“Jesus, you scared me.” She brought her hand to her chest, leaning back on the door and letting out a long sigh as she figured out it was Drake behind her and not some homicidal maniac that was going to cut her up and feed her to the dogs.
He laughed at the expression on her face, and it immediately put Celeste on her guard. She slid her hands into her pockets with a frown.
“I’ve got a stack of papers for you to sign back in the car, and we have some stuff to talk about with the paperwork.” If he was going to laugh at her, then she was going to get right down to business.
“I’ll come sign the papers at the car, but if we’re going to discuss anything, then you’re going to have to come around the ranch with me. I’ve got work to do today, and I can’t interrupt it to sit around and have a conversation with you.”
Celeste figured he had to be doing this on purpose. He didn’t think she could do much of anything useful. He’d made that much clear at their last meeting, but she’d come out here prepared. Or at least she’d thought she had. She wore jeans and a work shirt. Her feet were clad in a pair of sneakers. This was the most practical outfit she owned. Normally, she’d have saved it for a day of doing repairs around the house.
Not that she’d done much of that. It was mostly something she just liked to think about doing. If anything really needed doing around the house, she had a handy man on speed dial for that. Or at least she had back in Los Angeles. Here in Denver she lived in an apartment and the superintendent was in charge of the building here. In reality, she hadn’t ever really even handled a tool for its intended purpose.
That wasn’t stopping her from being determined that she was going to show Drake that she was just as good as he was at everything he had in store for her today. She led him over the car, talking along the way.
“Alright then, I’m looking forward to seeing what you have to do around here.” She thought she meant what she was saying, but in reality, Celeste had no idea what was in store for her.
4
Drake was prepared for Celeste to come out this morning. In reality, he’d had plenty of time to sit and talk. There weren’t any chores he had around the ranch that couldn’t have waited an hour to get done. He just wanted to show the city girl what real ranch life looked like. He might have been a brewer by profession, but this ranch was his passion. It wasn’t a typical ranch that you’d see out here in Colorado. Most of them were populated with horses and cattle. This one was full of rescue animals. Every single one of these creatures had been taken from a situation that was killing them — horses taken from racing circuits that were slated to die, a llama from a petting zoo that had been left behind to starve to death, cats and dogs taken from homes around the area that had been unable to care for them, even an ostrich taken from a traveling zoo that had been violating every animal regulation known to the Colorado state government when they’d been shut down.
He loved this place. There was a reason he made this his home when he could have hired hands to do all the work for him. He put his mind into the brewery, but he put his heart into this place. Drake wanted to see how Celeste did out here. This ranch was the metric that he used to judge most of the people who worked closely with him by. If they did well out here, then he felt like he could trust them. If not, he usually found a way to get out of working with them as soon as possible. In truth, this was a test.
At least she was eager to get started. She hadn’t even blinked twice when he’d asked her to walk around the ranch with him while the two of them talked. Signing the papers at her useless convertible only took a moment, he was going to make the rest of this take as long as he possibly could.
“So, we discovered the land isn’t zoned for industrial use, and it’s abutting a section of federally protected land. We’re going to have quite a bit of paperwork to fill out, along with impact studies to file and a set of plans drawn up that minimizes the impact on the surrounding environment before we can get any of this approved. It’s probably next door to the worst case scenario, but it’s not impossible to work with. I’ve dealt with more difficult, but it’s going to take some time.”
She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans as she fell into step beside him. It was good to see her out of those pretentious clothes and into something sensible, even down to the shoes. That was exactly what he wanted to see out of her, but he wasn’t entirely certain she was going to live up to the outfit. It was one thing to throw on a pair of jeans and tennis shoes. It was something else to go in and actually get your hands dirty working around a ranch.
He led her over to the barn where he kept the hay for the animals that needed it while she talked before he grabbed a pitchfork off one of the piles, tossing it to her.
“Here, why don’t you go ahead and start shoveling some of this hay into that cart while we chat. You can help me out around the place if you don’t mind.” He watched her reaction carefully, and he could see her steel her reserve to pitch in. He could tell a person’s enthusiasm about a task by looking at them. It was one of the skills that had served him well during his business career. Right now, she was determined to keep up with whatever he did, and he knew it was less about her being eager to chip in and help out and more about her wanting to show him that she was as good at things around here as he was. She was going to at least try to keep up, but she could also be a liability if she hurt herself here like she had back at the build site.
It took Celeste a moment to figure out what she was supposed to do with the pitchfork, and it was clear she'd never used one before today. It wasn't exactly the type of thing you'd run into in downtown Los Angeles or anything. So he didn't expect much more out of her. At least some of the hay was making it into the wheelbarrow that he'd pulled up into the barn. Drake focused on heading upstairs into the loft to toss down a few more bales of hay from the storage up there. It wasn't going to be a job that he figured Celeste could pull off without hurting herself.
She was still trying to talk about permits and requirements to get the new land cleared to start building. He knew there was going to be more to it than just to start construction. It was the reason he'd hired a law firm in the first place. It wasn't his first rodeo as far as all of this was concerned. It was just cute to watch her attempt to shovel hay and talk at the same time when she wound up only half- able to do either thing simultaneously.
“Hey Celeste, why don't you stop trying to do two things at once and just focus on getting that hay taken care of right now?” She wanted to snap at him. He could see it in the look on her face. He half-hoped she would. He liked it when she decided to be fiery and gave him as much hell as he gave her. It was an admirable trait in a woman.
She rolled her eyes, putting her focus on the pitchfork for the moment. It was only when the wheelbarrow was full that she turned on him with one eyebrow in the air.
“Any other unpaid labor you need me to do around here, or should I be billing you for the time? I’m pretty sure I’m a hell of a lot more expensive than most of the farm hand around here, but I could be wrong. I don’t have much experience with the hourly rate of farm help.” She had a point, but he wasn’t going to concede it.
“I just figured you might want to get a chance to see what the other half live like, Celeste. That’s all. I mean, not everyone has a gardener, a housekeeper and a handyman. Hell, some of us even enjoy looking after our own stuff. I have someone who comes out here during the week to make sure all the chores get done so I can run the brewery. But to be honest, I’d rather do as much of it myself as I can.” His tone was purposefully condescending. He wasn’t certain if she was lazy or just being purposefully antagonistic.
She shook her head and pushed the wheelbarrow with one hand towards the open door of the barn before parking it outside.
“I’m perfectly capable of doing my own work. I can do just as much as anyone else can, probably even more if I put my mind to it.” Drake wasn’t certain who she was trying to convince —him or herself— but she wasn
’t doing a very good job of it.
“Alright then, Celeste. That barrow of hay needs to go out to the ostrich and then another one needs to get out to the horses. They’re hungry. Then I’ve got a section of fence that needs mending if you’re up for the challenge.” He grinned down at her before tossing one last bale of hay to the floor below. “Now just make sure you don’t chip that manicure and I’m sure everything will be just fine.”
The remainder of the morning was spent with him watching her try to work, fairly unsuccessfully. Celeste did manage to break at least three nails and re-twist her ankle all over again while carting the wheel barrow out to feed the ostrich. It didn’t help that she was scared witless of the giant bird. Drake had to admit it was a bit intimidating for anyone who wasn’t familiar with the animal like he was. He knew she was really just a big baby who would run and hide from even the slightest provocation. She didn’t.
Fixing the fence was a whole other kettle of fish. He wound up having to show her how to use the post drivers and how to hang the barbed wire so that whatever kind of animal was supposed to be housed there wasn’t going to escape without at least a bit of a fight. He had to give her credit for trying. A lot of other city folk he’d run across would have given up and gone home to their heated homes with televisions blaring and forgotten that all of this existed. She was giving it everything she had.
It was the moment that he put his arms around her to help her used the post driver that he had a moment’s pause. Her hair brushed across his nose and he drank in the smell of her shampoo again. She still smelled amazing. The fact that she had pulled up here wearing that outfit said something, too. She might still be driving that stupid car, but she was doing a whole damned lot more than he’d ever seen any other woman who was sound bound and determined she belonged in LA.
“So, don’t tell me you would have had half this much fun out on Rodeo Drive shopping for shoes that cost more than the monthly rent on my first apartment.” He talked softly for now since his arms were still around her and that left his mouth dangerously close to her ear. He wasn’t certain his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him when she leaned back into him. He could feel her weight shift perceptibly, but maybe she was just moving to get more comfortable.
“Oh, I think I could have done a whole damned sight more than shop for shoes on a day like today. Besides, the advantage to being in the city is you never know what kind of trouble you’re going to get up to.” He shook his head and fought the urge to pull her in closer. Drake had no idea what kind of tricks his mind and body were playing on him right now, but his instincts where Celeste were concerned were all haywire.
“There’s something to be said for predictability. Besides, there’s a lot of trouble to get yourself into out here if you know what you’re doing. You should go camping with me sometimes. That’s the exact of opposite of predictable.”
“Camping? I don’t think I’ve ever been camping.” Celeste moved to hang the clips along the length of the metal post they’d just finished placing. She seemed to at least be getting the hang of things as far as hanging the wire was concerned. Maybe there was something trainable in her after all.
“That’s a damned shame. You haven’t lived. I promise. Los Angeles says it’s got a lot of stars, but I swear I’ve seen the entire Milky Way from up on the mountain tops out there, and it’s better than any movie that one of those studio execs ever made.” She laughed, though Drake didn’t know her well enough to know if she was laughing at him or what he’d said or if he just amused her.
“Then maybe you ought to take me out camping, Drake.” She turned to face him, and he pulled his arms away. Much to his chagrin, he immediately missed the warmth of her body pressed against his.
“You sure you can handle it? I wouldn’t want to break you permanently or anything, City Girl.” He was daring her to take on the challenge without actually spelling it out. The only thing left was for her to rise to the bait.
“I can handle anything you throw at me, Mr. Fulton.” Her hands went to her hips without her thinking. Drake could hear the sass rise in her voice, and it just goaded him on into seeing how many of her buttons he was going to be able to push.
“Then it’s settled. You’re going to come out here next Friday, and we’ll spend the weekend camping. I’m sure you can clear your schedule through Monday. While we’re out there, you can spend as much time talking business as you want. Maybe we can get all those contracts settled and figure out what we’re doing without any of these damned distractions.”
Her mouth opened and then closed as she was thinking over her response to him.
“Done… Consider it done. I’ll make sure my schedule is clear, and I’ll meet you here on Friday morning.”
He grinned, looking down at her legs and feet before he let out a low chuckle. “Alright Princess, but you’re going to need a pair of boots if you don’t plan on twisting those ankles into a curlicue before the weekend is over. This terrain here is nice and flat compared to up in the mountains. And I’d hate to see you break something more important than a nail up there in the hills. It’s going to take a hell of a lot longer for me to carry you back from that than it did for me to get you to your car.”
She let out a long breath, glaring over at him.
“I’m sure I’ll manage just fine, but thanks for the advice, Drake.” Celeste dusted off her hands carefully and shoved them into the pockets of her jeans. “I guess I’ll see you Friday then.”
“See you Friday, Princess.” He chuckled again and just walked away, leaving Celeste to watch him disappear on a beeline back to the barn. He had no idea how any of this was going to turn out, but he planned to have a good time watching no matter what happened.
5
Celeste had no idea what she was doing going out in this camping trip, she'd had to go out shopping and get an entire new wardrobe for the long weekend. Not to mention the fact that her schedule had to be completely rearranged. She’d been kicking herself all week for letting Drake lure her into going on this trip. She was going to be behind on her work when she finally got back from all of this, not to mention that she was pretty sure camping was about the most boring thing you could do with your free time.
There was no way she was going to tell Drake that though. She wanted to prove to him that she was just as good as he was at everything that he thought was important, and if that took a camping trip to manage, then she’d go on a camping trip. It was only when she’d pulled up in the front yard of the ranch house again that she started second guessing herself.
It was freezing cold, and though she’d packed a coat and was wearing enough layers of clothes to insulate a small house, she’d never spent the night out of doors before. She had no idea what to expect or why she’d agreed to this nonsense in the first place. But Drake was waiting on her standing by his truck with two backpacks leaned up against the bed. She also hadn’t thought about the fact that they were hiking in and out. That meant they were going to have to carry everything from the tent to the clothes they were going to wear to the food they were going to eat on their backs all the way up to the campsite and back again. She was kicking herself for agreeing all of this in the first place, but there was no backing out now.
Maybe it had been the way that Drake had wrapped his arms around her on the pretense of teaching her how to use the post drivers. Maybe it had been some kind of short wired circuit in her brain or maybe it had been her foolish pride that had left her stupid enough to think she was up to this challenge. Drake had a way of frustrating her and getting her worked up that no one else had ever had. She wanted to impress him for some stupid reason, and she was going to wind up getting herself hurt to do it. If she was smart, she’d have turned around and gone back to her apartment to curl up in front of the fire with a cup of tea and just watch Netflix all weekend, but Celeste was anything but smart when it came to Drake Fulton.
She left the convertible behind, locking the doors and then sliding the keys into he
r pocket. She wasn’t going to need them for a few days at least. Drake looked her over, and she felt something, but she wasn’t sure whether it was trepidation at what was in store for this weekend or something else she couldn’t put her finger on.
“Well, look what the cat drug in…” He shoved his full weight off the side of the truck and walked towards her. Celeste stood her ground, letting him close the distance between them in a few strides.
“Morning, Drake.” Celeste moved to grab the small bag of extra clothes she’d packed to bring with her out of the trunk of the convertible. She’d packed light. This was probably the first time she’d gone anywhere for more than a few hours without a full suitcase packed, along with at least three pairs of shoes. Right now, all she had with her were a couple changes of clothes and a few personal items like her toothbrush. She didn’t know what to expect out on the trail, but she was pretty sure there wasn’t going to be a hotel with a hot shower out there waiting for her after a hard day of hiking.
It didn’t help that Drake looked like he belonged out here. If he’d been anyone else, and hadn’t challenged her belief that she could do anything, Celeste would have been hard pressed to deny that she was attracted to him. He had these ruggedly handsome features that made him stand out from anyone she’d ever been around back in Los Angeles. Yeah sure, there were guys that resembled him around there, but it was a little different to watch them walk around getting lattes and just doing the typical stuff in the city wearing a suit or jeans and a t-shirt. Here he was dressed like he was ready for just about anything.
“Got you a pack for the trail with some stuff I didn’t think you’d have.” He nodded towards the two backpacks leaning against his truck and glanced over at her with just a simple bag of clothes draped over one arm. “I guess whatever you’ve got in there ought to fit in the extra room there if you want to shove it in there. I doubt you want to go hiking with that bag slung over one arm. Wouldn’t want the weight of it making you topple over the edge and fall down the side of a mountain or anything, right?”
Drake: A Rocky Mountain Romance Page 3