Page 17 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

Tossing the five twenty-yard bundles of roping out of the bed, along with some big balsam wreaths, he emptied the load pretty fast. But not so fast she shouldn’t have gotten out of her car already and wandered over. Not that he expected or needed her help to unload but she could at least come say hello. Offer to help. Say thanks. Something.

What he got was nothing.

Jumping down from the back of the truck, he slammed the tailgate shut with a bang and still no Eva.

Had she fallen asleep in the car? Anything was possible with that woman. At this point not much would surprise him.

He made his way to her vehicle and leaned low, peering through the driver’s side window.

She was in there all right, but she wasn’t asleep. Her seat was pushed way back away from the steering wheel to accommodate the laptop on which she typed furiously. He waved but she didn’t see.

He knocked on the glass and saw her react. She jumped, literally, as he startled her. After a brief look of sheer panic, her frown appeared and though the words were muffled by the glass between them, she lobbed a string of cusses at him for scaring her.

Once her rant was over she flipped the laptop closed and flung the door wide, missing hitting him with it only because he was quick on his feet and moved out of the way in time.

“What the hell?” She scowled at him.

“I’m sorry I scared you. I didn’t know how else to get your attention. You didn’t seem to see me.” It had been as if she was in a trance. Mesmerized by what was on the screen. Hypnotized.

“Next time, text me.”

“Text you?” While he was standing barely a foot away from her?

“Yes.” She shot him a glare, slammed her door and stomped toward the cabin.

“Okay,” he said, following her.

Today was looking to be a shit show with her in this mood. As he walked he glanced up at the late afternoon sky. It too wasn’t looking promising. Black clouds rolled in on the horizon.

“Why are we staring at the sky instead of unlocking the door?” Eva asked.

He glanced at Eva and found that she had reached the front door, tried the knob, found it locked and was currently glaring at him.

“Snow’s coming,” he said simply, finding the key to the door among the others on his keyring.

Next to him, Eva shook her head. “No. I checked the weather website. It didn’t say snow.”

He lifted a shoulder. “The website might not have but those clouds do.”

“Whatever.” She shook her head.

He drew in a breath. This was Eva’s MO. She was argumentative… until she wasn’t. Then she shut down the conversation, no doubt still believing she was right.

Whatever, indeed. He’d let her think that, until Mother Nature proved who was actually correct. And that would be him, because he was rarely wrong when it came to weather.

He was a rancher, for God’s sake. Extremes in the weather could mean life or death for the animals he cared for.

Couldn’t expect city folk to understand that. But he should at least be able to expect her to believe him when he told her something.

As he opened the door she eyed the pile of greens. “That’s not going to be enough.”

His eyes flew wide. “It’s a hundred yards.” As she shook her head, he said, “That’s three hundred feet.”

That earned him a glare. “I know how many feet it is.” Shaking her head again, she brushed past him in the doorway saying, “We’ll see.”

“Yes, we will,” he returned. About the greenery. About the snow. About everything.

Ugh. She had to be the most frustrating woman alive.

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