Page 46 of Hell or High Water

I jerked my gaze off Than to look back at her. My cheeks felt warm, and I was a little frazzled. We’d been staring at each other.

“I’ll walk y’all out to the car,” Than told her. “You can tell me what you need exactly.”

“All right,” she replied, and then her eyes twinkled with amusement when she looked at me…or was it something else? “Have him bring you to the house. I could use some female company.”

“You have Saylor,” he said defensively as if she’d insulted him.

“Fine. I could use more female company.”

I’d enjoy that, but with Than, I never knew what mood I was going to get.

“I’ll bring her over some time,” he said.

My eyes swung back to him, but he was walking to the door with Hawkins pulling his earlobe. With a small wave, Halo followed behind him.

“See you soon!” she told me just before the door closed behind them.

Twenty

Than

This had been a bad idea. I couldn’t concentrate. Getting things done when I kept finding reasons to go to the front desk, just to check on Montana, was an issue. But every damn time I heard the front door open, I’d jump up and go see who it was and to make sure she was being left alone. After the third time I’d gone out there, only to find it was Ransom—again—he’d rolled his eyes at me. Jackass.

By eleven forty-five, I’d managed to fill an order, call back a vendor who had shorted us, and look through the mail that Ransom had piled up on my desk. Lunch wasn’t being delivered for another thirty minutes, and I decided this was a good time to give Montana that tour. She had to be tired of schoolwork by now anyway and in need of a break.

Closing my office door, I headed back to the front. Montana was scrunching her nose and scowling at the screen. The corners of my mouth tugged up as I made my way over to the counter. She hadn’t looked up and noticed me yet, and I was enjoying watching her.

I shouldn’t be, but I had eyes. There was no other choice.

When she finally looked up from the screen and saw me, the immediate softening in her expression sent a wave of pleasure through me.

That’s bad, Than. Real bad. You can’t react like this to her.

“How do you look in a hard hat?” I asked her.

She did the scrunchy-nose thing again, which only made me smile harder.

“Uh, I honestly don’t know,” she replied.

I shrugged. “Well, don’t worry if you can’t pull it off. Not everyone can make a hard hat sexy.”

She was grinning now. “Is that so?”

“Absolutely. You’ll see more than a few ugly fuckers in hard hats on the tour. You ready?”

Her eyes widened with excitement, and she nodded, then stood up. “Yes.” The relief in her tone at getting away from the screen was obvious.

“You got something to tie your hair back?” I asked.

“In the truck. I left my purse in there accidentally and didn’t realize it until later.”

I nodded toward the door. “I’ll unlock it, and you can go grab it on our way over to the distillery.”

She looked back at her things. “Is it okay if I leave this all here?”

“Yep. No one will touch it,” I assured her.

Beaming, she hurried around the counter, and I was unable to take my eyes off her. It was getting harder to keep my distance from her with every passing day.

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