today. She’s going to come here instead when she finishes running her errands and doctor's appointment.”
Damn.
“All right, fine, but if you need me, just call. If I don’t answer, just reach out to Maddox, he’ll make sure to get me on the radio in case I’m in a spotty area.” The ranch has several of those. It’s why we always carry backup radios as a precaution. The last thing any of us needs is another incident like what happened to Della and the damn rattlesnake.
Besides, it's not like I don't have a mile-long list to get done. If I don’t get to work on it now, none of it will get knocked out of the way as it needsto.
“Thank you,” she remarks, glancing over her shoulder, a beautiful smile beaming my way.
Stepping directly behind her, I lean down and press a kiss to the side of her head. "If you need me, I'm only a call away. Okay?”
"Okay, I’m just going to work on these beds. They need some mums, don’t you think?”Delaney looks up at me in question.
