He stood cradling the food in his hands, looking up at Theo. “I really am sorry for the water.”
His heart already had countless cracks that Jordy had put there. But one of the cracks lengthened at the contrite tone in his voice.
Gripping Jordy’s shoulder, he said, “Don’t let it happen again. I’ll see you when I can sneak away.”
Away from digging, he thought with a fresh surge of irritation. Fixing the water situation in the pasture wouldn’t be easy, and flooding could mean other problems down the road.
He had to figure out what to do with the kid—and fast—before he destroyed something else on the Bellamy. If Theo lost his job, he couldn’t care for the boy. They’d both be screwed.
Chapter Two
“I don’t know why the fruit salad isn’t getting eaten.” Jada scooped the fresh seasonal fruit into a paper bowl and turned from the buffet table to Sadie.
“Maybe if we soak the fruit in beer, the guys will eat it,” Sadie only half joked. In her knowledge of men like Jackson, Dom and many other cowboys who’d lounged around their house or hotel lobbies after a rodeo competition, guys reached for meat and potatoes to fill them up.
Which they were now. The brisket and pulled pork Dom brought from the barbecue joint he and Jada co-owned was nearly gone.
When Jada invited her for dinner, Sadie didn’t realize she meant her new friend planned to invite half the town. She had to admit she wished she could escape and hide for a spell. Being around guys who worked on a ranch…with big, dangerous animals, such as the one that took Jackson’s life when he fell off before his eight seconds were up, rattled the hell out of her.
Her plan to meet new people had come far too quick, and she didn’t even have find a place to live ticked off her list yet. So far, she’d come to Crossroads, checked into her B&B, bought some wine and hooked up with a stranger.
She ducked her head to hide the heat creeping up her cheeks whenever she thought of that encounter. Since then, she’d asked herself a hundred times what she’d been thinking? She wasn’t bold when it came to that sort of thing. But something about the guy had made her jump at a chance with him.
Maybe it was the way he walked, in that confident swagger so much like Jackson’s and yet nothing like his at all. The two men didn’t resemble each other in the least, and Theo had been taller.
Yet surprisingly, her body had fit against his.
Clamping off the vein of thought that continued to rupture daily ever since sleeping with the cowboy, she scooped up her own bowl of fruit.
Jada grinned at her. Shouts of welcome sounded from the door, and they both turned to look across the deck at the new arrival.
Her jaw dropped. Oh God.
Crossroads really was a small town.
It was him—the cowboy. Tall, broad and Mr. Callused Hands. Those hands woke her from a dead sleep with dreams of feeling them coursing over her body again.
Theo.
He sported the same hat and boots as when she’d met him, but his plain white tee had been replaced with a shirt that said: Boyfriend Material. Someone thrust a beer into his hand. Thank God he didn’t look her way.
She had enough seconds to skirt around the group and make a quick getaway.
Jada latched onto her forearm. “C’mon. You haven’t met Dom’s good friend Theo.”
Oh yes, I have. I know the length of his cock and the way he looks when he explodes.
“H-he looks busy. I’ll meet him another time,” she shot out.
Jada gave her a confused look and continued to tow her across the deck. Theo’s profile revealed he was smiling, the corner of his mouth tipped up and his eye creased on that side. Then he caught the movement of their approach, turned his head…and pierced her in his stare.
His very deep, unnerving, panty-melting stare.
She dug in her heels, but Jada was strong for a petite woman and dragged her forward. She faced the wall of muscle that was Theo’s chest, the one she’d slobbered all over in the back seat of his truck.
Could this get any more awkward?
“Hi, Sadie.”
Yes. Yes, it could.
Jada blinked. “You already met? Sadie, you didn’t tell me you knew Theo.”
She did—far too much, in fact. She practically traced the line of his love trail, invisible under his shirt, down to his belt buckle.
She spotted the rodeo buckle and her heart went into a nosedive. Oh no. No, no, no. Absolutely no rodeo men, or real cowboys either, for that matter. She couldn’t become entangled with any man who risked his life working around huge, dangerous animals.
What did she expect, though? She had a thing for a man who could rock a hat and a pair of boots. Most men didn’t wear those as a fashion statement.
Theo never shifted his stare from her. “Can I…talk to you?”
Jada’s brows shot up, and her brown eyes went wide. Probably not as wide as Sadie’s must be right this second.
“Actually, I was going to get more fruit salad.” She pulled free of Jada’s grip on her arm and spun back to the buffet table.
She didn’t need to look up to know Theo followed her—his heavy boots striking the deck made her well aware. Her insides quivered as she realized she couldn’t avoid this situation without a confrontation.
She grabbed a bowl off the buffet table and began to heap fruit into it.
Theo’s body heat blazed from behind. He leaned over her, making her feel as small and dainty and feminine and cherished as he had that day in his truck.
“Sadie.”
She continued to scoop grapes and watermelon into her bowl.
“Sadie, stop.” He reached around her and plucked the bowl from her hands. He dropped it onto the table and grabbed her arm.
This was terrible. Sadie had to find a way to get away—fast. Before she broke down. She’d slept with a stranger, who wasn’t any stranger. He was another friend of Dom’s, like her late husband had been. And Theo sported a buckle that proved he entered rodeos. Took risks.
She pivoted and craned her neck to look up at him. “Theo, there’s nothing to say. It was”—she looked around, expecting to see Jada standing close enough to overhear, though she wasn’t—“one time.”
He didn’t remove his gaze from her, locking her firmly in place with those deep, warm, brown eyes even if he hadn’t trapped her between his muscled body and the buffet.
“Theo,” somebody called.
He didn’t even look around to see who wanted his attention. Every one of those golden specks of his eyes were riveted on her.
He pitched his voice low. “There are things I want to say to you.”
She ran for it. Ducked under his arm and rushed across the deck. She hit the doorway leading inside Jada and Dom’s home and launched herself through it, not looking back as she grabbed her purse from the front entrance and practically sprinted out to her truck.
When she found Theo standing at her driver’s door, her knees almost buckled. She stumbled to a stop, purse in hand, and shook her head.
“Sadie, don’t run from me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
No, he wouldn’t, because she wouldn’t let him.
He spread his hands and then dropped them to his sides. “Look, if you don’t want to acknowledge what happened, and you don’t want to see me, I get it.”