Page 67 of Spilling the Tea

Not sure what he should say to all of that, he didn’t say anything. But it soon became obvious Lucky had no intentions of letting him remain quiet. “Chance? You still there?”

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“And you got what I said?”

“Yes, I got it.”

“Good. Now I won’t have to pack and fly to Texas after all. I know she’s in good hands, and she won’t be alone.”

Immediately, Chance felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time—a sense of purpose. Zoey Pritchard had a way of growing on you. Hadn’t Mama Laverne said that very morning that she felt a kindred connection to Zoey? A part of him didn’t want Zoey to grow on him. Nor did he want any connection. Yet he was feeling those things, regardless.

“Zoey is in good hands, and she won’t be alone,” he assured her.

“Thanks, Chance. Zoey is a special person. After all she’s gone through in life, it didn’t make her mean and bitter. She is a loving individual with a heart of gold. I will call back later to check on her. Goodbye.”

It was two hours later before he heard movement in the bedroom. Then he heard the shower start. Thirty minutes passed before the bedroom door opened. Zoey appeared and blinked as if surprised he was still there. Her next words confirmed it: “I thought you had left.”

He stood and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. It was either that or he cross the room to pull her into his arms and kiss her. The mass of hair he liked seeing flying in the wind was now soft waves framing her face. A very gorgeous face.

Seeing her standing in her bedroom doorway made him remember all those fantasy dreams he’d had of her. One had been just like this, with them standing across a room, staring at each other while sexual chemistry simmered between them. In that particular dream, they’d given in to the most passionate oftemptations, and they had met in the middle of the room and begun ripping each other’s clothes off.

And speaking of clothes… He loved the way she looked. She wore a pretty sundress, and those cute sandals from last night were on her feet. A camera was around her neck.

He finally spoke against the hard lump in his throat. “Going someplace, Zoey?”

“I thought I’d go to the park and take pictures.”

“You were supposed to have dinner with me,” he said, trying to focus on her face and not her legs—a very shapely pair.

“Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t be good company.”

“How about letting me be the judge of that,” was his response.

She didn’t say anything, so he decided to press on. “Besides, if you want to take nice photos, my ranch will provide better landscape shots than a park.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. The one thing Teakwood Ridge is known for is its beauty. I consider some parts of it to be nature’s paradise. We can go riding after dinner, and you can see for yourself. The last time you went to the south. The east is a lot prettier.”

“Your great-grandmother said there’s another lake with a cabin east of your property.”

He wouldn’t tell her that Mama Laverne had gotten approval for her to stay there. It would be for his great-grandmother to tell her that. “Yes, there’s a cabin on a lake. We can ride to see it if you’d like.”

He saw happiness enter her eyes before spreading to her lips. “We can do that?”

“Of course. And I’ll return you here later.”

“Okay,” she said eagerly. “Let me change into a pair of jeans and a top. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She slowed before reaching the bedroom, turned around, and asked, “How didyou get here so fast? When I drove from here to your property, it took me over an hour.”

Deciding not to mention anything about the meeting he had that morning with his great-grandmother, he said, “I was already in town. I joined my granduncles and my grandfather, for breakfast,” he said. That wasn’t a lie.

“Oh.”

She then turned to hurry off to her bedroom.

Chapter Twenty-One

Zoey glanced out the truck’s window at the scenery they passed. It was obvious Chance was taking her a different way than the GPS had instructed her to go when she visited his ranch. Shifting her eyes to him, she said.

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