She frowned. It was a lot like watching her brothers hook up, really. That was why it irritated her. She didn’t want to see that. Not ever.
The door opened, and she turned around as cool air whipped inside. And it was Travis. Her heart bumped against her sternum, her hands going shaky. And she paused. She felt a little bit guilty because she had told Alaina that she was leaving. But maybe she would stay. Maybe, she would stay.
She walked across the room, and he saw her, jerking his head upward and smiling. “Hey there, Elsie.”
She fluttered.
Every bit of her.
“Hi,” she said, squaring her shoulders and standing up straight and trying not to show that she was fluttering. “What brings you out tonight?”
His mouth quirked up into a half smile. “Same as everybody else, I expect.”
Same as...
Oh my.
Was this it? Was this flirting? She didn’t know how to tell the difference between flirting and talking.
Except her face felt red. So maybe that was it.
“Right. Me too.”
“Good. I’m meeting someone, actually. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And he walked off, crossed the room and went right over to the compatriot of Hunter’s friend. And she felt...singed.
The girl, a redhead with long, bouncy curls, leaned in and kissed Travis on the neck, and everything in Elsie went cold.
The girl swirled around and laughed, and was generally adorable, effortlessly capturing and maintaining Travis’s attention.
And she really wished that she had left. In fact, she was going to.
“You’re not leaving already are you, Elsie?”
* * *
SOMETHING HAD STOPPED Hunter McCloud from leaving with the particularly bubbly beauty he’d had on his arm earlier. She had been irritated at him, but he just hadn’t been in the mood. He’d thought he was, but he wasn’t.
Hunter wasn’t one to think about his actions all that deeply. He did what he wanted. He didn’t do what he didn’t.
But now he knew why he’d stayed. Because Elsie Garrett was standing at the bar looking a whole lot like she’d been kicked in the stomach. And he didn’t like that. If Elsie was going to be annoyed, he preferred to be the source of it. But the look on her face now... No, he didn’t like that at all.
“Yeah,” she said, “just going.”
She didn’t act surprised to see him. Or happy. Which meant she had realized he was there already. And hell, Elsie was never all that happy to see him. Or at least, she pretended not to be. She was a feisty little cat, was Elsie. He had a feeling that being a grumpy hellion was how she showed affection.
“The night is young,” he said.
She huffed. “The night is sagging and halfway to toothless in my opinion,” she said.
“Well, that’s a bit harsh.” She looked behind him, her eyes going sharp. And he followed her gaze.
He saw Travis, the new ranch hand, with that redhead—he thought her name might be Jessica, but sometimes when he couldn’t remember a woman’s name he just decided she was Jessica or Sarah and he had pretty good odds of being right depending on how old they were.
“Oh, I see,” he said. “Ginger Barbie over there has your man?”
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “Hunter,” she said, scowling, her cheeks turning bright red.
Well, shit. “So she does,” he said.
Her lip curled. “I don’t give a damn about Travis,” she said. “And I don’t have a man.”
It was clear she did in fact give several damns about Travis.
“You in the market for one?”
“Stop being such a pain in the butt,” she said.
She turned away from the bar and started to head toward the door. He caught her arm. “Don’t leave now,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because. You’re not going to let her chase you off. And you’re not going to act bothered.”
“But I’m bothered,” she said.
Oh, bless her. Her eyebrows went down, her mouth going into a pout. She didn’t help much, Elsie. But, when she did, it reminded him of when she was a kid. “I know you’re bothered,” he said. “But honey—” he reached out and tipped her chin up “—you have to act like you’re not.”
“How come?”
“Because you don’t want to let him know that he affected you.”
“He won’t notice or care.”
“Okay, sure. Maybe if you leave he won’t notice or care. But if you hang out tonight, he might just look over and see you having fun. And look, she’s real pretty, that woman he’s with. Had I not been interested in a blonde tonight, I might have gone redhead. I can see the appeal. But I bet she can’t run a barrel racing course in ten seconds flat. And I bet she’s not one of the best horse wranglers around.”
She reluctantly looked pleased. “You think I’m one of the best horse wranglers around?”
“If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be hired to the ranch work at McCloud’s, would you?”
His family had a fine equine operation, breeding some of the finest animals in the state, with a view to expand to equine therapy—his brother Gus’s idea. Bringing Elsie on was absolutely a testament to her skill.
She sniffed, a sad-sounding sniff. “To be quite honest, I thought you were doing my brother a favor.”
“No. I don’t like the son of a bitch that much.”
“You don’t?”
“I don’t like anybody that much. I don’t give pity work. Not when it comes to my ranch. Not when it comes to my horses. It’s about the only thing on God’s green earth I take seriously.”
And that was the truth. Hunter didn’t care much about anything. But he did take his work at McCloud’s Landing seriously. And he most especially took work with his horses seriously.
“Come on,” he said, split-second decision. “Let’s dance.”
“No,” Elsie said, looking horrified.
“You dance at the town hall meetings all the time.”
“Not here. Not with you.”
“Is that any way to treat your savior?”
“Did your girlfriend reject you, Hunter?”
“Now, Elsie, you know that I don’t have girlfriends.”