And if he happened to catch a few glimpses of a certain pretty brunette, well, that was just a bonus.
Chapter Seven
Ella hurried to get her booth set up at the edge of the field adjacent to the rodeo grounds. Already people were beginning to wander through the surrounding booths, and here she was, rushing as usual, playing catch-up.
After oversleeping that morning, she’d had to move fast to get a small load of things from Austin’s ranch, clearing out what was left in the bathroom and one of the bedrooms. She didn’t even attempt to log the items. The end of the week was going to arrive in no time.
Not crossing paths with Austin much while she’d been there was probably a good thing. It would help her begin to pull away, to get her mind back where it belonged, building her business and securing her future. He’d been busy meeting with another area rancher who’d come by to talk to him about possibly acquiring his herd. Something about that—another person coming by to possibly take things away from this ranch—made his leaving more real than his words had.
She was thankful the rodeo market was tonight, giving her interaction with customers and reminding her that her time at the Bryant ranch was only a sourcing job, nothing more.
Then why did telling herself that feel like a lie?
She pulled herself up into the bed of her truck and shoved a table made from an old door and two upturned car rims, all painted a distressed robin’s egg blue, toward the tailgate. She had to be careful getting it out of the truck or risk damaging it. But she’d learned from experience that leaving anything in the truck to make transport easier discouraged buyers.
Ella grunted as she pushed.
“Need a hand?”
Her breath caught when she looked up and saw Austin, looking more like a real, honest-to-God cowboy than she’d ever seen him. That old cowboy hat rested on his head, and he wore a checked, button-up shirt, jeans and she would assume cowboy boots on the feet she couldn’t see below the open tailgate.
“Sure. Thanks.”
He smiled, causing a flock of butterflies to take flight in her stomach, and grabbed the other end of the table.
“Seems I’m getting into a habit of helping you load or unload heavy, unwieldy furniture.”
“You have remarkably good timing.” She hopped down from the truck and took the other end of the table. “So I see you changed your mind about coming to the rodeo.”
“Yeah. Seems I got recruited to ride pickup tonight.”
“You’re riding in the rodeo?”
“Not in an event. Just helping out, making sure the riders and the animals stay safe.”
“Have you done that before?”
“Some, when I was high school. Been a long time.”
“But you must have been good or you wouldn’t have been asked.”
“Decent.”
She had a feeling he was downplaying his ability. Rodeo was seriously dangerous, and she’d seen the guys who helped the riders dismount safely and steered bulls and bucking horses out of the arena and away from riders on the ground. It wasn’t something just anyone could do.
With a nod, she indicated where she wanted the table to go. When they had it sitting at an angle in her booth area, Austin straightened, took a step back and looked at the table.
“So this is what you do.”
“Yep.” She couldn’t explain the nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, how she really wanted him to understand her vision.
“What’s the story?”
She knew what he was asking. “The door came from an old school way out on the western edge of the county. The rims are from the junkyard. I have about ten bucks in it, including the paint, which I got from a salvage place in San Antonio.” Ella reached into her back pocket for the price tags and handed him the appropriate one. “Here, put this on it.”
Austin took the tag, his eyes widening when he glanced at it. “People will pay this?”
She shrugged. “We’ll find out.”
Over the next few minutes, Austin helped her unload the rest of her products as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It felt as easy as their shared lunches had been. Something about that fact made her sad. How fair was it that when she found a guy she liked, to whom she was really attracted, he wasn’t someone with whom there could be any sort of future, even if it was casually dating? A part of her almost wished she’d never met him, that the feelings he’d awakened had stayed buried beneath her professional drive.
But she had met him, and she admitted she was dreading the day when he would leave for Dallas and not come back.
“I better get over to the arena,” he said.
“Thanks for your help. I was running a bit behind schedule.”
“No problem. I can help you load afterward.”
It was such a simple thing to say, but a thrill went through her at the idea that they’d be sharing at least a little more time together later.
She knew anyone could see her openly staring at him as he walked toward the chutes behind the arena, where all the riders were gathered, but she couldn’t pull her gaze away. If he was leaving in a few days, she was going to look her fill while she had the chance.
“Excuse me,” a woman said, drawing Ella’s attention.
By the time she’d finished selling the woman a couple of lamps with shades covered in vintage postcards, she could no longer spot Austin in the crowd.
She struggled with distraction throughout the rodeo events. She truly was thankful that lots of customers came through her booth, a healthy number of them making purchases. But she was just as glad when she had a break and she could sit on her tailgate and watch Austin riding around the arena, looking as if he was born in the saddle. If he rode that well after so many years of not doing so, what must he have been like when he did it all the time?
“Careful or your eyeballs might pop out.”
Ella jumped at the nearness of the voice beside her, which revealed itself to belong to Keri, who stood next to the truck with her sister-in-law Brooke.
The two women chuckled at her reaction.
“You’re right,” Brooke said to Keri. “I think she does have it bad.”
“What?” Ella realized her mistake the moment she heard how her voice went up. And when Keri and Brooke laughed even harder.
Keri wrapped her arm around Ella’s shoulders and looked out toward the arena. “No woman with eyes could blame you for staring. The man is definitely stare-worthy. He was cute in high school, but the years since have been extra kind.”
“Careful, you’re a married woman,” Brooke said, teasing.
Keri looked at her sister-in-law. “Don’t stand there and tell me you don’t agree with me.”
“I plead the Fifth.”
Ella sighed. “It’s just looking.”
“See, you saying that tells me it’s more.”
“Can’t be.”
“Why not?”
Ella moved away from Keri and rearranged a few of her displayed items, hoping to get a few more sales now that the last event, the bull riding, was over. “Oh, let me count the reasons.” She held up one finger. “We barely know each other.” Another finger went up. “I’m pretty sure he thinks my career is crazy. And, oh yeah, he lives four hours from here. That sort of puts a crimp in any possibility of dating. And the fact he’s expressed no interest whatsoever.”
Unless that look when they’d been stringing the new fence had meant what her instinct said it had, or at least what something inside her wanted it to. One-way attraction was never fun.
“But you’re interested.”
Ella threw up her hands. “I’d have to be blind not to be. Hell, I see cowboys every day and haven’t thought they were the sexiest thing on two legs. Damn.” Her frustration bubb
led over. “I don’t need this. I have too much on my plate already.”
She glanced up just as Keri straightened and looked past her.
“Hey, Austin,” Keri said.
Ella froze. Had he heard what she said? Heat surged up her neck to her cheeks, and she didn’t think she could face him. She’d probably just killed her chance of getting her hands on the rest of the items in his grandparents’ house. She cursed in her head, loud and colorful.
“Keri,” he said in that sexy rumble of his. “Long time, no see.” When he gave Keri a hug, a rush of jealousy hit Ella like a sudden gust of wind.
“It has been a long time. We should get together soon, catch up, but right now I’ve got to go get my kiddo from her grandma Merline.”
Ella stopped freaking out momentarily to appreciate how sweet it was that Keri’s little orphaned niece had been welcomed into the Teague family with open arms. She didn’t think Merline and Hank Teague could love that precious little girl any more if she were their own flesh and blood.
But when she sensed Austin move behind her, Ella went right back to freaking out. What should she do? Settling on pretending she hadn’t said anything remotely embarrassing, she moved to start loading the items she hadn’t sold.
“Someone bought the table?”
The surprise in Austin’s voice eased Ella’s anxiety some. Either he hadn’t heard her or he was choosing the same route as she was of ignoring it and pretending it hadn’t happened.
“Yeah, which is nice since we don’t have to load it. Actually, I can manage everything that’s left if you want to go ahead. You’re probably tired.”
Instead of leaving, however, he bent to pick up a small table made from an old milk can topped by a round piece of glass covered in pink-and-white lace. He lifted it over the side of her truck bed as if it weighed next to nothing.
Ella had a really ill-timed image of him picking her up that easily.
“I’d venture a guess I’m no more tired than you,” he said as he turned to retrieve more of her work.
She couldn’t argue with that, and she honestly felt too shaky to say much of anything. Instead, she simply started loading items, too. It took a lot less time than unloading and staging everything, thank goodness, because she wanted nothing more than to go home and hide her face in a pillow. Maybe she’d text Austin in the morning that she was sorry, but she had no more room for anything and he could just hire someone to haul everything else off.
Okay, that was going too far. Wastefulness was one of her biggest pet peeves. She just needed to keep on pretending she hadn’t confessed her feelings out loud and hope he hadn’t heard her.
When she put the last item in the back of the truck and closed the tailgate, she hazarded a quick glance at Austin. “Thanks for your help. See you tomorrow.”
She started to move toward the driver’s side door.
“You hungry?”
Though she was in fact starving, having not had time to eat dinner, she lied in answer. “No.”
She made the mistake of looking across to where Austin stood on the other side of the truck bed, his forearms propped on the edge. Her stomach flipped. Had he heard what she said and was interested right back? Or was she just imagining she saw something in the way he was looking at her, something other than very early friendship?
Realizing how abrupt her answer had been, she said, “It’s been a long day. Just going to hit the hay.”
Not giving herself time to change her mind and give in to temptation, Ella opened her door and slipped inside the truck. Without looking back, she started the engine and drove away from the fairgrounds.
* * *
MAYBE HE HADN’T heard what he thought he had. Ella had been quick to nix the idea of getting a late dinner after the rodeo the night before, and when he’d arrived at the ranch this morning she’d already been hard at work and threw no more than a quick hello and a wave his way. When she didn’t stop for lunch, he debated with himself why. It could just be that she saw the amount of work she had to do before the end of the week, or she was avoiding him. If it was the latter, was it because he’d heard her correctly when she’d been speaking to Keri and was now embarrassed?
Annoyance welled up inside him, and he wasn’t entirely sure if it was at Ella for ignoring him or at himself for not wanting her to. It was as if since coming back to Blue Falls, he’d misplaced his brain, forgotten this wasn’t his real life.
Hoping a ride would clear his head, he saddled up Duke and rode away from the house and barn. After he’d been riding for a few minutes, he spotted the first of the herd grazing. He edged his way around them, unable to prevent himself from thinking about how Ella had talked to them as if they were overgrown pets. He found himself smiling at the memory, even though that line of thinking didn’t have a place on a working ranch. Cattle were raised to make a living for ranching families, not to be giant puppies with names.
He reined in a few minutes later and stared out across the dips and rises in the land. The ranch wasn’t the biggest or the best in the area, but it was home. At least out here it felt like it. He’d traveled quite a bit since leaving Blue Falls, but there was no slice of earth or sky that felt quite as right as this. He couldn’t deny that an ache accompanied each thought about selling it. But he was also a practical man, and selling it was the practical move. Who kept a place when he could barely stand to step inside the house? When he lived more than two hundred miles away?
He rubbed Duke’s neck. “What am I going to do, boy? That woman has me twisted up in knots. And being back here...” He wasn’t sure how he really felt about that. Some things brought back happy memories, others not so much.
His phone rang, seeming as out of place here as a doughnut on Mars. After he settled Duke, who’d startled at the noise, a quick glance at the screen showed it was work. No surprise there. What was a surprise was the identity of the person on the other end of the call—not his assistant, Miranda, or even another person in his department but the big boss himself, Frank Lealand. Austin blew out a breath before answering.
“Mr. Lealand, what can I do for you?”
“Your secretary tells me you don’t intend to come back to work for another week.”
“That’s right. I’m settling my grandfather’s estate.”
“You’ll have to put that on hold,” Lealand said. “I need you here for a meeting on Friday. All the department heads are required to be there.”
Austin had always admired Frank Lealand, even if he was rough around the edges. He’d grown up dirt-poor in nowhere West Texas, went to work in the oil fields when he was just a teenager and built his company from the ground up. But today, his abruptness and seeming lack of feeling rubbed Austin the wrong way. But what could he do about it, tell the old guy off and lose his job? Not after he’d worked hard to pull himself up the corporate ladder.
“Okay.” It was all he could manage without letting irritation seep into his voice.
“Good. See you then.” Lealand hung up just as abruptly as he did everything else.
Austin resisted the urge to pitch the phone into the midst of the herd and let them crush it with their hooves. And then realized that only a few days ago the call might not have bothered him so much. He worked hard, did everything that was expected of him and more. He wasn’t a pushover, but he didn’t ask for anything he didn’t believe he deserved either. But the longer he thought about how he was being summoned while out on leave to which he was entitled, the more it irritated him.
He’d just have to work faster to get done before he had to leave and hope he didn’t have to make an extra trip back here. When he started to think about how he’d miss seeing Ella every day, he brutally shoved that thought away. He didn’t have the luxury of thinking like that. In fact, he was probably going to throw a serious monkey wrench in her plans by telling her s
he had even less time to clear out the house and buildings. Well, she’d just have to get some help. He certainly didn’t have time to help her.
With no time to waste on horseback rides, he turned Duke back toward the house just as he heard thunder in the distance.
The storm overtook him well before he got back to the barn. After taking care of Duke, Austin walked toward the entrance to the barn. Through the pouring rain, he saw movement between him and the house. He squinted and realized it was Ella up in the back of her truck attempting to cover her load with a tarp that kept trying to blow away in the wind.
A flash of lightning was quickly followed by a loud boom of thunder that had Duke shifting in his stall.
“Easy, boy, you’re okay in here.” Which was more than Austin could say for Ella. Damn fool woman was going to get herself electrocuted or break her neck when she slipped and fell off the truck.
Bracing himself for the onslaught of rain, he raced toward her pickup.
“Get down from there,” he yelled up at her.
She glanced at him. “I need to get this covered.”
“Leave it.”
She ignored him, making him swear as he grabbed the edge of the tarp nearest him. The quicker they got this thing secured, the quicker he could get her to safety. He hurried to run the rope through the eyelets with Ella pulling it across the top to the other side. By the time they had everything under cover, he didn’t think he’d ever been as wet in his life. He reached the back of the truck as Ella started to get down out of the bed. Austin didn’t give her time, instead grabbing her around the waist and lifting her to the ground.
His grip slipped on the sopping-wet fabric of her shirt, and she ended up sliding down the front of his body. Despite the rain, his body heated and jumped to full attention. Damn, she felt even better than he’d imagined in any of his daydreams. Their gazes met, and her eyes were wider than normal. When her lips parted, he leaned toward her, unable to stop himself despite all the reasons this was a bad idea.
Home on the Ranch Page 9
