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“It’s for the stuff you’ve been leaving outside of the shed for me. I don’t take handouts and wanted to pay you for it all. I’m not sure how much the blow-up mattress cost you, so if you need more, let me know.”
“I didn’t give it to you in hopes of being paid back. I figured you didn’t have enough to get yourself that stuff, seeing as how you were sleeping on that beat-up rug.”
“Well, now that I got my paycheck, I’m able to give you the money for it.”
“I don’t want your money.”
“And I didn’t want your help, but here we are.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why can’t you take people helping you?”
“Because I know that they can throw it in your face down the road.”
“Have you honestly been burned that bad?”
I swallowed hard, and my silence was his answer.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at me—and I mean really looked at me. He stared as if he was trying to uncover my secrets, and I looked at him the same way, as if I could tap into the words Ian often felt and never showcased. He might’ve been a grumpy man, but that anger came from some source, and I couldn’t help but wonder where exactly. What root of past struggles fed his grumpiness? Who or what had made him that way?
And why in the hell were women attracted to him at all?
I couldn’t ever imagine being intimate with someone as cold as Ian. There couldn’t have been any heart in their interactions—he didn’t seem the type to give too much of himself to anyone.
Then again, being intimate with him would mean he was shirtless, and that wasn’t such an awful idea to me.
“Listen, it’s supposed to downpour over the next few days. You can’t stay in that shitty shed. Even with me fixing up the roof, it’s still not sturdy. Everything you own will get ruined, and you’ll probably get real sick. Just take the room at my place. I’ll even stay somewhere else if you’re uncomfortable with me being there.”
“Why would you want me to stay with you? It’s clear you can’t stand me.”
“It’s also clear that you’ve fallen on hard times. If you need the place to crash, the door is open to you.”
“No, thank you.”
He released a weighted sigh and shook his head. “You’re so damn stubborn. It’s not safe around these parts at night, all right? Just because we live in a small town doesn’t mean there aren’t some creeps around. I’ve caught one too many wandering on the grounds in the past.”
“It’s fine. I can protect myself.”
He huffed as if he didn’t believe me. “Whatever you say, darling.”
Darling.
Way to make me gag.
He started to walk away and said, “But I bet showering with the water hose outside the stables isn’t the most pleasing sensation.”
I showered with that water hose extremely early, and the idea that Ian had caught me made my stomach turn. “How did you know I was showering with the hose?”
“Because that’s what I would’ve done.”
He left me standing there in the open field with a million thoughts I wanted to decipher. Instead of wasting more time trying to understand the mind of Ian, I went to work. Thank goodness for the hard work at the ranch. It gave me zero time to overthink things.
It’s just a stray dog; it’s just a stray dog.
Those were the words I kept on repeating to myself as I heard rustling outside the shed.
Or maybe it’s a chicken who got out of the coop. Or a cow roaming around. Maybe Dottie is here for girl talk.
Or perhaps it’s a psychotic mass murderer who’s here to skin me alive and make a stew out of my body parts.
