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Chapter Three
Spencer accepted the invitation to clean up in the sink in the kitchen. It sat right next to the door leading back out into the customer area of the shop, and he listened to Clarissa talk in rapid-fire words to her daddy about the tiles in this shop and how they needed to be replaced.
He scrubbed at his shirt, finally tossing the rag into the sink. The shirt was ruined anyway. He sighed as he looked up to the ceiling. “What am I doin’ here?”
He didn’t have a good answer, other than he didn’t want to be at Hope Eternal Ranch anymore. His hopehadbeen eternal, and he still hadn’t found someone to spend his life with.
He had healed, though, to the point where he’d actually wanted a relationship that lasted longer than a few months. The problem was, every time he tried, he ended up left in the dust.
Women always chose someone else over him. Always.
Luck had never been on Spencer’s side. If it had been, he certainly hadn’t known it when his mother died when he was only thirteen. Or when his daddy had drank so much, night after night, that the farm where he’d grown up had been run into dust and weeds. A teenager could only do so much and keep up with school.
When his granddaddy had found out, he’d taken back the farm Spencer loved, and he’d been in the wind since. Basically.
He supposed finding the job at Hope Eternal had involved a fair bit of luck, but he knew his hard work had been what kept him there. That, and his connection to the owner, Ginger. She hadn’t owned the ranch at the time of his hiring, but they were close to the same age and both determined to prove something to the world.
In many ways, he’d grown up with Ginger Talbot. She was married now, with a baby and a step-son, and Spencer had seen her heal, grow, and change in the ways he wanted to. He just didn’t knowhow.
He felt like he’d gotten as far as he could go at Hope Eternal, and he simply needed a change. He had to take a chance. Take a risk. So he’d put out some interest in a new job at a new ranch. He’d been working at Hope Eternal for thirteen years, and he had the chops to handle almost anything.
When the Good Lord didn’t answer his question, he left the kitchen and came face-to-face with Clarissa Cooper.Almostanything.
He wasn’t prepared for this woman, and he should’ve been.
“I’m really sorry about your shirt,” she said through nearly clenched teeth. “Please do send the bill to the farm.”
“It’s fine,” he said, barely able to meet those dark green eyes of hers. They’d always made him want to lean closer and look deeper, and he knew if he did that, he’d fall in love with her all over again. “I’ll just throw it away.”
“All right,” Wayne said from the door of the shoppe. He opened it, setting the bell into motion. “You two have fun tonight.”
“What?” Spencer and Clarissa asked at the same time. She spun toward her father, and Wayne simply grinned.
“I thought you were going to show me the house,” Spencer said. He’d come for the final interview, but Wayne hadn’t asked him a single question. He’d shown Spencer the stable and the barn, talked about the milking part of the dairy farm, and then brought him to the shoppe, claiming they needed an evening pick-me-up in the form of ice cream before he took Spencer over to the house where he’d live if he got the job.
Spencer didn’t much care what the house looked like. It would be a private residence, and that felt like a step up to him, even if he didn’t own it and pay the mortgage. He wasn’t exactly tired of living with other cowboys, because he liked the company at night. But he almost relished the idea of having a place all to himself, where he could leave the radio on all night and not disturb someone else’s sleep, or walk around the house in his underwear on Sunday mornings before he put on his shirt, tie, and slacks and went to church.
“I said you’d get shown around,” Wayne said. “You’re going to be taking Rissa’s place, and she’s the expert. She’ll get you up to speed with the shoppe, and she knows which house you’ll be in.” He grinned widely at the pair of them, and Spencer didn’t like the twinkle in his eyes.
“It’s right next-door to hers.” With that, Wayne tipped his hat and walked out.
“Daddy,” Clarissa said, practically running across the shop after him. She yanked the door open. “I’m busy tonight.”
Wayne called something back to her, and her shoulders drooped. She hung onto the door for another few seconds, and then she closed it and pressed her forehead against it.
Spencer wanted to tell her she didn’t have to show him the shoppe. He’d seen the hours on the door, and they were closed. She likely did have plans for tonight, and they hadn’t included him for almost a decade.
That’s your fault, he thought.You should apologize.
Was nine years too long to go without apologizing? Spencer didn’t think so, because if his daddy showed up on his doorstep with his hat in his hand and an “I’m sorry, son,” dripping from his lips, Spencer would take it.
And it had beentwodecades of silence between him and his father. His throat suddenly turned to sawdust, and that had nothing to do with the cold ice cream stain on his shirt or the way Clarissa clung to that door like it was Captain America’s shield and she needed it to protect herself from Spencer.
“Listen,” he said. “I’m starving, and I’ll just go grab something and get out of your hair.” He wasn’t even sure if he’d gotten the job or not. Wayne had said he’d be taking “Rissa’s” place, but…had he gotten the job?
She drew in a breath and turned back to him, displeasure sparking in those dark green eyes that he’d once seen drift closed just before he kissed her.
A long, long time ago, he told himself. He couldn’t go get excited about the possibility of kissing her again.
