by Jami Alden
Dylan's fist clenched around the wrench in his right hand.
"I'm sure he has his reasons," Sadie said in a cool, poised tone he'd never heard from her before. No longer the girl who was easily flustered, Sadie's confidence had evidently grown along with her beauty. "But you can head out as soon as the tractor's back on line.” Her stare didn't waiver from the scruffy cowboy's for an instant.
Dylan felt a spurt of pride that he instantly squashed. So Sadie was growing into her own. Nothing for him to get excited about.
"Thank you so much for helping us out," she said, turning to Dylan with a smile that had him going all aw shucks and digging his toe in the dirt. She laid her hand on his forearm, and the shock of heat from her palm against his bare skin was so fierce she might as well have slipped it between his legs.
"I'm happy to," he said, struggling for words as all the blood in his body headed south. "Gives me something to do while I'm here."
"Of course."
She pulled her hand away and he forced himself not to snatch it back.
"Of course. I didn't mean that you would be doing a favor or anything special, like, for me." She clamped her lips together in a gesture so familiar that it made his chest ache.
Did it make him an asshole that he loved that he could still get this grown up, sophisticated Sadie Thornton as tongue tied as he had in high school? When she'd shadowed him in the halls of Sweet Grass County High School in the throes of her not so secret crush?
A crush, he admitted to himself with no small amount of shame, he'd exploited ruthlessly when it came time to study for finals each and every year?
A musical trill filled the air and Sadie fished her phone out of her pocket. "I need to take this. We're all good right?"
Dylan nodded and she turned and hurried back toward the main house, phone to her ear.
He tried but couldn't tear his eyes from the sight of her ass, swaying in rhythm with her long legged strides. Just looking. No harm in looking.
He pulled his gaze just in time to see Andy do the same. The man shot him a knowing grin that made his skin crawl. "Nice view, ain't it?"
Rage boiled in his veins, making his fists clench and his vision grow red. His stomach churned at the idea of a piece of trash like Andy so much as looking at her. No one should be looking at her, or God forbid touching her. No one but—
No, chief. Don't even go there.
"Her father or Pete hear you talking like that, you'll be out on your ass."
Andy gave a snort. "And I'll go work for the mining company for twice the wage. Hell, he's so short handed Thornton would probably tie her to my bed himself to keep me on," he chuckled and spat another ugly brown mess in the dirt.
He took a deep breath, forced himself not to knock out the guy's ugly yellow teeth.
Dylan had no business feeling territorial or possessive of any woman. Especially not a nice girl like Sadie Thornton.
###
Sadie struggled to concentrate on what her client was saying, inwardly cringing over her bumbled attempt to play it cool in front of Dylan.
"Mmm hmm," she said absently as she settled into her desk chair and flipped open her laptop. What was it about Dylan Decker that stripped away the last ten years and shot her right back to high school? The moment she got within five feet of him, cool, professional, and not hard on the eyes Sadie Thornton disappeared.
Leaving her feeling like the awkward, gawky girl she'd been back then. Leaving her with equally strong urges to stay as close to him as possible and to run as far and fast as she could before she made a fool of herself.
Well you didn't get away soon enough today, she thought glumly.
Who could blame her though, really, she thought, as her gaze strayed from the app design mock ups on her computer screen to the driveway below.
From her office window on the first floor she had could see Dylan, well the lower half of him at least as he bent to work on the tractor's engine. And what a lower half it was, the strong muscles of his thighs bunching against he faded fabric of his jeans. Her gaze drifted higher, to his perfectly sculpted butt that she knew would be rock hard under her hands.
Her fingers curled against the polished wood of her desk, heat blooming low in her belly as she imagined pressing them against the hard swell of muscle, preferably with nothing between his skin and hers—
"Do you think you can do that?" Mary Derwin's clipped voice snapped her to attention.
"I, yes, of course," Sadie replied, wincing as she realized she had no idea what she was agreeing to.
"Good, then I'll expect the prototype day after tomorrow."
Shit. The mobile app Mary had contracted Sadie to build for her chain of high end boutiques had grown in scope with every conversation, and the back end data management was nowhere near ready to support half the functionality she expected in the prototype.
She bit her tongue against the protest that there was no way she could deliver it in just two days’ time. Mary Derwin was a rising star on the fashion scene. Not only were her boutiques frequented by celebrities, her blog had a cult like following on both coasts. If Sadie got Mary's new mobile shopping app up and running in time for the upcoming launch in august, it would be a huge boon for her business.
And if that meant working twenty four/seven for the next two days, in between picking up the slack around the ranch now that they were down to just one hand, and making sure her father took his medication and didn't sneak any pork rinds, then she'd do it.
She ended her call with Mary and sent off an email with the updated screenshots from the app for Mary to review. She cursed under her breath as the send status bar moved at a glacial pace. Though the satellite internet connection here at the ranch was the fastest available, it was nothing close to the 35 megabits per second she was used to. Yet another challenge in trying to keep her career moving forward out here in the boonies.
It's only temporary. She reminded herself. Soon enough you'll be able to leave again for blazingly fast wifi and a life free of the responsibilities of running the ranch.
She went back to read over her notes from the call with Mary, but the words swam before her eyes as her thoughts drifted back to the man working outside.
Just a silly high school crush. You are so over it. Yeah, that's what she'd told herself after they graduated from high school and left Big Timber, he for the Army and she for the University of Colorado. The Sadie Thornton who spent the years between thirteen and eighteen pining after Dylan—the one with the braces and the glasses and the too tall body that resembled a stick figure with hair—was left in her rearview along with her hometown.
That's what she'd thought, until she'd seen him last week at the Last Chance. When his eyes had flared with male appreciation at the changes in her appearance.
Then she'd gone and fallen on her ass on the dance floor.
He'd laughed it off, but she couldn't have made it more obvious that while her outward appearance may have changed significantly in the past ten years, she was still the same goofy, awkward girl who would never have a chance with a guy like Dylan.
While she'd been busy scheming how to make a play, she'd managed to put herself firmly back in the friend zone.
Shaking her head, she put on her noise canceling headphones and cranked up Pandora and forced her attention back to work.
Soon she was deep into building the back end data stream, unaware of how much time had passed until an unexpected hand on her shoulder made her jump out of her chair.
Her iPod flew from the desk and clattered to the floor as it disconnected from her headphones. Sadie's hand flattened against her chest to still the rapid beating of her startled heart as she turned to see June, their house keeper of fifteen years, standing next to her chair, looking as startled as Sadie felt.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. You didn't answer when I knocked."
"It's okay," Sadie said, inwardly rolling her eyes. How many times would June have to give her a heart attack before
she heeded Sadie's gentle reminders to text her if she didn't immediately answer a knock on her door? She picked up her phone and saw that it was twelve-thirty, which meant June was summoning her for lunch.
"You're father's already at the table," June said, a smile creasing her plump cheeks. "And I'm just about to pull the chicken out of the oven."
Sadie pasted a smile on her face and made approving sounds, bracing herself to get through the next half hour or so.
When she got to the dining room, she found her father, Jim, seated at the head of the table. Also seated was Pete, who had joined Jim for the noonday meal every day for as long as Sadie could remember.
As Sadie took her seat and dropped her napkin into her lap, June emerged from the kitchen with a platter piled high with roast chicken, and a bowl of green beans. She served her father first, ignoring his protests as she carefully peeled the skin off the chicken breast. Then came Pete, then Sadie before June took her own seat.
After saying Grace, Sadie picked up her fork and knife and cut a small piece off the chicken thigh June had placed on her plate. Sadie forced herself to chew and swallow the bland, flavorless meat and thought mournfully of how June's roast chicken had once been one of her favorite dishes.
Juicy, succulent, full of flavor.
But that was before her father's heart attack and skyhigh blood pressure had necessitated a low salt diet. June had taken it one step further, eliminating all seasonings whatsoever.
Sadie stabbed a green bean and brought it to her lips, but it wasn't any better. As she chewed she thought grimly of a guy she'd dated back in San Francisco. A vegan who ate mostly raw food, Tegan had espoused the virtues of vegetables in their purest form, free of anything to mask their flavor.
He was right, at least when they were talking about organic vegetables fresh from the farmers’ market.
Green beans boiled within an inch of their life?
Not so much.
Though her tastebuds were screaming in protest, her stomach was grumbling, so she choked down a few more bites as her father and Pete attacked their plates with gusto.
June gave her a little nudge on the arm and shot a meaningful look in Jim's direction. Sadie responded with a small nod. "Dad, have you taken your pills today?"
Her father stopped chewing long enough to glower at her. "You don't need to babysit me, young lady."
Sadie stifled the urge to point out that, yeah, she kind of did, which was exactly why, despite her natural inclination to preserve her own sanity, she'd given into June's pleas to move back after his heart attack nearly four months ago.
"He needs someone there around the clock in case something happens," June had said when Sadie floated the idea of returning to San Francisco a few days after her father was released from the hospital. "And I can't move back to the ranch, not with my mother the way she is."
After years of living in a little cabin next to the main house, June had moved back to town shortly before Christmas the year before after her elderly mother had suffered a fall. While her mother had an aide who came during the day while June was at work, Jim Thornton didn't pay June nearly enough to afford round the clock care.
Fortunately Jim didn't have any such financial constraints. "Between Dad and I we can afford to hire a full time in home health care worker until he's back on his feet—"
"Have you met your father?" June said with an exasperated laugh. "You know he'll never put up with that. Besides, you heard the doctor. He won't need a full time nurse or anything like that. He just needs someone around to make sure he takes his medicine, doesn't overdo it, and can be there at night in case something happens."
Sadie shook her head, torn, as all the love hate emotions that went along with the prospect of moving back to her father's ranch erupted to the surface. "Pete will is always there—"
June rolled her eyes. "With your father laid up, Pete will be even busier running the ranch. You think he'll remember to tell Jim to take his medication when he's busy working all day?" Her solemn brown eyes leveled with Sadie's. "Your father needs someone to look after him Sadie. He needs you."
It only took a few days for Sadie to realize that June needed her just as much, if not more. To be the bad cop, to be the nag, because unlike June, Sadie couldn't be subdued with the threat of being fired.
"So you took it then?" Sadie said and took a sip of water in a futile attempt to cleanse her palate.
Her father muttered under his breath as Sadie pushed back from the table and went to the kitchen to retrieve her father's pill box. Sure enough, "Wednesday" still held today's Plavix and fish oil supplement. She picked them out and filled a glass with water from the tap, as her eyes sought out the fruit bowl in search of additional sustenance. Only when she found it empty did she remember she'd eaten the last apple after dinner the night before.
She returned to the dining room and held the water and pills out to her dad.
"I don't know why the hell I need these anyway," Jim said peevishly.
"Because they keep your blood from clotting," Sadie sighed, picked her father's hand off the table and dropped the pills into his palm.
"They also keep my dick from getting hard," he snapped, ignoring June's startled gasp.
Sadie stifled her own reflexive "ew." "Well a hard dick won't do you much good if your heart stops, will it?" she snapped back.
"Sassy little thing," her dad retorted, and swallowed the pills.
Sadie felt a surge of warmth in her chest at the unmistakable glint in her father's eyes. Her father only respected those who stood up to him, who refused to buckle in the face of his surliness, and the only time Sadie got even a hint of approval was when she gave back as good as she got.
Unfortunately, Sadie hadn't realized this until well into adulthood, after a childhood spent trying to be quietly obedient in a futile effort to win his approval.
Turned out, all she needed was a little attitude.
And a penis, a sneaky little voice reminded her.
A wave of exhaustion rushed over her. While she'd never be the son he wanted, she could force herself to stand up to him even if it meant overcoming her natural inclination to avoid conflict. Not to gain his approval anymore, she reminded herself. But to get him healthy so she could get her own life back, instead of having to balance all of her responsibilities here while not neglecting the career she'd worked so hard to build.
Still, while the business called to her in the form of the crushing deadline Mary Derwin had imposed, Sadie lingered at the table while June served coffee and the men talked quietly about the plans for this summer's crop of yearlings, the fall sale, and the breeding plan for the upcoming year.
Though she'd been conflicted about coming back, even temporarily, there was something refreshing about being back in a world where work revolved around the seasons, around the land. Where pulling an all nighter meant crouching in a barn while a mare foaled, not hunching over a keyboard coding her brains out.
While she couldn't imagine ever coming back to this life permanently—and her father had made it clear on many occasions that he neither expected or wanted that—it was nice to come back to this life she'd grown up in, so different from the one she'd made for herself.
The subject moved onto the hay harvest. It was a relatively new business for her father, but a highly lucrative one. With all of the drought going on in the other parts of the country, big cattle ranchers were now willing to pay top dollar for any surplus. Depending on the acreage and how many cuttings, a hay farmer could make into the six figures on one summer's harvest.
In the Thorntons’ case, they'd already done three cuttings of the hundred acres of alfalfa they'd planted. With this next cut, they stood to make a substantial amount of money.
"I talked to Belkin down outside of Durango. He'll be ready to take delivery at the end of August."
"I thought we were going to sell to the Bar twelve in Texas," Sadie interjected.
"Belkin can wait to take delivery and give u
s more time to do the mowing and the baling," Pete said.
"But the Bar Twelve is offering fifty percent more per pound than Belkin," Sadie protested.
"And we're short handed, so by the time we're ready, the Bar Twelve will have gotten what they need, and we'll be shit out of luck," Pete snapped. "We promise to Belkin, we get the money free and clear."
Sadie's protest was cut off by her father's sharp voice.
"It's nice of you to take an interest in the business, but don't you have something to do on your computer?"
Sadie curled her fingers against the dining table as any warm feelings about being back in her childhood home left in a cold rush at the blatant dismissal. She might have been born a girl, with more interest in books and computers than in breeding horses. But she was smart, she had a head for business, and as long as they were depending on her help it would be nice to feel like her opinion mattered.
It was a wonder, she thought as she thanked June for lunch and retreated to her office, that her mother had stuck around for as long as she had.
But after sixteen years of standing by her husband, reassuring Sadie that under that hard exterior he really did love them, Angela Thornton had cut her losses and gotten out while the getting was good.
Was it any wonder that Sadie had done the same?
Chapter 3
Dylan trudged up the front steps, rubbing absently at his left thigh, which was feeling the effects of the intense workout he'd put himself through after he'd left his father's shop.
He took perverse pleasure in the discomfort, savoring the fact that it came from physical exertion rather than from his injury. When he'd first been injured, his leg torn up, he'd been terrified that his career was over. It didn't seem possible that he'd ever recover to the point where he could rejoin his team.
The members of the Unit had to operate at one hundred percent, physically, mentally, emotionally. They wouldn't tolerate a soldier with a gimpy leg.