I tried to focus on something else, hell, anything else. My gaze landed on the sight of her thick thighs in the pale denim and the round ass that said she worked hard to maintain her curves. It was too much. Too. Fucking. Much. She was curvier than the road leading to the Davis Mountains Overlook, and my fingers tingled to touch her. The jeans were sinful enough, but that t-shirt that hugged her tits made me bite back a groan.Maybe she was right to give a sixty-day caveat. She’s trouble on two legs.
Molly flashed a girlish grin my way. “Where would you like me?”
In my bed on all fours.What the hell was wrong with me? It had been a long time since I acted like a horny teenager, but this woman brought it out of me for some reason. “The kitchen is fine,” I finally managed. “I need to whip up some lunch since the housekeeper had to go to the ER to check on her husband.”
Round green eyes met me again. “Oh no! I hope he’s all right?”
“He’s fine,” I assured her. “Older guys have a hard time remembering they’re no longer young, virile twenty-year-old men.”
She gifted me with another sweet smile. “Sounds like my dad.” Molly shook her head and looked through the doorway to her left and then straight ahead to the kitchen. “Wow, this is…great. It’s spacious and bright, but it feels like home.”
Her words surprised me. I figured women of her generation who were career-minded would view this as a sign of the patriarchy or whatever else pissed them off lately. “I like to think so,” I said as I made my way to the fridge in search of ingredients for lunch.
“Do you and Hunter always have lunch together?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I think that’s so cool that you take time to make lunch for you and him. It’s adorable.”
Adorable?I’d been called a lot of things in my life, but never adorable.
“Does he have a special diet I need to know about?”
“No. He’ll eat pretty much anything if you tell him it’ll help him grow up big and strong.”
She laughed again, and the sound was beautiful, rich and husky, melodic and feminine. “Sounds like a typical boy.”
“I try to have lunch with Hunter as much as I can, but some days I pack a couple of sandwiches to take with me because I can’t make it back here or to the bunkhouse.”
She nodded and smiled. “And the bunkhouse is where the ranch hands live and eat?”
I bit back a grin and nodded. “There’s a large kitchen in the bunkhouse and a cook who makes meals for theranch hands.”
Molly’s cheeks flamed bright red, and she was so damn pretty I turned away because her effect on me was unnerving. “Right. Ranch hands. Not ranch farmers. Duh.”
“Sometimes I have the housekeeper bring him down there, but I don’t want him to get used to that. I’ve tried to give him some normalcy since losin’ his mama.” That wasn’t easy on either of us, but I’d done my damnedest to give him something resembling a normal life.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she began with a sympathetic smile. “But if I can be so bold? Hunter’s life isn’t ever gonna be normal. He lost his mama, and that’s unusual. Maybe being surrounded by the guys is just what he needs so he can see that there’s not just one way to be a man. Plus, it’ll be a good way to teach him to bond.”
She was bold; I’d give her that. “I’ll think about it,” I answered gruffly.
“Okay.” Her bright answer should have pissed me off, but it didn’t. I was impressed that she didn’t let my gruffness get to her. “What else do you want to know?”
I sighed and looked at the ingredients on the countertop, totally unsure of what to make out of them. “I read through your qualifications, and you’re young but qualified. I’m willing to sign on for the probationary period and see where we go from there.”
She blinked as if processing my words. “Well, all right then, Mr. McCall.”
“Colton,” I growled. “Call me Colton.”
Her long blond lashes blinked slowly, her mouth parted in an ‘o’ as she nodded her agreement. “Okay, Colton. When do you want me to start?”
“Is this afternoon too soon?”
She laughed. “Nope. I have what I’ll need for now in my car, so we can get started.”
“Perfect.” I looked down, suddenly aware of not just my body’s reaction to her but the fact that I only wore a pair of jeans and nothing else. “I’ll, uh, go put on the rest of my clothes and let you meet Hunter.”
Her cheeks were still pink when she nodded, glanced at my chest again, and then looked away. “Sounds good. I’ll be right here.”
I turned on my heels and left the kitchen, but the heat on my backfeltlike Molly’s gaze, and I damn sure didn’t want to think about how I knew that.
Chapter3