Jared (Coyote Ridge) (Volume 2)

by Nicole Edwards

  God, she loved it here.

  It wasn’t hard to see why, especially on nights like this. Hope had worked hard to convince herself that this ranch was all she needed. Well, the ranch and her sisters and her dad. They were all that mattered in her world. She had long ago given up on a happily ever after for herself. Then Ben had come into her life, and she’d considered it only to end up heartbroken one more time.

  Hope knew she wasn’t cut out for romance. She simply couldn’t do it. The few guys she’d dated in the last few years didn’t seem to understand her commitment and dedication to this place. The only thing she could probably look forward to was a casual fling here and there. Not that she was openly looking for one, but if the stars aligned just right and she found herself with the right man, she could probably see a few nights of hot, sweaty sex on her horizon.

  Of course her thoughts instantly drifted to Jared Walker.

  She wasn’t sure what she was going to do about that man. She didn’t know enough about him to even say she was interested. Other than his rugged good looks and his gentlemanly manners, that was. If she had to make a decision based on that, sure, she could see herself getting naked with him. Maybe.

  She chuckled to herself.

  Right.

  Because she was some kind of wild woman who went looking for men. She couldn’t even pretend that was true. Even though, sometimes, she wished she were.

  Chapter Seven

  THE WEEKEND PASSED without incident. While he didn’t spend his days at the Walker Demo office, Jared ended up spending most of his time in his yard. Technically, the house didn’t belong to him. It belonged to his aunt and uncle, who had built the place for their son, Kaleb, years ago. But when Kaleb decided to move in with his then fiancée, Zoey, Kaleb had kindly given up his bachelor pad. And it worked for Jared and Derrick. The rustic, two-bedroom cabin was just what the two of them needed.

  Plus, the huge yard. Definitely needed that.

  Once the swing set was up and functional, Derrick hadn’t wanted to do anything else. So, Jared pulled out a chair, slathered Derrick with sunscreen, put the sprinkler nearby, and let Derrick go to town. They wouldn’t have too many more days of that what with fall rushing up on them. Since the temps were still hitting the high eighties, it was working for now.

  Aside from that, Jared had done little else.

  Well, unless thinking about Hope counted.

  For some unknown reason, the woman had plagued his mind. At one point, she’d even showed up in his dreams. It had been a sexy dream, he had to admit.

  Which was the very reason he was calling her now. He needed to put this absurd infatuation to rest, and the only way he knew to do that was to set up a time to meet to go over the details of the reunion. Once they got this shindig out of the way, he would have no reason whatsoever to think about Hope Lambert or her sexy voice or wicked curves or stunning smile.

  Fuck.

  After Sunday dinner at Curtis and Lorrie’s, Jared had taken the opportunity to talk to some of his family members to see what, if any, dates might work for them in the coming months. Turned out, the idea of a week at a dude ranch appealed to more people than he’d thought it would. However, since no one had given him any input as to when a good time for it would be, he’d left with pretty much what he’d started with. Nothing.

  “Hope Lambert,” the raspy voice said in his ear.

  “Hey,” he greeted. “It’s Jared Walker.”

  “What can I do for you, Mr. Walker?”

  The fact that she still insisted on calling him that made him smile.

  “I wanted to see if I could swing by the ranch this afternoon to talk about the reunion.”

  “There is always someone in the office during the day,” she replied. “Just stop by. My dad or my sisters will be happy to help you out.”

  Ahh. She was going to play it that way.

  “I want to work with you directly,” he said, keeping his tone matter-of-fact. He’d had to do it numerous times in his line of work. Often, one of the general contractors wanted to pass him off to someone else. Jared generally refused. He could get more accomplished going straight to the source.

  There was a brief pause, followed by, “Well … I … uh… Sorry, but today’s not a good day. Mondays never are. I’ve got a ton of stuff to take care of. Even if I could meet with you today, I wouldn’t be free until late…”

  “Late works,” he said, probably a little too quickly. “How about dinner?”

  Okay, he really hadn’t meant to ask her out.

  “Um … I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “You don’t eat?”

  Hope chuckled. “Yes, I eat.”

  “Then why isn’t dinner a good idea?”

  “I … uh…”

  “Dinner, Hope. We’ll talk about the reunion. I’ve got some questions.”

  This time the pause lasted long enough to make it uncomfortable.

  “Hope? Are you there?”

  “Yeah.” A heavy sigh sounded in the phone. “I really think it’d be better if we meet later in the week. Or, better yet, you can email me your questions.”

  “Are you scared of me?” he taunted, knowing that she was purposely blowing him off.

  “What?” She sounded affronted. “No. I’m just … busy. Really busy. I don’t have time for—”

  He pushed, purposely cutting her off. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re scared of me. Worried that one dinner and you’ll fall in love, beg me to marry you…”

  “I most certainly will not,” she countered with a snort, but Jared could tell she was amused.

  “Good. Then I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  “Mr. Walker…”

  “Jared,” he retorted.

  “Jared, I…”

  Realizing she was still trying to come up with a way to brush him off, Jared decided to take the decision from her altogether. “I’ll see you at seven, Hope. And I’m lookin’ forward to it.”

  Rather than waiting for her to fumble more, Jared disconnected the call and smiled to himself. Sure, that might’ve been a little high-handed, but there was something about this woman. Something that made him want to pursue her despite the fact that he knew better.

  He didn’t often find himself in this predicament. He could probably count on one hand how many times in his life he’d had to put real effort into pursuing a woman. It was rare. In fact, it might’ve happened once. Twice at the most.

  But he liked it.

  Jared definitely liked the fact that Hope wasn’t giving in. Now, whether or not that would ever happen, he wasn’t sure, but he damn sure was looking forward to trying.

  Then again, once he got her—if he got her—he had no fucking clue what he was supposed to do with her. Sex was certainly up there on his list of things he wanted to do, but other than that, there really wasn’t much he could give this woman. He was a single dad, and he’d made a vow to himself that no woman would ever interfere with his relationship with Derrick, nor would any woman come before his son. The kid was his whole reason for breathing. He looked forward to every single second he got to spend with the boy, which meant there really wasn’t any room for a woman in his life.

  Yet he wasn’t compelled to call Hope back and cancel.

  And he wasn’t sure what that said about him. Or his intentions.

  Granted, he’d have to think about that later, because right now, he needed to give Kaleb a call. See if he would mind watching Derrick for a few hours tonight.

  HOPE PACED THE small guest room. She had finished up for the day, working a little longer since she supposedly didn’t need to eat dinner yet. Then she’d gone up to her room, hopped in the shower, and pulled on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

  Now, with Canaan Smith crooning from the speaker on the nightstand beside the bed, she was pacing
in front of the small closet that held a few of her clothes. Luckily, Faith had thought to bring Hope’s sensible clothes—jeans, T-shirts, a couple of blouses, boots—which meant Hope didn’t have to bother with getting dressed up for this…

  Whatever this was.

  She still could not believe Jared had insisted that she go on a date with him.

  A freaking date.

  Then again, she couldn’t believe she’d allowed the sweet-talking cowboy to talk her into it.

  But it wasn’t a date.

  It was dinner. That was all. Dinner where they would talk about business; she would make sure of it. So maybe they’d have dinner. It wasn’t like she couldn’t survive an hour in his company. She could talk about the ranch until she was blue in the face.

  Snatching a pair of jeans, Hope glanced down at them before shoving them back in the closet and pulling out another pair. A nicer pair.

  Crap.

  Why was she doing this to herself?

  The last time she’d been on a date had been with Ben. Two years ago? Something like that. And not once since then had she even worried about her nonexistent social life. So what if she hadn’t had sex in two years? Didn’t mean she was going to have sex with Jared Walker.

  Dinner, she reminded herself. A business dinner.

  Maybe she should invite her father.

  No. That would definitely be weird.

  Throwing the jeans on the bed, Hope headed back to the bathroom to pull the towel off her head. Her hair tumbled down just past her shoulders and she frowned. No way could she go looking like this. Even if it wasn’t a date, she didn’t want to look like a drowned rat.

  Which meant she had to put a little effort into getting herself presentable.

  For the next half hour, that was all she focused on. After blow-drying and straightening her hair, she swiped some color on her eyelids, then brushed mascara over her lashes, topping it off with a subtle gloss on her lips.

  That was as good as it was gonna get.

  After pulling on her jeans and finding a shirt that she didn’t normally wear when she worked, Hope studied herself in the mirror.

  God, she hated this.

  She hated that she was actually looking forward to seeing Jared again. She hated that she was almost nervous about going out with him.

  There were a million reasons she should’ve called him back and told him that she couldn’t do this. Instead of listening to the voice of reason all but screaming in her head, she had pretended that this really was a simple business meal and after they talked about his reunion, she would be back here, gearing up for another busy day tomorrow.

  “You’re overthinking this,” she muttered to her reflection.

  What if she really was? What if Jared simply wanted to take her to dinner to talk about the logistics of his family reunion? After all, he really did seem perplexed when it came to how to go about setting this up. She should’ve told him she could easily handle all of the details, right down to sending out an email invite to anyone and everyone he wanted to show up. They’d done that before, and it usually worked out well because they managed everything from their end. No surprises.

  But she hadn’t done that.

  And if she could do it all over again, she wasn’t sure that she would, either.

  Half an hour later, after Misty, the housekeeper, had so kindly knocked on her door to alert her that Jared was there, Hope was once again mentally chastising herself.

  She still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to this.

  Here she was, strapped into the passenger seat of Jared’s fancy Chevy Silverado truck, letting him whisk her away from the ranch so they could have dinner together. Clearly she was losing her touch. Turning down dates had become one of her specialties, something she exceled at.

  She still wasn’t sure what had happened here.

  Shit. Dating so wasn’t her thing. She should be at home with a bowl of popcorn and a movie.

  With her pajamas on.

  Getting ready to call it a night.

  After all, that was the extent of the excitement in her life. That and flooded cabins. At least when it came to after hours anyway. The rest of the time, she was working, something she enjoyed immensely and had made her entire focus for years.

  Somehow Hope had clearly failed today because she’d allowed this smooth-talking cowboy with the sexy voice and the sparkling eyes to persuade her to have dinner with him.

  A freaking cowboy, for chrissakes.

  The irony was not lost on her.

  She couldn’t help but notice that the truck smelled new. How was that even possible? He had a kid. Shouldn’t there be toys strewn across the backseat? Maybe some old fast-food wrappers on the floor? Nope. No toys, no food, but there was a car seat in the backseat. Other than that, there wasn’t so much as a piece of trash anywhere. And it’d been vacuumed recently.

  Why did it matter? She didn’t care how Jared kept his truck. Or that it smelled like him. Something musky, spicy. Sexy.

  Uggh.

  While she continued to stare out the window, Hope pretended not to notice the way Jared briefly glanced over at her. She could feel the intensity of his gaze every single time.

  Jeezus. She was in trouble here.

  At least she’d been the one to insist on the restaurant. And restaurant was putting it kindly. Where they were going was really nothing more than a backwoods bar that served up some appetizers and burgers to go along with the beer. Not one of those fancy places with candlelight and tablecloths. This one had peanut shells on the floor.

  Peanut shells.

  Hopefully he didn’t have a peanut allergy.

  Then again, if he did, maybe they’d turn right back around, and he could take her home.

  So, yeah. This was a win-win for her. As far as she was concerned, that made the score even to this point. She’d show Jared what she thought of his high-handed insistence. He thought he was smooth, not asking. Well … she was the master of avoidance, and he was not going to get one over on her.

  No matter how much it had turned her on when he’d gotten that demanding edge in his deep voice.

  “You look fantastic, by the way,” Jared said as he drove, looking at ease in the driver’s seat of his impressive truck—the kind with fancy leather seats and all the bells and whistles. One hand casually resting along the top of the wheel, his other arm propped on the console between them.

  “Thanks,” she said, surprised by the compliment.

  Not that she hadn’t had her fair share of them, but since she’d grown up on the ranch, they were generally few and far between. Her father had threatened to castrate any man who so much as looked at one of his daughters, and for the most part, that had been effective in keeping the wranglers focused on work. As for those few who had been stupid enough over the years, their compliments were usually accompanied by a wink and one of those crooked, come-hither grins notorious to cowboys. The kind that made women want to strip right out of their boots and be ravished.

  Yeah, well, she’d been there and done that. And the ravishing was generally little more than some heavy petting, a few grunts and groans, then a grand finale. For him.

  It was safe to say Hope hadn’t had the most impressive sex life, but she didn’t dwell too much on that. She had more than enough shit to do to worry about getting laid. Her nightstand drawer was well stocked with batteries, and her vibrator was very much her best friend.

  She didn’t need a man.

  “And me?” Jared asked.

  Hope glanced over at him, confused.

  His sexy grin widened when she frowned.

  “You’re supposed to say, ‘You look nice, too, Jared.’ That’s the way this datin’ thing works, right?”

  “I never would’ve taken you for the insecure kind,” she quipped.

  His grin
widened, his eyes heating. Yeah, she doubted he had an insecure bone in his entire body.

  “Plus, this isn’t a date,” she assured him.

  “Oh, it’s a date,” he argued.

  She was getting a lot of that from him. Seemed Jared had an agenda all his own, and Hope was beginning to feel a little off-kilter about it all.

  They pulled into the gravel parking lot of the restaurant/bar, and Hope half expected him to balk at the place. Instead, he smiled to himself, then climbed out of the truck after telling her to stay put.

  She did not stay put.

  Rather than allow him to open her door for her, Hope hurried out of the truck and met him as he came around the front of the vehicle.

  What she’d expected to happen and what happened were two very different things, and that off-kilter feeling turned into full-blown vertigo when Jared trapped her between his big body and the grille of the truck.

  He smelled good.

  Like, really good.

  “I’m not sure you understand how this works,” he said, his tone low, seductive.

  And damn it all to hell, he was still smiling.

  “Then tell me how it goes,” she said, trying to keep her temper in check while fighting her body’s ridiculous response to his nearness.

  He was right about one thing, this wasn’t how this worked, but it was still to be seen as to who would get their way. As much as Hope didn’t want to relinquish control, she was beginning to get the impression that Jared Walker was not the laid-back, passive country boy she’d pegged him to be.

  And fuck a duck, she actually liked that.

  A lot.

  Chapter Eight

  JARED HAD KNOWN from the moment he laid eyes on this woman the first time he’d come to the ranch that she would be a handful. She was proving that now, and he was fairly certain she was pushing him on purpose. What Hope didn’t know was that he didn’t mind. That was one of the things that turned him on about her. And the more she pushed, the hotter he found her.