Page 54 of Tempting as Sin
“Yep.”
“Is he yours?”
“Nope.”
“Huh.” Maggie eyed her too shrewdly. She’d handled Lily’s latest real-estate deal, and probably knew her too well. “We’ll see.” She handed out her discarded garments and shut the curtain again.
Lily hung the discards on the rack for later and headed out front again, feeling like a ping-pong ball. Two new browsing customers, the others having paid and left, bringing the count to eight. Hailey chatting with Rafe, who was laughing and looking absolutely relaxed. Clean-shaven, still, because his beard would have grown in black. She missed the scruff, and the hair. A lot.
The door chimed, and everybody looked around. Another man. One she knew.
If Rafe had to act casual for much longer, he was going to explode. Today, Lily was in a flippy little flowered skirt that started out snug and ended up ruffled, not very far down her thighs at all. Plus canvas wedge sandals in colorful stripes reminiscent of deck chairs, red toenails, a scoop-necked, deep-red T-shirt, too much smooth leg for his comfort, her hair piled on top of her head, and the same absolutely delicious body. When she’d shown him that laced-up pair of undies, he’d had another one of those out-of-body experiences. The kind where his mind had already gone there, and he’d had to pretend to still be here.
Martin, of course, hadn’t missed it. He’d opened his mouth to say something that Rafe was sure would be absolutely inappropriate when two things happened. The redhead and Lily came around from the fitting rooms, and a man walked in the front door. Maybe forty-five, dressed in jeans, boots, and a black T-shirt showing a lot of long, lean muscle, lines of humor around his eyes and mouth, and hair cut as short as Rafe’s, but sticking up and silver. And Martin sighed.
“Hi there,” Lily said with absolute delight, going to the bloke and giving him a one-armed hug that he returned with a cuddle of his own, a kiss on the cheek, and a sparkle from bright blue eyes. Rafe hated him already. Lily went on, “Aren’t you supposed to be preparing to emasculate my dog? I want your best effort. Oh. This is, uh…” She looked like she’d blanked.
“Clay Austin,” Rafe said, holding out his hand. “And Martin Avondale.”
“Ezra Hamill,” the bloke said. He was looking at Martin, not at Rafe. “Vet. And no, Lily, I don’t need to meditate to prepare to snip the gonads off a dog. It’s not gelding a horse. Ten minutes, and those troublemakers are gone and he’s sewn up again.” He smiled, which Martin clearly thought was a good look on him. “Yeah, I saw both you guys flinch. You get used to it. You also become very thankful to get to keep your own. It’s about reducing the bad behavior. Fortunately, we’re exempt.”
“So you do horses too?” Martin asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Ezra said. “I’m all about the large animals.” A slightly-too-long look, and then he told Lily, “I’m here, though, because I was heading out for lunch, and I remembered that I wanted to let you know that we’ve had some stock killed up high. As far out of town as you are—don’t let your goats wander during the day, and get them into the barn by sundown, OK? Those tender little goats are pure bear snack.”
Lily lost the flirty look and got serious fast. “Grizzly?”
“More than one,” Hamill said. “Coming across the mountain from Glacier, obviously. I’m guessing a female in heat, here for the huckleberries ripening lower down, and she’s drawing the males. They aren’t quite close enough for the state to get involved, but they sure aren’t far off.”
“Neutering a grizzly, maybe?” Martin asked. “Ouch.”
“Yeah,” Ezra said. “No, thanks. More like shooting them with a tranquilizer gun and relocating them back to Glacier. I won’t be volunteering for the job. I saw a set of tracks out there that had to be from a nine-hundred-pounder at least. You don’t want to meet that bad boy around a corner. Are you two visiting?” He looked between Rafe and Martin. “Working?”
“Here to learn to ride a horse, for me,” Rafe said. “Call it my vacation project.”
“Huh,” Ezra said, and looked him over. He hadn’t missed the stiffness in Rafe’s step, because his next words were, “I only have doggie Advil, unfortunately, because I’d say that calls for pharmaceutical help. And probably a bag of peas to the affected area. Try to sit back more. You want to be on your sitting bones, not your crotch.”
Rafe said, “I think I’m getting that, thanks. Learning the hard way. At least I stayed on today. I’m doing my first trail ride tomorrow. Week Two, we take it out of the paddock.”
“The paddock, huh.” Ezra’s expression turned quizzical. “That’s a word I don’t hear a lot. I don’t know about tomorrow. Storm coming for sure, and your first trail ride won’t be any easier in the mud and rain. But when you do go, you should take Lily here along. She’s got a very nice seat on a horse. Well worth watching.” He must have caught the look on Rafe’s face, because he smiled, then looked at his watch. “Time to go. No rest for the wicked. See you soon, Lily.”
“Actually,” she said, “you’ll see Martin. He’s doing me a favor and bringing Chuck in for his gonad-snipping.”
“Better and better,” Ezra said, with a one-sided smile. “I’m off to grab lunch while I can. See you, Martin. I’ll bring you in for a word after the surgery, how’s that?”
“Oh,” Martin said, “that works for me.”
The bells on the door tinkled again, and Ezra was gone.
The redhead took a black-and-white-striped shopping bag from Hailey, the two browsers left the shop, and Lily gave a start and said, “Oh! I’m sorry, Maggie. I got a little distracted.”
The redhead said, “Well, that’s understandable. All these interesting things going on.”
“I think,” Hailey said, “that we may have just seen the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
“Which one?” Maggie asked. “You should ask him about kayaking,” she told Martin. “Ezra’s into the whitewater stuff.Veryheroic. But he’ll take a boat out onto the lake at sunset, too. He says it helps him think. Sunset on the water. Always romantic.”
“Does everybody in this town know everybody?” Martin asked. “And everything? I’m a Minneapolis boy myself. It’s some serious Mayberry, R.F.D. out here.”
