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Leading her around a rusty old John Deere parked between barns, Cal found the Gator, a two-seater utility vehicle the farm manager had told him about. The vehicles were easy on gas and could handle the bumpy dirt roads better than a truck, especially traveling between fields.
“This is us.” He pointed it out to Josie and the two of them climbed in, the keys already in the ignition. “Where to first?”
He liked the close proximity of having her in the passenger seat. She leaned forward over the map and one of the white tassels from her blouse fell onto the paper he’d given her. Dark hair slid forward too, more pieces coming loose from the braid. Seeing the way she studied the map of the farmlands, devoting all her attention to the task, reminded him that she was here by choice today. She’d been willing to risk his questions and his company to do something kind for his grandfather.
Had that been part of the job? Cal knew his mother frequently looked in on his grandfather when she was in town. Though Hailey Decker hadn’t been born a Ramsey, Everett had always liked her, insisting she move back into the home where she’d raised his grandkids even after she divorced Cal’s father. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that his mom had asked Josie to keep an eye on Everett.
Even if that was the case, she certainly wouldn’t have been expected to exert this level of effort to humor the old man.
“Watermelons,” Josie announced, straightening from the paper. She pointed to a spot north of the barns. “If we start there, we can circle around and end the day near the hives.”
“Fair enough.” He turned the key in the ignition and followed the road in the direction she’d indicated.
He could be patient for one more day. See what he could learn about her without asking questions. Although he damn well wanted to know how someone had conned her. She didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who would be easily fooled.
They hadn’t even passed the big barn yet when she turned to him and said, “For what it’s worth, your mother knew I didn’t have any firsthand experience with bees.”
Surprised she was answering one of the questions he’d peppered her with in the greenhouse, he gladly filed away the information, keeping his eyes on the road.
Josie leaned back in her seat before she continued, “I emailed her a summary of what I’d been reading to prepare for the job, and she said what she was more concerned about was having someone who wasn’t afraid of bees and who was interested in learning about them.”
“That makes sense.” He pressed the accelerator harder once they drove beyond the barns. The wind in his hair helped cool him down. “I tried messaging my mother last night, but I haven’t heard back from her yet.”
He wanted to find out exactly what his mother knew about the caretaker she’d hired. If she’d done her due diligence before inviting a stranger into her home for three months. His mom had been through enough after Cal’s father had cheated on her. Living in the same town as Clint’s new wife couldn’t be easy on her either.
Cal planned to make sure no one hurt his mother again, including a doe-eyed brunette with a killer body and secretive past.
“She usually only has service once a week,” Josie reminded him, raising her voice to be heard over the noise of the air whipping past them. “I try to send her photos of the dogs and the garden, plus updates on your grandfather. She’s been worried about him.”
As was he. But he didn’t share that thought since his phone vibrated. Even in the bright glare of the sun, he could see his father’s number fill the screen for the third time that morning.
Damn it. Chances were his dad was sick of being avoided and wanted to talk to him about being cut. His father would have plenty of thoughts about how Cal had screwed over his own career. But what if he wanted to talk about Everett?
“I should take this call.” He steered the Gator over onto the shoulder, the vehicle dipping down on one side with half the tires sinking in the soft dirt alongside the gravel. “But straight ahead is the watermelon field if you want to have a look.”
Josie was already stepping out of the vehicle when he connected the call. His gaze followed her as she walked away, her denim cutoffs hugging her hips, inspiring a renewed hunger for that kiss he hadn’t taken back in the greenhouse.
He wanted her. And he was going to need her even more after he dealt with whatever his father had to say. One way or another, Cal wanted this day to end with him getting a whole lot closer to the sexy caretaker.
*
Josie couldn’t beginto guess what had transpired in Cal’s conversation with his father. But his frustration with the brief talk had been obvious the rest of the day. He’d tuned out completely for a little while, making follow-up phone calls to other people while Josie toured blueberry and strawberry patches. Cal had been present, but only as a driver while she peered at plants, took photos of fruit and flowers, and quizzed some of the farm workers she’d seen.
Even now, hours later while Cal drove her back to his mother’s place, she sensed his thoughts were elsewhere. Maybe it was because her own relationship with the only parent she’d ever known was complicated and frustrating, but she found herself empathizing. The county road wound beneath them as they rode with the top down in his sleek convertible, the buttery leather seats and high-tech engineering oddly out of place in this backdrop of four-rail fences all but buried in tall grass and weeds, crows squawking overhead as the sun sank lower in the sky. Grazing cattle and stubby trees dotted a hillside nearby while a tractor kicked up a thick dust plume in the distance.
“If you see Everett tonight, you should tell him his watermelons would benefit from bees,” she ventured, since he hadn’t asked for her opinions about the farming operation one way or another.
“You think he should use Mom’s hives?” Cal glanced her way, his green eyes lighting with an interest that had been absent for most of the day.
Either she’d found a way to distract him or maybe five hours had finally run out the clock on his brooding time.
“He could rent hives from someone else if he wants.” She shrugged. “But it would be easy enough for me to run them over there if I had a helper and a truck. Besides, if the bees don’t give him better results with the crop, it’s probably just as well if it doesn’t cost him anything to try it out.”
“Because you’re not sure this will work,” Cal confirmed, looking back at the road as they neared the turn for the Decker home.
“Everything I’ve read makes it sound like this would be a good time for the added pollinating power.” Reading was the super power of different girls. It had always given her a confidence advantage to consult books. And if nothing else, books provided an escape when the real world felt too unfriendly. “But bottom line, I can’t know for sure if it will make a quantifiable difference in the crop output.”
Cal mused over that while he throttled the car back to navigate the gravel road.
