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“No, sorry, I just spaced out. What did you ask?”
“Oh.” He’d finished both of his sandwiches and he rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. “I was just wondering if all your stuff was back in your car? You said you stalled on the road? Did you leave even like, your purse there?”
Oh. Right. Crap.
I reached for my coffee and took a big gulp. Shit. Too hot, too hot. I coughed and slammed the ceramic mug down on the table, waving my hand.
“Oh damn, are you okay?” Reece jumped up from his chair and I was even more embarrassed. “No, I’m fine,” I gasped. “Just…hot.”
“Here, let me get you some water.”
Then, just like that, he disappeared inside the house and came back with some water. So obviously it hadn’t been his dirtiness keeping him out earlier.
He returned with a glass of cool water and handed it over. I took it thankfully and took a long drink. “Thanks,” I croaked afterwards. Then I looked back out towards the cows. “Do you think it’s been twenty minutes yet?”
Reece let my not so smooth change of topic pass graciously, standing up. “Yeah, looks like she’s not gonna let the calf nurse. And we gotta get some colostrum into the little buddy.”
He did that thing where he rubbed his hand down the back of his neck, looked out at the dark ranch, then back at me.
“It’s late, and if you don’t have a place to stay for the night, I can’t imagine Ruth would mind you crashing here tonight. She pointed out some rooms for me and my brother. I can put you in mine. There’s a bunkhouse for ranch hands and I’ll stay out there for the night.”
“Oh my God, no, I wouldn’t want—”
But he held out a hand. “Look, I don’t know your circumstances and I don’t need to. But no way you’re sleeping out in the cold or trying to find anywhere else when there’s a perfectly good bed right upstairs. And I want you to feel comfortable, so I’ll stay out in the bunkhouse. It’s perfectly good for the hands and up until recently, that’s what I been. I don’t need to go getting fancy all of a sudden. Please. It’d mean a lot to me.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Then I put my hands on my hips. “How did you just twist those words to make it sound like I’m doing you a favor by sleeping in your comfy bed and sending you out to the bunkhouse?”
It was not normal logic and half of me was amused while the other half was trying to search out the trick in it.
He cracked a grin. “Cause I’m just that good?”
I shook my head. “Fine, but I’m coming to help with the calf.”
He started to wave his hand, but I butted in. “Surely you aren’t going to rob me of the chance to see it through with this little baby calf. Plus earn a little bit of my room and board by helping out any way I can to salvage my dignity?”
His left eyebrow popped up. “Did you just twist those words to make it sound like trying to let you off the hook and knock off early would be insulting?”
I started down the porch stairs. “I guess I’m just that good?”
His laugh followed me.
Chapter Five
My eyes were crusty with sleep when I finally blinked them open against the bright morning sun.
And then I shot up in bed, panic spiking through me.
Bed.
I was in a soft bed.
But when I looked around, it wasn’t pristine eggshell-white walls and the muted light from the morning San Francisco fog coming in the windows. Nope. It was all yellowing mid-century wallpaper and a window with bright sun shining through instead.
I collapsed back dramatically into the soft mattress and soft pillow.
Jesus Christ. I just hadn’t slept anywhere soft since I’d left San Francisco.
Was this what it would be like for the rest of my life? Always terrified that my life now was a dream?
