Page 16 of Rough Ride

“Not by choice. She fell in love.”

“Which is more important than anything,” Danny said as he rolled the tire around from the back.

Eli looked up at her and she rolled her eyes. His lips curved slightly and she felt a little ping in her heart. No, not good. She shouldn’t be trying to get the surly man out of his funk, whatever that might be. But for some reason she wanted to. She wanted to pull as many smiles from him as possible.

Danny rolled the tire to Eli and they made quick work of it. By the time they were on their way, the strange feeling of need Eli touched in her was almost forgotten. As they drove over the last little hill on the way to the house, it came into view and she had a sense of déjà vu again. It was as if someone had walked over her grave—as her grandmother would have said.

Eli must have sensed her feelings because he glanced at her. “Something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No. Just…it feels like home. And I like that.”

He gave her another inscrutable look, and said nothing else as he drove them on to the house.

She pushed the worries away. If there was one thing a military brat understood, it was the excitement of a new start. Life was too short not to enjoy it.

five

Eli filled his extra-large coffee cup to the brim. He needed something to get him through the rest of the day. After scrubbing a hand over his face, he shook his head. Damned if the woman wasn’t already giving him issues.

Everything felt different. Not dangerous or scary, but there was a different atmosphere with Crysta around. Even after just a few hours. Eli leaned against the counter and sipped some Kona coffee as the floor above squeaked and groaned. There hadn’t been a woman living in the house for as long as he could remember.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Joe.”

There was no answer. He didn’t know if he expected one or not. Hoped for one maybe. Never in all the years since he’d arrived had he needed more guidance. He needed to keep his head on straight and Joe would have definitely helped with that. Or at least smacked him around a little. The woman was getting to him in certain ways and he didn’t like it. Not at all. He didn’t know her at all and wanting her caused so many complications. The ranch, his own conscious, and then there was the issue of the opened gate last night.

It was a worry. They weren’t a big ranch, mainly moderate in size, but Joe had insisted on a state of the art system. He probably needed to call Conner Dillon to ask him about the breach.

Normally, it wouldn’t bother him that much, but to have it happen on the day that Crysta arrived was odd. Both he and Joe had a lot of old enemies, and it was one reason they had implemented strict security on the ranch.

“Is there any coffee left?”

He had been so deep in thought he hadn’t heard Crysta approach.

“Yep, and freshly brewed.”

She made her way around the kitchen as if she belonged. It was something that had left him feeling slightly unbalanced. She poured her coffee and then leaned back against the counter opposite his.

“So, want to tell me about the security issue.”

He frowned. “Not much to tell.”

She rolled her eyes and he wanted to smile. She had the look of her father and a bit of her mother from the old photos Joe had left of her. But, there was so much of Joe in her expressions and mannerisms, there was no doubt they were blood related.

“Okay, sorry. Everyone at the ranch has strict orders not to leave the gate open.”

“It was open the day we came.”

He nodded. “Yes, but that was special circumstances.”

“Makes sense. But you keep it locked otherwise? Can’t people just climb over it?”

Yeah, they could, but they had motion detectors. That didn’t work up front unless the gate had been locked. It had all been disabled. After talking to his head foreman, no one had messed with it.

“There are other measures that are locked in for that.”

He could tell she was annoyed by the answer but she didn’t push it. It was a reprieve from the discussion, but he knew it wouldn’t be the end of it. He had a feeling not much got by Crysta.

“There’s a meeting tonight with the workers. I want to formally introduce you and we need to talk about the security breach.”

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