Page 41 of A Photo Finish
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there,” I reply as they file out like little kids in trouble.
Billie keeps her head down as she heads back to her truck, but Mira gives Cole a long and thorough once-over before grinning at me over her shoulder and giving me a discreet thumbs-up.
I roll my eyes and blush all at once.
As they both pull out, I finally spare Cole a glance from where I stand on the front porch and feel my heart stutter as I watch him duck between the fence posts with a drill in his hand. He’s like every construction worker porno I’ve ever watched rolled into the perfect package. And the fact Pipsqueak is following him around happily is just the cherry on top. When he stops to look down at the setting on the drill, the little filly wraps her neck around his side and sniffs the tool.
He gives her an absent scratch under her chin, and I almost implode. Hot guy with a horse? It doesn’t get better. He walks over to the boards, and she follows on his heels, observing, like she might learn how to make a shelter if she focuses.
“What’re you doing, girl?” he grumbles as he reaches down, and I can’t help the quiet swooning sound that bursts out of my throat.
Not quiet enough, though. Because Pipsqueak hears.
Her head shoots up, and she bobs her head in my direction with an ear-piercing whinny.Little traitor.Her signature hello just threw me right under the bus because Cole stands up, looks over his brawny shoulder and pins me with those gray eyes.
“Hi!” I shout a little too brightly, not knowing what the normal thing to do here is. I’ve had the odd relationship over the years. More since leaving my overbearing dad and brothers behind, but nothing with the intensity of whatever this is. Whatever last night was. Nothing where I feel like a mere look from the man might make me burst into flames.
“Hey,” he says a little cautiously.
My inclination is to run and hide back inside the house. But that’s not the new me; that’s not how adults handle this kind of situation. Fake it ’til I make it.
I force myself to walk toward him and try even harder to keep my eyes from roaming his body. I meanseriously.The guy is ripped, so it’s hard not to stare. I guess that’s what working out multiple times a day gets you.
When I get to the fence, I rest my arms against it. “What are you doing?”
One hand on his hip, he holds the drill up to me like I’ve just asked the most obvious question in the world. “Building a shelter.”
My brow wrinkles as I hear him confirm what Billie and Mira guessed. “I thought you hated horses?”
“I don’t hate horses.” Pippy snorts and bats her eyelashes at him. Another one down, apparently.
“Okay. You said you don’tlikehorses.”
“Yup.” He grunts as he turns his back on me and crouches down to line up two boards. “But I like you.”
And then he silently gets to work while I stand there watching him. Dumbstruck.
13
Violet
Golddigger85:Like a full-blown cattle ranch? You’re a farm girl?
I’m lyingon my bed, in pajamas, chatting. As usual. I just told Butterface that I grew up on an honest-to-God ranch, and he seems horrified.
Pretty_in_Purple:Cowboys, lassos and rodeo, baby.
Golddigger85:What about whips?
Pretty_in_Purple:More of a spurs and chaps kinda gal.
Golddigger85:Jesus. You should be careful talking like that.
My cheek twitches. If he can say suggestive things, I don’t see why I can’t do the same.
Pretty_in_Purple:Why is that?
Golddigger85:I have a vivid imagination.
