Page 20 of On His Ranch

“Thank you, sweetie, but you just sit a spell and I’ll whip us up some breakfast. I hope you don’t mind my saying so, but you look a bit tired, dear.”

“I didn’t sleep very well,” she admitted.

“Oh?” She turned her back on them and began pulling down bowls and utensils.

Piper didn’t elaborate, staring at the table in front of her instead.

Chase felt his gaze drawn to her. With her unaware of his eyes on her, he had the luxury of taking his time. Piper was not only beautiful, but her newborn doe-like innocence was a breath of fresh air to his cynical heart—not that he had any intention of ever letting her know that. The question that wouldn’t let up was, could it possibly be genuine? He’d been a skeptic his whole life, and the few times he’d second-guessed his own better judgment, he’d lived to regret it.

It wasn’t a mistake he wanted to make again, but there was something about this girl that made him question his own instincts. Maybe he had been too hasty in his initial judgment of her.I thought for sure that she’d drop the innocent act when she felt my hand blisterin’ her rear,Chase mused, his eyes drawn to the curve of her ass.

Maybe she is what she seems, he thought as he watched her swing her legs back and forth while his mother peppered her with questions.But so what? No matter who or what she is, it don’t matter one bit to me. She’ll be gone in the space of a few hours and I won’t have any more cause to fret over it.

“So, tell me about yourself,” his mother said, apparently tired of waiting for the juicy details to spill. “Don’t just stand there, Chase, I need my cast-iron.”

He hid his grin knowing his mother would be fit to be tied if she spied it and walked over to the stove, reaching up to open the cabinet. He pulled the skillet down and put it on the burner without a word.

“Shoo out of the way now,” she scolded lightly, moving the skillet to a different burner with an unnecessarily loudthunk.

“You mad at me for any particular reason, Mama, or just showin’ off for company?”

She gave him a sidelong smile. “Is she company, Chase?”

He glanced back at Piper, who was clearly trying to overhear their conversation while pretending she wasn’t. “No, ma’am. She’s a—”

“Don’t you dare call her a stray, young man.”

He chuckled despite himself. It was rare for his mom to get this fired up. “Waif. A waif who wandered over this way and took a nap in our barn.”

Her eyes widened and she turned around to look at Piper. “You don’t say?”

But the girl still didn’t answer.

Chase had the urge to scold her for being rude, but he suppressed it. No need to have his mother flying at him in Piper’s defense.

“That couldn’t have been very comfortable,” she prompted.

“It… it wasn’t too bad,” she mumbled, her cheeks blazing crimson. “Just…”

“Hmm?” his mother prompted.

“Got an early wake-up call.”

Chase felt her eyes on him for no more than a moment before she went back to looking at the white wood of the table in front of her.That’s not all she got.

Almost as though she’d read his mind, Piper shifted uncomfortably on the hard bench.

He covered his chuckle with a cough, hoping it would escape his mother’s notice.

No such luck. “I hope you weren’t rude to her, Chase.” He was getting thatyoung manstare he’d gotten when he was seven and tracked mud into her freshly mopped kitchen.

“I was the very picture of a gentleman that happens across someone hidin’ in his barn.”

Piper’s head jerked up at the sternness in his voice. “Oh, he was. We, um… talked it out.”

With his mother’s back to him he felt free to arch his brows at her. But her bravado faded at his expression and she went back to staring at the table. This girl. She kept surprising him, he’d give her that.

“Hmmm… well, alright then. Mind tellin’ me why you needed to sleep in a barn at all? Don’t get me wrong, Senior and my son keep them nice for the horses, but it’s definitely no Holiday Inn.”

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