Another truth.
She shot him a very narrow gaze, but ended up following him out to the makeshift dance floor. The music was upbeat, and he grabbed her hand and twirled her. She smiled, and he could tell that she didn’t really want to smile. Elsie’s hands weren’t smooth. Not like the woman he’d been dancing with earlier.
But then, Elsie was a cowgirl.
Her work, her passion, was in those calluses on her hands. And when he wasn’t giving her a hard time, he found her damned respectable. He hadn’t been lying when he’d said that she was the best horse wrangler around. It was true. It was unorthodox for a member of one family to be working at the ranch of another.
Typically, they stuck to their own corners.
But Elsie was good enough that he wanted her there for the expansion of their equestrian facility.
Even Gus said she was that good. And it was a known truth that Angus McCloud was too cranky a bastard to compliment someone just for fun.
Elsie was great with the horses, and additionally, he felt like it would be beneficial to have a woman on hand. The McClouds were all men, and with the therapy program they’d be doing, a woman would likely be necessary. The music slowed and he pulled her closer, and she stumbled back.
“I’m hot,” she said.
“All right,” he said.
He walked back to the bar with her. “Beer?”
“Sprite,” she said.
Her cheeks were red. She took hold of the Sprite and started to drink it quickly. And she looked furtively back over at Travis.
Hunter touched her chin, and diverted her focus back toward him. Her brows knit together. She looked at him, shock and something else in brown her eyes.
He dropped his hand back down to his side—quickly—and took a step away from her, rubbing his fingers together because they felt strange.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “Don’t look at him for the rest of the night.”
Elsie shifted. “Well then, how will I know if he saw me?”
“Believe me, you will. Eventually.”
Frankly, Hunter thought that guy was not all that much to get worked up about. He’d interacted with him a couple times.
He seemed...young. Stupid.
Didn’t have the kind of steady hand or fortitude with animals that Hunter liked to see. Not that he was a terrible cowboy or anything like that. Just a new one. Greenhorn. And Hunter had no real patience for greenhorns. But hell, if Elsie did, that was her business. He didn’t particularly like the idea of his best friend’s sister getting it on with some wet-behind-the-ears kid who probably didn’t know readily how to find a woman’s clit, but it wasn’t his business. And nothing about Elsie’s body was his concern at all.
“You’re an expert, are you?”
“Elsie, I think you know I am.”
“Master of the casual bar hookup?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Never pretended I wasn’t.”
“Fine. So, you have pointers, then?”
“I’m giving them to you, you salty little wench.”
She shot him a furious look. “I am not salty. And I’m not a wench.”
“I’ll let you argue with me about being a wench, but you are for sure salty.”
“Fine. Then I want you to give me pointers and help me land him.”
“You want me to give you pointers, and help you land him?”
“That’s what I said.” She glowered at him. “There is no need to repeat me.”
“I had to make sure that I heard you right.”
“I’m helping you with your new equine therapy endeavor,” she pointed out.
“You were hired to do a job.”
“But I’m helping. You need me, and you value my input, right?”
“Elsie, if I’m going to help you, then you have to value my input. And, also not tell Sawyer that I’m helping you hook up.”
Sawyer would literally kill him, and under other circumstances...well, if Sawyer and Wolf weren’t recently married off, Hunter wouldn’t take up Elsie’s cause.
But the fact was, her brothers were distracted. And Elsie wasn’t just a loose cannon. She was a whole unwieldy battalion and when she set her mind to something the girl could cause chaos on an untold scale.
She needed some guidance and he’d give it. End of story.
He didn’t want her doing something dumb, he didn’t want her humiliating herself. And he...well, hell, he felt sorry for her.
No, it was more complicated than that. He felt like he was looking at a hurricane barely contained in the form of this woman he’d known for all her life. And if left to her own devices... Hurricane Elsie could be a whole problem.
He wanted to contain the hurricane.
He wanted to keep her...safe.
He didn’t normally get involved or stick his nose into things, but when it came to Elsie, he’d make an exception.
Sawyer and Wolf would just go all overprotective brother and Elsie would respond by going category five, and that wouldn’t help anyone or anything. Guidance was required here. And he was the only man for that job.
“That isn’t his damned business,” Elsie said. “He used to hook up all the time. What’s wrong with me hooking up? And I’m the first to admit, I don’t know anything about flirting. Or about how to be...that,” she said, gesturing slightly over toward the redhead.
“Yeah, I’m aware.”
“So, I need help figuring it out. Alaina is my best friend in the entire world, but she doesn’t know anything about it either.”
“Fine. You did good. Consider tonight your first lesson.”
“Excellent,” she said.
“But this cannot distract you from your work. No getting busy during the hours when I need you at the ranch.”
She frowned. “I would not be...doing things like that during the day.”
He internally groaned. “Right. Nobody does that.”
“It’s settled,” she said. “We get to work on the camp, and you get to work on helping me flirt. And get Travis.”
He was going to regret this. He just had a feeling.
She stuck out her hand, a grin on her face. She was fresh and far too enthusiastic. And he had no idea how Elsie had managed to make it through her particular childhood as optimistic and unspoiled as she was. A pain in the ass, sure, but generally unspoiled.