AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Good Lord, she was never going to get out of here… “Sounds great!” she said, trying to match Maryanne’s energy. “I’ll do my best.” It was a half-truth. Although she’d decided to stay a while longer, she wasn’t sure how long. She might very well be gone by then.
“Wonderful, I’ll see you there!”
Vivian’s brows rose. “Well, I’d better get going.”
“Oh yes, go, go! I’ve talked your ear off long enough. Gretta would simply kill me if her eggs went bad.”
Smiling, Vivian pushed her shoulder into the door and backed the cart out. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Oh you, too, sweetie! We’ll catch up later!” Maryanne called after her.
Later? Hoping she didn’t mean later that day, Vivian pushed the cart toward the truck and a waiting Nash, glaring at him all the way.
“Need help?”
“Ineededhelp an hour ago,” she snapped.
He raised his hands and chuckled, then started pulling bags from the cart and putting them into the truck bed. “Looked like you made a new friend. Who am I to come between that?”
“Gretta thinks you’re a gentleman. I still say you’re a jerk.” She huffed. “What is all that?”
Busy loading the bags, Nash cast her a quick glance then followed the direction she was looking. “You never seen hay bales before?”
Instantly feeling stupid, Vivian replied, “Of course. Do I look like I just fell off the back of a truck? What I meant was why so many?”
“Darlin’, if you think that’s a lot, then you ain’t seen how much a horse can put away in a day.”
“City girl, remember?”
“Right.” He tossed the last of the groceries into the back and shoved the cart away, not bothering with a corral because apparently, they didn’t believe in them around here. Surprising her, he reached past her and opened the passenger door. “With all your charms and gentle ways, I forget sometimes you ain’t from around here.”
Moving past him, careful not to get too close, Vivian ignored the warm and enticing scent of leather and musk and those sparkling blue eyes and climbed into the truck. “And sometimes it’s easy to forget that you’re a jerk, with that pretty smile and opening doors and all.”
Pushing the door closed, he gripped the window frame and leaned in. “Why, darlin’, was that a compliment, or do my ears deceive me?”
“Deception. Definitely deception.” He lingered there, giving that damning smile that she liked too much and staring with eyes that felt as if they were seeing right through her. Vivian clicked her seat belt into place. “Shake a leg, cowboy. Groceries are getting warm.”
After a moment, he patted the door and said, “Yes’m, Miss Daisy,” then tipped his hat and pushed away.
As he strolled around the front of the truck, Vivian pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. How could any part of her like him when he irritated her every fiber?
Because he’s a good guy, the little voice inside her head spoke up.
Yeah, well, she thought the same about Andrew, and look how that turned out. The best thing she could do for herself now was to keep her head on straight and her heart guarded because the last thing she needed was a rebound that promised to screw with her head even more.
EIGHT
Maybe a rebound was exactly what she needed. The thought entered her mind that evening as Vivian sat on the back porch beside Gretta, eating chocolate cream pie and watching the men tend to the horses and the land.
Nash was hot. Hotter than hot. Especially when he was…well…hot. The sun was setting, but the temps hadn’t fallen much. The heat was oppressive. Even more so watching a dozen men with a range of nice bodies working up a sweat and flexing their muscles.
“I love this view,” Gretta said as she rocked in her rocking chair and nibbled at her pie.
Vivian knew by the hungry look in her eyes that the woman wasn’t talking about the sunset. Laughing, she said, “In the city, you’re what the girls would call a cougar.”
“A what?” Pressing her foot into the wood, the rocking chair paused. Reluctantly, Gretta pulled her gaze from the men and turned it on Vivian.
“A cougar. You know, an older woman lusting after younger men?”
