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“Oh, Tanner.” Casey looks riddled with guilt, but that was not my intent.
She needs to know that I’m okay with it. I don’t care. “She knew no one would bid on me, so you took it upon yourself, and I’m grateful for that. You could have said no.”
“Have you ever tried saying no to that woman?” Casey says with a snort.
“I think if anyone could say no to her, it’d be you.”
She looks at me, thoughtful for a moment, and I can’t help but notice the pink in her cheeks. “I can’t accept all those spa treatments. It’s too much.”
“Don’t you deserve a day off?”
She shakes her head. “It’s not about what I deserve. The cows don’t care about vacation days. Or sick days, for that matter.”
“All the more reason to take a day for yourself.”
Casey fidgets with her hat, pulling it off and wiping nonexistent sweat from her immaculate brow.
“I can’t stand the thought of you being out by yourself doing my chores.”
I smile. “Makes no difference to the cattle who feeds them.”
“You’re lucky it’s not calving season,” she scoffs.
“Who says I won’t be here to help birth some calves come spring?”
“Because I know enough to know that’s not going to happen,” she claps back.
“Why don’t you let me try to prove you wrong? Go back to the house. Get undressed. Put on that robe I left for you, and get ready for your date.”
I urge Mary forward, so she’s next to Mr. Grant, facing the opposite direction. I’m close enough now that Casey could slap me if she wanted.
“What are you doing? You trying to intimidate me?” Casey accuses.
“No,” I grit out. “I’m trying to get you to listen to me. Go back to the house.”
Her eyes flash. “No. I don’t want to.”
“What don’t you like about this? The lack of control or the surprise factor?”
Casey narrows her eyes. “I just don’t like people telling me what to do, okay?”
It’s amusing how we’re both trying not to yell — and in turn, upset the horses — and yet we’re both irate with each other.
“Fine. Don’t take your spa day. Tell them all to go home. They’ve been paid for their troubles, so it’s no skin off my back. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Patsy and I gotta herd some cattle out of the weeds because somebody doesn’t have time to take care of her pigweed problem.”
I tug the reins and click my tongue, urging Mary back toward the herd, leaving behind the most stubborn, beautiful, aggravating, arousing woman I’ve ever had the misfortune to have known.
ChapterNine
Casey
It’s worse than I thought.
When I return to the house, the people have turned my kitchen and living room into a salon. Individuals dressed in all black are milling around. One of them has set up a massage table smack in the middle of the living room. Another has a manicure and pedicure station in the kitchen. Someone else I don’t know is washing my dirty laundry and cleaning the house.
Yet another person is baking something in the oven that doesn’t smell half bad.
A stunning woman with a blunt blonde bob approaches with scissors and a plastic cape. She holds up her hands in surrender when I back away cautiously. “Now, if you don’t want a trim, at least let me at those split ends of yours.”
