The screen door squeaked as it opened behind him, and Jared turned to see Mr. Lambert standing there. “She’s a little tied up, but she said she’d be glad to talk to you if you could go over to the stable.” Mr. Lambert helped by pointing in the direction he was referring to.
Jared glanced out at the oversized metal building with the doors opened wide.
“Thank you, sir.” He tipped his hat as he headed for the stairs that led down to the yard.
“Oh, and if you’re good with a pitchfork, grab one of those while you’re in there. Help her out. She’d probably appreciate it.”
The smile on the older man’s face was genuine, and Jared knew he was joking but not.
“I can do that, sir,” he assured the man, then turned his boots in the direction of the stable.
He was greeted by a couple of men heading toward the house, neither of them stopping to talk to him. By the time he’d reached the stable, a black lab had made his acquaintance and was steadily walking beside him.
“Out for a stroll?” Jared muttered to the dog. “Don’t guess you know how to use a pitchfork, huh?” He glanced down at the dog again. “Didn’t figure you did.”
Stepping into the shadows, he first noticed that the air was significantly cooler, though the scent of manure and hay lingered on the damp, humid air.
“Hello?” he called out, looking around for a woman.
“Over here,” came that sexy voice he recalled from his phone conversation that morning.
“Where’s here?” he asked, moving deeper inside. There was a row of stalls on the left side of the main walkway, while two additional rows of stalls stood behind the first row. On the right side, there was a large shower area—clearly used for the horses—along with a designated area where it appeared they kept feed and supplies.
“Third stall on your left,” she hollered.
As he walked, Jared took in the stable. It was clean and well-stocked, open and airy. Any animals who might’ve inhabited it weren’t there now, but that made sense if Hope was cleaning out the stalls. From the looks of it, they housed close to a dozen horses and perhaps something smaller—goats, maybe. Since he’d already seen the big red barn, he figured they used it mostly for hay, maybe some of the larger pieces of equipment.
He took a deep breath and prepared himself for seeing this woman for the first time. He reminded himself that just because her voice was sexy didn’t mean she was going to be. And even if she was, it wouldn’t matter, because the last thing Jared needed in his life was a woman. It would be one thing for a hook-up, but this particular woman happened to be a relative of Cheyenne’s. Which meant she was off-limits.
Then again, it had been a long damn time since he’d gotten laid. Probably close to a year. It wasn’t easy to do casual relationships in a small town. There was too much gossip, too many people who knew your life story. Jared preferred to keep his trysts farther from home, and since he hadn’t been doing a lot of going out lately…
Jared stopped just outside the stall, peering inside from beneath the brim of his hat.
Oh, boy.
He trailed his gaze from the woman’s booted feet, up her slender legs, higher, until finally, he caught a glimpse of her face.
He was pretty damn sure that moment was when the earth stopped spinning.
If there were any such things as angels, this woman was definitely one of them. Petite, blond, compact little body. Boots, jeans, hat. Yep, she was something, all right. But what transformed her from a mere mortal to the things of the heavens was her smile.
And those eyes.
Damn.
This was not good. Not good at all.
HOPE WAS TIRED and sweaty, and she wanted nothing more than to take a shower, have some dinner, then crawl into bed. Only she didn’t have a bed to crawl into yet. Nor did she have a shower that was readily available.
Shit.
She had to add moving to her list of things she had to get done today. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be happening anytime in the near future because it was only two and she still had shit to do, including finishing with the stalls, checking on the colicky calf, taking Ambrosia—her beloved horse—out for a quick walk, then meeting up with the ranch foreman, Grant Kingsley, to discuss an issue he apparently had.
On top of that, she had to make time to talk to Jared Walker regarding his family’s reunion. In person, at that. Because clearly the man hadn’t listened when she’d told him she had too much to do. His impatience must’ve brought him out, rather than waiting for her to call him back. Which she would’ve done. Eventually.
Okay, truth was, she probably would’ve passed him off to Faith. She should have passed him off already, allowing her sister to take this one so Hope could handle all the chores she already had. That’s the way she usually dealt with referrals, but for some crazy reason, she hadn’t. Unfortunately, she’d been taken aback by a sexy voice and found herself now waiting for the man to make his way over so she could take one look at him and be disappointed that she hadn’t handed him off to Faith.
When he stepped into view, the last thing on her mind was disappointment.
Son of a biscuit eater.
Damn good thing the guy was nice to look at, because the nicely put together package that was Jared Walker took the initial sting off of what she’d planned to say to him.
“Hey,” she greeted, leaning the pitchfork against the railing and pulling off her glove before reaching out to shake his hand. “Hope Lambert.”
“Nice to meet you, Hope,” Jared said, his lazy drawl thick, his voice low. She noticed the warmth of his big hand as it enveloped hers. Completely. As in, her entire hand disappeared inside his.
“Yeah. You, too.” Hope glanced around, trying her best to remember she was a thirty-three-year-old woman and not a hormonal teenage girl. “I thought we were gonna do this on the phone.” She made a show of glancing around. “As you can see, I’m right in the middle of somethin’.”
And she would be for several more hours.
Jared cocked an eyebrow. “Figured it wouldn’t hurt to check things out.”
She was fairly certain she’d pegged his impatience accurately, but she didn’t say as much. “Well, sorry to make you come all the way out here, but I’ve got one left after this one, and if I stop now, I won’t get everything done before sundown. How ’bout I call one of my sisters, have ’em meet you at the house?”
“Not necessary,” he said, his eyes locked on her face, and she couldn’t seem to look away. “Point me in the direction of a fork and I’ll help out.”
A fork… Wait. What?
Jared cocked a sexy, dark eyebrow, then nodded toward the pitchfork.
Oh. “No, you don’t have to do that,” she said quickly, a little taken aback by his offer.
“I don’t mind helpin’ out a lady.” The smirk he shot her way made Hope instantly think of hot, smoldering sex. Clearly her inactive sex life was beginning to affect her brain. “Not to mention, the guy in the office kinda asked me to.”
“My father,” Hope said, rolling her eyes. “Of course he did.” She nodded toward the wall behind him. “Pitchfork’s over there.”
When he turned, her gaze dropped to his ass, and she damn near swallowed her tongue.
Now, she’d seen plenty of cowboys sporting Wrangler jeans, but never in her life had she seen a man wearing them like Jared did. He was tall and lean, with broad shoulders, a wide back, thick chest, narrow waist. Very impressive, certainly. But his ass… That was a masterpiece.
Hope’s eyes snapped upward when Jared cleared his throat, that seductive smirk still tugging at the corners of his mouth. That was when she realized he’d turned back around. He’d busted her, plain as day, and clearly he found that amusing.
Good for him.
Nodding toward the stall, she forced a smile. “So, h
ow many people do you expect at this reunion?”
His smile disappeared quickly, and an expression that looked a lot like confusion took its place.
“Don’t know,” he said, moving out of her line of sight.
After pulling her glove back on her hand, Hope grabbed her pitchfork and got back to work. “When do you want to do this?”
“Don’t know,” he hollered back.
“How long do you plan for the event to run?” she called out, trying to focus on the task at hand.
“Don’t know.”
That last one made her smile.
“What do you know, Mr. Walker?”
“Jared,” he said, reappearing in the entrance to the stall. “There are more than enough Mr. Walkers in my family. Just call me Jared.”
Hope lifted an eyebrow.
“Please,” he said, that smirk returning.
“Okay, Jared.” Hope leaned on the pitchfork. “What information do you have that’ll be useful in setting this up?”
“Don’t know.” He smiled widely. “That’s what I came here to find out.”
Hope glanced toward the open barn doors. “Okay, tell you what. You help me get that stall cleaned out, and I’ll take you on a tour. But that’ll only buy me roughly fifteen minutes. If that doesn’t work for you, then I can call my father, have him put together the information, and let my sister show you around.”
The sexy cowboy tilted his head. “I’ll be right over there, then.”
Hope tried to hide her smile. She had no intentions of being played by this man. Sexy cowboys were definitely on her not-to-do list. At the very top, in fact. She lived and worked with them day and night, knew exactly what it meant when one set his sights on her. And it never ended in happy ever after.
And she might not know much about Jared Walker, but he definitely qualified as a sexy cowboy.
Which meant he was off-limits.
Completely.
Chapter Four
JARED MADE QUICK work of mucking out the stall, doing his best not to be affected by the soft sighs and slight grunts coming from Hope, who was working a few feet to his left. Admittedly, it’d been a while since he’d put in this type of manual labor, but the truth was, he missed it. Not since he’d left El Paso two years ago, having worked on his parent’s cattle farm, had he felt like this. After he’d been fired from his job managing an equipment rental place—as a way to get additional experience while he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do—Jared had gone back to work for his father while he waited for the divorce to be final. Until his uncle called, letting him know they needed him to come to Coyote Ridge and take over running his sons’ demolition business. He knew that Curtis had made the offer because Jared’s father had called him, but the opportunity to get away for a while had been too good to pass up.
And when he’d finally gotten his son back, Jared had opted to stay because, one, he enjoyed it, and two, it allowed him to get Derrick far away from Sable’s clutches.
It wasn’t that his job at Walker Demolition was easy, but it definitely didn’t require quite so many back muscles. Just being here brought back a million memories. He had loved the farm, sometimes thought about going back even. If it weren’t for the fact that Sable would be all over him if he did, that was. Because of that, Jared had forced himself to stay away. Truth was, if he had to choose a profession, it would be to do this every day. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t in his cards. At least for now.
He managed to block everything from his mind for a little while, focusing solely on the job. Before he knew it, he was finished. Propping his foot on the pitchfork, he pulled his hat from his head and wiped his brow with the sleeve of his T-shirt.
“Well, Jared Walker, looks like you do good work,” Hope said, that raspy voice drawing his attention toward her.
She had lost the gloves and the pitchfork and was now standing in the doorway to the stall—all five foot nothing of her—her turquoise gaze lazily perusing the ground, probably making sure he really had done a good job.
“I’ve got some practice,” he told her.
“Yeah? You worked on a ranch before?”
Jared found he liked looking at her. She wasn’t what he’d expected. The husky tone didn’t quite match the petite little thing standing before him. Hope Lambert looked sweet, almost innocent. But the way she carried herself told him she was no pushover. She was used to hard work and manual labor. If he was right, she probably spent most of her time bossing around a bunch of cowboys to boot.
“Yes, ma’am,” he confirmed, never looking away from her.
There was a slight blush on her cheeks that intrigued him.
When he’d been flirting with her earlier—something he hadn’t intended—he’d seen something in her pretty blue-green eyes. Something that told him to back off. Whether she’d intentionally sent him a warning or if it was involuntary, he didn’t yet know. But he was hoping to find out.
After returning the pitchfork to its original spot, Jared trailed her toward a large basin sink, following her lead and washing his hands, then splashing water on his face. She passed him some paper towels.
“So, how about that tour?” he suggested.
Hope peered up at him, a smile in place. She really was beautiful in a soft, rugged sort of way. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, but she didn’t need any, either. He also noticed that she wasn’t wearing any jewelry at all. Her hair was tucked beneath a straw cowboy hat, blond strands peeking out from underneath, curling over her shoulders, cheeks pink from hard work and the heat, but Jared was captivated by her eyes. Not only the unusual sparkling color but what he saw in them. That same warning he’d seen earlier was reflected there. He wasn’t quite sure what it was all about, but he had an uncanny need to figure it out.
“Come on,” she said, her eyes still locked on his face for another second before she canted her head toward the door. “Your fifteen minutes starts now. Let’s go.”
Jared fell into step with Hope, slowing his longer stride to match her shorter one.
“So, who is Cheyenne to you?” she asked, glancing up at him as they walked.
“She’s my cousin’s … uh … fiancée.”
“So, Brendon’s your cousin?”
“One of ’em, sure.”
Hope grinned. “And you live close to them?”
“Moved to Coyote Ridge a couple years ago to take a job.” It wasn’t a complete lie. He had moved there for the job at Walker Demo. He just wasn’t going to tell Hope that he’d been running from his old life, too.
“Where’re you originally from?”
“El Paso,” he told her. “Born and raised. I take it you’ve grown up here all your life?”
“Yes, sir. Born and raised right here on this very ranch.” Hope’s smile was radiant.
“Born, huh?”
She nodded. “Daddy spread out the hay in the barn…”
Jared could see the mischievous smirk. “Liar.”
“I was born here, though,” she said, chuckling. “In the house, not the barn. Momma had a midwife and everything.”
“Well, you’ve got one up on me.” Jared grinned down at her. “I was born in a hospital.”
“Nobody’s perfect.” Her smile widened. “You have any brothers or sisters?”
“Four brothers, one sister.”
Hope’s eyes widened. “I thought I had a big family.”
“Well, at last count, I had somewhere around thirty first cousins on my dad’s side alone, if that tells you anything. Add in all their significant others, the kids…”
“Okay, so you definitely win,” Hope said, chuckling.
“Cheyenne mentioned you had sisters.”
“Four of them.”
“You’re the oldest?” he probed.
She continued to smile as they walked.
“I am,” she confirmed. “Then there’s Grace, Trinity, Mercy, and Faith.”
Interesting choice in names, Jared noted.
“And you?” Hope asked. “Oldest?”
“Yes, ma’am. Then there’s the twins, Kaden and Keegan, Quinn’s next, then my sister, Eve, and the youngest, Wesley.”
“Twins, huh?”
“Yes, ma’am. They run in the family.”
“So, I take it this family reunion could be rather large?”
“Could be,” he answered. “Depends on who can make it, I guess.”
“When were you lookin’ to do this?” she inquired as they stepped inside an outdoor arena. “Summer months are obviously the best, unless you have an aversion to the heat. Fall in Texas… Well, you know. Some years we have a fall, others we hop right to winter. I don’t suggest you get too far into the colder months. Being cooped up inside all the time can wear on the little ones.”
“And the big ones,” he added.
Her chuckle said she understood exactly what he meant. “True.”
“Travis seems to think a month is good for plannin’,” he said, watching her closely. “So I’d say October sometime.”
“It’s doable, I guess. A little rushed, maybe. Trail rides are good then, and so are hay rides. Provided the weather’s nice, great time to spend outdoors. All depends on what we’ve got booked and what you’re wantin’ to do.”
“Well … that depends on what you’re offerin’?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jared realized how they might’ve sounded, or more accurately, what he found himself hoping for. What was worse, he didn’t feel the need to take them back, because although he’d been in Hope’s presence for a very short time, Jared realized that his no-woman rule was beginning to fade from the mental paper he’d jotted it on.
Jared (Coyote Ridge) (Volume 2) Page 4