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“Bye, Aunt Beth.” Eli waved, giving her only a spare glance. “Bye, Mr. Grayson.”
Beth stepped up next to him, still carrying her stack of paperwork. “I thought you said you were bad with kids.”
“What?Yousaid I was bad with kids.” Grayson adjusted his hat.
“You’re exaggerating, but by the looks of it, you have been granted hero status.”
He couldn’t help but smile at Eli.
He pressed his fingertips into his temples and tried to rub the tight creases from his brow.
“I think we can both be professionals about this.” Beth leaned her back against the hitching post. “I’ll keep to my work. You keep to yours.”
Grayson let Beth’s statement float on the heat of the day. “You should know I’m not singing camp songs.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“It’s remarkable that you’re not allergic to anyone under the age of thirteen.”
He shot her a toothy grin. “Ha.”
“The bad news is you’re going to have to run the trail rides by yourself. I’ll keep looking for an assistant.”
“You must still be affected by your mishap in the book costume.” He picked up a curry comb that had fallen from the grooming bucket. “There’s no way one person can run the rides.”
“Sure you can. You’re capable.” She said it with a smirk and rolled her eyes. “Of course, I’ll keep looking for someone.”
The dust settled from Dylan’s Durango heading down the drive, and Grayson wagered he was about to make one of the worst mistakes of his life.
He faced Beth. “You’ve got to do it.”
Beth looked away, looked back at him. “Do what?” She started to step away from him.
“You can help with the trail rides.” Grayson stepped in front of her. “Noah said there won’t be a horse camp without two of us. It’s a safety issue.” And not only his ranch was riding on this. Every time he thought of Eli and his mom’s cancer, he thought of himself at that age. No kid should have to face the potential loss of a parent.
“I’ll find someone.”
“Really? Who are you going to get? Because Noah told me the two of you had already exhausted everyone you knew.”
Beth looked up at him, her lips rounded into an O.
Man, she had pretty green eyes. He’d never noticed the gold flecks. Or the way the sun had kissed freckles across her nose and cheeks. None of which he should notice, because Dylan would kill him. “You need this and so do I. You’ve got to help.”
* * *
Beth chargedinto the camp office, fleeing from Grayson’s demand. She didn’t like how she wanted to say yes to him, like she was under his spell again.
The very idea of it was preposterous.
She dropped the schedules, grant files, and waivers onto her desk—the desk, quite unfortunately, housed in the office that sat between the barn apartment and the tack room.
Hello—she had a lot of work to do already.
No way could she get back on a horse.
Nope. There had to be some other solution. Some other way she could help make this happen for both of them.
