City Minute: A When Opposites Attract Romance

by Liz Peters

  Reid was far too good at beating himself up from the inside out. He could construct a million scenarios where he was left behind with his heart on his sleeve, torn to shreds or stomped into the dust while Sam moved on, better off without him. They could try to make things work, but as long as there was this much distance between the two of them, things were always going to be strained and weird. It wasn’t fair of him to expect her to give up everything for him, and it wasn’t fair for him to be expected to give up everything either. The entire situation really came down to one thing: what were each of them willing to give up for the other.

  Reid didn’t know where he was going when he started walking, but eventually he wound up back at the ranch house, sitting at one of the bar stools. There were no clients at the Flying Eagle ranch for the week, but the bar was open for locals and for the ranch hands most weekdays. Rachel was working behind the bar this afternoon, and she grabbed a bottle of beer from the cooler behind the bar, sliding it across the counter to Reid as he settled into the seat.

  “You look like you need a drink. That one’s on the house, but you’re paying for the next one.” She didn’t even look up as he thanked her and went about her job of preparing the bar for the evening. There were a few locals who would pop in from time to time to have a drink at the place. He recognized the face of the one other guy sitting at the bar, but he couldn’t put a finger on his name or what he did around here. He just knew he was from Colleston, the next town over, and stopped by the bar from time to time to drink.

  He nodded, tipping the brim of his hat with the top of his beer bottle and acknowledged his impromptu drinking companion. The other man had a glass of whiskey on the rocks in one hand and was loosening his tie with the other. He was considerably older than Reid, his hair growing white at the temples and gray around most of the rest of his head, though there were still dark hairs peppered throughout his scalp.

  “It’s a little early for whiskey, isn’t it?” He tipped the beer bottle towards his companion with a laugh. “Not that I have much room to talk. It’s just that you look like something’s weighing you down.”

  Reid knew about things weighing you down He’d had a lot of stuff weighing him down since he’d gotten on that flight back from the city. There weren’t a lot of things he regretted in his life. He’d made a point to live his life with as few regrets as possible, but he regretted leaving Sam behind every morning when he got out of bed alone.

  “Just work. But I mean when doesn’t work get people down, right?” The guy sounded like he was trying to convince himself he was right as much as he was trying to convince Reid.

  “I can hear that, friend.” Reid offered the stranger his right hand, still holding onto the bottle of beer with his left. “My name’s Reid, and since I’m still technically at work, I’ll hold off on any judgement there.”

  The older man took his hand and gave it a firm shake with a friendly nod before taking another long swallow that left his glass empty. He rested it on the bar top and motioned for the bartender to refill it with the now empty hand.

  “Name’s Anthony. Tony actually. Tony Hook.” Reid recognized the name from a couple of billboards he’d seen in the area. If this was the same Tony Hook he was thinking of, then he was the only attorney with an office in Colleston.

  “Listen, Tony. Tell me to shut up if this is none of my business, but you look like you’re stressed about a hell of a lot more than work.” Reid sat his beer bottle on the bar alongside the empty glass that Rachel was coming over to fill.

  “You want another beer, Reid?” She raised an eyebrow at him as she grabbed the bottle of whiskey she kept under the counter to fill Tony’s glass.

  “No, I’m good with one today, Rach.” She nodded and went back to cleaning the glasses behind the bar to prepare for the evening when the locals would fill the place when the sun finally started to go down.

  Tony picked up his glass and stared to take another long drink. A man didn’t drink like that when the only thing on his mind was work stress. Reid knew the difference. He just hoped he didn’t upset the guy too much by prying into his personal life, but Tony looked like he needed someone to talk to.

  “My wife is leaving me because of my job. Because I spend too much time at work, as a matter of fact. I can’t blame her.” He swirled the ice around in his glass and studied the patterns in the whiskey intently to avoid looking Reid in the face.

  “Well Friend, that’s a tough road to hoe. I can’t say that I blame you for drinking.” Reid leaned on the counter. He was keeping the nickname for the guy to his left in spite of the fact that he knew his name, but Tony looked like he needed a friend.

  “Eh, what I ought to do is just sell the damned practice and go move somewhere a hell of a lot warmer and drink a hell of a lot of rum, maybe introduce myself to a few senoritas and get a nice tan. Work is work… I mean I made a lot of money being the only attorney in a town full of men more addicted to their work than their wives. I just didn’t think I was going to be one of them. I’ve had enough of it though. I’m mostly just waiting on someone to make me an offer for the practice before I pack my bags and hop on a plane.” He was rambling a little, but it mostly made sense to Reid.

  He had been right on the money when he’d figured the guy was the local attorney, but he was a little surprised to hear the rest of the story. He was right about the locals. The ranchers went through wives like new socks sometimes. There were the odd couples who had been together forever, but for the most part, they loved the land and the horses more than anything else in their life.

  Reid didn’t want that for himself. He loved his job. He always had, but it had been the only life he’d ever known. What he wanted was to have a life with Sam, one that made them both happy instead of one of them miserable and suffering so that the other one could get what they wanted. A life like that was what lead to an end like the one that Tony was facing. There was only so much a person could give up to make a relationship work before they wound up miserable.

  But, the guy’s predicament gave him an idea that might work out for the both of them. Samantha was looking for a job. This guy was looking for someone to buy his practice. There might be a deal they could work out here. Colleston was a big enough town to have a takeout Chinese place and a burger joint. She wouldn’t be living out in the middle of nowhere. Colleston was a half hour drive from the ranch. It was a compromise, but one that might work.

  Reid stood up, nodding to Rachel behind the bar before he clapped a hand across the shoulder of his drinking companion.

  “Hey Buddy, I might have someone interested in your place. I have to make a few phone calls, and I ain’t making any promises. I just have a bright idea.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  For some reason, Samantha had gone ahead without a moment’s hesitation when Reid called her with his idea. She didn’t have a job at the moment, and she needed to do something. Why not buy her own practice?

  Sam had no idea what she was getting herself into but taking a leap had worked out for her more than once at this point, so why not now? She knew the basics of how a law office worked, but she wasn’t certain of how to run one entirely on her own. She was going to need an assistant right off the bat, and maybe an intern or a paralegal depending on the way things went once she got started. The wheels were turning, and it gave her a new goal to hit besides the one she’d spent her entire career up until now focused on. Who needed a partnership when you owned your own law office? It didn’t matter that it was in the middle of nowhere especially when the middle of nowhere held everything that she’d figured out she really wanted.

  Her apartment had been packed into boxes and loaded up on a moving truck into the house she’d rented here in Colleston, and her office back at Anderson, Ingersoll and Swift had been packed by the same movers. Everything she’d brought into the office was now located in her new practice. It was within walking distance of her house so she still didn’t need a car. Sam hated driving if she could
avoid it but living out in the country might make it a necessary evil.

  It had taken a few weeks to get all the formalities sorted in the sale of the law office. It had given her time to find a place to live and hire movers. She’d left behind everything she’d known back in the city and arrived here with her entire life packed into a few dozen boxes and suitcases.

  She had to admit she was absolutely terrified at the prospect of what lay before her. Sam had cashed in her retirement plan from Anderson, Ingersoll and Swift then added it to the money she’d saved while she lived there. It had been just enough to talk Tony Hook into selling her his practice. He’d been excited to sell, and she had to admit she’d gotten it at a steal. According to him, the less money he got for the business, the less of it he was going to have to give his soon to be ex-wife.

  When Reid had called her during the middle of the afternoon on a Monday with a business idea, she hadn’t known what to think. He had it all worked out though. Everything was planned out and falling into place. All that was left to do was for Samantha to make a leap of faith.

  Moving to another state and going into business for herself wasn’t exactly what she’d planned to do with her life. She’d made a career of corporate law. Down here things were more family law and real estate. She could handle divorces and house sales with one arm tied behind her back. The key thing to do here was going to be to keep from being bored. She figured she had a plan for that.

  Reid wasn’t far away. It was only a half hour drive to his place. He also had a truck. Maybe it wasn’t the same as having him in her bed every morning, but it was a whole hell of a lot better than having him in another area code.

  Right now, she was so focused on unpacking the box of law books in front of her that she didn’t hear anyone come into the room.

  “There isn’t a Starbucks anywhere in this town, Sam.” Debbie’s voice was a little whiny, but she’d jumped into this business plan as quickly as Sam had suggested it. She hadn’t expected her best friend to come with her on this crazy adventure, but she’d jumped at the chance to go start a new business with her as soon as the idea had come up.

  “Well, you’re just going to have to figure out how to make a latte on your own then, aren’t you?” She smiled up at her friend, brushing the hair from her brow. If she knew Debbie, she’d be on her phone searching how to make a latte at home before the hour was out.

  “Whatever. Why don’t you take a break and come with me to get something for lunch? You’ve been working too hard all morning. It’s time to relax a little.”

  “Maybe, but I need to get this office up and running. I took over all of Tony’s cases when he sold me the practice, and there’s a court date coming up on one of the divorce cases the day after tomorrow. I’d really like to not screw up my first job here so people keep coming back considering I put my entire life savings into this.”

  “You’re going to be just as much of a workaholic here in the middle of nowhere as you were back in the city, aren’t you?” Debbie shook her head. “Alright then, at least you’ve got your cowboy to keep you company at night. I’m all alone in a brand-new apartment without even a cat to keep me warm. So I’m going to have to go out and wrangle up a cowboy of my own.” She laughed and grabbed her purse before heading towards the door.

  “You sure you don’t want to go with me?” She paused, glancing back at Samantha.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Just bring me back something? Please…” She playfully batted her eyes at the red-head waiting at the door.

  “Alright, but I can’t promise it’s going to be something you’re going to like.”

  “Fair enough, just no liver and onions. It’s the one thing I just can’t eat no matter how much Reid tells me he likes it.” She sighed and went back to her box as her friend left the building and headed across the street to the cafe where most of the town got their lunches. This time of day it would be filled with ranch hands from the neighboring ranches that were on their lunch break. If Debbie wanted to get her hands on a cowboy, this was the perfect place to do it.

  Sam had a lot on her plate here. She had a new business, a fairly new boyfriend, a handful of new cases she had to get to know, a new house to set up, and a new town to learn. It was intimidating if she sat around and thought about it too long. She could have let herself get scared and overwhelmed, but that wasn’t her style. She was just going to focus on getting things set up to the best of her ability now that she had the task in front of her. If she kept things going as well as Tony had, she was going to be able to make a comfortable living for both herself and Debbie.

  “Well, well… Legs, I didn’t know a woman sitting on the floor could be so damned sexy.” She would have recognized Reid’s voice anywhere. Samantha didn’t even bother to look up from the box she was working on, but she let an obvious grin spread across her features.

  “Hello, Stranger.” The laugh she heard bubble up from between his lips was worth everything. It reminded her of why she’d made this move to begin with. This was going to be a good thing. It was a fresh start in a place where she wasn’t going to be asked to compromise her values to get ahead and where she had someone who cared about her as much as she cared about them. For the first time in her life, she had someone to put ahead of herself and her career.

  For some people, that would have been a bad thing. It could have easily been a distraction. For Samantha, it was a relief. It was a chance to put her focus on making someone happy and to distract her from how deeply she could fall into the rabbit hole of her own profession.

  “Oh, that’s never gonna get old. Why don’t you take a break and get your pretty little ass over here?” He was leaning in the doorway to her office, hands in his pockets and a smug look on his face that made her want to do potentially illegal things to him.

  Samantha pushed up from the floor, pulling her skirt down around her thighs, and took her time in walking over to where Reid waited with that look on his face. Her first move once she got there was to run her hands up his chest and grab his shirt by the collar to pull him down into a kiss.

  He grinned against her lips, letting his hands leave his pockets and slide around her waist to pull her body in to mold against his without breaking the kiss. Samantha let out a happy sigh when she melted into his touch.

  “So where’s Debbie?” Reid broke the kiss to rest his forehead against hers, keeping his hands splayed flat across her back.

  “I sent her out on a lunch break. She’s at the cafe across the street, and I can promise you she’s going to be gone at least an hour. That cafe is full of cowboys this time of day.” Sam grinned up at him, before he pulled her further into the office, kicking the door closed behind him.

  “Well, she sure as hell better not come back early or she’s going to get an eyeful of me and you breaking in that desk.” Reid laughed and claimed her lips in another kiss.

  Sam hadn’t been expecting him for lunch, but he’d popped in a few times during the couple of days she’d been here. He helped her move boxes and furniture around the new house, spent the first night she was here in her bed and left before dawn to get to work at the ranch. It was nice to have him around as part of her day to day life in a place where she felt like she didn’t have to entertain him. He had his life. She had hers, but the two of them were leading all of the parts they could together. Well, most of them. There were a few changes she might want to make to that, but there was time for all of it. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she felt like she had just about everything she could ever want before now.

  “You’re lucky you’re sexy as hell, Cowboy, otherwise, I wouldn’t let you talk to me like that. As it is… I mean the desk does need breaking in.” Her grin turned a little wicked, and Samantha pulled Reid over to the desk, pushing him down into the rolling chair on the opposite side of the desk before she started to unbutton his shirt. The truth was that they didn’t have long, but she was planning to enjoy every moment of it.

  Samantha ran her
bare hands across his chest, sliding the shirt off his shoulders to bunch up into a pile at the back of the chair he was sitting in. Her lips found his at the same moment her hands found the buckle on his belt, working both it and the fly of his jeans open before she broke away and tugged on his pants to pull them down around his ankles.

  Reid’s hands hadn’t been idle during that time. He’d mirrored her actions, unbuttoning her blouse and tugging her skirt until her legs were tangled in it and she needed to lean on him for support while she freed herself from it. When she kicked her legs free, Samantha nearly crawled into his lap, twining her arms around his neck as she settled into his lap with a happy sigh.

  Being with Reid always just felt right, the two of them fit together perfectly, and the look in his eyes as she slowly sank down onto his full length was one she wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. His hands grasped her waist, keeping her body pinned against his own as they moved together. Samantha’s nails dragged lightly across his shoulders and her body tensed more with each roll of her hips against his.

  They’d been together in her office before, just not this one. This office was a chance for the two of them to make a go of this and for them to be close enough together to have a real relationship. She hoped that this was the first of many times they were going to have to be together, whether it was here, back at her house or at his place at the ranch. For the first time in a long time, she had a personal life, and she was most certainly going to do whatever she needed to do to keep it.