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Ted came out of the hallway, and he looked much more relaxed in a pair of fresh blue jeans and a white polo with blue and green stripes. She stared at him, because he commanded that she did.
Thankfully, she wasn’t the only one. Spencer had paused in his flirtations with Jess, and they both watched him step over to Ginger and Nate and say something.
Nate grinned and clapped the equally tall man on the shoulder. Then he turned away and picked up a black cowboy hat, handing it to Ted with his eyebrows raised.
Ted looked dubious, but after a few seconds where Nate said something Emma couldn’t hear across the room, Ted took the hat and settled it on his head.
Her breath seized in her lungs, because the cowboy hat only made him more desirable. Her blood heated to a point where she felt scalded from the inside out, and she quickly ducked her head and tucked her hair when Ted swung his head toward her.
Ginger called to Jess, and she said, “I’m up. I knew she was going to give him to me.”
“You’ve got this,” Spencer said, and Nick went with Jess too, as he’d just been assigned to the horse herd as well. Obviously, Ginger was going to have Ted join that crew, and Emma didn’t think Jess really minded. She was always asking for more help with the horses, and this way, she’d get it.
“When are you going to ask her out?” Emma asked, picking up a baby carrot. She swiped it through the dill dip and looked at Spencer.
He kept his eyes on the group across the room for another moment and then looked at Emma. “Who?”
“Jess, duh,” she said. “You’re flirting with her like crazy. And she does the same with you.”
Spencer smiled and shook his head. “I don’t think that’s true.”
“Then you’re blind.”
Spencer sobered and looked back at Jess. “Do you think she’d say yes?”
“Yes, Spence, I think she’d say yes.”
He looked at her, surprise in his eyes. “Really?”
“Sure,” she said. “You’re a good-looking guy, Spence. And you work hard, and you’re smart. Why wouldn’t someone want to go out with you?” Just because they all worked crazy hours at the ranch didn’t mean he couldn’t sneak away and go to dinner with someone. It was hard to meet people on the ranch, Emma could acknowledge that. It was also why this job and life appealed to her so much. She rarely interacted with people she didn’t already know, and in a lot of ways, that provided an extra layer of protection from her past that she really craved.
“You didn’t want to,” he mumbled, and Emma’s heartbeat skipped over itself.
“That’s because of me, not you,” she said as casually as she could, focusing back on the group where Ted stood. Really, she just focused on Ted. If he asked her to dinner…Emma almost spontaneously combusted just thinking about it.
Of course, she wouldn’t go. She’d say no, just like she had to Spencer. They hadn’t met, and Emma didn’t date. The end.
She told herself that for the rest of the party, never more relieved than when the cowboys started heading out the door to get their evening chores done.
“I’ll show you your room,” Nate said, heading for the exit with Ted in tow. Emma stayed in the kitchen, because she mostly manned the kitchen too, and she’d start cleaning up before she wandered back into the office to finish…whatever she needed to do that day.
She didn’t know, because her mind blanked as Ted looked her way and their eyes met. He reached up with his left hand and touched the brim of that sexy cowboy hat, clearly saying good-bye to her without having to use his voice.
Emma froze to the spot and watched him go, his gait easy and casual. Nothing inside Emma felt easy and casual as her whole body throbbed with her pulse now.
“Okay,” Ginger said, appearing in front of her. “I’m headed out too. Thanks for putting all of this together for Ted.” She hugged Emma, and Emma wished she could relax into the embrace. Ginger had always made her feel so safe and so loved, and it was literally because of the auburn-haired beauty that Emma had survived after she’d had Missy.
“All right,” Emma said. “I know Bill kept good records in the stables for you.”
“Yeah.” Ginger stepped back and sighed. “I always feel behind.”
“You were gone for the weekend,” Emma said. “You’re allowed to leave the ranch sometimes.” She picked up the lid to a container of ranch dip—store bought—and clicked it into place. “Did you and Nate and Connor have a good visit with his family?”
“Yeah,” Ginger said slowly. “It was good. I think his family was surprised he’d gotten engaged so quickly.”
“We were all a little surprised by that,” Emma said, glancing at Ginger. “And I was because of you, Ginger.”
“I know.” Ginger looked toward the back door, where the cowboys had gone. “I do love him, though.”
