Page 6 of The Wedding Ruse

Chapter Four

Tristan didn’t eventry to hide his smile as he drove her back to the ranch. He was more than pleased with himself. Not only had Grace been truly checking him out after he changed, but she’d let him hold her hand. He’d made a move and it had gone as good as he ever could have imagined. He would wear this hat all day everyday if it made her jaw drop like that.

She was currently back to being shy, but she was smiling. He could feel more than see her look at him through her lashes every now and then. He wanted to reach over and put his hand on her knee, but he didn’t want to take it too far yet.

They pulled back up to their cabin and she shot him a confused look.

“Everything at the ranch is within walking distance from here. Maybe a little long of a walk, but I thought you might like to get a look at the whole thing the way guests would. On second thought, no work today, so leave your camera in the bunkhouse if you want. We have all day tomorrow for work.”

“If you’re sure?”

“You know I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t.”

She nodded and got out of the car. He unlocked the door and let her put her camera bag away. The reality was he just wanted to walk with her again, see if he could pick up her hand again as they walked. There would really be plenty of time, a full day, to take pictures tomorrow. Today she could make a list of where she wanted to shoot and where the best light was, saving some time tomorrow.

She locked the door as she walked through, and he led the way down a path between the bunkhouses. Grace stayed behind him until he finally slowed his pace and dropped in next to her. He slyly grabbed her hand and was pleased to find that she held his back and didn’t try to pull away.

He pointed everything out as they walked, the sides of each building and what they were as far as they could see from the path. His goal right now was to get to the stables. There would be people about as the ranch might be closed to the public, but the animals still required care.

They arrived at the fence and he stopped to let her look at the horses that were in the yard milling around. She dropped his hand and put both her arms on the fence as she watched the horses.

“I’ve never been this close to a horse before.” She sounded amazed.

“Wanna go get closer to them?”

“Not yet.”

“I won’t make you.”

“I know.” She turned and sent him a reassuring smile. “I want to, but it’s weird to see them this close already and realize just how big they really are. Now I do wish I had brought my camera.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Just promise me we will come back for me to get some photos before we leave.”

“It’s a promise.” He smiled at her, but she was already watching the horses again.

“Hey folks. How’s it going?” Came a man’s voice as they heard footsteps walking up behind them.

“Pretty good.” Tristan turned and the man’s outstretched hand.

“Tristan! Hey man, how have you been? Your uncle said you would be here this weekend.”

“Hey Blake, pretty good.”

“Introduce me to this pretty lady you brought with you.”

Tristan wanted to grab her and pull her to his side and growl MINE. Instead he offered introductions. Finding himself extremely jealous of the full conversation she was offering to Blake about horses when he had to pry pieces of conversation from her.

“Right, Tristan?”

“What?” He made himself focus on the conversation he had lost track of.

Laughter came from both Blake and Grace and he really wanted to run the man off.

“I was telling Grace here about how when you were younger you used to go swimming in the horse trough over there.”

“Yeah, it was pretty normal back then. Pretty sure you were there a time or two yourself.”

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