A Tender Touch: A Donnelley Brother's Novel (Logan Point Book 4)

by Carbonneau, Alannah

  “You’ll fill the water in the paddock and pasture at noon and when we bring them in for the night, the boys who work in the pasture throughout the day will fill the water in the paddock and pasture so it’s fresh the next morning. While they’re doing that, you’ll be filling the water in the stalls. Before we shut things down for the night, we groom them. Now, if we’ve taken them out on a ride, they’ll have already been groomed as we groom them after every ride.”

  “Okay, sounds good to me.”

  I watched with a fluttering heart as the corner of his mouth lifted. “The chart there,” he pointed to a chart tacked to the post on the outside of the stall. “Will let you know whether the horse has gone out on a ride that day.”

  “Perfect.”

  “You can work nine to six.” He informed matter of fact. “You’ll have an hour for lunch.”

  “When can I start?”

  He grinned. “You can start right now, pretty girl.” He pointed to the shovel. “I was just about to start mucking out the stables, but since I’ve now got a stable hand, I think I’ll delegate that task to you.”

  I lifted my chin. “If you’re trying to intimidate me into turning down the job, it’s not going to work.”

  He folded his arms over his chest, but he didn’t speak another word. I took his silence as dismissal and before he could see my cheeks flame red, I spun on my heel and moved quickly to the shovel and wheelbarrow.

  ***

  Four hours later I’d cleaned sixteen of the twenty-four stalls. There were twelve on either side of the long stretch of a barn with a small office tucked into the wall beside the large doors. Even though Luke had left the doors open and the cool spring air was constantly circulating through the barn, I was sweating profusely. It was literally running down my back. I’d never been more thankful that I was wearing a light colored shirt than I was in this moment. The last thing I wanted was for a man as completely hot as Luke seeing me coated in sweat. I mean, how attractive!

  But seriously, mucking out the stables was a terrible, horrible, physical job. I’d spent an entire summer as an Equine assistant - I’d never had to muck out a stall. Suddenly, I wondered how much I was making an hour and if this was really worth it. I didn’t have time to question the thought when Luke spoke from behind me.

  “Rough job, huh?”

  I laughed, practically leaning on the shovel as I paused to look up at the man who was grinning down at me. Never in all my life had I longed to slap a smile off another’s face, but damn, in this moment, I wanted to throw that smile straight into next week!

  “It’s certainly work.”

  He nodded. “You still planning to come in tomorrow?”

  “Yes.” I forced a smile onto my face. “I told you I need this job.”

  He extended his hand to me and I winced at the thought of placing my sweaty hand into his large, godly, clean hand. “Alright then. The name’s Luke Donnelley. You’re hired.”

  I had yet to give him my hand or reply to his introduction, which had momentarily stunned me speechless, when two quads pulled up to the barn door. I watched curiously as two boys who couldn’t be older than fourteen jumped off the ATV’s to jog into the barn.

  “Hey Luke, wasup?” The taller of the boys asked, blending what’s and up into one word.

  “Dylan.” Luke nodded to the tall boy before winking at the shorter one. “James. This is Ember Brighton. She’ll be working with me in the barn from now on. She completed most of your job today, so when you finish the eight stalls she hasn’t gotten to, you can go riding for the rest of your shift.”

  “Sweet!” Dylan exclaimed excitedly.

  “Awesome.” James grinned. “Thanks Ember!”

  I watched, stunned, as Dylan moved to take my shovel right out of my hand. It took real concentration to remain upright on my own two feet without the aid of the shovel to help me stand.

  And then I realized what Luke had said.

  He’d introduced me to Dylan and James as Ember Brighton. Not only had I neglected to introduce myself to Luke, but he’d been pretending not to know who I was. What was even more shocking - was that he not only knew my first name - but he knew my last.

  Luke Donnelley remembered me.

  Feeling my eyes flutter to land on Luke as the boys settled into their routine - their three-quarter completed routine - I felt myself scowl at the sight of his still outstretched hand. This time, I didn’t think once about my sweaty dirt-caked hand. I just slapped it against his, shook it hard and rough with challenge in my eyes and spoke through tightly clenched teeth.

  “Mucking out the stalls is someone else’s job?”

  His dark chocolate eyes were laughing. “Yep.”

  “What’s my job?”

  “Do you know how to ride, Ember?”

  Straightening my spine, I replied. “You know I know how to ride, Luke. You were my teacher - or have you forgotten?”

  “I haven’t forgotten a thing about you.” He squeezed my hand and I startled at the realization that my hand was still in his.

  I tried to tug my hand from his, and when he refused to release me, I felt my eyes move down to where our hands were resting in connection between us. His large creamy caramel colored hand enveloped the small pale pink of my flesh. Luke had always been tan. I never would have guessed that his tan extended into the winter months, but obviously it did. Seeing the bronze of it now against mine was a startling contrast I had been anything but prepared for. I couldn’t help but think, as different as we were, we were the perfect kind of swirl. For the first time, I actually appreciated the delicate skin my father had passed down to me when I was born. I actually appreciated my sensitive skin that came paired with my brilliant red hair.

  “Oh.” I nodded, tugging once again on my hand. “So, what is my job?”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow at nine, pretty girl. We’ll discuss it then, alright?”

  Slowly, unsurely, I nodded. “Kay.”

  “Have a nice night, Ember.” He winked as he released my hand. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Yo - you too.” I rubbed my hand against my thigh as I turned to face the exit. “Bye.”

  I didn’t wait for Luke to reply to my stuttered words as I made my escape into the early afternoon spring air. Inside the barn, I’d felt almost claustrophobic - but the funny part was that I hadn’t wanted to leave. I’d simply had to.

  Chapter 5

  I lowered myself onto the bench closest to the large stone fireplace in the Ranch restaurant. I’d been feeling chilled down to my very bone since I’d stopped working in the barn mucking out the stalls. I’d even had a shower, but that had only killed my shivers for the time I’d spent beneath the hot stream of water.

  Now, I was cozied up in a large knitted cream sweater and black leggings. I wore cream leg warmers inside my black boots and a scarf around my neck. I was chilled, seeking warmth wherever I could find it.

  “How was your first day working with Luke?” Kami asked as she lowered herself down at the table across from me. She’d obviously been working in the gym today because she was rocking the workout gear.

  I pressed my hands tighter around my mug of hot chocolate. I’d never really appreciated how ceramic held warmth until now. Now, I couldn’t possibly appreciate it more. I shivered. “He made me muck out the stables.”

  “Seriously?” Kami’s eyes widened. “Are you joking?”

  “Do I look like I’m joking?” I blinked at her, keeping my face impassive.

  “You don’t.”

  “Because I’m not.” I assured. “I spent hours mucking out the stables and when I was almost done, these two boys showed up.”

  Kami interrupted me. “Dylan and James?”

  “Yeah.” I muttered. “They showed up and Luke told them he’d hired me and I’d done most of their job for them. I mean, they got to spend the rest of their shifts riding! I shoveled poop so some kids could ride horses all day!”

  Kami fought her smil
e and I glared. Instantly, she defended herself. “It’s kind of funny!”

  “It’s not.”

  She huffed. “Dylan and James live close to the Ranch. Their mom home schools them and this is a great place for them to find the interaction they need. They work six days a week four hours a day. They get to ride whenever there is a horse available and they get paid so they’ve got it pretty great.”

  “I wouldn’t say that until you’ve spent four hours mucking out stalls.” I grumbled as I brought my hot chocolate to my lips. Then I rethought it and admitted begrudgingly. “But they do get to ride.”

  Kami grinned. “Exactly.” She shook her head as I huffed, obviously still disgruntled over my day. “Other than the mucking, how was it?”

  “I didn’t do much else.” I didn’t want to talk about Luke. I knew she was pushing for information on my thoughts of Luke - but shit, I did not want to talk about how freaking hot he was and how confused he’d made me.

  Luke Donnelley remembered me. Hell, he more than remembered me because he knew my freaking last name. I mean, I was freaking out over here! The man I’d had a stupid girly crush on for a decade more than remembered me. And he’d called me pretty girl more than once. I really did not know what to do with that information! I didn’t even know if I wanted to do anything with that information. Despite my crushing status on Luke Donnelley for the last ten years, he was still a man, and that meant that he couldn’t be trusted.

  Kami tossed her head back on a strangled sound of frustration and my thoughts disintegrated. “Are you seriously going to sit there and tell me that you didn’t notice his new and improved physique?” She paused to pin me with intimidating brown eyes. “Because I know you noticed. Nothing with a vagina would cease to notice that man, Ember. Not even you!”

  “Kami!” I hissed, feeling my eyes widen as Luke walked into the cafeteria. Instantly, as though sensing my presence, his eyes connected with mine. I watched in utter mortification as he moved across the cafeteria toward our table. I warned under my breath. “Stop talking!”

  “No!” She raised her hand and I felt my cheeks turn a bright pink as I prayed the floor would just open up and swallow me whole. When she started her spiel once again, Luke was standing directly behind her with his dark eyes on me. “I’m going to tell you what your hypocritical ass told me for months! You deserve to be with someone amazing, so screw the jackass in your past and move on, Ember.” She leaned into the table, but I knew she didn’t lower her voice enough for Luke’s eavesdropping ears not to hear. “Give your poor little girl some attention with a man who might actually know what he’s doing, okay? I mean, I know you’ve been hurt and you don’t trust men as far as you can throw them, but at least have some fun, Ember. You’re going to turn into a prune if you don’t water your...”

  “He’s standing behind you!” I yelled and Kami flinched.

  I hadn’t been able to take another word of her humiliating speech. As it was, I was confident I was about to die of utter mortification. I was no longer cold. As a matter of fact, I was ten shades of red and burning hot.

  Kami swallowed but didn’t turn around. “He as in Luke?”

  I glared at her as I nodded. “Yep.”

  Kami didn’t move an inch and neither did I. For the life of me, I couldn’t lift my eyes to Luke’s. When he lowered himself onto the bench beside Kami, I felt my heart squeeze nervously in my chest. “I see you met my new employee, Kami.”

  She turned to settle determined brown eyes on Luke. “I’ve known Ember for years. She’s my best friend and she’s here visiting me.” Luke glanced at me in obvious surprise and I instantly averted my eyes - but not before I saw his lips curling in a smile. “She didn’t want to do nothing with the next six months and she loves horses so Gracie gave her a job in the barn - with you.”

  Luke nodded. “I see.”

  Kami continued. “You’ll treat her right from now on, Luke, because if you don’t I’ll send Kyle over to mess with you tenfold, got it?”

  “Kami!” I protested in a huff. “Shut up!”

  Kami ignored me. “And don’t think Kyle can’t rough you up just because you’ve been spending all your free time working out your frustrations and loneliness in the gym! Believe me he can!” She added after a quick inhalation. “He’s still your big brother!”

  “Got it, Kami.” Luke was grinning widely now as he listened to her threats. “I’ll treat her right.” Luke glanced at me and winked. I tried, without success, to ignore the fluttering of my buttery heart. Shit. If it melted any more than it already had toward this man, it would be bound to slide right out from the cage of my chest and into one of my feet.

  Kami nodded. For a moment her face was stern - and then it wasn’t. Without any warning at all, there was a mischievous gleam in her eyes and I just knew it meant trouble. Before I could get myself up from the bench and outside the cafeteria, Kami had spoken.

  “I have an idea!”

  “What would that be?” Luke asked, raising a brow with an untrusting, yet intriguing tone.

  I however, was so not intrigued. Actually, I was probably the furthest I could get from intrigued. There was intrigued, and then there was me. We existed on opposite spectrums.

  “Luke and Ember...” Kami looked between the two of us, speaking with a tone that reminded me of a marriage counselor in a really bad romance movie. “You’re both trying to work out your own frustrations in different ways. How about you work them out on each other?” My eyes opened wide and my mouth dropped - I swear, narrowly missing the tabletop. “Ember needs a man to...” she waggled her brows suggestively at a grinning Luke. “Well, you heard what she needs.” She waved brazenly before settling her eyes on Luke. “And you need a woman who can help you work out all those kinks and frustrations you’re unsuccessfully trying to work out in the gym.”

  “Kamilla Donnelley, you shut up right now if you ever want me to talk to you again!” I threatened. If my hair weren’t already red, I’d worry that it was turning red. I swear, I was so embarrassingly angry it wouldn’t take another word for smoke to billow from my ears.

  Kamilla had once told me laughingly that Gracie had been going around the Ranch playing matchmaker - or Cupid, or whatever. But this right here wasn’t Gracie. This was my best friend and she really sucked at playing Cupid!

  Luke disagreed. “No, Kamilla, please continue.”

  Kami continued. “All I’m saying is you should work your kinks out together.”

  I raised my hands. “I’m done.” I stood, hitting the backs of my knees against the bench connected to the picnic-like table. “I’m so done listening to this.”

  I didn’t take a moment to halt my flee from the room even when Kamilla yelled for me to come back. It was the sound of Luke Donnelley’s deep laughter, that rippled under my skin, that made me run even harder until I had escaped into the setting sun of the March air.

  ***

  I walked to the barn the next morning, arriving a half-hour before my 9:00 a.m. shift began. The barn was only a short fifteen-minute walk from my cabin. I’d skipped having breakfast at the cafeteria where I worried Kami would be with Reese and Hadley. As much as I liked the girls - all of them - I had no desire to replay the previous evenings humiliations before committing to an entire eight hours working in close proximity to Luke Donnelley. Instead, I’d made myself a wholesome breakfast of one hard-boiled egg.

  As I walked and my stomach grumbled, I couldn’t help but wonder if my belly was protesting over the minimal breakfast I’d eaten or the nerves jumping painfully at the thought of seeing Luke so soon after the burn of last night’s embarrassment.

  I swear, if I saw Kami today - I would not be held responsible for my actions. I would claim temporary insanity!

  Taking a moment to steady the racing of my heart, I placed my hand on the door handle of the barn and pulled. As I stepped through the door, I heard country music playing in the background and I recognized the song as Chase Rice’s song titled,
Gonna Wanna Tonight. For a moment, I was stunned to recognize the sound of one of my favorite songs playing throughout the barn. Luke had a similar taste in music as me?

  Just then, I heard him belt out the lyrics. “If you wanna go way out where there ain’t nobody around...and let your long hair get to fallin’ down...”

  As I moved quickly to the office, I couldn’t help myself as I popped my head into the open door of the room. I sang. “And let your red lips leave their mark all over mine.”

  Luke stiffened, his eyes lifting to mine as he watched me sing one of my favorite songs of all time without even an ounce of abandon. For a moment there was silence, and then he picked up where the song had continued to play. “Come on, fill up the night air with the radio...and put your hands wherever they wanna go. Yeah we’re right there, girl, just close your eyes...if you wanna then we’re gonna, girl, I hope you’re gonna wanna all night.”

  As Luke’s voice fell into the melody of the song, we both fell into fits of laughter. Feeling my body sag against the trim of the door, I sucked in a needed breath.

  “You’re a pretty good singer, you know that?”

  His eyes shimmered. “You’re not so bad yourself, pretty girl.”

  “I can’t believe I did that.” I admitted. I mean, that was who I was. I wasn’t one of those shy, blushing girls - but I’d always been that girl around Luke. The fact that I’d found the balls to belt out in song, in front of Luke, was shocking. But it was also a relief. Maybe, just maybe, we could be friends. Maybe I could find a way to cut the sexual attraction I felt toward the man and replace it with something more acceptable - like friendship.

  As I watched his shoulders shake in laughter, I decided that yes, I could be friends with Luke Donnelley.

  “I can’t believe you did that either.” Luke announced when he’d regained the ability to speak. “You’ve always been so quiet.”

  I shrugged. “You think that because you don’t know me.” I tossed him a smile as I leaned my head against the doorframe. “I’m actually quite a talker. Kami says I’m a little too loud and that my mouth will get me into trouble one day.”