by Caroline Lee
There was a man with brown dreadlocks that reached his chin inside behind the desk, and he gave her a friendly welcome. He introduced himself as Zack.
“Sorry, ma’am. Will and Soap are just finishing up a run. They should be here any minute.”
“How do you know?”
“Uhhh, Soap’s got a water-proof walkie-talkie, right? So he’s gotta check in at certain points, yeah? That way I know there’s nothin’ wrong, and I don’t, like, freak out about nothin’.” Ellie hid her smile as Zack led her out to the dock. He would certainly fit in with the L.A. surfer crowd. “So he and Will had a small group today, they’re all on the same raft. Gotta have two staff, though, for safety. So one of us will take the kayak down while the other captains.”
Ellie was surprised. “You kayak down the rapids?”
“Yeah, sure. Easier than steering that heavy raft, right? Also, easier to help a swimmer that way.”
“People actually swim?” She was remembering the terrifying white water she’d seen on her tour last week.
But Zack just laughed. “Naw, not on purpose. The water’s cold. But when someone falls out, we call them a swimmer.”
People fall out? Maybe her face showed her surprise, because Zack hurried to assure her. “It’s alright though, you know? No one gets hurt because the safety kayaker’s there. Will’s the best of all of us at it, but Soap’s pretty good too.”
Ellie was trying her best to understand this way of life. It seemed…ridiculous. “And Soap? Why do you call him that?” She’d seen his tax forms, and knew his name was really Samuel Mark Jenkins…but absolutely no one else seemed to know that.
“Well, ma’am…” Zack looked almost embarrassed when he shifted from one foot to the other. “If you’d ever smelled him, you wouldn’t have to ask that question.”
Oh.
Thank goodness, at that exact moment a brightly colored boat came around the bend, Zack let out a whoop and rushed to the landing, and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief that the entire awkward conversation was over. She remembered just in time that she was there at the boathouse to observe the entire rafting procedure, and moved to stand beside Indy in the shadow of the building to study the participants.
The raft was painted neon green with black markings, and there were eight people on board. Two women and three men, ranging from early twenties to retirement age, lined the sides, grimly digging into what was left of the current that had deposited them from Roiling Rapid River into River’s End Lake. They wore expressions that varied from exhilaration to exhaustion, and Ellie smiled to see the little helmeted head in the bow—obviously a child—swinging his paddle over his head in excitement. The man at the stern had his paddle hanging off the back, as if he were using it as a tiller, and laughed loudly in response to the kid’s antics as he steered them towards the landing.
Zack waded out into the water—now Ellie understood why the rafting staff wore their swim trunks all the time—in time to grab the boat’s bowline and pull the craft towards the shore. The participants were all chatting and high-fiving and talking about the high points of the trip, while the captain—it had to be Soap—congratulated them on a good run.
It was only then, as the tourists began to climb out of the raft, that Ellie noticed the second craft. A kayak, also painted bright green, skimmed through the water behind the larger boat, and pulled up beside the dock. Indy stood up, her nose in the air, and let out a few excited barks. That’s when Ellie realized who the kayaker must be.
Sure enough, he skimmed to a stop beside the dock, just his head sticking up over the wooden planks, and threw his paddle up beside the frantically barking dog. When he peeled off his sunglasses and visor to toss them on the planks as well, Ellie saw Will’s wide grin and was glad that she stood in the shade because wow did it suddenly just get warm. There was a definite twinkle in his eyes when he held up his arms and called Indy’s name, and before Ellie could catch her breath, the dog launched herself off the dock at him.
Her heart gave a little jump, and she took a few running steps to the edge of the platform, afraid of what she’d see. Sure enough, the bright-green hull of Will’s kayak bobbed in the lake beside the dock, and Ellie sucked in a worried breath. Indy must’ve leaped into his arms and overturned the whole thing. She knew enough about kayaking to know that it’d be impossible for Will to right himself without his paddle, and she dropped to her knees, frantic to find some way to help him.
Which put her head level with his when he rose laughing out of the water, the dog in his arms frantically trying to squirm free. They both looked like they were playing, but that didn’t help Ellie’s chest. First it’d been too-tight because she was terrified, and now it was even tighter because of the way he looked, shaking his head back and forth as vigorously as Indy’s, his shaggy blonde mane spraying droplets of water just as widely as the dog’s.
He looked like some kind of water nymph. Wait, could men be nymphs? Maybe more of a demi-god, rising from the ocean. Oh dear, she was getting fanciful. Probably reading too many books again. Breathe, stupid! Breathe.
Ellie finally sucked in a breath, and Will’s eyes found hers immediately at the sound. And oh my gosh his eyes! Maybe the sun was just too bright or something, because his eyes definitely sparkled in a way Ellie had never imagined a man’s could, outside of an old-timey movie. Last week, when she’d spent time with Will, he’d seemed almost unsure of himself at times, as she questioned him about various aspects of the ranch…but now? Now he looked completely in his element.
Thank goodness she was already kneeling, or her knees might’ve given out when he smiled up at her. There was absolutely no reasonable explanation for why she’d been caught hunched over the edge of the pier, biting her lower lip and staring fearfully at her employer, so she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. “I was worried for you!”
That’s when his smile turned…something else. Something she couldn’t name, and had to look away from, because it started doing things to her insides. Instead, she focused on Indy, who was now happily paddling circles around Will. “This is just a game we play sometimes, when I’m on kayak duty and can’t take her with me. She’s happy to see me when I get back, aren’t you, girl?”
Predictably, the Border Collie “ooowww”-ed, and Ellie had to smile. It’s like Indy always knew when she was being addressed. Will made short work of righting the small craft, and Ellie realized that he was only standing about waist-deep in water. The shirt he wore—the special material that dried quickly and was SPF-rated—clung to him like a dark-blue skin, and Ellie realized that she was staring at his pecs. Wow. Apparently kayaking was really good exercise, because the man was stacked. The shoulders that had looked broad in his tee-shirt were now revealed to be muscled and ripple-y and all sorts of yummy. She’d always been partial to a nicely-built set of abs, and suddenly very much wanted Will to climb out, so she could see what the water was hiding.
She got her wish when he gave a two-tone whistle and began to wade towards the landing, hauling on the kayak’s bowline. Ellie scrambled to her feet and found herself brushing her knees off and tucking her hair in before she realized how ridiculous she must look. She was standing on a dock beside a man who’d just wrestled a dog underwater, and she was worried about her appearance? …Well, yeah. Something about Will just made her want to look her best, and it didn’t seem to matter in the least bit that he was her employer.
Oh dear.
She watched him interact with the tourists, patting backs and directing them up to the boathouse to change out of their rented wetsuits. He laughed and joked the entire time, and that feeling came back; the feeling that this was the real Will, the Will Weston who was in his element sharing his adventure and love of the water with others.
Whoops, there she went, getting fanciful again.
After Zack and Soap—she really had to meet that young man—had herded the guests up to the boathouse, Will hoisted the kayak out of the water and onto shore, l
aughed to see Indy shake herself and spray everything in a ten-foot radius with water, and then made his way towards the shade of the building, where she waited
A part of her preened when she saw his gaze appreciatively raking her from sandals to ponytail, but the other part of her was busy staring at his stomach. Oh gosh, his abs were just as nicely sculpted as she’d hoped. Even the ridiculous-looking neoprene kayaker’s skirt—he’d obviously been skirted in when the dog had tipped the craft, and he’d had to bail out completely—that still hung around his hips didn’t detract from how gorgeous his body was in wet swimwear. Ellie swallowed, her pulse suddenly loud.
“How’s the work going?”
The work? Oh, the work! Ellie started, a little ashamed that her thoughts had wandered so far from her original purpose. “Good! Good.” She swallowed. “I just wanted to come down and observe y’all in action.”
Will grinned wryly and spun in a circle, his arms wide, as if to allow her to see him in action. She couldn’t help but chuckle. “I mean, so that I could get an idea of your process.”
“Well, alright then.” Will glanced up at the boathouse. “We’ve got another tour scheduled in forty-five minutes, and you’re welcome to make yourself comfortable. I’d offer to take you along, so you could see how the whole thing works, but…” His eyes raked her cute little red-and-white sundress, and Ellie felt her cheeks heat up. “You’re not quite prepared.”
“Maybe some other time?” She managed to choke out, and was relieved to see his eager nod.
“Yeah. I’d love to—I mean…” He ran his hand through his hair, splattering water. “I think it would be helpful for you to see the whole thing, you know?”
“I agree. I enjoyed seeing the way the pool staff arranged things. I’m pretty close to having a system in place.”
“Really?” His eyes lit up again, but this time his smile was sort of bashful. “I’d…uh…I’d like to learn it. If you thought you could teach it to me, I mean.”
“Of course.” Why wouldn’t she be able to teach it to him? “It’s pretty easy, and all online. I’d be happy to sit down with you and—”
“Tonight? My house?”
She blinked at his eager tone, so different from the wariness of a moment ago. He looked like…well, like someone who really wanted to sit down with her and learn her system. Tonight. And the thought made her pause. Because she really wanted to sit down with him. Tonight. And going to his house tonight to talk about anything sounded a bit too much like a date.
And she really, really wanted to go on a date with him.
Ellie stifled a groan, and instead forced a smile. Workplace relationships do not work, stupid. She’d seen it time and again. Her stint in Idaho was up in less than three weeks, and he was her employer. But still… she did need to teach him the system, and neither of them had a real office, and inviting him to her room seemed a little more intimate than she wanted…
“Okay.” When his eyes lit up, she held up a hand. “But not tonight.” She needed to prove—to herself and to him—that she had some restraint. She’d meet with him, but not immediately. She wasn’t Indy, who needed his constant attention and approval.
…Right?
“Alright then.” He was still smiling, like he didn’t mind the delay. “How about tomorrow? Six o’clock? That’s after the last tour, and we could do dinner or something.”
There wasn’t any way that she could turn down that offer, and only a tiny part of her wanted to. So she smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear and agreed. “Tomorrow. Six o’clock. I’ll be there.”
Lord help you, missy. Because you’ve got a date with the sexiest man you’ve ever met… So much for keeping your distance.
CHAPTER FOUR
Will was chopping red peppers when Indy barked twice, letting him know a guest was approaching. He tossed her a veggie—which she snatched out of the air and began to play with, rather than eat—to acknowledge her hard work in guarding the house, and dumped the rest on top of the salad. It wasn’t pretty, but it’d taste fine.
After wiping his hands on a dishcloth, he hung it over the oven door, and checked his reflection once more in the hall mirror. Ellie was coming for dinner, and he wanted to look his best. Not only that, but he’d stayed up late the night before—after that heart-pounding perusal at the boat house—to clean his house. In the few times he’d seen her in the last week and a half, he’d been wearing his usual flip-flops and trunks, and he wanted to show her that he could clean up nicely too.
So tonight he was wearing jeans—he’d even tucked in his pale-blue chambray shirt—and his boots. Sure, he was more comfortable in flip-flops or water shoes, but Idaho winters meant that he couldn’t live in them year-round. Which is why, a few years back, Kelsi had commissioned a special pair of cowboy boots for him. They were really comfortable, and kept his feet warm and dry…and they were lavender. The color had been a joke, of course, but Will wore them anyhow, because they were good boots. And besides, they made him smile. Family could tease him, and give him silly gifts, but he knew that just meant he was loved.
Yeah, family and the ranch were the most important things in his life…so why was his heart pounding like a jack-hammer at the thought of dinner and an evening with Ellie? He forced a confident grin—which he didn’t quite feel—at his reflection, and checked for spinach between his teeth. None, good. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually eaten spinach, but there are just some things you had to check before a date. No, not a date. A work meeting. Yeah.
…but kinda like a date.
When the knock came at the door, he was standing right in the foyer. But he also didn’t want to wrench the door open and make it look like he’d been standing in the foyer waiting for her, either. Instead, he shook his hands out once, twice, like he was about to paint something small and fiddly, and clenched his fists. Ellie was here, standing on his front porch, and they were going to have dinner. Together.
He took a deep breath, and hoped he didn’t look as incredibly nervous as he felt. Indy whined a little, looking at him with her head cocked like she couldn’t figure out why he was just standing there, and Will smiled ruefully and reached for the door.
She was stunning. Over the time she’d been on the ranch, she’d fallen into the habit of wearing appropriate clothing, like shorts and tee-shirts. She’d looked like she belonged here in Idaho. But she’d dressed up tonight, and he wasn’t sure if it was because she saw this as a business meeting, or a date, but he’d take whatever he could get. A skinny black skirt cut right above her knees—he hadn’t realized how sexy knees could look until he’d seen hers—and a red frilly blouse, with her blonde hair down and curly again. And the heels! Will stifled a groan when she shifted her weight and he saw how long and sleek her legs looked in those black heels.
She looked like she belonged in L.A., but instead was standing on his front porch looking increasingly unsure of herself. And as soon as he could make his tongue work, he’d try to set her at ease. Any minute now…
Luckily, Indy chose that moment to welcome Ellie to their home with a happy little “oooooowwww” and Ellie’s smile bloomed when she reached down to scratch the dog’s head.
Will cleared his throat. “Hi. I mean, welcome. Come on in. Thanks for coming. It’s good to see you. I’m happy you’re here.” He was blabbing, wasn’t he? Once his tongue started working, it didn’t want to stop, apparently.
But she just turned that smile on him, and replied, “Hi, yourself. I’m glad to be here.” And Will had to swallow a few times before he felt the vise around his chest loosen. Holy moly, she was gorgeous.
Still, he thought that he managed to not make it too obvious as he gave her a tour of the first floor and made small talk. The place wasn’t much; the foyer, dining room, kitchen and nook, and the back porch off the mudroom. He held the back door open for her, and she stepped out to lean against the same railing he liked to prop his feet up on most evenings while he watched Indy play.
The Border Collie was always thrilled to be out back, and Ellie laughed when she saw Indy take off into the fenced yard.
“I’m surprised to see it fenced-in. I mean, she’s so well-trained, I didn’t think that you would need to bother with keeping her fenced.”
Will smiled, and nodded. “You’re right. But it’s not to keep her from running away.” He gave the dog’s distinctive two-tone whistle, and when Indy jerked to a stop and turned, poised to hear his command, he said “Get the egg, Indy.” She took off like a shot for a spot in the far corner of the yard.
“See, I hadn’t bothered with a fence until I got Indy. She can run like the dickens, but she’s got a game she plays that requires a fence.”
“With an egg?”
“Yep.” Will smiled at the look of surprise on Ellie’s lovely face when Indy ran back towards them pushing something on the ground. It was an egg, about the size of a basketball and made from hard plastic, and she got running fast enough to scoop it up on her nose. As long as she was running forward, the toy balanced there for several seconds before rolling down her back, and she’d skid around and try to get her nose under it again. Ellie burst into laughter when she realized what she was seeing, and even clapped her hands in delight.
Will joined her in chuckling. It was a pretty amazing trick. “See?” He pointed. “The egg isn’t round, so she can’t control where it goes, which is why she’s always making tiny direction changes. I think it’s part of her herding mentality. So she chases it until—whoops, there she goes.” Indy had run into the fence, and was chasing the egg along the perimeter now. “The fence at least keeps the egg from rolling off across the fields. Before I put the fence in, she’d chase that egg a half-mile and then lose it, and I’d have to order her another one.”