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Chewing my own food, I think it over.This almost sounds too good to be true.“I’d have to have you speak with Mom because she’s the one who knows exactly what we need.”
“Of course.”Erin shrugs, drawing my attention to her smooth, bare shoulder as she licks some sauce off her thumb.“Happy to do that.”
“You don’t even know what I’d pay you or how many hours it would be.”
“Grumpy,” she says, “I was shoveling horse poop the other day in the barn because I wasbored,and you won’t let me clean the house.”
“I have a housekeeper that comes once a week.”
“And she does a great job, but I’m saying if I get bored enough to muck out stalls, then I most certainly have time to work on the bookkeeping.I mean, I understand that it would mean that I’m privy to the financial side of things, and if you’d rather I didn’t have that information, I totally get it.I would, of course, sign any NDA or contract that you’d want me to sign.”
Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that, but it would likely be the smart thing to do.“I can have something drawn up if it ends up being something we want to pursue.”
“Great.”She grins and takes a sip of beer.“So, now that we have that figured out, I have questions.”
“Shoot.”
“I want to know about this rivalry with the Lexington family.”
I set my empty plate aside and stretch my feet out, resting them on the coffee table.“Who told you about that?”
“Your sister.”She looks like she wants to say more, but she shakes her head and continues.“She said that your two families hate each other.”
“Hate’s a strong word, but yeah.We don’t get along.”
“Why?”
“It’s always been that way.”
Erin laughs and setsherplate aside, then pulls a peppermint out of the tiny pocket on the side of her leggings and pops it into her mouth.“Wait, you’re telling me that you have it out for a whole family just because it’salways been that way?That seems…stupid.”
I can’t help but laugh with her.“Well, when you put it like that, yes.It’s stupid.But we’ve owned land that borders each other for more than a hundred years.”
“Yeah, Millie mentioned that part.Your two families basically settled the town back in the day.”
I nod and switch to her other foot.“We did.There were always fights about property lines.Wayback in the day, they would shoot at each other for it.”
“The wild, wild west,” she says, her eyes shining with interest.“Cool.”
“Yeah, cool until someone got killed.We’re not as violent these days, but it’s not unusual for lawsuits to happen.”
“For fuck’s sake, Remington, it’s been more than a hundred years, and you guys can’t figure your shit out?If the women were in charge, it would have been settled a century ago.”
“That might be true.”I shrug, then lift her foot and kiss her big toe.“For the most part, we don’t like each other.Don’t trust each other, really.I don’t give a rat’s ass what they do on their property as long as it doesn’t make its way onto mine.As long as what they do doesn’t interfere with my beef or my people.But inevitably, I find fence taken down here and there.”
“It’s so weird to me,” she murmurs, but she settles back with her eyes closed as I continue to knead her foot.“You’rereallygood with your hands.”
“I’m glad you think so.Do you have a favorite flower?”
“Daffodils,” she says, her eyes still closed.“They’re happy, and they’re the first to pop up in the spring, as if they’re too excited to be here and can’t wait another minute.”
Most women would say roses or something common.But not this girl.
“They should be popping up soon,” I reply.“It’s getting warmer.”
“Is it possible we might have more snow this spring?”she asks.
“Probably not, but it’s never impossible.I’ve seen it snow in July.”
