“Are the pigs in the barn?” He shoved his thumb in the direction of the barn.
“Yeah. I’ll go with you.”
She fell into step beside him and Storm, and, he noticed, she pet his pup the entire way.
“So, you’re training a service dog?” She pulled the elastic from her ponytail and shook her hair free, sending the scent of fruity shampoo into the air.
His new favorite scent.
“I work with the prisoners in Denton and teach them how to train the dogs, and on weekends the dogs go to foster homes to get acclimated with the sights and sounds of the real world.” He pulled the barn door open. The sun had dipped low on the horizon, slanting the last of its light across the pasture.
“I’ll get the lights.”
Ross watched her walk away, then forced himself to tear his eyes away and turn his attention to the piglets. He dated plenty of women, but he’d given up thoughts of settling down until recently. His brother Luke was engaged to Daisy Honey, who had grown up in Trusty, and was now the only family-practice doctor in town, and his younger brother Wes was living with Callie Barnes, a transplant from Denver who had recently taken over Alice’s position as head librarian. Both of his brothers had been scoundrels when it came to women. His oldest brother, Pierce, had treated women as if they were expendable, and even he had recently fallen in love. His fiancée, Rebecca Rivera, was from Reno. A far cry from Trusty, but she’d quickly become everything to Pierce.
Ross wasn’t a scoundrel. If anything, he was a careful dater. He’d always had plenty of women to choose from, but Ross liked smart women with a strong sense of self, and he preferred natural beauty to manufactured. He had yet to find a woman who suited him long term. Once women found out that he had a trust fund, they were all about the money. But lately, after seeing how happy his brothers were with their newfound loves, he wasn’t giving up hope. Ross was more like his sister, Emily, than his last remaining bachelor brother, Jake, a stuntman in LA who Ross couldn’t imagine ever settling down. Ross believed in love, no matter how much he scoffed at it to his brothers. A guy had to keep his image up. He’d even like a family. A big one, and he wasn’t blind to the fact that he was thirty-five—and only getting older.
The lights illuminated the barn, bringing Ross’s mind back to the issue at hand. Piglets. The mother pig was on her side with the piglets lying nearby. She stood as soon as he stepped into the pen.
“Careful. Sadie gets a little testy. She doesn’t like anyone near her babies.”
He nodded, eyes on Sadie, and crouched down low. “Hey there, Sadie. I just want to check out your babies.” The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. He’d been around enough sows to know she could charge at any second.
“This is when I usually get out of there,” Elisabeth warned.
He held a hand up in her direction and nodded. “Sweet Sadie, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt your babies.” Ross eyed Storm. “Settle,” he instructed, and Storm sat obediently. Ross brought his attention back to Sadie, but spoke to Elisabeth.
“Pigs can’t see up very well, so getting down to eye level helps. Humming, as I mentioned earlier, also helps.” He noticed she had a hand on Storm again. Lucky dog.
Sadie grunted and Ross hummed, first one tune, then another, until he found the one that calmed her. Eventually, she came to his side, and he continued sweet-talking her.
“I’m just going to make sure your babies are okay.” After a few minutes of bonding, Sadie allowed him to check out the piglets. When he was assured that they were well, he thanked Sadie and stepped from the pen.
“I think they’re in good shape. Just keep an eye on Kennedy.”
“I will. Thank you, and I’m so sorry about your pants. You’re covered in mud.”
She touched his arm as she had done in the clinic, and Ross wondered if she did that with all men. The thought made his stomach clench. He decided not to think about Elisabeth and other guys.
“That’s why they make washing machines.” They turned off the lights and walked out of the barn. The sounds of crickets filled the air as darkness settled in around them.
“I love the sounds of night here,” she said as they walked back toward the house.
“I’d imagine it’s a bit different from Los Angeles.”
“Oh, you can’t even imagine. LA is very…” She looked up, as if the answers were in the sky. “I don’t know. Not as natural, I guess. You know, the difference between city living and country living. Have you always lived here?”
“Never wanted to live anywhere else.” He and his family had lived in Weston, Colorado, for the first five years of his life, but he didn’t need to go into his family’s sordid past at the moment.
“What do I owe you for coming by?” she asked.
“Don’t sweat it. It’s on my way home.”
She smiled. “How about a glass of wine, then?”
The warm night, her amazing yoga body, and that welcoming smile of hers pulled an unexpected answer from him. “Sure, why not.”
Sure, why not?
He knew better than to accept a glass of wine from a woman he was attracted to. He reminded himself of the reasons he shouldn’t follow her inside. She’s a neighbor. She’s already the subject of town gossip. She’s from LA, not exactly the land of the wholesome. Combined with the fact that she was hotter than hell, they were good reasons to keep a little distance. It took only one reason for him to open a bottle of wine and pour them each a glass as they sat down on her patio beneath the stars. He wanted to be there. He couldn’t remember the last time he wanted to spend an evening getting to know a woman, but there was something so open about Elisabeth that he found her refreshing—despite Margie’s comments. Trusty gossip was usually fed by jealousy. Elisabeth’s looks alone could spark enough gossip to set the grapevine afire.
Ross watched Elisabeth tuck her feet beneath her on the chair. She was pretty damn relaxed, not nervous like women usually were the first time they had a drink with a guy.
“So, how long are you in town?” Ross wondered if Margie’s comment about Elisabeth selling the property was accurate.
“Gosh, I moved everything I own, so I wasn’t really planning on leaving.”
Good to know.
“Unless I can’t make a career here, which, based on the welcome I’ve received so far, might be a real possibility.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and sipped her wine.
“Have people been unfriendly?” He finished his wine and topped off her glass before pouring himself another, wondering why the thought prickled his protective instincts.
“Not really unfriendly, but…I don’t know. I get a cold feeling from some people.”
“Trusty is a great place, but people here do take a while to warm up to strangers.” They were sitting on her back deck looking out toward the mountains. Ross had the urge to reach out and touch her, to take her in his arms and comfort her with more than just words. He reached for Storm instead.
“I’m not really a stranger. I used to visit my aunt here during the summer. Well, until middle school. She and my mom had a falling-out, and I haven’t seen her much since. But we stayed in touch on the phone and through letters.”
Letters. Trusty was probably the only place around where people still wrote letters instead of relying on email. “But to people around here you’re a stranger, because you didn’t grow up here. They’ll come around.” He felt himself wanting to defend her, and to help her fit in, and knew he was coming around too quickly.
“I hope so, because I’ve already talked with an architect about renovating the kitchen to accommodate my aunt’s pie business—well, my pie business now—a little better. I have no idea how she kept up with orders with just one oven. According to her records, she had at least twenty-five pie orders each week, and once I get my pet-pampering business off the ground, I’ll need space for baking pet goodies, too.”
“Baking pet goodies?”
“Uh-huh.” She smiled an
d looked at him like everyone knew what pet baking meant.
“You’re having the kitchen renovated?” She definitely wasn’t flipping the property.
“Yes, I talked to—” Her eyes widened. “Emily Braden. Is she your wife?”
He held out his left hand and wiggled his fingers. “No ring, and if I were married, I wouldn’t be drinking wine with a beautiful blonde.”
She blushed and dropped her eyes to her wineglass. She was cuter than hell, and Ross didn’t want to be the one to squash her hopes, or her smile, and tell her that a pet-pampering business in a ranching town like Trusty was about as good as tits on a bull. The town would let her know that soon enough.
“Emily’s my sister. She’s a green builder and the best around. She designed my house and clinic.” Emily had been right out of college, and she didn’t have the experience or resources to build his house, as she did now, but she’d hired another passive house builder from across the country and oversaw the process for Ross.
“Oh, I know she’s the best. That’s why I hired her. This old place probably leaks like a sieve. I figure it’ll take a while. I have a dream of eventually living a completely green lifestyle. I hate the idea of leaving a huge carbon footprint.” She breathed deeply and stretched her arms out wide, giving Ross an even better view of her fantastic body.
“You know my aunt’s van out front?”
“It’s seen better days.”
“Yeah.” She drew her brows together. “As much as I hate to get rid of it, I think I probably should. I’m afraid of snakes and other things living in that tall grass around it. But I think my aunt would be happy to know that I’ll use that area for a big ol’ garden. I just have to figure out who I should call to come get it, because I don’t think it runs anymore.”
“I can help you with that.” What the hell am I doing?
“Oh, you’ve done so much already.” She shook her head.
“It’s okay. I’ll call Tate McGregor. He owns an auto shop in town. He’ll come get it this week, and he knows where and how to dispose of old vehicles.”
She nibbled on her lower lip and nodded. “I feel guilty. I used to love riding with her to deliver pies. I thought about fixing it up, but I think it would cost more to do that than to eventually buy another one.”
He reached over and touched her arm. Her skin was warm and satiny smooth. He withdrew his hand before he liked it so much that he wouldn’t be able to. “I don’t have to get Tate to come get it. I was just trying to help.”
“It’s okay. I can’t hold on to it forever, and it is an eyesore. As much as I love the memories, I have plenty of other good memories attached to the house and land. It’s actually a good thing. Thank you. I would appreciate help having it removed, because otherwise I might never do it. I could see myself leaving it there for twenty years because I loved my aunt so much.”
Hearing how much her aunt had meant to her, and how she valued family memories, made him even more attracted to her. He shouldn’t have accepted the offer to have a glass of wine, and as much as he knew it was a bad idea, the last thing he wanted to do was to leave.
She leaned down and petted Storm’s head. “Look at how gorgeous this place is. You’re so lucky to have grown up here. This is the kind of place I want my children to grow up in. Small town, fresh air. I can only hope for good friends and clean living.”
“You make Trusty sound as good as it feels to me. So you gave up everything in LA to come here for a pie-making business?” Ross couldn’t imagine leaving his family or his practice behind and starting over.
She ran her finger around the edge of her wineglass, and her eyes softened. “Aunt Cora was my favorite person in the world. She was so loving, and she lived this natural life full of goodness. I think it’s because of my aunt that I’ve always believed in the power of love. I mean, she adored my uncle, and even after he died, you could hear the emotion in her voice. She’d write me letters, and they were always padded with thoughts of how much she missed him, or that she was reminded of something he did recently, and when I was here with her, it was so different from my life with my mom. It’s hard to imagine that they were sisters.” She breathed deeply and shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I love my mom, but she’s a total California woman. She loves fast living, name-dropping, the whole lot. Where Cora was all about family and knowing as much as she could about everyone, my mom gets off on glamour and glitz. Gosh, come to think of it, when Cora and I talked on the phone, she’d tell me about how this person or that person was feeling, or that someone’s granddaughter was pregnant or getting married. My mom never knew what I was doing, much less a neighbor, but she always knew what the celebrities were up to. She’s a great mom, but our values are just at the opposite ends of the spectrum.”
He liked what he was hearing, and he enjoyed being with Elisabeth, both of which surprised him. Ross wanted to sit with Elisabeth and get to know even more about her, which was not a good idea. He fished for a negative to quell his mounting interest.
“What does she think about you being here?” Was Elisabeth escaping a bad family situation? Was she a rebellious woman who just came across as clean as sunshine? Oh hell, rebellious could be fun. Great. He was already rationalizing his way into her pants. In any case, he couldn’t deny that she was damn brave to move away from all that she knew and follow her heart to a town she hadn’t been back to in probably fifteen years.
She laughed under her breath. “My mom and I have a good relationship, even with our differences in opinion and lifestyles. I tried to love LA. I really did, and in some ways, I did love it for a while. Who wouldn’t love sunshine and summer all year long? When I was a teenager, I kind of liked the fast-paced lifestyle, but living in a big city where everyone’s trying to get ahead can be exhausting. People were too busy to relax or have a glass of wine without an ulterior motive or agenda.” She held up her glass. “Or go for a walk without having to rush between appointments. Something about Trusty—and how happy Aunt Cora lived—always stuck with me. Some people have a calling for the Lord. I have always had a calling for life here, even though it’s not my hometown.”
He scratched the rebellious daughter idea and added, too good to be true? He knew about those women, too. They told you what they thought you wanted to hear to lure you in, and then the real person came out and knocked you on your ass a few weeks later. He sat back and squared his shoulders, trying to restore the reserved demeanor he was so good at presenting. It wasn’t so easy when his body was urging him to reach out and touch her, stroke her cheek, run his fingers through her silky hair to the nape of her neck and see how sweet her beautiful mouth tasted.
Holy Christ. Get a grip.
He cleared his throat to bring his mind back into focus.
“I could have gone anywhere after vet school, but this is where I wanted to be, and it’s where my family is. Do you have brothers or sisters?” Ross thought about Emily, who was four years younger than him. He couldn’t imagine her starting over in a new city without the support of their family. He’d worry endlessly about her. Still did, and she was five minutes away.
“No, it’s just me and my mom. I sort of missed out in the sibling department, but that’s what friends are for, right?”
“Yeah. That’s what friends are for.” There was nothing platonic about his attraction to Elisabeth. Ross wanted to sit and talk to her, but the more he talked to her, the more he focused on what else he’d like to do to her. “Thank you for the wine, Elisabeth. I don’t want to take up your whole night.” My ass, I don’t. Although his radar wasn’t picking up on red flags, he didn’t need to open up to a woman just to find out she wasn’t really who she pretended to be. Been there, done that, in college, which was exactly why he was leaving.
“Oh, okay. Well, it’s not like I have anything to do with my night. I’m just working through my aunt’s records to understand how she ran the business, and I hope to figure out how to make my pet business work here.”
> He pet Storm. “Pampering and bakery?”
She smiled and nodded.
Damn, he liked that smile. “Good luck with that.” He carried the wine and glasses inside.
“You don’t believe in pampering your pups?” she asked as he set the glasses and wine by the sink. He noticed a box on the floor with a framed photograph of Elisabeth and a man. He had his arm around her waist, and Elisabeth was smiling.
Boyfriend. Time to go.
He turned and nearly knocked her over. She grabbed his arms to keep from stumbling backward. It was one thing to walk away when she was safely ensconced in a chair a foot away, but it took a whole lot more effort when she was holding on to him and gazing into his eyes with an expression so open and pure and the smell of sweet wine on her kissable lips. He wondered if her mouth tasted as sweet as she smelled. His gaze dropped to the pulse at the base of her neck and watched it quicken. Oh yeah, she felt it too. He met her gaze again, and her eyes darkened a smidge.
He’d like to pamper her from head to toe. With my mouth.
Which was exactly why it was time to go.
“I’m all for pampering, just not pups.” His voice was heady with desire. He cleared his throat and glanced down at Storm. “Let’s go.”
Her hands slid from his arms and grazed his fingers.
“Thanks, Ross. It was nice to get to know you.” She walked him to the front door, and damn if he didn’t feel like he was leaving a date and should kiss her goodbye.
Bad idea, he reminded himself. Neighbor. Gossip. Boyfriend.
Aw, hell.
He left before he could do something stupid.
Chapter Three
BEFORE SHE MOVED to Trusty, Saturdays were Elisabeth’s favorite day of the week. They began with yoga and included visiting the homes of four of her favorite pet-pampering clients. She’d listen to her clients go on and on about their lives. Her clients were wealthy, and most were involved with the entertainment industry—producers, directors, actors—or they were married to someone in the business. They’d ask her about her life, and she never had much to share, but she knew they weren’t really interested anyway. They wanted to talk about themselves, which was okay, because she enjoyed hearing their stories, even if she didn’t care about the name-dropping aspect as much as they probably hoped she did. Some people enjoyed people watching. Elisabeth enjoyed sharing time with others. Wealthy actors weren’t interested in someone who wasn’t in the business, so she didn’t have to worry about fending off unwanted advances. The time she spent with them helped fill the gap she’d always felt in her life, but the best part of those afternoons was that those fancy actors’ pets were some of her favorites. While she listened to her clients talk about themselves, she got to spend a few extra minutes loving up her favorite pets. It was a win-win situation.
Flirting with Love Page 3