Page 15 of Hold Me Until Morning

I tried to tamp the reaction I had at seeing him, how my traitor stomach twisted, and I forced a smile when Tyrek kept ambling my direction. He gifted me with the same welcome in his demeanor as he’d had when I’d met him yesterday.

“Good morning, Hailey.”

I gulped around the skittering of emotion and turned the rest of the way around. “Good morning, Tyrek. How are you today?”

I tried not to let my gaze slant to Cody as they came closer.

“Great. The big exterior renovations begin today, so we were making another round of the grounds before the landscape team starts doing their thing.” He waved a hand at the man whose presence battered relentlessly. “This is Cody Cooper. He owns Cooper Landscaping, so you’ll be seeing a lot of him around. And this is his project manager, Matthew.”

I couldn’t even look at Matthew since I was gaping at the grin that spread across Cody’s face.

I bet that grin alone could make all kinds of horrible choices seem like the best ideas you’d ever had.

But it was those gold-colored eyes dabbled in flecks of rusts and earthy browns that took me in as if he were trying to peer into the deepest parts of me that made my pulse skitter and my knees wobble.

Lolly might have thought he looked like sex on a stick, but what he really looked like was a giant dose of heartache. I’d seen it in action myself.

He hadn’t even remembered me at first. Why that bothered me, I didn’t know. Or maybe what really bothered me was that he was still smiling after everything.

“This is Hailey Wagner,” Tyrek introduced.

Cody stepped forward, and the ground trembled beneath his massive frame.

Those lips quirked up farther on the left side as he stretched out a massive palm, acting like he’d never seen me before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hailey Wagner.”

I stared at his hand like it was a viper and I was about to get bit. With the way my chin had tingled for hours last night in the spot where he’d touched me, I figured it was a valid concern.

Still, it was my first day of work, and I didn’t want to appear rude, so I gulped around the reservations and stepped forward, trying not to shake.

I reached out, and he curled his hand around mine, swallowing it in his enormous grip.

The burn of him raced up my arm like a shock of electricity.

I swore, his temperature must have been a thousand degrees.

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” I lifted my chin, pretending like I’d never seen him, either. Silly, since who cared if we were acquaintances? But something about it felt like a secret. Or maybe like something that should be swept under the rug.

At my response, arrogant mischief twinkled in his gaze. The man was nothing but a tease and a player.

“And you work here?” he asked. His interest drifted over my shoulder to the enormous stables behind me.

I started to respond, only Tyrek beat me to it. “It’s Hailey’s first week, too. She was hired on as the new stable manager. I hear we were lucky to snatch her up. She came all the way from Boston.”

Lolly had let me know about the opening for the stable manager position at Cambrey Pines and encouraged me to apply. I’d been a riot of nerves when I’d sent in my resume, and I’d nearly fallen on my ass when they’d called for an interview.

I’d been so nervous during the Zoom call that I’d worried I was going to word vomit and make myself come across as incompetent rather than highly qualified, but the resort director and the outgoing stable manager had talked to me for all of five minutes before they’d offered me the position.

They’d basically begged me to get here as quickly as I could.

I didn’t doubt that my last name had helped. The resort had purchased their trail horses from my father for years.

But that didn’t make me any less experienced.

I’d given my entire life to horses, even when the last six years of it had been tainted. Still, I was proud that I’d been offered the position.

“That’s kind of you to say,” I told Tyrek.

He smiled slow. “I don’t think it’s any secret that you’re an asset to the resort. I’m not sure if you’ve had the chance to review the plans yet, but there are some landscape elements that are included in the project around the stables.”

---