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The fresh air in my lungs froze. “Excuse me?”
“To meet my sister? You’ll be around all summer, and this won’t be our last time getting together with her. She might stop by once in a while.” The corner of his mouth twitched, like he was in danger of smiling. “She’s probably afraid to scare me off if she pops over too much. I know she’d love to have us closer permanently.”
“You don’t plan to move?”
“My home is in Buffalo Gully.” The finality in his voice didn’t make sense. He could clearly work anywhere. Would he work more or less in his hometown? Was it the memories of his wife keeping him there?
I’d leave LA in a heartbeat if it wasn’t the best place to make a living. The city was very expensive, but the options were plenty, even if the market was highly competitive. Back to his question. Did I want to go? I didn’t get out much in Crocus Valley, and it’d be nice to see a new place and meet other people. Yet, I wasn’t looking to plant roots in town.
Ultimately, my paycheck dictated my answer. “If you need me there, I’ll be there.”
His expression softened again, and the furrow in his brow smoothed out. How old was he, anyway? I guessed a few years older than me, at least. Was he forty yet? “It isn’t mandatory, but I know the kids would like to show you everything, and you won’t have to cook tonight.”
“Oh, well, sold, then.”
His lips twitched. An almost smile. Good thing I hadn’t witnessed the full effect of a grin. My panties would melt right off. If I was wearing any.
Five
Cody
I leaned against one of the fence posts for the pen of Aggie and Ansen’s large, wooly Mangalitsa pigs. Aggie was next to me, and Ansen had Ivy on his shoulders. They walked in the pasture by the barn toward his horse, Shelby. Aggie’s horse rescue had first taken in five neglected horses, but she and Ansen had both bonded with them. They accepted other rescues, nursed them back to health, trained them, but they were sold. Same with a donkey. Another donkey was in the smaller pasture with an old, retired draft horse she was also thinking of keeping.
Grayson was creeping after chickens. He missed animals. We usually went to the family ranch once a week, if not both days of the weekend, and we’d been in Crocus Valley for almost a month. No horses. No cows. No uncles.
Tova was with him, still wearing those damn short shorts. I used superhuman efforts to keep my lecherous eyes off the crease of her ass cheek and thigh. After seeing her completely folded over, full view of how nice her ass was, my temperature soared. I’d never concentrated so hard to keep blood away from my dick. Then there was her pink, slightly see-through shirt. Her bra was yellow. Did she know I could see the color of her bra? Was it the fashion these days? Would I have to steel myself to stand up for Ivy if she wanted her bra to be visible under her shirt and the school thought it was too much? I’d have to channel Meg.
“So. A nanny?” Aggie murmured when Grayson and Tova disappeared into the barn.
“I needed help.”
“Mm.”
“She needed help.”
My sister slanted her gaze toward me. She looked more like she did when she was younger. Light reddish-brown curls surrounded her face. Less wild and more refined than when she was a kid, but not as polished as Meg had mentored her to be. Relaxed looked good on Aggie. So did being in love. “Saving stranded young women now?”
“News travels fast.”
She chuckled. “Alcott Knight isn’t used to being the talk of the town.”
I wasn’t. My siblings had roused enough drama in their day. Between Barns and his mouth, Mama leaving, Austen’s antics when he’d been a kid, Eliot’s decisions on the ranch, and the implosion of Aggie and Ansen’s first engagement, I hadn’t been centered in local gossip. Unless it was bringing Meg home to live in a big farmhouse not far from the ranch, no one paid me much mind. They had taken bets on how long Meg would stay in a Podunk town, and some days I’d been tempted to put in my wager.
“She’s good with them. I wouldn’t have hired her if she wasn’t.” The defensiveness landed wrong in my tone, and from the way a smile played over Aggie’s lips, she’d heard it.
“I get it, but I hope it doesn’t mean you’re still shipping them off to Meg’s parents.”
“Jesus, Aggie. Digging in hard already?”
“With four brothers, I had to be blunt to be heard.”
And we still probably hadn’t listened. “There isn’t a nanny like her in Buffalo Gully.” I’d have inappropriately noticed. “The kids complain about daycare, and they love the one-on-one attention.” Attention I couldn’t give them. Meg had known it.
Ivy and Grayson were blossoming before my eyes. Opening up like a rose after a summer rain. They smiled easier, complained less, and Tova said Grayson pulled out of his meltdowns with a little talking. They’d had a few friends at daycare, some at school, but the kids in Crocus Valley gravitated toward them in a way I hadn’t witnessed at home.
The reason might be due to the charismatic, welcoming-and-calming-while-being-everyone’s-personal-cheerleader nanny. Tova had a way with kids, not just mine. I could see the neighbor girl Catherine and her sneer from my office, but each day when she popped outside, unable to control herself, Tova would greet her, ask her how her summer was going, and invite her to hang out too. Never pressured her. Didn’t chide the girl for her attitude. Let her be while welcoming her in.
Aggie peered at where Ivy was petting Shelby’s flank. My kids knew how to behave around horses, but Ansen was cautious with her. The guy had gone from someone I hadn’t wanted around my sister to taking my kids for an afternoon of horseback riding. Ansen was just as engaged of an uncle as my brothers.
