Page 27 of Cowboy Falling Hard

She waited, like he would actually say no or something. He jerked his head, laughing a little to himself.

Coleman must have asked her to give him a hand. He wasn’t sure what that meant. Maybe that he had the brother’s approval?

It wasn’t like everyone in town didn’t already know how many times he’d been rejected, and they probably knew about their disastrous date as well. Not because he had said anything, and he didn’t really think Orchid was the kind who would either, but these things got out.

Maybe he shouldn’t read too much into it. Maybe Coleman was just concerned about a worker’s comp claim.

Still, he could have found someone else to give him a hand.

She led him to the back, where there was a bench against the wall. There weren’t too many places for leisure in the auction barn, but this was one. Maybe for older farmers who still loved to go to the auction, loved to walk around the pens and see what was for sale, but needed to take a break and sit for a spell.

Seemed like a good place for a bench anyway, and when Orchid pointed to it, he sat without a word.

Despite the work of the evening, he could still smell her scent as he walked past her, fresh like flowers in spring. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure what orchids smelled like, but he supposed since she had the name of the flower, she might find perfume that suited her.

He didn’t know, it just reminded him of joy and faith, and he had to admit it was very alluring.

“I assume it’s on your lower leg?” she asked as he sat down. He wondered why she’d been looking at him like that.

He allowed one side of his mouth to curve. Friends could flirt a little, couldn’t they?

He set his hand on his upper thigh and slid it around to his jean’s pocket. “Here.”

He had to work hard not to outright laugh as her eyes got big. She swallowed hard.

She was cute, adorable really, but there was an attraction that stirred in his chest, and as she bit her lip, he had to work to keep his eyes lifted to meet hers and not settle on her mouth.

“I thought Coleman told me it was on your kneecap.”

He wanted to laugh again at the concern that was in her voice. She obviously didn’t want him dropping his pants in front of her. And it wasn’t that he wanted to, it was just he was enjoying teasing her a little.

But he didn’t want to go overboard.

“I’m just teasing you. It’s right here.” He touched his knee, then worked on pulling his pant leg up over his boot and knee.

She laughed, as he hoped she would, and didn’t seem the slightest bit upset that he tricked her. “It’s a good thing. I was just about ready to tell you that you could put this on yourself.”

“You don’t have to put it on. I can do it, although if you want to nurse me, I’ll let you.”

Her eyes, which had been watching as he pulled his pant leg up, waiting to see what she was dealing with, lifted to his. There was still humor there, but he saw something deeper, stronger, and he felt pulled toward that.

Maybe it was too much to hope for that she felt the same thread of attraction he did.

“Must have been one of the larger pigs. The boots would have protected the bottom part of your leg.”

“Yeah. If she’d gone there first, I’d have been a little smarter when she tried to go higher.”

“You’ll be smarter for next time. You probably already were. Pain is a good teacher.” She spoke while looking at his knee. She didn’t touch it but fingered the ointment in her hand.

“Yeah. That’s the truth.”

Sometimes he had been slow to learn the lesson the pain taught, but not this time. He was getting old enough that he had a deep and abiding respect for anything that hurt. And things that might not have bothered him too much in his twenties had definitely started to make their presence felt as he topped thirty.

“Looks like you’re going to have a nice bruise there. She pinched you pretty good, but there’s just a small spot where she broke the skin. I’m betting it was more because of your jeans rubbing against it than her actual tooth, but you still want to be careful. Especially around here. Anything that breaks the skin has potential to be a bad infection, at least until you start to develop antibodies from working here.”

“Really? You actually get immune to things?”

She shrugged. “I suppose. I’ve never had any trouble. I mean, we all get our vaccinations for things like tetanus, of course, but studies have shown the more you’re exposed to dirt, the higher your resistance to it is. If that’s true, we all should have resistance that’s through the roof.”

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