by Liz Isaacson
Emery simply turned and left the ring as Richard helped Ty get up. Elliott grinned at several of his friends, migrating toward them to give high fives. Archer stayed with her while the last two teams went.
Jace, who’d been observing all this time, pushed off of the wall and took a clipboard from Tom. He consulted the board and then the clipboards. He scratched several things on a piece of paper and handed the clipboard back to Tom.
“Team seven wins,” Jace said, and whoops rent the air. “Two stars for each of them. Tom will read who else gets a star. Lunch in the kitchen. Competition resumes at one.” Jace turned and went down the hall as if he didn’t care about the stars, the food waiting in the kitchen, none of it. But Emery knew the man didn’t miss a single thing on his ranch. A mote of dust could land on a dandelion out in a field somewhere, and Jace Lovell would know about it.
“…Emersyn Ender, Archer Bailey, Elliott Hawthorne….”
A smile burst onto Emery’s face, and she turned to Archer, who wore a similar expression. “We did it.” She laughed and flung herself into his arms. Instant awkwardness and regret lanced through her.
She jumped away, watching as Tom stuck a second star next to her name. Archer received his fifth, and her brief euphoria died.
Men started streaming into the kitchen, their voices and laughter so loud. Emery hung toward the back, hoping she’d go unnoticed. But in a crowd as heavily skewed toward male as this one, she couldn’t expect to. So she wasn’t entirely surprised when five men surrounded her, each of them smiling and congratulating her.
She caught Archer’s eye, and whatever it was that existed between them sparked across the distance. He backed away, finally turning and joining the line to get food, utterly abandoning her to the other cowboys.
She wiped her hair back, feeling the pieces that had come loose from her ponytail and turned on her best smile, which admittedly, wasn’t much. Still, the men around her didn’t seem to detect her disinterest and maybe she could make a few friends over the course of the next few months too.
Chapter 5
By the time Emery returned to Horseshoe Home that evening to pick up Archer, her mood had shifted from flirty and somewhat loose to tight and tired. Not only that, but Glenna had called on the way up the canyon, complaining of pain in her feet.
She always lived with some level of pain, but she’d told Emery it was worse than usual. So Emery had told her she’d call their mother, put her name on the church’s prayer list, and that Glenna should call and get an appointment with the neurologist.
Archer waited on the front steps of the administration lodge, jumping up with a smile when he caught sight of her. She remained behind the wheel of his truck, and he didn’t seem to mind as he folded himself onto the passenger side with a long groan.
“Rough day?” she asked.
He grinned and leaned his head against the back of the seat. “Yeah. This afternoon, I had to load hay. Some of those guys can throw up two bales at once.” He rubbed his bicep almost absently, and Emery was distracted by the bulge of his muscle beneath the fabric of his T-shirt.
She yanked her eyes away and put the truck in reverse. “I’m sort of glad I missed this afternoon then,” she said. “I bet I couldn’t even lift a single bale of hay, let alone throw it anywhere.”
“It was tough.” Archer turned his head toward her and stared. “I missed you though. Richard wasn’t nearly as nice without you there.” He reached across the six inches between them and took her hand in his.
Emery’s first instinct was to pull her hand away, avoid the human contact. But her body sang in tune with his, and she squeezed his fingers and allowed herself to smile.
“Ah, so you do smile.”
“Stop it.” Her chest still felt tight, but as the miles passed, her ribs loosened.
“So do you date too?” he asked as the first twinkles of city lights came into view. She waited until she rounded the bend so she could glance at him. He wasn’t looking at her, so she couldn’t read his expression.
“I date,” she said.
“It’s just that we’ve lived next door to each other for two years, and I’ve never seen you go out with anyone.”
“I’m…busy.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, me too.”
Emery was busy. She worked as much as she possibly could, which left her exhausted physically. Everything with her mother and sister made her emotionally tired, and though she craved someone to curl into at night, she simply didn’t have a whole lot to give.
He let her drive through town in silence, but when she pulled into the Silver Creek parking lot, he tugged on her hand so she wouldn’t get out.
“So do you want to go out with me?” he asked, looking right at her, those smoky, dark eyes peering at her through the twilight.
Surprise danced through her, even more so when she heard herself say, “Sure. I’d like that.”
Archer’s insides didn’t want to settle back into their proper places after Emery said she’d go out with him. He’d grinned and gotten out of the truck quickly so he wouldn’t say anything else or act like a goofball.
“All right,” he said, exhaling. “Let’s see what we’ve got goin’ on with Jenny.” He pointed to the driver’s side door. “You want to pop the hood?”
Emery did, and Archer stared down into the dirty engine. He couldn’t help thinking that his father would know exactly what to do, almost like the machine spoke to him, whispered where it hurt and leaked.
Unfortunately, Archer didn’t quite possess the same mechanical instinct. But he knew how to check the battery, the spark plugs, the fluid levels. “She’s out of oil,” he said.
“Oh, I have some in the back.”
“Does she leak a lot?” He wiped his hands on a blue rag from the back of his truck.
“Yeah.” Emery handed him a bottle of motor oil and held another at her side. He set to work getting everything filled and checked while she ate an apple and watched from his tailgate. She had to get back to work, and Archer let himself watch her walk away, the swing of her hips as enticing to him as the sadness in her soul.
He went to the automotive store and got more oil, washer fluid, and antifreeze. Jenny was as dry as a fossil, and she seemed to sigh in relief as he poured bottles of liquid into her tanks. He checked her plugs and they looked okay. He replaced the starter, and put a gasoline cleaner in her tank, his credit card taking a fifty-dollar hit.
Archer didn’t care. He couldn’t stand to feel the worry in Emery, not when he could do something to help.
Before he tried starting Jenny, he hooked the jumper cables from his truck to her battery. When he sat behind the wheel, he bowed his head and said, “Please, Lord. She can’t afford this right now.”
He couldn’t either, because his next call would have to be to his father.
He wrenched the key, the prayer steadily running through his mind. The engine roared to life, and Archer jumped from the seat, a cry of triumph rising into the sky.
He grabbed a napkin from his glove box and wrote a quick note to Emery. Jenny runs! Come see me when you get home.
He stuck it under her windshield wiper on the driver’s side and left her keys under the floor mat. He really wanted to stop by a fast food restaurant on his way home, but he bypassed one after the other, the meager amount in his checking account preventing him from making an unwise decision.
At home, he fed Carrot Cake and let him out to take care of his business. Then he showered, the pain in his head not nearly as intense tonight as it had been last night. He entered the kitchen, with his towel around his neck and wearing only a pair of basketball shorts. He pulled out the loaf of bread and the peanut butter jar and put together a double decker sandwich for dinner.
He’d taken one bite when someone rapped on his door. Carrot started yapping, his high-pitched bark nowhere near scary enough to ward anyone off.
“Just a sec,” Archer called, abandoning the sandwich in favor of the bedroom, wh
ere he pulled a clean shirt over his head. When he pulled open the door, Emery stood there, fresh from Silver Creek.
She beamed at him. “You fixed Jenny.”
He laughed. “You’ve got to keep her hydrated, especially driving up the canyon all the time.”
She leaned her hip into the doorway as Carrot Cake put his front paws on her knees. She reached down and scratched the little dog, and Archer licked his lips, tasting peanut butter but smelling a hint of her tantalizing raspberry and brown sugar scent underneath the sweat, horse, and sky she also brought with her. He found all of it sexy, and he couldn’t believe this was the woman who’d lived next door for so long.
“You want to come in?” he asked.
“I was thinking,” she said as she passed him and entered his house. He suddenly worried what it smelled like. “We’re both going to be going up to the ranch for the next few months. Seems silly for both of us to drive.”
“Totally silly.” He let his fingers casually brush hers as he retrieved his peanut butter sandwich from the counter.
“I really am sorry about this job,” she said, her eyes bright blue and soft at the same time. “I’m not going to get it, but it’s four months of work I need.”
He chewed and swallowed, his eyes never leaving hers. “Why do you need the job so badly?”
“Same as you.” She folded her arms.
Archer cocked his head. “Yeah, I don’t think so. You’ve been working for three months straight, and I know the salary they paid you at Silver Creek. You should be doing fine.”
She met his eyes with fear in hers. “I help my sister out.”
His eyebrows rose. “Is she older or younger?”
“Younger. She was in an accident when she was nine years old, and she’s paralyzed from the waist down. She can’t work much. She does what she can, and she lives on her own. Pays for her own apartment.” Emery lifted her chin. “My mother works three jobs just to get by herself, and we’re all just doin’ the best we can.”
Archer polished off his sandwich. “I understand.” And he really wanted her to stop talking. He’d suspected she had a story like this one, and while he’d thought he wanted to hear it, he found he didn’t.
Because it made his heart soften toward her when it was practically melted already. How could he compete against her now? The gentlemanly side of him wanted to make sure she got the job come Christmas, but the practical side of him screamed that he needed this job—just as much as her, though in a different way.
“What about you?” Emery leaned against the counter.
“You want to sit?” He chin nodded toward the sofa in the living room. “We don’t have to stand.”
She followed him the few steps into the living room, and sat facing him on the couch. Carrot Cake took his spot on the floor, a doleful look at Emery.
“You look different without your cowboy hat.” She grinned and extended her hand toward him like she might touch him. Her arm dropped at the last moment. “Younger.”
He didn’t quite know what to say, so he just said, “Thanks,” and stuffed his hands under his arms to keep himself from manhandling her. “And I need this job so my father will see me as a real man.”
Emery’s nose scrunched up, and Archer found it downright cute. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ve disappointed him in a lot of ways, and I need this job to actually turn into a career so I can prove to him that I’m not…like him.”
All at once, his father’s antagonistic behavior made crystal clear sense in Archer’s mind. His father had bounced from job to job, doing what he could to keep the lights on and food on the table. And he simply wanted better for his sons.
“And you want to be a career cowboy?”
“Yes,” Archer said without a moment’s hesitation. “I love working outside. I love animals. I like using my hands.”
Emery ducked her head and put one of her hands in his. “You have nice hands.” Her words dove into Archer’s chest and embedded themselves in his heart. She traced her fingertip along his palm, which tickled, and along his pinkie.
Snaps and pops exploded through his body, and his blood ran a little faster. He squeezed her hand and chuckled. “Stop it.”
“Ticklish?”
“Oh, yeah. My feet are the worst though.”
A mischievous glint entered her eye, and Archer wondered when he’d entered this weird place where Emery came over after work and hung out with him. Where he held her hand, where the possibility of kissing her was very, very real.
He ducked his head to somehow hide his thoughts, aware of how silly that sounded. He lifted her hand to his lips and said, “We can ride together tomorrow. Want me to drive?”
She shook her head, the blonde tips of her ponytail brushing her shoulders. “No, I still have to work at Silver Creek for another couple of days. We can start the carpool next week.”
“On Saturday,” he corrected. “Six days a week, holidays included, until Christmas.”
Emery groaned and her eyes fell closed. “I was hoping to sleep in on Saturday.”
Archer laughed. “Please, you don’t sleep in.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What?”
“I hear you over there at like, seven o’clock in the morning, opening drawers or something.”
Surprise flitted across her face. “You can hear me opening drawers?”
“I think your bathroom butts up against mine.”
“I can hear you blending stuff.” She rested her head in her free hand, a measure of exhaustion coming through in her expression. “At least it sounds like a blender. One of those ultra-expensive ones.”
“I won it in a raffle,” he said. “And I do use it every morning. Sorry, I didn’t know it was that loud.”
She gave him a soft smile, one he imagined crossing her face in the moments before she fell asleep, or in that heartbeat just as he was about to kiss her. His heart pumped out an extra beat and he said, “You should get on home and get some rest. You look tired.”
“Just what every girl wants to hear.” She giggled and pushed herself off his couch. “See you tomorrow, Archer.”
Chapter 6
Archer hurried through his morning routine, determined to leave for the ranch before Emery. If he was going to let her win some contests and stars at the ranch, he certainly couldn’t have her beating him to work.
Sure enough, he pulled in a full five minutes before she did, satisfaction singing through him. He didn’t see her as his assigned partner for the day was none other than Ty Barker, the foreman at the ranch.
Nerves cascaded through Archer like a waterfall as Ty led him toward the horse barn. “So in here, we make sure the equipment is put away properly; we check the horse’s hooves, and all the stalls need to be mucked out.” He turned and walked backward, a grin reaching all the way into his eyes. “It’s the best place to sneak a kiss, if you have a girl up here at the ranch.”
Archer tipped his head back and sent a laugh into the sky. “How many women are actually up here?”
“Available women?” Ty glanced around like he was really trying to take stock. “Just one, I reckon.”
“Who’s that?”
“That gorgeous blonde that was on your team yesterday.”
“Emery?”
“Yeah, Emery.” Ty gave him a sideways look. “Are you and her together?”
Archer thought about his recent kissing fantasies and the real life version of holding her hand. “Nah, we just live next door to each other.” He wondered what Ty had seen that made him think Archer and Emery were dating.
“Oh, the woman next door. That can be awesome.”
“She’s got a lot going on in her life.”
Ty’s expression clouded, but his sunny disposition broke through quick enough. “Don’t we all.”
And Archer supposed everyone did.
The next couple of days passed with more ranch work being learned, his muscles getting used to the constan
t physical labor, and private competitions between him and Emery that only Archer knew about. He won every one of them, and he’d given himself so many mental gold stars he’d earned himself a prize.
That happened to be a hamburger on Friday after he finished working on the ranch, coupled with a car ride up the canyon with Emery on Saturday morning. Out of the five cowboys up for the job, Archer was in the early lead. He tried not to let it go to his head. Instead, he put his head down and worked as hard as he could, listened to the cowboys he got paired with, and enjoyed the home cooked meals whenever they were available.
After a few weeks, his body had acclimated to his new schedule and adapted to the physical exertion required to be a career cowboy. His bank account had a little extra padding, and he treated himself to a hamburger and fries every Friday evening.
He’d made friends with several of the cowboys at the ranch, especially Elliott, and they sat next to one another at church. A few more employees of Horseshoe Home usually filled the bench, with Emery down at the end.
He still hadn’t taken her out on that date, as she didn’t seem to have much energy for such activities. He’d asked her a few more questions about her sister, and Emery opened up to him when they spent time alone. As soon as they arrived at Horseshoe Home though, she cut off all the smiles and hand-holding and got down to business.
By the time October rolled around, she was in fourth place among the new cowboys, but neither of them were anywhere near the top of the charts. Caleb Chamberlain had claimed that spot early on, and he wasn’t giving it up. Archer suspected his best friend—who happened to be Ty—was giving him double stars. But he watched as Tom stuck them on for the day, and Caleb only got one for each win.
“No work this weekend,” Jace said one Wednesday evening. “It’s the Spooktacular, and we all need a break.”
Half of the men groaned and half cheered. Archer, who now sat in the middle of the pack star-wise, was relieved. He hadn’t worked six days a week, from sunup to practically sundown in, well, ever.