Page 9 of Claimed By A Cowboy
Two seats remain, one on either side of the table. I want to sit as close to her as possible. I want to taste that sweet scent of hers with every bite of my meal. I frown, thinking of making one of the hands give up their seat. Before I can, she sits down, leaving me no choice but to take the seat across from her if I don’t want to make a scene.
“Welcome all of you,” Cody calls, standing at the head of the table, his eyes circling to include all of us. “I am so excited to have all these new faces here. I hope you all get your money’s worth while you are here!”
A few hoots from the other hands and some soft murmurs from the new guests fill the room. Looking across the table, I catch Wynn watching me. I want to know why she bid on me. What drove her to bid so much?
There is no chance for me to ask, because Steel speaks up as he often does. I send a glare at him as he starts chatting up all the ladies, asking them about themselves. Always the charmer, this fuck.
Food makes the rounds of the table as the conversation flows. Fluffy buttery biscuits, heaps of mashed potatoes, creamy gravy, and a huge platter of crispy fried chicken. I pile my plate high before I realize I look as greedy as I claimed to be.
I almost laugh out loud when I look across the table at Wynn. Her plate looks as full as mine. Two biscuits that I watch her slather with butter and jam. A pile of mashed potatoes and not one but two pieces of fried chicken. Damn, if I thought she was just about perfect before, I think this just seals the deal.
“What? I am a growing girl,” Wynn shoots at me when she catches me watching her. Making a face at me, she takes a big bite out of her buttered biscuit, and I do laugh.
“Nothing wrong with getting a good meal in, honey.”
We watch one another and I swear, the energy between us is kinetic. I am sure others must see it. I don’t care if they do, I can feel it. From the look in her eyes, I know she can too. It’s something I very much want to explore when I get her alone again.
“What about you, Wynn? What brought you here?” Steel calls, diverting her attention from me. I throw him a glare and he smirks.
“This is what I do,” she starts, eyes downcast for a moment. “I go places. I do it for a living. Visit all the best places to give my opinion on them. Everyone has an opinion, of course, but people seem to listen to mine for some reason. I spend all my time traveling.”
“Where do you call home?” I wonder loudly, wanting to know all I can about her.
“I uh…well,” she trails off, laughing nervously before her eyes come back to mine. “I don’t call anywhere home. Never stayed anywhere long enough to call it home, I suppose.”
Her voice turns bitter as her eyes go sad. I frown at her, as if I can urge her to tell me more. I realize that is as much as she is going to share with us. Someone else speaks up, answering more of Steel’s probing questions, but Wynn never speaks again the rest of the night.
I am upset that she has no place to anchor herself. No place she can go back to after one of her trips. Why should I care? What does it matter when I know she will bid this place adieu as soon as she can?
Not wanting to hear more, I excuse myself. I have a full day with her tomorrow—one I want over fast.
Chapter Five
Wynn
What was I thinking of coming here to play cowgirl?
My Hermes bag and Miu Miu shoes paint me as a socialite. From my first moment at the ranch, I felt out of place. The truth is, however, I am far from a spoiled rich girl. All the nice things I have, I earned during my trips across this globe.
Talking about not having a home last night struck a chord with me. It was as if I were admitting a dark secret. All these ranch hands here live like a family. That was clear during dinner last night. They laugh together, work together, and seem as close knit as I have ever seen a family.
Growing up in the system, I saw a lot of families. Ones who were kind to me but never let me in their circle. Others who saw me as a check and mistreated me. I swore I never wanted a family of my own.
Sitting there with these men, and the people who bid on an entire day with them, last night made me think otherwise. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place I call home? People who I can trust, who I could sit on that front porch swing and laugh with, watch the sun set with, and grow with?
“Stop lying to yourself, sister,” I growl at myself as I catch my reflection in a mirror.
I hang up the denim top I was looking at with a sigh. I came to town after all, wanting to get some things to help me fit better at the ranch. I do not want all those ranch hands as my family. Just one of them.
“That is utterly impossible. I met the man fourteen hours ago,” I murmur as I skim through a rack of jeans.
This morning, I was up with the crow of the rooster. Some of the other bidders had set out with their cowboys by then. Cody was passing by when he spotted me nursing a cup of awful coffee on the bunkhouse front porch.
“Everything going ok, Ms. Talbot?”
“Yes. Well, no. I know our day with our cowboy starts today,” I had a plan to make the most of this day. My plans always work, sometimes. “Do I have time to run to town before we get started?”
“Sure thing. Have one of the hands run you in. Wylder is a grump this early, best you let him wake up and shake that shit off anyhow.”
