Page 6 of A Little More

“I own the property.”

“Figures.”

He smirked, straightened up the wheel, and in another two seconds, they emerged onto a real road with asphalt and proper lines. She now had to differentiate between a real versus pretend road because Nash had taken her down severalpathsthat she was pretty sure he made up on the spot just because he wanted to go in that direction.

“Here we are.” He pulled into a large parking lot. A few big trucks sat parked near the back of the property, but otherwise, the place looked empty.

“Is anyone here?”

“No. It’s shut down for the season.” He put the truck in park and climbed out. “I’ll get your door, so you don’t get muddy.” He jogged around. He’d certainly made this the most memorable client visit. He opened her door. A large plop of mud landed on the ground between his boots. The early spring heat immediately rushed into the truck and displaced the air conditioning.

She might need to jump out. No way could she step out and not get mud on her pants.

Nash held out his hands. “I’ll help you down.”

Lexi narrowed her eyes. “Did you plan this?” She wouldn’t put it past the cute country boy to have taken his past dates on a muddy ride so he could “help them down.”

“If I wanted an excuse to get my hands on you, I’d let you wander near the road again.” He wiggled his fingers. “Do you want help?”

Imagining his hands touching her made her overcorrect and jerk away, practically falling back into the truck. “I can do it.”

He propped his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Do you ever ask for help?”

“Not if I can avoid it.” She waved him away. “Move to the side so I can jump.”

In a move that she executed impressively considering how nervous her audience made her, Lexi leaped from the truck. It might have been a disaster had she worn high heels instead of sneakers.

Nash clapped his hands a few times slowly. “Good landing. I can’t wait to see how you get back in.” Holding up keys and jiggling them, he took two steps backward. “Let’s go take a tour.”

“How did you get the keys?”

“I’m part owner.” He flipped through the keyring as he sauntered across the parking lot, reminding her of a hot bull rider she’d seen on television.

Nash’s wasn’t fake confidence, either. Only a smart businessman could manage to operate thousands of acres, farm both peanuts and cotton, and handle part ownership in a cotton gin. He’d glossed over the fact he had a dual major in agriculture and economics. Now he wanted to open a store. The same businessman who acted like a sixteen-year-old taking her through the mud.

Focus on business. That’d proved more difficult than initially imagined. City and country didn’t mix in her book. She might have grown up in Georgia, but this was an entirely different universe. A far cry from the private school and Ivy League college she’d attended.

Her job was on the line. Julien would watch them all like a hawk after Lionel’s public love affair. Lionel told her that he didn’t care about losing his job. That the woman had been his soul mate and that they would be married by the end of the summer.

Sticking with any man long enough to marry and survive fifty-plus years with worried her more than Nash’s back road entertainment in the mud. Besides, most men like Nash wanted a family. The white picket fence. Marriage.

It wouldn’t work. Kids weren’t in the cards for her. She didn’t cook. Sitting still and quiet wasn’t programmed into her personality. Sunrises and sunsets were meant for the one-week beach vacation she took every summer. She had to be doing, working, and she liked things a certain way. Mainly her way. She didn’t want a “partnership” as her mom called it. Being a solo act suited her.

Her mom’s three marriages were a prime example for Lexi’s reasons for avoiding marriage. She’d seen her mom struggle. She would never bethatwoman. She would never feel less, have less, just because she didn’t have a man to take care of her.

The decision to take care of herself and stay single was made at a young age.

And, unlike Lionel apparently, she wasn’t the type to sleep around.

Nash unlocked the front door, glancing back over his shoulder. He straightened. “You have that look again.”

“What look?” She crossed her arms. Why did he always watch her like that?

He chuckled as he walked to a beeping alarm panel to disarm. “That serious look I’d hoped a little fun in the truck would have shaken out of you.”

They apparently had different interpretations of fun. “Is that why you took me through the mud and almost destroyed your truck?”

He took his hat off, bent the bill a couple times, and put it back on his head. “I like seein’ you smile, Lexi.” With that bombshell of a compliment, he flipped on the overhead, industrial lighting acting nonchalant. “I won’t turn on the machines, but you can get an idea about the layout I need. Only smaller. Much smaller.”

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