Page 14 of Daddy's Grumpy Cowboy

“It’s how I got you.” He shrugs.

She blushes hard. “That’s not entirely true.”

“I’m going to go shower off and start prepping dinner,” I announce, sliding out of my blow-up tube and into the waist-high water.

“Nooo, don’t go,” Erin protests. “We’ll stop meddling.”

“It wasn’t your meddling,” I fib. “I’m just hungry.”

Hungry for Caleb, mostly.

“See you in an hour?” Abel asks, making no effort to get me to stay. He knows when I need alone time, I’m not persuaded easily.

“An hour works,” I agree. “I’ll meet you guys at your place, we can grill on the back deck.” I have been craving kebabs all day, so at least I have those to look forward to.

Toweling off as I walk back to my rental, I can’t believe the odds when I run into Caleb. He’s watering the flowers in front of my porch, old jeans hanging low on his hips. His cut-off T-shirt is damp from the water he’s using and likely sweat because of the heat.

He stops short when he sees me.

“Hey,” he greets, tone even and hard to read.

“Hey,” I say in return, forcing a smile. “Haven’t seen you around in a bit.”

“Had to go into town this week,” he replies, looking guilty.

So he wasn’t avoiding me and had work to do, or he went to do the work so he could avoid me. Great.

“Well, I won’t bother you longer,” I tell him, pointing a thumb over my shoulder at the house. I’m just going to take a freezing cold shower and start cutting vegetables, pretending that I’m not daydreaming about our hike the whole time.

“You don’t bother me,” he utters quietly.

“You sure about that?”

He hesitates and I nod, making a move to walk away when he speaks up again.

“It’s just tempting,” he admits, rubbing the back of his neck and turning off the hose so that he doesn’t drown the plants. “To be around you, it’s tempting.”

I try not to frown. “And you want to ignore the temptation?”

“I have to,” he croaks. “I don’t… we live very different lives, Elias. Why should we torture ourselves by getting close and then having to pull away?”

My jaw ticks. “Who the hell said we have to pull away?”

“Come on,” he groans, rubbing the back of his neck like it aches. “Don’t pretend like a relationship between us is somehow feasible. My life is here, even if I wanted it to be where you are, I can’t afford that. I don’t have the ability to go wherever I want like you do. I’m stuck here.”

Oh, baby, you’re far from stuck here.

“Is this why you didn’t say yes to a date? Why you wanted no strings but only once?”

He shrugs, shaking his head. “Does there have to be more than that?”

Yes, because I can fix all of that.

“Do you want to come inside?” I ask boldly, refusing to feel ashamed. Caleb may think that giving in to temptation will lead to pain, but I’m already hurting without him. If he thinks money is an issue for me, he’s out of his mind.

I’ll give him my Amex right now if it means he’d let me take him out.

He blinks at me. “Elias?—”

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