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cision about unlocking the safety, and he could have—No. He didn’t want to imagine what could have happened.
“Okay to come in?” she asked through the closed door.
“Yeah. But what are you doing here?”
The door opened, and the most harmless intruder he could have imagined stood there in jean shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers, her hair tied back in a thick ponytail. Instead of looking at him, she stared wide-eyed at the rifle, as if she expected him to turn it on her. He lowered the butt of the gun to the ground.
“Uh. Hi.”
Her voice sounded strange, her smile a nervous one. She crossed her arms over her body as if she was freezing in a building that was always sweltering.
Because he was tempted to reach out to her, Asher took his time hanging the rifle back in its rack and locking the box of cartridges in the drawer. He couldn’t go to her. Not after she’d made a habit of rejecting him. But that didn’t make him want to any less.
So much for getting Willow out of his system by making love with her once. Hell, he couldn’t think of the pleasure they’d found together in her bed as anything short of the real deal. If that wasn’t a good enough warning for him to back away, he wouldn’t be able to pick one out on a billboard.
When he had his thoughts together, he finally turned back to her.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on someone like that. Especially lately. We’re all on edge. You could have gotten hurt.” His gaze flitted to the gun on the wall.
“Sorry. I didn’t expect...”
“We have to be on guard. We don’t know what we’re up against. You or my family.”
“I know.”
She shook her head as if frustrated with herself.
“Why didn’t you knock?”
“On the door outside? I did, but you didn’t answer, and it was unlocked. I would have tried your office door, but it sounded like you were talking to someone in here.”
“To myself. A habit of the solitary cowboy. You never said what you’re doing here. Where’s Luna?”
“Candace is with her. And when I stopped by your place, one of the housekeepers—I think her name was Neda—said you were out in one of the barns helping a cow give birth.”
That second part was a nonanswer, but she must have had a reason to be there, and she would tell him in her own time.
“Ten, actually.”
She tilted her head and squinted her eyes. “Oh. You mean the cows. Busy rancher, handling all those deliveries.”
“There were several of us. Anyway, the girls would probably argue that they were working harder than I or any of the ranch hands were. But I still wouldn’t stand downwind of me right now.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Nice office.”
“If you say so.” It was about as basic as a work area could be, with a desktop computer, printer, filing cabinets and a bulletin board. The only thing great about the place was that the others usually left him alone when he was working in it.
Willow paced the narrow space, scanning some of the posted safety and cow gestational documents on the wall. Finally, when Asher couldn’t wait any longer for answers, he tried asking another way.
“I mean, what are you doing on the Triple R? I thought you wouldn’t be caught dead here.”
Finally, she faced him, gripping her hands together. “It’s not so bad. Anyway, I thought we could talk.”
“If you mean about the other night, there’s not much left to say. You rejected my proposal.”
“That’s just it. I’ve been thinking about what I said. Maybe I was wrong.”
Asher rubbed at his forearms that were suddenly tingling. Wrong? She shouldn’t have said no?
