by Liz Isaacson
“I can help paint for a while,” she said. “Then I’m going to get the volunteer center set up once the furniture comes.”
“Great,” Hudson said. “Let’s get the paint out.” He moved out from behind the workbench and headed for the gravel that lined the front of the house. He’d stashed the paint cans there, as well as all the brushes and trays for the different colors.
“So what color do you want?” he asked, bending to pick up the drop cloth. She could paint in the shade on the side of the cabin, or on the porch. “And where do you want to be?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“I’ll put this on the porch,” he said. “It’s decently shady, at least until lunchtime.” He stepped around her as she crouched down to examine the paint cans.
He spread the cloth out to protect the porch as Hound came gingerly back up the steps. “Hey, buddy,” he said, giving the dog an affectionate pat. He lay right in the middle of the cloth, as if Hudson had put it there just for him. He chuckled and said, “Go on, bud. You’re not going to be able to stay there.”
Hound blinked at him, and Hudson went back down the steps. “Hound’s in your way.”
Scarlett looked up at him, her beautiful eyes a bit unfocused. She blinked and said, “I’ll get him to move,” before going back to the paint cans.
Hudson returned to his workbench and started piecing together the sign for LlamaLand. He started nailing it together, only looking up with Scarlett asked, “What about rainbow?” She straightened and brushed her hands along her thighs as she came back toward him. “I could do a different color for each letter, in a pattern.”
“Sure,” he said. “Whatever you want. It’s your ranch.” He grinned at her.
“Any word on the other cars?” she asked.
“I’ve got a ton of texts,” he said, fitting another nail into place. “I was hoping they’d all be from you.” He gave her what he hoped was a flirty look and went right back to his work, his internal temperature a little hotter simply because she was near him.
“Oh, you were, were you?”
“Well, yeah,” he said. “Maybe asking me to lunch.”
“I asked you to lunch last night,” she said. “You forgot?”
“I didn’t forget.”
“Can I look at your phone?”
“Sure.” He nodded to where it sat on the corner of the workbench. “I can run down and meet someone whenever. That is, if my lunch date is flexible.” He caught her smile out of the corner of his eye, and then she focused on his phone.
He’d hammered in one nail when she said, “Hudson, I think you better get down to the cars.”
“Why?” He set the hammer down. “Something wrong?”
She lifted her gaze from the phone. “No, something’s right. This guy says he’s looking at the car and wants to buy it.” She handed the device back to him, and Hudson read the texts quickly.
“All right. I’ll head down.”
“Can I come?”
“Sure.” He jogged over to the front steps and went up them to get inside the house. He grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter and headed back outside. Scarlett was already in the truck, and he joined her.
“I have a guy coming to look at the truck tonight,” he said.
“I saw the texts.” She twirled a piece of hair between her fingers and watched him.
“What?” he asked, glad his cabin was only five minutes up the road from where he’d parked the cars.
“You’re just cute.”
“Cute?” he repeated. “Oh, no man my age wants to be called cute.”
“No?” She laughed. “What would be better? Handsome?”
“Definitely.”
“Hot?”
“Uh, I guess,” he said. “But that’s more of a teenage thing, and sweetheart, I’m a long way from a teenager.”
“You and me both.”
He glanced at her, some of the playfulness definitely gone from her voice in that last statement. “Is it still rude to ask a woman her age?”
“I’m forty-three,” she said.
“Oh, so I win.” He flashed her a smile as he went past the still-legless robot mailbox. “Forty-five.”
“Married for how long?” she asked, a measure of challenge in her tone now.
“Ten years,” he said, his fingers tightening around the wheel at this topic.
“Dang, you win again,” she said. “Only six for me.”
“No kids?”
“No,” she said too quickly.
Hudson let a few seconds of silence go by, but he didn’t want to let her hide from him. He wanted to know everything about her. “I sense a story there.”
“We had…some trouble getting pregnant,” she said. “It drove us apart instead of together.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“We got two dogs,” she said. “Billy and Bob. They were—are—English retrievers.”
“No wonder Hound likes you so much.”
“I lost them to my ex,” she said, her voice almost a ghost of itself. “He won them in the settlement.”
Hudson remembered her saying that now. He didn’t know how to comfort her, and he liked the playful, flirty version of Scarlett more than this one. But he knew there were dozens of sides to a person, and he wanted to see all of hers.
He didn’t apologize again. He simply reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing tightly for a moment before the car and the truck came into view. “He’s still here. Good.” He released her hand, but she kept a grip on his.
“You didn’t tell me if you had kids.”
The pain in his chest came instantly, and it ripped through him hotly. “No,” he said. “No kids. Jan, uh, didn’t want them.”
“Did you?”
Hudson flicked his gaze to the man waiting beside the blue car Hudson would like to sell and back to Scarlett. “Yes,” he said honestly, swallowing a moment later. “Jan didn’t want to lose her figure.”
Saying it out loud sounded stupid, but he’d loved and respected Jan. He’d gone along with what she’d wanted, because his sole goal was to make her happy. Foolishness raced through him, and he ducked his head and got out of the truck, glad Scarlett let go of his hand and let him go.
“Hey,” he said to the man standing there. “Sorry, I didn’t see your texts right away.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m Jake.”
“Hudson.” The shook hands. “You’re interested in the car?”
“Yeah, my son needs something to get to football practice.”
“I’ve got the keys right here,” he said as a tall, gangly boy got out of the other car parked there. “You can take it for a spin.” He handed the keys to the father, who passed them to his son. The boy pushed his long hair out of his face and gave Hudson a tentative smile.
“Be back in a few minutes,” the father said before folding himself into the car, and Hudson watched as they pulled up the stop sign and turned left.
Scarlett joined him, her hands tucked into her bac pockets. “I’m sorry about your wife.”
“Ex-wife,” he said automatically. “And it’s fine. Old water, under an old bridge.” Thankfully, she didn’t say anything else, and Hudson sold the blue car to the teenager and his father when they returned from their test drive.
He flipped through the cash as he and Scarlett got back in the truck, and she laughed. “Give me my cut, cowboy.”
“Oh, I’m a cowboy now?”
“You’ve been a cowboy since I met you.” She nodded at his hat. “You never take that thing off.”
“Sure I do,” he said.
“When?” she challenged.
“Well, if you’ll recall, I took it off yesterday in your house, right before I wanted to kiss you.” He looked at her, no one else on the road going back up to the ranch.
“Mm,” she said, her eyes absolutely glittering at him. “I’d like to see that happen again.”
“I bet you would.” He chuck
led as he went past the robot and down his street, his own blood burning for the chance to kiss her.
“Maybe at lunch today,” she said, and Hudson’s hopes soared sky-high.
“Maybe,” he said, teasing her and enjoying it so, so much. Now, he just had to make it to lunch without nailing one of his fingers to the signs because he couldn’t concentrate with her so dang close, and maybe he’d get his kiss today after all.
Maybe you should lock Adele in her house as a precaution….
Chapter 13
Scarlett enjoyed the up and down movement of painting, the way the letters came to life under the stroke of her brush, the way her mind was able to roam free. She hadn’t planned on painting letters that morning, and her to-do list sat there, dormant. But she didn’t care.
Hudson whistled while he worked, and she wanted to be close to him. The peace that drifted through her couldn’t be found while she obsessed over when the furniture arrived and what she should say when Jewel arrived a week from now.
A week from now. There was so much time between now and then that Scarlett needed to focus on what was right in front of her, not what lay seven days down the road.
So she painted the Goat Grounds sign with blue paint, deciding the rainbow-colored letters were too childish. Then she did LlamaLand with red and Canine Club in orange. Hudson was much quicker than her, and he joined her about an hour before lunchtime, and he made Feline Frenzy yellow and Horse Heaven green. They worked together on Piggy Paradise in pink, and the flirting between them was shameless.
With the last letter painted, he said, “All right. I’m starving.”
She was too, and she stretched her back as he gathered up the painting supplies and cleaned them up. She went down the steps, enjoying the California sunshine, and saw Carson round the corner and continue toward his house, his head down.
“Hey, Carson,” she said, causing him to glance up. “Thanks for all the advice you gave me this morning.”
A smile burst onto his face, and if Adele thought he wasn’t handsome, she was delusional. He even had an adorable dimple in his right cheek, and that cowboy hat made him even more her type.
“Of course,” he said. “You guys finish the signs?”
“Yeah, all assembled and painted. Hudson will seal them once the paint dries.” She smiled at him, almost inviting him to come to lunch at the homestead. But if he came to lunch at the homestead, she and Hudson wouldn’t be alone. And if they weren’t alone…. She pressed her lips together. “How’s it going in the Goat Grounds?”
“Great,” he said with a smile. “I think I know all their names now.”
“What did Adele settle on?” she asked. “Candy bars?”
“Ice cream flavors.” Carson shook his head, but he didn’t look annoyed or dismissive. He looked…appreciative. “And I got all the animals on the south side fed.”
“Thanks, Carson. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Anyway, I’ve got to let my dogs out.” He tipped his hat at her and walked away. He opened the door, and both of his labs burst out of the door, sprinted down the steps, and frolicked with Hound, who managed to get out of the shade in order to greet his doggy friends.
Scarlett laughed and watched the dogs while she waited for Hudson. He finally came out of his place, easily slipping his hand into hers and tugging her toward the road. “So, what’s on the menu for today?”
“Okay, so I have a secret,” Scarlett said, shooting a glance toward Carson’s front door, which was still open. But he wasn’t there.
Hudson whistled at Hound, and he came running up beside them, leaving the other two dogs behind. “A secret?”
“Yeah. Have you ever smelled anything around Adele’s house?”
“All the time,” he said. “She’s obviously got time to bake and cook.”
“And we saw her yelling at Carson yesterday.”
“Right. I spent most of the afternoon and evening with him yesterday, and he didn’t say anything.”
“Well, I got inside her cabin,” Scarlett said, practically sing-songing the words. “And she is baking and cooking in there. A lot. Every day. And she’s got a freezer full of food. I got some chicken curry chowder, some watermelon gazpacho, and several other things.”
“Huh,” Hudson said, surprise in his voice. “What’s she cooking all that for?”
“That’s the secret. How familiar with social media are you?”
“Social media? I used to have one of my guys post for me. Facebook, Instagram, twitter. But I don’t use them myself.”
The secret wasn’t as juicy if he hadn’t seen the videos. She pulled out her phone anyway. “Okay, so these short video clips of recipes are super popular right now. They take you from the beginning of a recipe to the end, all in sixty seconds or less.” She navigated to TastySpot and showed him the chicken curry chowder.
He watched it and said, “Wow. I actually like that.” He scrolled down and started watching another one, his cowboy boots scuffing the ground.
“Addictive, right?” she asked, attracted to him more because he liked the videos, if that was even possible.
“This fried ice cream looks amazing.” He glanced at her. “Do you have any of that?”
“I didn’t see any of those,” she said. “But the point is, Hudson, TastySpot is run by Adele. Every one of those videos she made. She made the food and the videos.”
He looked back at the phone. “There’s like a hundred videos here.”
“One hundred and twelve,” Scarlett said. “I watched a bunch of them last night.” She danced a few steps in front of him. “And we get to eat the food.”
“All of it?” He handed her the phone back.
“Well, I have a few containers,” she said. “And you can’t tell anyone. Adele swore me to secrecy.” She stopped dead in the middle of the road. “Oh, my gosh. No.” She moaned and rolled her shoulders.
“What?” Hudson asked, moving to stand right in front of her.
Scarlett didn’t want to say. Her insides squirmed, and she couldn’t quite look at Hudson.
“What?” he repeated.
“I told Adele she had to feed me and you until we kissed, because she kept interrupting us.” Scarlett muttered the last few words, and she ducked her head so she wouldn’t accidentally look at Hudson.
He started laughing, took her hand, and continued walking. “I don’t care about food, Scarlett.”
“I’ve never heard a man say that,” she said.
“Compared to kissing you?” he asked. “Nothing Adele’s made is going to be better than kissing you.”
Scarlett paused again. “You think so? You haven’t even done it yet.”
Hudson turned toward her, his eyes lit up. He took a step back toward her, and it ignited that flame inside her stomach. “I just know.” His hand slid along her hip around to her back, bringing her close to him.
“Are you going to take the hat off now?” she whispered, his fingers tiptoeing along her arm to her shoulder before tucking her loose hair behind her ear.
“Do you want me to take off the hat?”
Nerves gathered into a ball of fear in the back of her throat. She hadn’t kissed a man in such a long time, but she wanted this cowboy mechanic’s lips on hers as soon as possible. “Yes,” she whispered.
He moved so slowly, it was agonizing. Her heart pounded and she licked her lips so he wouldn’t be kissing her dry mouth. Finally, that hand removed his hat, taking the shade of the brim with it, and he leaned down, his lips barely brushing hers.
The kiss lasted only a moment, and then he growled low in his throat, brought her flush against him, and kissed her.
And she kissed him back, matching him stroke for stroke and enjoying the flapping of wings as they moved through her whole body. Oh, this man could make a woman feel like a treasure. He deepened the kiss, and Scarlett hoped Carson wouldn’t come walking down the road.
Hudson finally pulled away, his breath laboring in and out of his mou
th. “Wow, Scarlett,” he whispered, sweeping his mouth along her jaw to her neck.
“Wow,” she repeated, holding onto his wide shoulders as he touched his lips to her earlobe and then pulled away completely.
“Does this mean we don’t get that curry chowder?” he asked, leaning his forehead against hers. “Because if it does, I don’t even care. That was worth it.”
Scarlett smiled, her eyes still closed. “Maybe what Adele doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
“She can’t eat everything she makes.”
“So we don’t tell her.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
“You were going to tell her?”
Scarlett shrugged, a tingling still on her lips. “I mean, we’ve been best friends since college. So yeah, I’d probably have told her when you finally kissed me.”
“Hey, she’s the one who’s been interrupting us.”
“And she’s very sorry,” Scarlett said, starting to walk again, her steps much slower now. “That’s why we have the food.” She linked her hand through Hudson’s arm, and put her other hand on his forearm too. They strolled down the dirt road, and the wide open sky held such happiness for Scarlett.
She hadn’t felt this level of happiness in such a long time, and she wanted to hold onto it for as long as she could. And it seemed like Hudson did too, which was the strangest thing of all.
A week later, Scarlett sat on the front steps of the homestead as the sun rose, trying to think of what she’d overlooked. Carson had installed all of the signs. The buildings were clean and furnished as much as they could be. The animals seemed healthy, and the hay barn was fuller than it had been in a long time.
Later, when Jewel was scheduled to arrive, Gramps would be busy with Hound, Tony, and Ted. Adele’s goat yoga had been nothing short of amazing, and the session for that morning would begin in a couple of hours.
Scarlett lifted her coffee mug to her lips and sipped, mentally ticking off each item, like she’d been doing for hours. She once again concluded that she’d done everything she could. “The rest is up to you, Lord,” she said to the brightening sky.