by Lindsey Hart
“So, what do you think?” Asha finally asked when they stood on the porch of the small cabin that was to be his for the week. He had yet to look inside.
“I’m impressed.” Asha arched a brow and Gabriel rushed on, feeling very much like an untried youth with his first crush. “The operation. Roseland, I mean.” And with you. “You’ve put together a real group of compassionate, talented people. They are probably drawn to you, since you likely have those qualities yourself.” Not only that but people must be drawn to you for the way you speak and think. God… your energy, your glow.
Asha blinked those long, blonde eyelashes. Two twin spots of colour appeared on her cheeks right above delicate, high cheekbones. “I don’t know about that.”
Gabriel felt his own face heat up. “Well you seem to have endless energy, I can say that. You looked like you’d put in a full day’s work when I got here and you still showed me around and introduced me to the staff.”
She shrugged and those pink spots darkened. “Yah, well. We don’t have a lot of time. Katelyn really wants you to do this and if she says that you’re the best then I have to believe her.”
He laughed, more at ease than he should have been with the praise. “Katelyn just thinks that because I was a couple of years older than everyone else in the class. I was only ahead of the game because I’d had a few more jobs and seen a little more of life.”
Those dark blue eyes, eyes the colour of a stormy sky, swept over him. She didn’t smile but his gaze fixed on her pink lips anyway. They were full, sensual, utterly enchanting. Katelyn had the same lips but Gabriel had never had those thoughts about hers. “Still. I asked you here in order to make my sister happy, but also in hopes that what we do here will really help people care about all life. Also, the people you call my staff, they’re really my friends. They make a small salary, what I can afford. I would like to do more for them and that will be possible given more donations. Ultimately though, I would like people to learn about the animals, to really see their personalities, to understand that they are worth life and worth caring about. Katelyn thinks it will bring more donations and more volunteers but that’s just a bonus, if it happens at all. What I really care about is education. Feeling. Compassion. Do you think you can build a site and help us with our social media presence with that in mind?”
“Yes.” He didn’t hesitate. He would have attempted to fly to the moon if she asked him to. Which made him an ass hat. A total, fucking ass hat. He wanted to do a good job, to impress her mostly. He’d agreed to do the job for a quarter of his normal rate so it sure as hell wasn’t about the money. He couldn’t even pretend that it was. “Of course.” He realized then, that Asha saw those animals, animals that were just sheep and cows and horses to him, as her friends. She rescued their precious souls and cared for them as she would another person. She truly believed in what she did. It made him want to believe as well. He carefully didn’t voice his thoughts about the futility of her farm.
“Good.”
“What else do you do here? I mean, maybe we could include something about the store. I don’t know much about it. I was just there briefly, when Katelyn called me in to explain the job.”
“Oh…” Asha paused. Her lips thinned out, like she was concentrating hard. “I guess we do a lot of things. There are some women here who quilt for the store. I spin the wool into a raw product. We do some of the dying as well. We have a garden where we grow our own produce and herbs. We make our own tea and we sell some of the vegetables at the store. I know a lot of people who enjoy picking berries and making preserves. Some people have mini orchards around here. They bring me their jams and canning and I take it into the store to sell for them. We make a small commission and they make most of the proceeds. In the winter it’s a little slower. I also paint so I do some for the store and I make crafts. Dream catchers and stuff like that.”
Of course. He knew Asha was talented. Even filthy and in plain jeans and a t-shirt she still had that unmistakably artsy look. “That’s pretty amazing.”
She smiled shyly. Gabriel liked when she smiled. It lit up her face and showed off her beautiful, full lips. With the sun glowing behind her, Asha looked totally radiant. Her hair was like a golden halo, her skin was the most beautiful bronze colour. Gabriel wanted to touch it to see if it was as soft as it looked.
“Well, if that’s all, I’m exhausted and need a bath. Can I say goodnight?” Asha startled Gabriel from his thoughts. He shook his head. Why was it so difficult to concentrate on what Asha was saying instead of on her?
“Yes, of course. I think I have more than enough to come up with a mock-up of the website. I have some pretty good ideas for your social media too. Of course it would all just be prototypes to show you how it would look and function. You have all the power and the final say on everything.”
Asha hesitated for a moment. “Alright. I like that idea,” she admitted. She turned and walked away, but then she seemed to remember something and she came striding back. “Would you care to join me for dinner tonight? All the staff generally have their own quarters and even their own houses so I'm often alone for meals. I doubt you have any groceries. I could give you directions to the community store. It's about twenty minutes away. Or you could just join me and get started on your own tomorrow.”
“Sure.” He was careful not to sound too eager. He would look like a moron if it was apparent that he would do almost anything to spend more time with her.
She looked at him wryly. It was almost as if those blue eyes could see right through him and read him like a book. She nodded. “Great. Come around in half an hour then.”
Gabriel thought he should do something. Like tip his hat and nod like in the rancher movies. But he wasn't wearing a hat and Asha was already walking away so he turned and went into his cabin.
The place was small but really quite nice. He hadn’t brought much. Just a backpack with clothing, his guitar, sketchbooks, laptop and tablet.
He retrieved everything from the back of his SUV. He placed his guitar just inside the entrance and set his backpack down on the kitchen table. It was small, beat up, possibly hand made. Like the rest of the place, it was clean. He wondered if Asha had done it herself. Probably not. She likely had one of her staff get it ready.
There was a braided rag rug in the kitchen are, which consisted of a row of upper and lower stained pine cabinets and a small sink. When he ventured further, he found a small bedroom with a twin sized bed and a tiny night stand. The bathroom was even smaller but it had all the necessities. The shower was just a stand up stall, but it appeared freshly scrubbed.
The cabin was built with a porch that faced west. Gabriel was willing to bet the sunsets were spectacular.
Though he knew he shouldn’t, he showered, applied fresh cologne and changed his clothes. He looked at his reflection in the small mirror. All his adult life women had practically fallen at his feet, yet the one woman he wanted had barely taken a second glance at him.
You’re here to do a job. Get a grip. This wasn’t about charming his host, or rather, his employer. He needed to focus on work and nothing else.
As Gabriel walked to the farmhouse for dinner, Asha’s house, he couldn’t quite convince himself that his little pep talk had worked.
CHAPTER 5
Asha
Asha turned off the stove, drained the pasta and vegetables and checked the fridge to see how the ‘cheese’cake had set. She wasn't sure what Gabriel would think about a vegan meal. It wasn’t a requirement, that the people who worked and volunteered for her be vegan. Everyone had to make their own choice. She didn’t ask about things that weren’t her business. She just hoped Gabriel didn’t complain about the lack of meat.
The front porch door creaked open just as she was plating the food.
“Come in,” Asha called, unnecessarily, since she already heard footsteps in the hall.
He appeared a second later, filling up her kitchen doorway, leaning on the frame, likely unintenti
onally picking a pose that showed off his muscled abdomen right through his t-shirt. He’d changed. Showered too, if his slightly damp hair was any indication.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” she responded, somewhat shy. She hadn’t had time to freshen up herself and she wondered if she stank. She didn’t like the strange discomfort that clenched her stomach. The way she noticed that Gabriel smelled good and wanted to know if it was his cologne or after shave. It wasn’t attraction, per say. No, it was something elemental, the part of herself that was completely and utterly woman and noticed small things.
She passed his plate over to him and he took it without hesitation. “Dining room is that way.” She pointed before she grabbed her own plate and followed him down the hall into the next room.
She just didn’t like that she noticed anything about Gabriel, nor did she enjoy the self-conscious thoughts. Did other women feel that way naturally, knowing they were a sweaty mess, that they hadn’t shaved their legs that morning and had skipped brushing their teeth? Normally it wouldn’t bother her. This was her home.
Asha set her plate down at the table and Gabriel did the same. They ate silently, she sitting at the head, in the chair that used to belong to her father, he at her left. She tried not to shovel food into her mouth, though her stomach clenched hard with hunger.
For some reason, her mind strayed to Colton, who looked so opposite of this man invading her kitchen. He didn’t care what condition she came to him in. Whether she was exhausted or sweaty from a hard day’s work, whether she smelled like manure or hadn’t had time to properly comb her hair for days, he still made her come alive under his hands. They filled a need in each other, satisfied each other’s loneliness.
Colton would see Gabriel as a challenge. Especially if Gabriel continued to look at her the way he had while she was showing him around, explaining how the farm worked. She hadn’t missed those glances that settled on her breasts and ass.
“This is really good,” Gabriel broke into her thoughts.
She glanced up and remembered the bottle of wine she had sitting on the counter. She shoved her chair back and retrieved it. Back in the dining room she set the bottle and wine glasses down.
“What is that?” Gabriel asked, brow raised in speculation.
“Dandelion wine,” Asha replied. She smiled at Gabriel's instant wince. “It's not so bad. It's full of honey and lemons and orange juice so it's not bitter.” Asha thought of the many nights she and Colton sat up having a glass together over the years.
Something strange, a feeling of disquiet, settled into the pit of her stomach. It spread to her veins, through her blood, until it hit her heart. She couldn’t even fully process what the feeling meant.
“Okay.” Gabriel weighed his options. His square jaw set to the left when he was thinking. She studied that jaw for a second before she decided it would look better sporting a beard. Or perhaps not, given that she wasn’t into hipsters.
“I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try the wine. Do you have anything else?”
“Water. Milk.”
“Sure. That would be fine.”
“Which?”
“Milk.”
Asha nodded. She retreated to the kitchen and grabbed a glass down from the cupboard. Gabriel was in luck. Penny had patiently milked one of the new cows earlier that afternoon. The poor thing’s udder had been fit to burst and there were no calves in need at the moment. Somehow it had ended up in her fridge.
She poured it into the cup, glad she didn’t have to drink it. She never really had liked it anyway and it wasn’t hard to give it up when she became a vegan.
Gabriel hesitated. “That’s right from the cow?”
“Straight from.”
He blanched, but reached out and slowly closed his fingers around the glass. He raised it to his mouth and slowly took a sip. He actually allowed a wry smile a second later. “That actually is pretty good. At least, it didn’t kill me.”
Asha rolled her eyes. “Yah, well, we don’t have it often. Actually, almost never.”
“Oh.” His set of green eyes glanced at his plate, which was nearly finished. It seemed to register with him what had been missing. “You’re a vegetarian?”
“A vegan actually.” He was silent so Asha decided to get up again and offer the ‘cheese’cake she’d made. She’d actually started it the day before, intent on giving it to Ginny as a surprise but she supposed cutting a slice out of it for their dessert would be fine.
Gabriel eyed it for a second before he tasted it. “Wow. This is excellent. You can’t even tell it’s not real.”
“It’s real,” Asha stated dryly. “I just substitute ingredients for dairy, that’s all.”
“Still. It’s amazing. I hope you didn’t go to the trouble just for me.”
“Nope. I actually made it for Ginny.”
“Oh.” Gabriel blushed.
Asha realized she’d humiliated him. Her stab of regret was almost instant. “I mean, she wouldn’t mind that we had a piece. It was way too big for one person.”
“Oh,” he said again but his voice was warmer this time. He pushed his chair back a minute later. “I know you’ve had a long day and I have some notes I want to make, so I’ll get out of your hair. Thank you for the delicious dinner. And the milk.”
“So you like the farm then?” Asha wasn’t sure why she wanted his approval. It didn’t matter. She told herself it didn’t, but deep down, it did.
“I…” Gabriel hesitated. She wondered if he would tell her the truth she sensed he’d been so eagerly wanting to spit out the entire time she was showing him around and talking.
“Yes?”
“I like the farm, Asha. Really. I just- I’m not sure how to go about making people care. If the point of the website and the social media pages are to make people care about the farm and about your lifestyle, that’s great. I’m just not sure how to go about it. I mean… what difference is it going to make to them that you saved a couple of animals?”
Asha could feel her face turning red with anger but she took a couple deep breaths. It wasn’t the first time she had heard this kind of sentiment. That Gabriel would choose to express it rankled her though.
“Well, imagine it like this,” Asha started. She stared Gabriel down, unblinking. “You’re just one person. Would it matter to the world if you weren’t here?”
Gabriel looked uncomfortable. His hands clenched at his sides. “I suppose it would matter to my family.”
“But not to the people who don’t even know you?”
“That’s right. I suppose not.”
“Well then that’s pretty much like what we do on the farm. It’s true that my animals don’t matter to the people who don’t know them. There’s always going to be people who won’t care or won’t change their opinions and lifestyle. But I’m sure that there are people, where if they heard how these animals were treated before they came here, would care. If that causes them to make small changes, then that’s great. I would be happy knowing it. You can also imagine these animals as yourself. Imagine all the people who have helped you along the way. Who have meant something to you. What if none of them were there? What if you had instead been raised in cruelty and abuse and never known love. Aren’t you thankful for everyone who has nurtured you? Given you the opportunity to be happy and succeed? And if they hadn’t been there, wouldn’t you be thankful if someone finally came along and helped you? Loved you? Gave you a happy life?”
“Yes of course.” He nodded slowly, affirming his words.
“Well that’s what I do here. I might not be able to save every animal in the world but that’s no excuse not to care or not to do my part to help the ones that I can. I’m sure they’re very thankful that I did.”
The look on Gabriel’s face told Asha that he didn’t like being put in place. She hadn’t meant to, the words had just tumbled out. She could tell that, despite her little dressing down, he was open minded enough to see her point. He looked like he
wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth and nodded sagely. “Thanks again for dinner. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Come find me,” she said as he turned to leave. “I’ll be doing chores and such.”
“Alright. Goodnight.”
After Gabriel left, the house felt different. Not quite as serene as it usually did. Asha busied herself washing their few dishes. She imagined Gabriel’s cologne hung to the air, heavy and fragrant. She didn’t like it. With a stabbing jolt of regret, Asha thought of the more primal scent of Colt. The way his skin smelled of sweat and the spice of male musk. Of diesel fumes and oil, of fresh air and California sunshine. It should have been his scent limbering, dancing in the air, turning to memory. But it wasn’t.
Except she couldn’t remember the last time she had ever asked Colt to dinner.
CHAPTER 6
Colton
Colton watched in surprise as a man he didn’t know walked out from the cabin closest to Asha’s house and into the farmhouse. He checked his watch. It was far past dinnertime, nearly dark, but then he knew that Asha didn’t eat at regular times. She ate when all her work was done for the day. Sometimes that was midnight.
Asha hadn’t told Colton about any new employees. The man certainly didn’t look like he was from around here. He was too clean cut. His skin too pale. He didn’t look like he’d spent any time out in the sun in his entire life. If Colton were to examine the man’s hands he no doubt would find them soft.
He knew instinctively that the new person wasn’t from around here. That fancy SUV parked off to the side there was probably his. Colton snorted. The thing looked like it had cost more than the farm made in half a year. He didn’t like that Asha hadn’t mentioned anything about a new person starting. He didn’t like that the man was presumptuous enough to enter Asha’s house. It was something he himself never did.
Colton had parked by one of the barns and decided to walk up to the house. He was hoping for a few moments alone with Asha, maybe even the ever elusive hot meal. Instead he had been half way up the driveway when he spotted the intruder. He had frozen in his tracks, stopped and ducked behind the nearest building he could find.