Billionaire Single Dad

by Claire Adams

  Chapter Nine

  Pete

  Wednesday

  I was out on the porch right before sunrise when Emma pulled up in her little blue sedan. She lifted a hand in greeting, but didn’t walk over to say hi, choosing instead to head straight to the barn. I watched her slide open the alleyway doors, appreciating her slim body and the curve of her hips in those dark jeans. She disappeared inside the barn, cutting short my view of her.

  She wasn’t a talker. Or a smiler. Or a laugher. I hadn’t quite figured out exactly what she was besides a hard worker. The door on that safe was still firmly locked. But there was something valuable in there. I could see it sometimes when I looked deep into those emerald eyes.

  Lacey pulled up after the sky had lightened up a bit more, but well before the sun started peeking over the horizon. She walked up to the house and sank down in the seat next to mine.

  “How was Austin?” I asked her. We were long past greeting each other the usual way after all the years we’d known each other. Half the time we just picked up a conversation right where we’d left it the day before.

  “The same,” she said. She’d been out that way visiting family she didn’t care much for. “How’s the new girl?”

  “Emma?” I shrugged. “She’s good. She knows her shit.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.” Lacey swung her head around to stare at me, her eyebrows rising up to hide under her cowboy hat. Her hair was cinched at her neck and free over her back. She was wearing a tank top, her freckly shoulders bare.

  “I just can’t figure her out. She’s too quiet. She doesn’t laugh at any of my jokes.”

  She grinned. “Neither does anyone else. Your jokes suck.”

  “I mean, she doesn’t talk hardly at all. I don’t know if that’s just how she is or if it’s something else.”

  Lacey’s grin got so wide it threatened to drop off the sides of her face. “She probably just doesn’t want to talk to you. Not that I blame her.” She broke into a long hard gale of laughter that brought tears to her eyes.

  “Just come meet her and see what I mean,” I snapped, shooting her my stormiest look. But I couldn’t quite pull it off. Just looking at her got me smiling.

  We walked over to the barn, shoving each other at first and giggling. We straightened up before stepping into the barn. Emma had her back to us and was fitting the Appaloosa we called Dusty with a halter. She was speaking low to her as she slipped the halter on. She rubbed Dusty’s neck, smiling up at the horse as she whispered to her.

  I had to take in the view of that smile. It was small — nearly nonexistent — but a lot more than I’d seen in the last several days. I shook my head to clear some of the surprise. The girl had teeth and could show them. That was certainly a relief.

  “Hey, Emma,” I said, walking closer with Lacey on my heels. “This is Lacey.”

  Emma lost the smile as she turned away from Dusty to face us. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, but her cheeks were flushed with healthy color. Her lips twitched, but not into a smile. Her green eyes jumped from me to Lacey. I’d never seen eyes quite that color. I wanted to get a good long look at them, but I’d really scare her away if I leaned in just inches away from her face to stare her down.

  Lacey stuck out her calloused hand, and Emma shook it firmly.

  “Nice to meet you, Emma.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she answered, nodding her head once, as I was learning she liked to do.

  “Lacey here is in charge of training the horses on the ranch. She’s a barrel racer and one of the best riders you’re like to meet.”

  Lacey shot a suspicious glance at me, her dark eyes narrowed, before turning back to Emma. “That’s a long way of saying I know how to ride a horse.” She laughed while Emma watched, straight-faced, her pretty green eyes steady as she rested her small hands in the pockets of her faded jeans. She was small — no more than five-five — but tough. You could tell by the way she held herself and jutted her chin out, daring you to pick a fight with her.

  “She can ride a horse, that’s true,” I said. “But she can’t figure out how to set a stable right at the end of the day to save her life, so maybe you can help her with that, Emma.”

  Lacey snorted a laugh as she flipped me off.

  This tugged a real smile out of Emma, the first one I’d been able to see up close. My mouth nearly dropped open. It was gorgeous. The way her eyes brightened and got squinty at the same time, the flushed roundness of her cheeks as her lips lifted at the ends, the little dimple in one that I wanted to press with my fingertip. She put the smile away again quickly, which was good. I had to get a handle on myself. Sure, Emma was cute, but she wasn’t the first cute girl I’d ever seen. I had a job to do around here and needed to let Emma do her part of that without worrying over the swell of her hips or how warm her face became when she smiled.

  “Why don’t you go find some real work to do, Pete, so Emma and I can get these horses out to the paddock for feeding and watering?” Lacey asked, hitching her eyebrow at me, her best troublemaking grin stretching over her lips.

  A worry shot through me over leaving the two of them together. Lacey was bound to run her mouth, and she had the details of every dumbass thing I’d done over the last twenty-nine years. But, unlike when I was standing there, she usually had a good amount of positive things to say about me to other people.

  I left them, turning my back to Lacey’s chatter and walking around the barn to the low wood building where I kept my tractor and baler. I had a lot to do today out in the field beyond the pastureland and a limited amount of daylight to do it in. Hard work always cleared my mind and, as I got started, I stopped thinking about Lacey and Emma gossiping together about how silly and immature I was.

  Sweat worked on me like magic, always had. I hunched into my work under the blazing sun stopping for the occasional water break. I stayed out in the field for most of the day, catching glimpses of the ladies as they moved around the barn. At one point, they rode by on two of the quarter horses, Lacey waving and Emma nodding solemnly as they passed.

  By the end of the day, my skin was slick and warm from the afternoon’s steady sunshine, and my muscles were humming from the hard labor, but I felt good. The ranch was where I belonged. Not some fancy desk job in town or some classroom at the community college in Austin.

  I dropped into my seat on the porch, joining Riley and Lacey, who were already there relaxing. Lacey handed me an ice cold beer from the fridge inside. I took it gratefully.

  “Thanks, Lace.” I unscrewed the top and took a long, deep swallow.

  Across the way, Emma was just leaving the barn in the deepening twilight. She slid the door to the barn shut and walked over to her car. She lifted a hand to us before getting in and driving away.

  “What do you think of her?” I asked Lacey.

  She took a deep swallow of her own beer. “I like her. She’s a hard worker, and she knows what she’s doing.”

  I stared over at her, eyebrows high, so stunned my mouth dropped open. Lacey didn’t care for many people, especially other women. She had high standards — a little too high, if you asked me, which she never had — so an endorsement from her actually meant a great deal.

  “Definitely keep her around,” she said, lifting her bottle to clink with my own. “And, keep your goddamned hands off her.”

  I grinned, but took another long sip of my beer instead of agreeing to that last part.

  Chapter Ten

  Emma

  Friday

  All the horses were out in the pasture for now, except Elroy — the name was terrible, but it was starting to fit the little colt’s silly personality — who I left in the paddock for Lacey to work with. I walked to the other end of the barn and slid open the rear alleyway door. I had to muck out the stalls, spray down the roughened concrete floor in the alleyway, and scrub out the small troughs in each of the enclosures. I had a system down already, and it was only taking me about two hours to get everythin
g ready for the horses to rest comfortably in here at the end of the day.

  I’d been here less than a week, but I’d already come to love it. I was left alone for most of the day to handle my work the way I saw fit. As long as it got done, no one bothered me much about the how. Lacey was nice, but had been so busy with training Elroy, she hadn’t had time to really chat with me since Monday. Not that I minded. And, I’d successfully avoided another drawn out conversation with Pete by making a beeline from my car to the barn as soon as I arrived.

  Speaking of Pete, as soon as I opened the rear alleyway door, there he was riding out to the far field on his John Deere tractor. I leaned into the door, staring at him openly while his attention was elsewhere. The sun was a hazy ball rising from the eastern end of the ranch, hidden behind a filmy layer of clouds. It would be hot today, but, right now, it was breezy and nice.

  I heard a truck coming up the driveway and spun away from the sight of Pete on the tractor, his broad shoulders square and strong back straight in the seat. I hurried out of the barn in time to see Lacey climbing down from her pickup. She waved as she walked over, and I lifted my chin instead of waving back, my arms crossed over my chest.

  She was nearly as tall as Pete — well past six feet tall in her boots — and dressed in her normal faded jeans and flannel shirt. She wore a white tank top underneath in case she needed to strip off the over shirt once the sun lifted into the middle of the sky. I started most of my days off in a tank top. The summer was coming, and the heat was only going to increase the deeper we got into it.

  Lacey didn’t bother with good mornings, which was one reason I was starting to like her, despite her relationship with Pete. I kept telling myself I didn’t care about that. I didn’t have time to date. Besides, Lacey and Pete were pretty perfect for each other. He was such a goofball. He needed someone strong and steady like Lacey to keep him in line.

  “I see you already have Elroy in the pen,” she said, nodding over to the horse pawing at the grass in the corral.

  My lips twitched at the name. “He’s staying Elroy, then?”

  She laughed as she tipped her hat back to a more comfortable angle on her head. She didn’t have on a single piece of jewelry, not even earrings, which was all I ever wore — a pair of small silver studs that’d belonged to my mother.

  “I think so,” she said. “It fits him, though, doesn’t it?”

  I had to nod. I’d been thinking the same thing myself.

  The more time I spent around Lacey, the more curious I was about her. I could plainly see why Pete liked her so much, but I wanted to know more.

  “How long have you been on the farm?” I asked her as we watched Elroy prancing around the paddock.

  “Oh, there’s never been a time I wasn’t out on this ranch.” She grinned over at me, her brown eyes scrunched at the ends. “Pete’s daddy and my daddy were best friends. So we grew up together.” She took a deep breath as she dropped her hands onto her slim hips. “When Pete’s daddy died the summer after twelfth grade, I was supposed to go to college upstate, but I just couldn’t leave him. His mama died when he was young, which kind of knocked him off balance a little for the rest of his childhood. He doesn’t have brothers or sisters. Just me. So, I stuck around to help him on the farm over that summer and never left.”

  I thought on that. It certainly shed some light on a lot of things. I respected Lacey a little more, even if she was the reason Pete was off limits. I chided myself for the hundredth time this week. Pete was off limits because he issued my paychecks. And, I wasn’t looking to date anyone. Remember?

  “You’re actually the first person Pete’s ever hired,” Lacey continued, looking over at me again. “He likes you. So do I. I think you’re good for the place. It’s just getting to be too much work. And, we need fresh blood. Pete and I have spent our whole lives together. We’re always about three seconds away from killing each other!”

  She laughed again and I couldn’t help but smile. It was easier to relax around her than it was Pete. It felt like he was always trying to figure me out. But Lacey was just happy to talk without working me like some stubborn puzzle.

  “I guess it makes sense that y’all would fall in love,” I said.

  Lacey’s eyes widened as her dark eyebrows squeezed together, her mouth dropping open in momentary shock. “What?” She shook her head, braying another loud laugh as she wiped at the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “Oh, hell no! Me and Pete?” She stuck out her tongue. “That’s the nastiest thing I ever heard! He’s like kin to me. We lived like brother and sister for years after my parents died in middle school. His daddy all but raised me from then on. Dating him would be like dating my own brother.” She made another face and held her stomach like she was about to puke all over our boots.

  I couldn’t help the laugh that snuck past my lips. The ground felt like it had shifted under my feet, changing the landscape entirely. So, Lacey and Pete weren’t dating. Did that mean Pete was single? I was burning to ask, and here was someone standing right in front of me who would definitely know. But I couldn’t very well ask her. She’d probably tell Pete. And, anyway, I reminded myself, he was off limits, girlfriend or no girlfriend.

  But that didn’t have to stop me from appreciating his rippling muscles when he took off his shirt the way he had yesterday. Or from looking extra hard when he bent over to pick something up. That tight ass in his jeans. Sweet Kord. I was getting hot just thinking about it.

  While Lacey crossed to the paddock to work with Elroy, I went back to the stables to get them in order. After several hours of scrubbing, spraying off surfaces, and laying down freshly-cleaned stall mats in each of the horses’ booths, I was ready to start in on the grooming.

  At home, we washed our horses on alternating Fridays, depending on how hard they’d worked over the prior week. I meant to do the same thing here. It took most of the day, with Elroy going last after he was done training. By the time I finished with the playful little quarter horse, it was dinner time. I fed and watered them, then put them in their stalls for the night. The horses had warmed up to me, which I’d expected. I’d always been easy around horses. I liked them better than just about every human I’d ever known besides Daddy and Kasey.

  I walked up to the house under a darkening sky. Pete was sitting on the porch the way he always was when I arrived in the morning and left in the evening. He’d told me to come up before I left to get my wages for the week. I was proud of how hard I’d worked this week. Being away from the farm life for the four years I was in school in Austin had been hard. The summers, winter breaks, and occasional weekends back home in Round Rock were the only things that had kept me sane. I needed this the same way Daddy needed it.

  “Good job this week, Emma,” Pete said, grinning up at me as I stood over his chair. He handed over an envelope of bills that I'd tucked into my back pocket without counting. I trusted him not to cheat me. He wasn’t wearing his hat, and his black hair was fluffy on his head, blowing around in the strong breeze. I wanted to flatten it, but that definitely wasn’t my place.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I like it here.” And, I did. I wanted him to know that.

  “I’m glad to hear it.” He watched me for a moment, his blue eyes doing that digging thing they were good at, like he was trying to get inside my head. “Next week, I want you to start having coffee with me before you start for the day. I want to get to know you. What makes you tick.”

  I pressed my lips together, not sure I wanted to let him in any more than I already had, but nodded anyway. He was my boss. If he wanted to drink a cup of coffee with me in the mornings, what could it hurt? And it might not be so bad learning more about him. As much as Lacey teased him to his face, she sure did praise him enough behind his back.

  “Okay,” I said.

  His smile grew, and I felt a little tingle at how happy I’d made him just by agreeing to drink some coffee with him. Before it could go much further than that, I told him goodnight and
escaped to my car.

  Chapter Eleven

  Pete

  Monday

  Coffee wasn’t enough, I’d decided over the weekend. I needed more. As long as we were on the ranch, Emma would never relax enough around me to really open up. I needed to take her somewhere else, shake things up a little by getting her out of her element.

  I waited for her on the porch before sunset. She’d arrived earlier and earlier last week, finally getting to the farm an hour before the sun rose on Friday. It wasn’t even six o’clock when she came up the driveway in her little sedan, the headlights cutting through the hazy dark.

  “Stay,” I said to Riley, who obediently didn’t move a muscle as I got up and walked out to Emma’s car.

  “Morning!” I said.

  She turned quickly, gasping at my sudden appearance. “Morning. I didn’t see you.”

  “Let’s go out for breakfast before we get started with the day’s work. There’s a place I like in town.”

  She watched me, her eyes too dark to read in the lack of light…not that I’d ever been able to read them in full sunlight.

  “Don’t worry,” I said with a smile. “I won’t take it out of your pay!”

  She didn’t laugh, but she nodded. She seemed smaller without her hat on, like she’d shrunk five inches overnight. “Okay.”

  We drove to town in my truck. The ranch was only a fifteen-minute drive from the western edge of Round Rock, which was where the Texan was, an old diner that had been serving the same country dishes since before I was born.

  “They open at six,” I said as we pulled into gravel parking lot. I’d kept the conversation going singlehandedly the entire way. Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea, after all. She seemed tenser than I’d seen her all week. I climbed out of the truck and waited for her to follow me. If the food at the Texan didn’t warm her up a little, I didn’t know what would.

  I held the door open for her, enjoying the sweet vanilla scent of her as she walked by and the tickle of her auburn-tipped hair as the wind blew it across my outstretched arm.