Page 38 of The Little Things

This was temporary. The cabin, Sassy, the jeans and boots, my new friendships... Zach. It was all temporary. This wasn’t actually my home, even though it might feel like more of one than L.A. had.

Something slid across Connor’s expression, dulling a bit of the shine on his charming, good-old-boy façade. “So you aren’t plannin’ on stayin’?”

My shoulders came up in a shrug, the knots that had suddenly formed in my stomach feeling like led weights. “I don’t really have a plan for what comes after this.” That admission left a sour, unpleasant taste on my tongue. “My move here wasn’t exactly permanent.”

“Yeah, well, maybe not, but this place has a way of stickin’ with you, whether you stay or not.”

With that ominous statement, he pushed off the workbench, knocking his knuckles against the wood as he took a step back. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it. You gonna be at dinner tonight?”

I nodded. “I’ll be there shortly. It’s my turn to cook.”

He hit me with that signature smile of his once more as he continued to back out of the barn, pulling the ballcap from his head and slapping it against his thigh before tugging it back into place. “Then I’ll see you there.”

I watched as he walked out of the barn, staring at where he’d disappeared before Sassy eventually nudged me back into the present.

I let out a snort and shook my head as I re-focused my attention on her. “That guy’s kind of weird, huh?”

I liked to think the snickering sound she made was her way of agreeing, so I gave her another peppermint for being such a good girl, then did my best to push the strange conversation out of my mind as I finished grooming my favorite animal on the planet.

Chapter Twenty

Rae

Iclosed my eyes and did my best to clear my mind as my body sank deeper into the clawfoot tub. I drew my knees up and slid down the warmed porcelain until my ears sank beneath the surface of the hot water, muting all sound.

I’d done it. I’d managed to cook my first dinner for the ranch and lodge staff, and it had been a glowing success. Well... that might have been giving myself a bit too much credit, but it hadn’t sucked. As far as I was concerned, that was a win. The food was eaten without a single grimace, and I didn’t catch anyone gagging or trying to sneak food into the trash or down the garbage disposal when they thought I wasn’t looking.

My German pancakes had turned out exactly how they were supposed to. I hadn’t accidentally mixed up the salt and sugar or mistaken the cornstarch for flour—something I’d done during my many practices—or cooked them until they resembled circular charcoal disks.

I couldn’t go so far as to say they were the best pancakes ever made, but I’d followed the recipe and hadn’t screwed up any of the steps. I was damn proud of myself and already thinking about what I wanted to try to make next time.

Everyone had been kind, telling me they’d enjoyed it and thanking me for taking the time to cook for them, and as I sat at the long wooden table, surrounded by all the people I was getting to know better with each passing day, I let the stress of my earlier confrontation with Zach slide off my shoulders like water off a duck’s back.

Sure, I might have watched the door closer than I should have, and I might have felt the smallest niggling of disappointment when he didn’t show up to eat with everyone, but I managed to push it out of my mind and concentrate the best I could on the million different conversations that had been taking place around the table.

Ivy and Lennix had come to eat with us—and to provide me with moral support—so I enjoyed my time with them, refusing to let thoughts of Zach filter into my head. It became easier to stay in the moment when I caught Ivy’s attention drifting down the table to where a certain cocky bull rider sat.

Lennix had spotted our friend’s moony-eyed expression as well, and from the giddy way she’d smiled, I had a sneaking suspicion she was going to try and play matchmaker. I wasn’t quite sure yet if Ivy and Connor would be a good fit. Ivy was sweet and bubbly and funny as hell. And Connor was... well, he was a playboy, no doubt about it. I was sure he’d left a string of broken hearts from town to town as he traveled, doing his rodeo thing. But given my shitty track record, I didn’t feel it was my place to voice my concerns.

I breathed in deeply, filling my lungs with the scent of jasmine from the essential oils I’d put in the water to help loosen the knots in my back and neck after a hard day’s work. There wasn’t much I missed from my old life in L.A., but after hours spent in the sun, hauling heavy bales of hay and checking miles of fence line on an old ATV with shitty suspension, I missed the hell out of Olga, the masseuse I used to see once a week. Her hands had been instruments of magic, and she would have worked those knots out in no time.

A dull, muted thump pulled me from my fantasy of flying Olga all the way to Virginia, plopping me back to reality. My eyes popped open and I pushed myself up to sitting, the water sloshing around me in gentle waves as I listened for the sound again. Sure enough, there was a knock on the door of the cabin a few seconds later.

I let out a sigh of disappointment that my relaxing bath had been cut short as I climbed out of the tub and squeezed the excess water from my hair. “Just a second,” I called out as I wrapped myself in my favorite silk robe. It was unusual to have a visitor after nine. Back in California, I would have only just started getting ready for a night out on the town, but things were a lot different here. Work usually started as the sun came up, so if you wanted to ensure a full night’s sleep, most people were either already in bed or gearing up for it.

I padded to the door and lifted up on the tips of my toes to reach the tiny peephole. I’d forgotten to turn on the porch light when I got home earlier, so all I could make out was a large figure standing on the front porch. I squinted, trying to see better, but it was no use.

“I know you’re there,” the shadow figure said in a voice that sounded exactly like Zach. “You blocked out the light from the peephole when you looked through it.”

I quickly crouched down, slapping a hand over my mouth to muffle my gasp.

“Now the light’s back.”

Damn it. Well, it looked like I wouldn’t be adding stealthy to my list of special skills any time soon.

“Open the door, Hollywood. We need to talk.”

I squeezed my eyes closed, desperately trying to calm my breathing. The peace I’d found in the bathtub only a handful of minutes ago disappeared with the sound of his voice. I wasn’t sure I could handle another talk with him today.

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