Page 81 of Stockman's Sandstorm

‘What’s with you?’ Ash arched an eyebrow at her.

‘You did it.’

‘Did what?’ He handed her the water bottle.

‘You bonded.’

‘It seems like we did, eh, Mason?’ Ash sat down, pressing his back to the wall, and passed a toy horse to his son. Harper sat on the other side of Mason, as he happily played with the horse in the dirt.

‘How long do these sandstorms last?’ Harper hugged her knees as the world disappeared behind a wall of swirling sand, hemmed in by sandstone.

‘I couldn’t say. Could be anything from ten minutes up to an hour, or even longer. I went through a dust storm down south-east way, it lasted six hours. Stripped all the topsoil from the area.’

‘Where are your brothers? Bree?’

He tapped on the UHF radio tucked into its pouch that he wore like a gun’s shoulder holster. ‘Bree, Cap, Ryder, and Dex are in a cave in the back. Charlie found one up front.’

‘You were riding with Cap?’

‘I was. Then moved to the other side.’

‘That was in the back …’ She searched his dark eyes that reflected a swirling world. ‘You came looking for me?’

He’d done that a few times, dropped everything to come to her aid, from the moment they’d met when he fixed her flat tyre, then the spider incident, now this. He’d been her hero.

Ash shrugged, dropping his head in a rare bout of shyness.

‘Have you been avoiding me?’ she asked.

‘I can’t stop thinking about that kiss.’ Ash scowled at her, then at the ground. Picking up a stick, he dragged it across the ground, passing it to his son to play with in the sand.

‘Don’t look so happy about it.’ It was her fault. She should have never agreed to that kiss.

‘It’s not that I didn’t like it.’ Yet Ash rubbed his furrowed brow with frustration. ‘I didn’t want to mess up what you’ve got with Mason.’

‘You’re supposed to be advertising for a real nanny.’

His gaze, ink-black and serious, locked onto hers. ‘What if I told you I don’t want anyone else? Just you.’

She gasped.

‘Would that be so bad?’ He leaned closer. ‘Would it be such a bad idea for you to stay?’

‘I don’t know what to say to that,’ she mumbled, as her heart flipped inside her chest.

‘Well, how about you tell me what you feel?’

She shrugged. ‘This is all new for me.’

‘Me too.’

‘I don’t believe you, because you have a reputation for dating a different girl every two weeks.’ Just the thought of him being with another woman made her blood boil.

‘Are you jealous?’ He tilted his head, his eyes keenly watching her.

She jutted out her chin. ‘No. I don’t get jealous.’

‘How do you know if you’ve never been with anyone to get jealous about?’

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