Authors: Hope Navarre
He picked up the phone and called Jessie. “Hey,” he said when she answered, “is it all right if I bring Ellie to dinner with me?” Jessie always made enough dinner to feed a crew and then froze whatever was left over for Walt to eat later.
“Ellie?”
“The boss.”
“I know who you mean,” Jessie said with a touch of exasperation. “I'm just wondering why.”
“The more familiar she is with us before George comes, the better for all of us.”
There was a brief silence before Jessie said grudgingly, “Sure. She can come...but I still think she's going to fire us all.”
“Thanks, Jessie. And try to keep an open mind, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah.” A squeal sounded in the background. “Emmie! No! I gotta go.” She hung up without a goodbye.
Well, that part was done. Now to see if Ellie was tired of spending her nights alone.
She didn't answer the door immediately, and when she did, she was wearing a robe and her hair was down, falling in soft waves around her shoulders, making him wish she'd stop pulling it back.
“Hi,” she said uncertainly as if wondering why he was there after the workday had officially ended.
“Hi,” he replied before diving in. “I called Jessie, and if you'd like to come to dinner, you're invited.”
She looked startled. “Why would you do that?”
“I thought you might be tired of spending all your nights alone. You don't have to come.”
“It wouldn't look too good if I didn't go now.”
“You could have a previous engagement.”
“But I don't.” One corner of her mouth tilted up wryly. “And I appreciate the invitation. Give me a few minutes to dress and I'll be right with you.”
Ryan waited for Ellie in the truck wondering how much she really did appreciate the invite, since something akin to alarm had crossed her face when he'd made it. Her hair was pinned up again when she let herself out of the house, but she was wearing white jeans and a pale blue sweatshirt, which was a change from the expensively casual clothing she'd worn the first few days she'd been on the ranch. But he wondered how familiar she was with both posole and kids if she was wearing white to a family dinner....
The kids charged him as soon as he opened the door and almost instantly he had a twin in each arm happily chattering at him while Jeff jumped up and down in front of him. “Good to see you guys, too,” he said on a laugh. He turned toward Ellie, who'd taken a step back at the charge and was now eyeing the kids in a way that confirmed his suspicion that she hadn't spent much time around young children.
“Ellie, this is Emmie and Bellaâ” he nodded to the twins in turn “âand this kangaroo in front of me is Jeff.”
“Hi,” Ellie said cautiously.
Emmie drew back against him, clutching his collar with one chubby fist as she stared at Ellie, but Bella reached out to Ellie. She looked startled as the twin leaned toward her, then awkwardly reached out to take the girl in her arms before she toppled.
“Oh, you're heavy,” Ellie said with a self-conscious laugh as she hefted the little girl higher in her arms and then awkwardly balanced her on her hip.
“They're growing fast,” Jessie said, wiping her hands on the dish towel tucked in the waistband of her jeans as she walked into the room. “If my mom didn't sew, I'd have a hard time keeping them dressed.”
“They're adorable,” Ellie said, moving closer to Jessie as Bella reached for her mother. “And handsome,” she added, nodding at Jeff.
“Just like his daddy,” Jessie said with a smile as she took Bella from Ellie. “Who should be here any minute,” she said to Ryan, before setting Bella down, ignoring the girl's upstretched arms. “Your feet will be fine on the floor while Mama cooks,” Jessie said firmly. “Come on into the kitchen. You can stir for me.” Bella brightened and Emmie immediately struggled to get out of Ryan's arms to join her sister.
“Come on in and talk while I finish up,” Jessie called to Ellie as she followed the giggling twins into the kitchen.
Ryan had to give Jessie credit for doing her best to treat Ellie like just another casual guest instead of the boss or enemy, which was how he knew she thought of her.
“Thanks,” Ellie said, following the girls into the kitchen, leaving Ryan to entertain Jeff, who was now digging through his pile of toys to show him his new car. She cast him an uneasy look, almost as if seeking reassurance, before disappearing through the kitchen door. Ellie was as nervous as she'd been the first time they'd worked together. Maybe more so.... And in a way, that made Ryan like her better.
“Dad!” Jeff shouted as the front door rattled. He dropped the car and headed for the door.
“Hey-a, big guy,” Francisco said, swinging his son up into his arms. “Were you good today?”
“I was, but Emmie wasn't.”
“I'll let Mama tell me about that,” Francisco said before meeting Ryan's eyes. “So you survived another day with the boss?”
“Who's with Jessie right now,” Ryan said, jerking his head toward the kitchen. The change in Francisco's demeanor was almost comical. “I thought she might like to get to know us all a little better before George gets here.”
“Ah. Not a bad idea.”
But he still looked as though he'd just tasted something nasty.
“She's not that bad,” Ryan said.
“You should know.” The girls stampeded out of the kitchen then for their hello hugs. Francisco swept them up laughing as they kissed his cheeks and simultaneously told him the many events of the day. While his friend was busy with his offspring, Ryan ambled into the kitchen, where Ellie sat at the table as Jessie stirred a pot on the stove.
“Damn, that smells good,” Ryan said. “Too bad Walt's not here.”
“I invited him, but you know he won't miss that poker game for anything,” Jessie said.
“Thursday-night poker at the Crescent Bar,” Ryan said to Ellie. “Walt never misses.” Then, in case she thought Walt had a nasty gambling habit on top of his other faults, he added, “Penny poker.”
“I think he has a lady friend,” Jessie said absently.
Francisco came in carrying the girls. Jessie smiled and offered her cheek. He took her lips instead, making the girls giggle.
“Down you go,” he said to the girls.
“Could you get them their juice?” Jessie asked her husband as she started taking bowls down from the cupboard. Ryan automatically took them from her and started setting the table.
“Let me do that,” Ellie said, getting to her feet. Ryan was about to say he was used to it when he caught her expression. She was trying to be part of this, just as he'd wanted, so he handed her the bowls and went to take silverware out of the drawer as she set the four adult bowls and three children's bowls at the table.
“Mine goes here,” Jeff announced, moving the bowl to an empty place.
“How about the others?” Ellie asked.
“I'll do it,” Jeff said importantly.
“Thank you,” Ellie said, taking her seat again. Bella toddled over to her and situated herself between Ellie's legs before she absently tilted her cup and orange juice poured out, soaking Ellie's thigh.
Ellie gasped and instantly righted the cup, but it was too late.
“Oh, no!” Bella said dramatically, patting the orange juice into Ellie's white jeans with her small hand. “Oh, no.”
“I'm so sorry,” Jessie said, rushing to the rescue, giving Ellie a towel and handing Bella off to Francisco. “The lid must be on crooked.”
“No problem,” Ellie said, grimacing a little as she pressed the towel onto her leg.
“Do you want to go home and change?” Ryan asked.
Ellie looked up in surprise. “No. I'm fine. Things like this happen.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jessie scoffed. “I suppose you get a lot of orange juice poured on you,” She reached out to stop Emmie, who was toddling toward Ellie, tilted cup in hand.
“Don't worry,” Ellie said with a smile, holding out her hands to Emmie. “A little orange juice is no big deal.”
“Well, I admit that I wear a lot of the stuff,” Jessie confessed as she let Emmie go, and Ellie laughed as both girls rushed her. After that, the atmosphere changed. Jessie set a steaming pot of soup on the table and then showed Ellie how to load it up with fried tortilla strips, green onions and cheese. Ellie took a sip of the broth, closed her eyes and let out a heartfelt sigh.
“This is good,” she said.
“I'm glad you like it,” Jessie said. “It's Francisco's mother's recipe.”
“She never made it this well,” he said, sitting after maneuvering each of the girls into a high chair.
Jessie smirked. “My husband is a wise man.”
Ryan gave a cough at the comment and when he caught Ellie's eyes a second later, he saw laughter there, and smiled at her. She immediately glanced back down at her soup, fighting an answering smile, and damned if it didn't look as if her color was rising. Had to be steam coming off the posole.
But she didn't look back at him, turning instead to speak to Jessie. Ryan watched the two women talk, saw that Jessie was starting to relax a touch and recognized that Ellie was making an effort to connect with her.
And somehow, now that she was here, with orange juice on her pants and making a sincere effort to fit in, Ryan allowed himself to acknowledge what his hornier self had been shouting out for the past two days. Ellison Hunter was sexy.
CHAPTER NINE
A
FTER
THEY
SET
the last fence post, a post Ellie was very glad to see vertical, they ate lunch sitting side by side on the tailgate of the truck, enjoying the sun while Ellie tried to see the deer Ryan pointed out in the shadows of the trees. His shoulder would occasionally press against hers as he pointed, setting every nerve in her body on alert.
“To the left,” he said, leaning close when she'd failed to see the third one in a row. It wasn't that she hadn't seen deer beforeâevery morning they grazed in the field with the cattleâit was that she wanted to see these deer that appeared to be invisible to her. Or was she just so very aware of the man next to her that her other senses were shutting down? Her awareness of Ryan had intensified since going to dinner at the Garcias' two days ago, but thankfully, it appeared to be one-sided. Ryan was warm and friendly, but no more so than he'd been prior to the dinner, making Ellie fairly certain that even if he felt equally drawn toward her, he wasn't going to acknowledge it. For which she was grateful. Not acknowledging meant not having to deal with it. It might be wrong, but she enjoyed the pull of secret attraction and didn't want to ruin the one positive that managed to distract her from the reality of her life. Distracted her, entertained her...frustrated her. Frustration, she'd decided, was a small price to pay.
“You're hopeless,” Ryan said on a wry note.
“Guess I'll have to cross âbig-game hunter' off my list of job prospects.”
“I would,” he said, sliding off the tailgate to his feet.
Ellie followed him, wishing that they could have sat in the sun and watched invisible deer for another hour or two.
“I have to check a pond,” he said after packing up the lunch, “and then we'll head home. I have a few things to do on the main ranch.”
“What do you check for?”
“The water level, mainly, and the flow of the source.”
Ah. Flow of the source. Of course. Ellie smiled a little as she got into the truck. She was enjoying learning all this stuff. Or maybe she was just enjoying her teacher.
The pond was closeâonly a half mile from where they'd been working. Ryan drove to the top of a small hill, and on the opposite side was a pool of lovely, still water. There were reeds growing at one end and a large bird floating on the other.
“Is that a goose?” Ellie asked.
“Appears to be,” Ryan said as he started down the hill. Ellie followed and as they approached the water she realized the bird wasn't swimming. In fact, it appeared to be tethered in place. As they got closer, the bird became alarmed, letting out a warning honk as it struggled, spreading its wings, flapping and going nowhere.
“She's stuck,” Ellie said.
“Yeah.”
“We have to rescue her.”
Ryan gave her a frowning look. “She's going to beat the shit out of me with her wings if I try to rescue her.”
“Fine. I'll do it.” She started for the pond, but Ryan took hold of her arm before she took more than a couple steps.
“
What
are you going to do?”
“I don't know. I thought I'd get closer and assess.”
“I'll come with you.”
The goose again struggled wildly as they approached, flapping her wings and trying to lift off. When that failed, she stilled, keeping her wings out, the tips dipped into the water, and let out a long evil hiss as she eyed them balefully.
“She's not happy,” Ryan muttered.
“Would you be, stuck in the mud like that?”
“She's not stuck...she's tangled up in the branch there.”
Ellie followed Ryan closer, mirroring his slow movements so as not to distress the goose any more than she already was. “How?”
“Fishing line, probably.”
“We're going to untangle her. Right?”
Ryan gave his head a weary shake. “Right.” He took off his shirt and Ellie made a concerted effort not to stare. She was not entirely successful. “We're going to get wet, you know.”
“I'm familiar with the effects of water,” she said.
“Just checking.” He dug a knife out of his pocket and handed it to her. After Ellie flipped the knife open, then closed it again, he turned to face the goose. “Here goes.”
“Good luck.”
“You'd better be right behind me.” Rolling his shoulders in an exaggerated manner, Ryan started toward the hissing goose. When he was close he stopped for a few seconds and gauged the best line of attack to avoid her snaking head, then made a dive for the goose, dropping the shirt over her. The goose went ballistic, her head popping out of the chambray fabric, biting and stabbing at any part of Ryan she could reach.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, fighting to get the head back under the shirt. Finally he got her body jammed under his arm and the head under the shirt. A low, angry hiss emanated from the quivering bundle. Ellie moved to join him then, kneeling in the mud beside him to open the knife, and cut the fishing line tangled around the goose's leg free from the branch. Ryan kept hold of the bird, wading the few feet toward shore after the bird was free, so that Ellie could work on the line still wound around the bird's leg.
“It's tight,” she said, hurting for the poor animal. She took her time, trying to figure out the direction of the wraps. Every now and then the goose gave a mighty squirm, trying to snake her head free of the shirt, but Ryan maintained his hold.
“I don't think she's been tangled for that long,” he said. “The line's not cutting her leg yet.”
“Not much anyway,” Ellie said.
It took a good five minutes before Ellie unwrapped the last bit of line. She met Ryan's eyes as she closed the knife. “Is this the part where she beats the shit out you with her wings?”
“I guess we'll see. You might want to stand back.” He waited for her to move away before he set the shirt-covered goose on the ground and took a few quick steps back. The goose poked her head out from under the cloth, then waddled back toward the water, dragging the shirt behind her.
“Well that was anticlimactic,” Ryan said, wiping mud off his arm.
Ellie bit her lip, trying to keep from smiling. “You sound like you wanted her to attack.”
“Maybe I wanted to show off my goose-fighting skills. She's definitely not as tough as my mom's old goose. That bird used to tree me on a daily basis.”
“Really? You got treed by a goose?”
“You have no idea how terrifying an angry goose can be. They come at you hissing and beating those wings...” He gave an exaggerated shudder and Ellie laughed. It sounded low and sensual, even to her ears. She wondered if Ryan noticed, or if she was being overly sensitive.
Oh, yes. He'd noticed. Their eyes connected and, for one long electric moment, held.
He wanted to touch her.
She could sense it. And worse yet, she felt the same, as if a wall had fallen away and she'd realized it was possible to touch.
Dear heaven, how she wanted to. She wanted to step closer, take his face in her hands and kiss him. Softly the first time, hard and deep the second time. To find out what all those lean muscles felt like under her fingers. She wanted to wrap herself around him, experience what this cowboy had to offer, and for one brief moment just feel and not think.
But it wasn't possible. That was what had gotten her into this situation, and she'd been stupid to let herself meander along this path. She was pregnant. She was leaving. She couldn't toy around with this guyâit wasn't fair to either one of them.
Ellie stepped back.
* * *
S
OMETHING
MAJOR
HAD
just shifted between him and Ellie as they stood at the edge of the pond, the goose peacefully swimming at the far end as if nothing had happened to it.
Shifted, and then abruptly shifted back again as Ellie tore her gaze away from his and took a step back, looking out over the pond. There was no sign of anything approaching mutual awareness now and all traces of laughter were gone from her eyes when she turned back to him.
“I'll get your shirt,” she said, wading out into the pond where it was floating free. Ryan made no move to stop her or to say that he could get it himself. She wanted to go because she wanted to put distance between them.
Ellie came back with his shirt, doing her best to wring it out. She gave it a shake and handed it to him. “We'd better get going,” she said.
“Yeah,” Ryan agreed as Ellie started toward the truck. Ryan followed, trying to sort out what had just happened, struggling to put on his wet shirt as he walked. It felt like hell, but given what had just happened, he thought it best that he cover up.
What
had
just happened?
Lightning followed by a dousing rain.
They drove back to the ranch in stony silence, the tension between them growing by the minute, and he continued to replay what had just happened. One minute he'd had the feeling she was ready to lock lips with him and the next she was ten miles away.
Was she married or engaged or something? She wore no ring, but that didn't mean she wasn't committed. And if she was, well, that he could understand. But he didn't like it.
When they stopped at the last gate, Ellie half turned in her seat and said, “I don't think I'm going to come out with you tomorrow.”
“That's your choice,” he replied evenly.
“I'm not trying to be unfriendly,” Ellie said.
“Yeah?” He left it at that.
She reached for the door handle, seemed to think better of it and turned back. “I agreed to spend time with you in order to get a feel for day-to-day ranching operations.” Spoken in that professional tone he hadn't heard in a couple days.
“And you feel like you have enough of a feel to make informed decisions?”
“More than if I hadn't come out.”
“And what happened back there has nothing to do with it?”
She blinked at him and her lips parted a moment before she spoke. “What do you mean?”
“Really?” he asked flatly before letting out a frustrated breath. “You're going to play dumb?” He wasn't. “Are you involved with someone?”
Ellie gave her head a slow shake, her eyes holding his, as if surprised he'd been so candid.
“So it's a simple matter of not getting too friendly with the help?” he said, taking a guess based on her comment the day before.
“There are boundaries in the employer-employee relationship,” she said coolly. “There have to be.”
For a moment Ryan studied her, trying to wrap his mind around what exactly was happening. This morning he'd driven to the pasture with a warm, appealing woman. Now there was a professional corporate gunslinger sitting beside him. Ellie's gaze did not waver. If anything, it became more stubborn. “Noted,” he finally replied. “Shall I get the gate, being the employee?”
“No,” she said. “I'll do it.” She got out of the truck and opened the gate. Ryan drove through, stopping on the other side. She waved him on, so Ryan jammed the truck into gear.
There was no reason to be angry, except that he hated it when people weren't straight.
Ellie was not being straight with him.
* * *
E
LLIE
WOKE
UP
the next morning to the sound of the old ranch truck rumbling to life. She wanted to go. She didn't want to stay in the house all day. Researching. Biding time. Contacting people who were friendly enough, but didn't seem overly enthused in helping her land new employment. When had her network become so static?
She got out of bed and walked to the window, edging back the curtains in time to see Ryan drive by with a large metal tank in the back of the old truck. What was he doing with that?
Ellie stepped back from the window. Chances were she'd never know...yet she was curious. She sank down on the bed again. Closed her eyes. Yesterday she'd helped rescue a goose with a truly attractive guy she wanted to get to know better, even if deep down she'd known that growing closer was a bad idea. She'd wanted to kiss him there at the pond during that moment of perfect connection, and he knew it. He'd called her on it.
The truth as to why she'd backed off had stuck in her throat. Why? If she'd told him she was pregnant, he would have understood and she could be out with him right now learning about the ranch instead of kicking around the house waiting for George the ranch consultant to show up...someday.
Ellie gave up trying to go back to sleep, showered, dressed and headed out to her Land Rover. She needed to get out and if she couldn't go with Ryan, then she was going to buy groceries. She locked the house and started across the porch, stopping in her tracks when she caught sight of the snake. Hiss, sensing danger, slowly slithered into a large crack between two of the stones.
Ellie pressed her hand to her chest to slow her heart as she watched the end of his tail disappear. Ryan had assured her the snake wasn't dangerous, but even so, she walked to the other end of the porch and descended the steps there.
On her way down the drive, she passed Ryan coming in the opposite direction, the tank now missing from the truck. He nodded curtly as she passed and that was thatâif Ellie could just shove him out of her mind and focus on more pressing issues. Getting enough food in the house to eat for two was a good place to start.
* * *
L
ATER
THAT
AFTERNOON
,
as she was putting away groceries, Ellie was startled by a knock on the door. She shoved cornflakes into the cupboard, and then walked into the living room where she could see Ryan through the leaded-glass windows. Aware of a ridiculous increase in her heart rate, she went to open the door. Without a word, Ryan held out a folded paper, which Ellie automatically took from him.