Page 9 of Sigh of Relief

“Goats?”

“Well, I can bend down to pull what’s left of the weeds or I can spare my fifty-five-year-old back and let Ruby’s goats do it.”

“Work smarter, not harder.”

“Exactly.” He took another sip, then jutted his chin toward Elton’s scuffed and faded boots, the opposite of yesterday’s shiny ones. “Those look like they’ve seen some hard work.”

“Volunteer services in Oakland.” He tapped his toes and bits of sawdust floated into the air. “Mostly repairing houses and building ramps for vets, plus the occasional clean-out.”

“And you brought them with you?”

He narrowed his dark eyes. “Why are you interrogating me?”

“It’s you or the birds.” Which were singing up a storm this morning, excited for the rising sun after days of rain.

Elton lowered his feet and stood while his voice dropped the opposite direction, practically rumbling. “I’m a Bureau EAD. If I want something . . .” He loomed over Archer in a way that made him consider all the possible meanings of those words, that made Archer want to take him inside rather than out into the vineyard.

And then the heated bubble burst, Elton lifting his mug again and slurping a sip. “Like this coffee.” At Archer’s quirked brow, he added, “Lotta lockpicks in my life these days. And Ezra’s locks are shit.”

Archer couldn’t help but laugh at this man’s many contradictions. “You keep ruining all my special agent notions.”

Heat flared in Elton’s dark gaze, followed by a chaser of doubt, before both were replaced by his typical easy smile. “Let’s hope I don’t also ruin your vines.” On the heels of the other emotions, his usual casual charm seemed almost forced today.

Archer didn’t like it. Didn’t like Elton stepping back either, Archer instantly missing the heat of his body. Missing his carefree teasing and sinful grins. He wanted to ask Elton to ruin him instead. He suspected that that’s what the surprising federal agent had wanted to offer too, but for some reason, Elton had pulled back.

Archer could wait. He’d been waiting fifteen years.

“You can handle it,” he teased Elton instead, letting him take from that whatever he needed. About the vines or otherwise.

Chapter Six

They were near where Archer had stopped the ATV yesterday, on the sunny side of the slope among the higher altitude vines. Pruning shears in hand, Elton stood beside Archer, who was untangling long, woody canes that grew from the crown of the grape trunk in front of them. “We’re gonna cane prune these blocks.”

“They don’t have the cordons,” Elton said, putting to use more of the vocabulary he’d learned that morning when spur pruning the lower-elevation vines.

“Ten cuidado,” Miguel said from a row over. He and his sister, Daniela, had met them at the barn that morning and ridden out with them. “Si te apuras mucho, va a terminar convenciéndote de que trabajes aquí.”

Elton laughed. He wouldn’t mind being recruited to work for Archer, and not just because Archer was hotter than anyone he reported to at Justice. “Sería mejor que mi jefe actual.”

“¿Tú crees?” Daniela said.

Between shit talk and sports talk, she and Miguel had kept Elton in stitches all morning.

Archer, meanwhile, had done his grumpy best to keep them on track. “Váyanse al carajo,” the taskmaster grumbled even as he fought a smile.

If Elton hadn’t been charmed by Archer Scott already, today’s shy smiles and well-timed jabs would’ve done the trick. Not to mention his patience while teaching him to spur prune earlier—and now as he waited to teach him something else new.

Elton schooled his features but not his flirtation. “De acuerdo, jefe. A ver, dime qué hago.”

Archer bobbled his shears and blood rushed to his cheeks, the blush attractive as hell.

Elton was tempted to tease some more, but Miguel and Daniela were pulling ahead on their row. They’d had a sort of competition going all day, and Elton did not like to lose. He wouldn’t be the reason he and Archer fell behind. “You said we were ‘cane pruning’ these?”

Archer nodded. “Because of their age and the higher elevation.” He continued to explain how cane pruning enhanced air circulation and light penetration, reduced the risk of disease, and with these varietals, produced better fruit. “So, what we’re gonna do is leave two canes.” He selected two out of the several canes growing from the trunk in front of them and laid them along the wire lines that ran with each row. “Then we cut the rest.”

Elton appreciated the confidence but . . . “I’m not gonna be the one who picks the wrong canes.”

Archer chuckled. “I’ve got that part. You just cut the rest like this.”