“They’re so cute,” she said.
“Uh.” His grunted reply didn’t touch on the things going on in his body from seeing that smile.
“You don’t think they’re cute?” She turned almond-shaped golden brown eyes on him.
His gaze traveled over her upturned nose dotted with light brown freckles and the bow of those lips that threw him for a loop a second ago. “Yeah. Cute.”
He wasn’t referring to the calves.
After he set down the bucket, he returned to the truck for couple bags of supplement. As he passed by Liberty, he twitched his head for her to follow him. He opened the gate. “Close that behind us,” he told her.
A couple cows closed in on him, wanting that supplement.
“Now’s the moment to show what you’re made of,” he tossed out to Liberty.
She blinked at him. “What?”
“Slap that cow in the rump and move him away.”
Without hesitation, she stepped forward. “I…slap him?”
“Slap his ass.”
She stretched out a hand and delivered a slap that sent the cow trotting forward. When another came too close, she smacked it too.
Aidan’s lips twisted in amusement as he tore open the bags.
“What are you supplementing with?”
“Only minerals and salt. It’s been dry, and I think the lack of nutrition made the herd susceptible to illness.”
“Makes sense. Can I help?”
He dipped his head toward the other bag. “Open that up and dump it out on the ground.”
“Here?”
“Yup.”
As she did what he asked, he took note of her movements, fluid as a dancer. He’d bet money on the fact she was as graceful in the saddle. Thinking of her round rump bumping up and down in the leather had a twist of desire jolting through his gut.
Probably wasn’t a good idea to start burning for his new ranch hand.
He turned aside so she wasn’t in view when she bent over and put her ass on full display. Her ass that filled out those jeans to the best advantage. Her cheeks were like two ripe fruits ready to drop into a man’s big palms.
He dumped the supplement and shook out the bag. She followed his lead. When he hauled a couple more bags from the truck, he tossed one over the gate. Liberty didn’t hesitate to heft it into her arms and haul it to the dumping spot. Within minutes, they made quick work of the task that normally took Aidan a lot longer.
Liberty settled her hands on her hips and surveyed the cows that had gathered to eat. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“You do that daily?”
“Until we get them moved to a new pasture, yeah. I’m hopin’ to set that fence on the Windswept and move them over there to summer.”
Her lips pursed at the mention of the ranch she’d just lost. It seemed he’d known her a lot longer than a few hours. Workin’ with a person did that, he’d found.
“When do we get to the horses?” she asked with a glint in her eyes.
“That’s next on the list. I’m runnin’ a bit behind today. I’ve usually finished all this by lunchtime, but since I was at the auction all morning…”
Their gazes met and then hers skittered aside.
He felt like an ass again for outbidding her.
“C’mon.” He opened the gate for her to pass through. The heavy metal clanged as he latched it behind her.
During the ride, she seemed to sag in her seat more as she looked out her window without speaking.
He didn’t typically dwell on a woman’s mood shifts, and he told himself he only started a conversation so he wouldn’t be working with a sullen ranch hand. “You say you grew up around horses?”
“Yes.”
“How long’s it been since you rode?”
“Few weeks. I did a trail ride in Pine Mountain.”
“Haven’t been that direction in a coon’s age.”
When she looked at him, he saw sadness in the faint smile she wore. “My grandpa used to use that expression.”
“Used to? He passed?”
“Yes, a month ago now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. So you’re from the Pine Mountain area?”
She shook her head.
“Is that where your grandpa lived?”
Again, a slow shake of her head was her only answer.
He changed tacks. “What did you do before coming to Crossroads?”
Silence hung heavy in the space.
Great—now I’m saddled with a female drifter. Probably running from a bad boyfriend or husband.
As they bumped down the narrow road leading to the ranch, he started to believe the woman was more difficult than he originally thought. He’d take her tears and sass over the locked doors routine.
When he thought she wouldn’t speak more on the subject, her words reached him. “I helped run a company in computer sales servicing half the coast.”
“Interesting.”
“No, it really wasn’t.” Her reply caught him off guard with its sarcasm, and he chuckled.
She swung her head to look at him.
“At least you speak your mind. I can’t stand a person who holds it all in.”
She nodded at him. “You won’t get that with me. I don’t mind telling someone how it is,” she said with some heat.
He cut a grin at her before turning his attention to parking the truck. “Sounds like we’ll get along just fine,” he drawled out.
* * * * *
Walking through the rooms of a house and not picking up the clutter, stopping to do a sink load of dishes or run the vacuum cleaner went against Liberty’s ingrained behaviors. Which she spent the past year away from Redding trying to break.
She’d been in Aidan Bellamy’s home all of half an hour and her old habits threatened to surface. She would not touch those dishes, run the vacuum or attempt to straighten out the man’s clutter.
Yet, living here under such conditions would be rough. After all, she was meant to share that dirty bathroom with him, and the kitchen too. They’d need to arrive at some agreement so she didn’t lose her mind.
At least the bedroom she’d been given was devoid of all clutter. Aidan didn’t reside in this area of the house, and the space hadn’t become a dumping ground like so many spare rooms did.
She found the closet empty. Since she didn’t own hangers, and the closet didn’t come equipped with any, she simply made tidy stacks of her clothes on the closet floor until she could buy some hangers.
After standing back, she surveyed the stacks of T-shirts, sweaters, work clothes, jeans and a few dressier items she hadn’t gotten rid of in the past year. However, every single suit and all her business clothes had been shoved into a Goodwill box, effectively erasing that portion of her life.
This is all I have.
Of course, it wasn’t true. She owned her truck and a key to a storage unit where she kept some odds and ends from her former life or tidbits from her grandpa’s house.
And since she didn’t buy the Windswept Ranch, she still had a nice-sized bank account too.
She felt the effects of a long day and the hard work that’d come with it in her tired muscles. She couldn’t wait to step into the shower and fall into the bed she’d made up with some fresh sheets and blankets Aidan handed her out of a linen closet in the hall.