Page 4 of Belonging to the Rancher

“I had no idea.”

“You were grieving.”

She nodded her head and then forced a smile to her lips. “Yeah, I was.” She hadn’t paid attention to anyone who had arrived at the funeral. All she had felt was her own grief. After the funeral, her mother’s lawyer had been there to give one final letter from her. It was a letter where her mother begged her not to allow pain to get in the way of living her life. Her mother had wanted her to live, to find love. She’d told her to grieve, but to do so quickly. Time was too precious to spend it angry or sad.

Clarissa looked over at Axe. To many people his outburst had seemed rude, bringing up such painful memories, but she knew this was his way. He wasn’t being cruel, he was … starting a conversation.

For three years she’d been alone. Three Christmases full of grief. Three birthdays with no one to share it. Three years of jumping from job to job, trying to find her place.

This was the first time in all those years that she felt she had found where she was meant to be.

****

Axe hated shopping. After a very busy Sunday of having to deal with a torn-down fence that he’d missed, working late, and then having to get up early to work on morning chores on Monday, he wasn’t in the best of moods. The breakfast Clarissa served him helped to deal with his mood, but shopping was close to putting him in a bad one.

They had gotten through the vegetable section, and it had taken them thirty minutes to do just that. Clarissa had nothing in her cart, because they had home-grown vegetables, but the people stopping her, wanting to talk, offering him a smile, or attempting to say a few words, were infuriating.

“Are you always this … popular?” Axe asked.

Clarissa snorted. “Nope. In fact, this is the longest I’ve spent in the supermarket.” She shrugged.

Axe frowned. “Then why are people stopping you?” They were at the meat section. He noticed Clarissa had gone past the butchery section and straight to the packaged meat.

He had to wonder if she was trying to deal with the pain of losing her mother.

“Honestly, I think it’s because of you. In all the time I’ve worked for you, not once have I been stopped, but this is the first time you’ve come with me.” She sighed. “I think they have a crush on you.”

He shook his head and grabbed a couple of packages of steak.

“That’s not on my list,” Clarissa said.

Axe raised a brow and she sighed.

“Fine. Fine. But I like to keep to a list.”

“I’m the boss. What I say goes.”

They walked around the supermarket and he saw several women trying to gain his attention, but he ignored them. They could thrust their chests out, or tuck the waistband of their skirts all they wanted to. He had no interest. Instead, the beauty at his side had his attention. She wore a pair of old black dungarees, with a green turtleneck shirt.

The heat had taken a dramatic turn and it had gotten cold. It was such a shock considering a few days ago he was working without a shirt on as sweat dripped from his body.

They got to the baking section and he watched as she grabbed some chocolate chips, bars of baking chocolate, and icing sugar. She’d already purchased many blocks of butter for baking. His stomach was looking forward to whatever concoctions she came up with.

At the checkout, he grew impatient with the young woman serving them. He pushed the boy who he caught staring at Clarissa’s tits out of the way, and packed the bags himself.

Clarissa used his card to pay for the transaction, and the woman behind the counter gave him a giggle and wished him a good week.

“Do you not flirt at all?” Clarissa asked.

“No.”

“Fair enough.”

He glanced toward her and saw the small smile on her lips. What had he said to entertain her? He didn’t know exactly, but either way, he loved to see the smile on her face.

Packing the bags into the back of his truck, he took Clarissa’s hand and helped her into the truck before taking the cart back to the bay. Once that was done, he climbed behind the wheel and turned over the ignition.

“Are we heading home now?”

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