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"I was just going to ask if you needed me to grab anything. I'm on my way into Ashland to run a few errands."
Pete stopped to think and then shook his head. "Thanks for asking though. What are you going after?"
"Just a few things we need for maintenance. And since I'm there I think I'm going to stop in and meet the new vet. I've got the count of the mares we need to have checked, and I thought I'd give her a heads up about what our needs are. Jake tells me it's a lady vet."
Pete raised an eyebrow. "That surprises me."
"Me too. But you know Doc Halloran wouldn't have hired her if she wasn't the best around. I'd like to get a look at her." I said with a grin.
"Behave yourself, please," Pete said with an almost scowl. "We do not need to find a new vet right now. If you could keep your hands to yourself and your dick in your pants that would be great."
I threw my hands up in mock surrender. "I don't know what you're talking about."
My older brother shook his head. "I know you try to act like the twins are the ones with a reputation around here, but you've got one yourself with just about every new woman that moves anywhere nearby, and I would like if we could maintain a good relationship with someone we're going to be engaging with professionally for the foreseeable future. If she sticks around half as long as Doc Halloran, then she'll be here for the rest of her life, so unless you plan on marrying this girl, I want you to keep a wide berth of her."
I laughed. "I think you're taking it a little far. We'll have to see what she looks like first."
I waved to my brother as I headed back outside and over to my truck, starting the thing and speeding down the long road that led from the highway up to the main ranch house.
The drive into town was easy and uneventful, and the street parking in front of McCall's Hardware was nearly empty. I recognized all the vehicles there, save for one of them, and they all belonged to several of the older men in town who passed their time sitting on benches just inside the hardware store, sipping coffee that Mrs. McCall made every morning for her husband and the men who stopped by for what amounted to a gossip session.
"How are you doing there, Alex?" Charlie McCall bellowed from behind the counter as I pushed open the door and stepped inside the store, my arrival announced by the tinkling of a tiny bell overhead. I thought I detected a strange twinkle in his eye, but I couldn't imagine what that would be about unless one of the old codgers on the benches had just told a dirty joke.
"Not bad, just here to grab a can of WD-40 and a roll of twine if you've got the size I'm looking for."
"Good deal, you know where everything is. Holler if you need anything."
I nodded in greeting as I passed by the gentlemen enjoying their coffee and headed down the front of the shop until I found the aisle I was looking for. The lubricants were toward the back of the store, and once I found myself in the corner, I grabbed the can I was looking for and turned to head toward the rope and twine when I ran smack dab into a head full of curly red hair that barely reached the height of my collarbone.
"Sorry about that, miss. I..." I stopped and looked at the face in front of me and tried not to let out the gasp of surprise I felt when I realized I was face to face with Madison Graston, the woman I had thought I was going to marry, for the first time in a decade.
Chapter 2
Madison
The sign at the office needed a fresh coat of paint, and I was determined to do it myself, so I had walked down the street to McCall's Hardware to see if Charlie could mix up a nice sage green for me. When I turned the corner at the end of the aisle, I hadn't been looking and apparently neither had the man I ran into. His chest was hard and chiseled, something I could attest to as I brought my hands up to shield myself as I bumped into his pectoral muscles with my head. My hair was up in a loose bun, red curls spilling out. It was a work day for me at the office, but I was so busy trying to fix up the outside that I wasn't really focused on seeing clients in the office, and I dressed accordingly—in a pair of paint splattered overalls and an old kelly green t-shirt.
It took a moment for it to register whose face I was looking at. And when I finally realized whose face it was staring back at me, I couldn't look away.
Alex jumped back like he had stood too close to a wood burning stove and was risking burning himself, backing away slightly and then pausing to look at me.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Taken aback, I held up the can of primer that I would be using to cover the old paint on the sign once I made it back to the office.
"I needed paint," I said without attempting to explain myself any further. In the moment it was too shocking to see him, but it didn't take long for those buried feelings to start bubbling to the surface again. It had been ten years since we last saw each other. Ten years since the biggest fall out of my life. Over half of my life had passed by since the last time I spoke with Alex Killarny, and even though I knew the chance was high that I would run into him once I moved back into town, I hadn't expected it to be within the first twenty-four hours.
"You're back then?"
I nodded simply, and he nodded in return, his eyes never leaving my own. It seemed like a challenge, but what he was challenging me to I couldn't be certain of. All I knew was that I wanted to get out of the hardware store and back down the street to my office before we got any deeper than the ‘Hi, how are you?’ portion of this conversation. McCall's Hardware was not the place to have this talk, not that I was looking forward to the content of the discussion wherever it inevitably occurred, but I preferred that it not happen in the middle of what amounted to the gossip hub of this town. Anything that went down here would be all over town by the time people started heading to Claire's diner for lunch.
"I've...I've got to pay for this. See you around." I whipped around and walked toward the counter. It felt like he might have been following me, or at the very least his gaze was. I had a $10 out of my pocket and on the counter for Charlie before he could take the time to ring up the total.
"I'll be back later for the rest of the things I n
eed," I said as I hurried out the front door, the little bell ringing behind me as I stepped out onto the sidewalk, never pausing to slow down. My office was only a block away. A straight shot from where I stood and I wanted to get back there, to the safety of it, before Alex could appear from the hardware store and chase me down. Not that I thought he had any interest in doing so, but I really had no idea what was on his mind at that moment. Clearly, we were both equally surprised to have run into one another, and I could tell that he was feeling just about as enthused about the encounter as I had been.
What had shocked me the most though were the feelings that came surging back to me, like a jolt to my system. It had been ten years since I stood in front of him and just as long since he had last touched me, and already I could feel the desire for him growing again. There it was like it had only been yesterday when we were last together
