“Thank you,” Ayana said, handing the four small plates around like they were family catching up.
She stuck a fork in the nachos and eased some out onto his plate and then hers and handed the fork to Cash, who paused and then shrugged and dished out some nachos for himself and then handed Rohan the serving fork.
Telford’s stomach felt knotted.He had no desire to eat.And nachos weren’t healthy, but he felt an unexpected… something from Ayana to play nice, be social, get information if he wanted it.Take a bite literally and metaphorically.
She dug in.“I saw a Mexican restaurant when we rolled into town.Any good?”
“Rosita’s,” Rohan said.“Family-owned like most almost all the businesses in town.Delicious.One of my family’s go-tos, but most dinners we have together at the ranch.”
Rohan took a bite.Chewed efficiently.Looked at Cash.
“Still not sure why you’re here,” Cash said.“Not sure how I feel about it.But it’s a free country.I took a DNA test to make sure my relationship with the Telfords was real.”
As a challenge, it was a dropped glove.
“I only arrived a few weeks ago,” Cash said.
Telford had been about to pick up a loaded chip.Do what Ayana thought of as the social dance.He dropped it.
“We all took a DNA test,” Rohan said.
That grabbed Telford’s attention.“To what end?I didn’t come here to take anything from you.”
Well, he hadn’t had a definitive plan.Ayana’s interest turned from nachos to him.
“Not a damn thing,” he added, certain now.
He’d been considered by many to be ruthless in business, but if the Telfords were family of a sort, he didn’t need to follow his bio dad’s cruel indifference or perhaps meddlesome destruction.
“That’s what I said,” Cash muttered.“But still, you’re here.”
“On my honeymoon.”How he pulled that word out of his memory while the walls closed in, his ears rang, and his brain leaned into overload was a miracle.
“We wanted to see if the rumors were true,” Cash said and popped a chip in his mouth.
“Your ambush didn’t feel all that friendly,” Telford noted.
“Meeting tonight’s a beginning,” Rohan said.
He thought about that.Looked at both men.Did he want a beginning—was that why he was here more than building something for Cam?Did he want to meet family?See a family ranch that he could have belonged to but didn’t?Be a stranger on legacy land.He’d been on the outside his whole life.His mother, strong and fierce with an independent spirit, had been unprotected when she’d needed family and protection most.
The potato skins arrived, but Telford pushed up and away from the booth.Ayana followed him, stood by his side.
“I’ll be in touch,” Telford said, turning on his heel, he strode out of the bar, telling the server to charge everything to his suite.
*
“I need arun,” Telford said, unlocking the suite door and standing aside so she could enter first.
He looked like he was barely holding it together and might immediately bolt.Tension sizzled through him, doing something spectacular to his already ode-worthy eyes.He shrugged out of his blazer and unbuttoned his shirt.
“Ummmm…” She stared at his tanned, cut physique.“Is there a gym here?”She should have considered that—not that she had workout clothes beyond one matching soft, stretchy rose pink cotton lounge suit.Her jobs had always been physical—standing on her feet all day and hustling—so beyond doing some stretching at the end of a shift, or walking or dancing on her nights off, she didn’t have an exercise routine.Maybe she’d need one.
Captain America Telford certainly had an exercise routine.
She stared like a perve.Would he shuck off his pants next?
He stalked to his room and returned wearing light-weight athletic pants and a vest with reflective strips.
