Page 28 of Rescued By the Mountain Man

I rubbed her sole, and a laugh punched itself from her throat while she pulled her foot away. “S-stop, I’m t-ticklish.”

“Good to know,” I stood and brushed my hands over my jeans. “Get some rest. I’ll get Connie or Marie to come check on you. See you soon.”

“Thanks,” she replied. When I got to the door, she added, “You’re not that bad of a person, Warrick.”

I pivoted. “Are you saying you’ll forget my ill-thought comment?”

“No,” her head rolled on the pillow. “I’ll remember those words to the day I die; I just won't hold you to it anymore.”

“That’s a relief,” I replied. There had been a few moments when I’d wondered if she’d felt the same attraction between us that I did. “I’ll call for the champagne. We can have it with caviar and oysters and…and I dunno, what do rich people eat.”

She snorted. “And there you go, being a jackass again.”

I saluted her. “See you later. I’ll be on the ranch.”

After switching Silver for Bandit, a ranch workhorse, I rode out to the pasture to meet my men under the shadow of the mountains beyond us. Ahead, a line of trees ran parallel to a scattering of sheds backed along a pasture, followed by an old building—well-maintained but showing the record of its repairs in varying states of wood.

The pasture I was headed to was fenced off to the right of the barn and a corral to the left. Two horses that I knew Frankie and Isaac preferred to ride were grazing under the shade of several huge Arizona cypress trees. I spotted the two crouching over a one-year-old calf.

A heart-rending bawl had me speeding up.

“What happened?” I asked, nearing the two.

“Lucky here somehow managed to get himself injured with some barbed wire,” Frankie replied.

The calf’s head reared up, and it bawled again as Isaac tried to navigate the wire cutters under the ugly twist of barbed wire tangled around the calf’s foot. “Need a hand?”

“Nah,” Frankie shook his head as he held the calf down so Isaac could work. “We got this; go over to the other guys. They might need you.”

I lingered though, listening in as Frankie soothed the calf with a calming tone and stroked it until it stilled enough. At last, Isaac got him free and set to work doctoring his cuts. The calf bawled, but Isaac persisted until he was done. Only then did I ride off to meet the others and walk into hell.

“—I know, but what do you think of the new girl, Zara?”

Santos turned his horse. “She’s hot, but I think Bossman stamped his name on her and put a bright neon sign saying no touchie on her forehead.”

“Yeah. From the few times I’ve talked to her, she strikes me as smart, independent, and I don’t know, just…like you say, content doing her own thing,” Connie said. “She’s definitely got the hots for Boss, though.”

I cleared my throat. “Can you jackasses not talk about me as if I weren’t five feet away from you?”

Lucas laughed out loud. “Oh, come on, we’re teasing. You know we are.”

“Are you?” I asked, knowing they were lying through their teeth.

Santos, Connie, and Lucas shared a look before they spluttered with laughter. “No, I’m sorry. I’m not teasing, but come on, you know it will be a good thing if you two did?—”

“No,” I said stiffly. “Let me emphasize that for you: hell no. She’s my employee, not some twisted fairytale of loosey-goosey or some rom-com ripped out of a corny romance book. I will not be crossing that line. Do you know the lawsuits that can come from that? I’d be taken to the cleaners because of that.”

“But what if she wants it too?” Connie asked.

Good God, they were not going to let this go, were they?

“You three are thorns in my side,” I grumbled. “Please let it go.”

Connie rode over to my side and nudged me with her boot. “I know it sounds bad, but what if it was a good thing? What could be so bad if you let yourself go for a moment and try it? You’ve not had any fun in years.”

I felt like I was screaming at a windmill.

“Stop,” I sighed. “Please stop. It’s never gonna happen.”

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