by Jeannie Watt
The bell above the door rang and she jumped a mile. Dylan gave her an odd look as he crossed the room and she slowly closed the notebook.
“Did I interrupt something?” he asked curiously.
“No. I was just drawing.”
“Drawing.”
“Ideas for my display.”
He stopped on the other side of the counter. “I take that to mean that you contracted your seven artisans?”
“I did. Now I’m going for ten.”
“Can I see your plan?”
“I don’t think so,” Jolie said with an easy smile. It was beyond rough and she wasn’t presenting any ideas to him until they were polished. She’d learned her lesson about that.
“Is it some big secret?”
“Maybe I don’t want you taking over.”
His eyebrows shot up as if he had no idea what she was talking about. “Why would I take over?”
Her lips twisted. Really, Dylan? “Because that’s our history. You take over.”
He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “This is your baby. I’m just curious in case Mike has questions.”
There was something in his tone that caught her attention. “Will Mike have a problem with this?” She liked the gruff old guy and wouldn’t want to upset him.
“Mike doesn’t like change.”
“At all?” Was that why Finn had also dragged his feet when she’d discussed improvements during the few weeks they’d worked together?
Dylan gave his head a slow shake. “Not a fan. It’s gotten worse over the past few years.”
“Then moving has got to be killing him.”
“If the house didn’t have so many damned stairs, he’d never leave.”
“Well...” she said slowly, “can you convince him this will be a change for the better? After you convince yourself, of course.”
He didn’t deny that he had to be convinced, but she hadn’t expected him to.
“How are you going to display this stuff when it comes in?” He leaned an elbow on the counter as he cast a sweeping glance around the store and again she had that feeling of being too close to him, even though there was a good two feet of wood and glass between them.
“I’ll have to rearrange, but all of your stock will be easily available.”
“Just run any big changes by me, okay?”
“Sure.” She caught the scent of his aftershave and it made her want to lean even closer...maybe even follow him when he retreated to his office. That had never happened in high school. Had they been so busy sniping at each other in the lab that she’d never noticed that the guy was jangling her nerves?
No. Something had changed. They were still sniping...but it felt different. And even though Dylan was technically her boss, it didn’t feel the way it did with Finn.
Maybe because of that fantasy comment he’d made?
Even though she told herself it was only a quip, meant to throw her off balance, it had stuck with her. As had the realization that Dylan had lips that could take part in a fantasy—hers—and that was...disconcerting.
She cleared her throat, bringing his attention back to her, which had not been her intent. She smiled at him, hating the feeling that she was somehow at a disadvantage because his very presence was making her feel all edgy and unsettled.
“You were going to say something?” he finally asked.
Instead of saying no, as she should have, Jolie decided to take control. “I was wondering if you have some kind of time frame in which you have to get back to your other job.”
He blinked at her as if she was not making sense. Or as if he didn’t want to answer that particular question. “Counting the days until I’m out of your hair?”
“Actually, no. I was just curious.”
“As soon as Finn gets back, I’m heading home.”
“You’re on leave?” She leaned on the counter. He was withdrawing. Fast.
“Yes.”
“Your old job waiting for you?”
“Pretty much.”
She waited a moment. “Not going to share any details, are you?”
“Don’t really see any need to,” he said, his eyelids dropping an iota. He regarded her for a few long seconds, as if challenging her to ask yet another question he wasn’t going to answer.
She did love a challenge.
“What happened to your leg?”
“The windshield got shattered on my cruiser and I lost control and hit a power pole.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t expected a real answer, but before she could ask about the windshield, he raised his index finger in a warning gesture.
“Don’t ask, because I’m not answering.”
“All right then,” she finally said, pulling her papers closer and doing her best to ignore the sparks snapping between them. “I think it’s time to heat up my lunch.”
“Don’t let me keep you.” He gave a slight nod and headed for his lair.
Once he disappeared, Jolie shut her eyes and let out a short breath.
CHAPTER FIVE
DYLAN SHUT THE office door and tried to shake off the feeling that he’d just escaped. Ridiculous. He had work to do and he’d wasted too much time chitchatting with Jolie.
The office was a paper nightmare and he’d been slowly going through everything, one file at a time, deciding what was needed, what should be shredded and what could be simply trashed.
He hated paperwork—all cops hated paperwork except for the overachievers—but this seemed like a good time to make a few more inroads.
Over the course of the next hour, he filled two black garbage bags with stuff that shouldn’t have been kept in the first place: old calendars, advertisements, magazines, catalogs. It was as if Mike hadn’t thrown anything away in the past decade. Dylan couldn’t figure out why until it struck him that most of the collected junk was dated after 2005—the year Grandma, the keeper of the office, had passed away. Maybe Mike had given up after that. Maybe going through the accumulation after he’d stopped grieving had been too much. It’d obviously been too much for Finn, since he hadn’t tackled it.
Or maybe he hadn’t felt the need to hide out from his associate.
The thought came creeping out of nowhere and Dylan disregarded it almost as soon as it registered. He wasn’t hiding...he was just in his office, with the door closed and no intentions of coming out any time soon.
All right, he was hiding, but it wasn’t from Jolie. He was avoiding questions that he didn’t want to answer. Hell, he was avoiding questions he couldn’t answer because he didn’t know the answer. He’d never been one to run away from hard issues, but he didn’t want to discuss them with Jolie, and he really didn’t want to come right out and tell her to mind her own business. He sensed that, despite everything, she was honestly concerned about him on some level and it seemed cold, even for him, to tell her to back off.
And then there was the matter of the tension between them that they were both obviously aware of and both obviously ignoring. Something else he didn’t care to think about. But it was a big part of the reason he was in the office doing something that Finn could do when he came back.
Avoiding uncomfortable situations was out of character for him and the fact that Dylan was doing just that, even if it did result in a cleaner more organized office, pissed him off.
“Customer needs loading up.”
He dropped the file he’d been shuffling through and headed for the door, grabbing his gloves off the still-cluttered top of the file cabinet as he walked by.
Codie’s red Dodge was parked outside the front windows. Praying for strength, he headed out the door.
* * *
CODIE JAMES WAS flirting hard and heavy with Dylan, who didn’t seem to mind one little
bit. In fact, he seemed to be into it. Not that Jolie was purposely spying, but it was hard to miss the action going on next to the bright red pickup parked not that far away from her window. Despite her intention to keep her eyes focused only on the screen in front of her, Jolie shot a quick look out the window in time to catch Codie pat Dylan’s chest before she opened the truck door.
Dylan smiled widely in response to whatever the blonde had said and Jolie started typing again. She had nothing against Codie, hadn’t minded one bit when she’d dated Finn, but she didn’t like the way she was now aiming her sights at Dylan. It was as if she was picking off the Culver guys one by one.
She forced herself to keep typing. So what if when she looked back out the window the red truck driving away had two people in it instead of one? Dylan was the boss. If he wanted to head off with a flirtatious customer in the early afternoon...well, so be it. None of her affair.
Which meant that there was no reason for her jaw to be clamped so tightly shut that it ached.
At least it’d been unseasonably hot and sunny all day, which meant her practice arena behind the barn might finally be dry enough for her to finally work. It’d been days since she’d been able to practice her barrel runs and she was so ready to get on Jenabelle and lose herself in some speed work. Nothing helped her center more than practice and right now she felt a strong need for centering.
* * *
DYLAN GOT BACK to the store close to closing time. Codie dropped him off with a smile and a wave and he’d waved back. Nice woman. Sexy woman. Unfortunately she was not a woman who could use two goats.
When he’d first asked, she thought they might be perfect for her younger sister to use for goat tying practice, but after driving to Mike’s and taking a look, she’d deemed them too stout.
Dylan had to admit that Maisy and Daisy were sturdy girls and, due to Mike’s TLC, both were overweight. Perfect for eating, but Dylan would rather shoot himself in the foot than send the goats off to butcher. Mike might talk about being realistic but he loved his girls.
The store was empty when Dylan walked in. He stopped just inside the doorway and listened, trying to locate Jolie. His office door was open, the light off. The restroom was also dark. She hadn’t left because her truck was still there, so that left the warehouse. Dylan reversed course and crossed the graveled area between store and warehouse. Nothing. And then he heard the clatter behind the grain shed. He followed the noise, rounding the corner in time to jump back as a cedar board landed at his feet.
“Oh. Sorry.”
Dylan looked down at the board, one of several lying near his feet, then back up at Jolie. She wiped her oversize glove across her forehead, leaving a faint smear of dirt on her smooth skin.
“Dare I ask?”
“Materials to build the display.” The shop had stacks of old metal and damaged fencing stored behind it because Mike had never been able to let it go. It might be useful someday and now it appeared that it was...but not in a way his grandfather had ever intended.
“Ah.” He regarded her, noting that despite the gloves and the closed-toe shoes she’d worn every day since their dust-up about safety rules, she was not dressed for digging through the wood pile. She frowned a little then looked down, following his gaze as it traveled over her denim skirt and smooth, bare legs. What she wore was totally appropriate for work, but somehow when she was straddling the woodpile it looked about as congruous to the situation as Miss Daisy Duke Shorts did holding her wrench on the tractor calendar. And his response was edging in the Miss Daisy Duke direction.
“I’m wearing the proper shoes,” she said dryly, easily following his thoughts.
“That won’t keep you from getting a splinter in your knee.”
“We all have to take chances, Dylan.” She reached for another board. “I hope you don’t mind me being out here. I can see any customers that come in and the outside phone ringer is on.”
“I don’t mind.” He didn’t totally understand Jolie, but after two weeks of working together, he didn’t question her commitment to her job. If only she’d taken lab as seriously he wouldn’t have felt old before his time.
“I’m done with everything I could do inside, plus I updated the web site, the Facebook page and designed next week’s flyer.”
“We have a Facebook page?”
She looked at him as if he’d asked if the world was round. “Of course. All businesses do.” She leaned down to pick a board out of the stack, inspected it with a critical eye and then discarded it. “I didn’t know if you were coming back,” she said a little too casually.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you I was leaving. Spur of the moment.” The look she shot him was easy to read—she’d thought he’d headed off for a nooner. “I’d hoped to talk Codie into taking Mike’s goats.”
She slowly looked his way and he wondered if he’d seen an expression of relief chase across her face. Probably. No one wanted a scummy boss and heading off with a customer for a little midday play was definitely scummy. “Mike’s giving away goats?”
“Trying. He’s moving to a smaller place and we have to find homes for some of his farm animals. Codie thought her sister could take the goats.”
“But she couldn’t.”
“They’re too square for goat tying. Apparently they prefer a leggier lightweight goat for that.”
“Ah.” She started stacking the boards that were lying close to his feet. “What other animals does he have?”
“A milk cow that’s been dry for years, but he doesn’t have the heart to send it you-know-where. A bunch of wild cats.”
“How are you going to give away wild cats?”
“Beats me. They’ll probably stay with the place.”
“Sounds like you have a problem, Dylan.”
“Only one of many.”
Jolie nodded but didn’t answer. She also didn’t say a word when Dylan picked up the eight cedar boards.
“You want these in the store?” he asked. “If I’m not taking over, that is.”
She made a smirking face at him, feeling more comfortable now that he’d slung a barb. “I’d like them to dry.”
“Is this enough?”
“It’s a start. If I need more, I’ll get them tomorrow.”
“Fair enough.” It was 5:45 p.m. when they got into the store, fifteen minutes after closing. Jolie carefully propped the boards up against a small stretch of empty wall space, then went behind the counter to turn off her computer.
“I didn’t realize it was so late,” she said. “I need to hurry if I’m going to have time to practice before dark.”
“Practice?”
“Barrel racing.”
“You still do that?” He remembered her being something of a rodeo star in high school. It had only hammered home how different they were. He’d ridden the occasional horse, but his life had centered more around motorcycles and good grades.
“I’m getting back into it. I have rodeos coming up and I need to get my horse tuned up. It’s finally dry enough to work her a little.” She came back around the counter with her purse in one hand and her coat in the other, stopping just before she got to the door. “I have to admit,” she said with a slight smile, “I didn’t know what to think when you drove off with Codie.”
“I have an idea what you might have been thinking,” he said.
She gave him a wry smile. “Never in my wildest imagination did it involve a goat.”
* * *
THE ARENA WAS drier than Jolie had expected and she took advantage, setting up her barrels and then saddling Jenabelle.
They warmed up, doing a lazy canter, then a couple of slow runs around the barrels. Jenabelle tossed her head, wanting to do what she did so well, but Jolie hadn’t used her in a while and kept her moving more slowly than the mare wanted. It w
as only the last two runs that she let Jenabelle do her thing. They had some work to do, but this first practice was promising and Jolie felt satisfied when she dismounted and led her mare out of the arena.
Dark clouds were gathering to the north and she was glad she managed to slip in a practice before the next set of storms showed up.
“More rain,” Dani said as they met at the hitching rail. She sounded down again and Jolie wished she’d just freaking decide to go with Gabe. She’d never seen her sister so torn before and it bothered her. Was this what getting seriously involved did to a person? Dissolve them to jelly?
She watched Dani out of the corner of her eye as her sister expertly unsaddled the young horse she’d been riding. There was more going on than that. It seemed almost hormonal...damn. Her sister was pregnant. That would account for the moods. And why Gabe’s job across the country seemed more traumatic than it needed to be. Dani had never been afraid to be alone before, but now...
Jolie huffed out a breath.
“What?”
She looked over to see Dani frowning at her. Not the time to ask about her hypothesis. “Just thinking about work.”
“Any flare-ups today?”
“No. Codie James came by and hauled Dylan away during working hours. I thought the worst, of course, but came to find out Dylan was trying to give her a pair of goats.”
“Goats, you say?” Dani eased the saddle off the horse and started toting it to the tack shed.
“Mike is moving to a smaller place. Dylan’s trying to find forever homes for his livestock.” Jolie followed Dani into the shed and set her saddle on its rack, then laid the pad out upside down to dry.
“How long until they end up here?”
Jolie gave a short laugh. “Why would they end up here?”
“We have the room and Dylan is going to think of that.”
“I don’t think he’s going to ask me for any favors.”
“And you’re not going to offer?”
Jolie just stared at her sister. “I hadn’t thought of it, no.” Dani headed out of the tack shed and Jolie followed. “Why would I offer?”