She gave him a look. “It’s not the same thing. I like to cook,” she emphasized. “And if you tell me that you like to wash dishes, I’m going to have to fight a very strong urge to tell you that you’re lying.”
Dillon grinned, clearly tickled. “Then I won’t say it.”
Time to change the subject, she decided. “I believe you said something about your ranch and us going horseback riding?” she prompted.
His grin widened as he dried his hands on a nearby dish towel. “I believe I did, yes,” he agreed.
She took off the apron she’d had on and draped it on the back of a chair. “Then let’s get to it,” she urged. “I can’t wait to meet Delilah.”
“Okay, then let’s not keep her—or you—waiting,” he said, ushering her toward the door.
* * *
Hailey wasn’t prepared for the ranch. She thought she was, but when she actually was able to see it, she realized that the sprawling house exceeded her wildest expectations.
As they came closer, she let out a low whistle. “You people really live in that?” she asked in awe.
“Yes, why?” he asked, amused by her reaction.
This was bigger than huge, she couldn’t help thinking. “What happens when you forget to bring your GPS with you?” she wanted to know.
Dillon began to laugh. “It’s not that big,” he told her.
“No?” she questioned. “In comparison to what? New York City?”
Still laughing, he shook his head. “You’re exaggerating.”
“Not by much,” she countered. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’s gorgeous on the inside. I’m just used to something a little homier. Something I wouldn’t wind up getting lost in,” she added.
“Do you do that a lot?”
“Not until now,” she answered, looking at the mansion again.
“Then let me take you on a tour of my wing,” Dillon offered.
She didn’t bother hiding the stunned look on her face. “You have a wing,” she marveled.
“Well, it’s more like a suite, but yeah. We each do,” he told her. “Remember, I told you that when I said we bought the ranch,” he reminded her.
She did remember his saying something to that effect. “I guess maybe I didn’t really take you literally,” she told him.
He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t. “I don’t make things up,” he told her.
“I’m beginning to learn that,” she said. “Tell me more,” she urged.
Because he didn’t know when she would want to go back home, he left his car parked in the circular driveway and then got out.
“I will. On the tour,” he promised. Rounding the hood, he came up to her door on the passenger side and then opened it without any fanfare. As she began to get out, he offered her his arm.
She had assumed that his formal politeness would fade after he had gotten used to her, but apparently she was wrong. His behavior gave every appearance of continuing indefinitely.
Heaven help her, but she had to admit that she rather liked that.
Chapter Twelve
The outside of the main house that Dillon brought her to was breathtakingly huge, but that still did not prepare Hailey for what she saw on the inside.
Stepping through the massive doorway into the biggest ranch house she had ever seen.
“Wow.” The word seemed to escape her lips of its own accord as she looked all around her, taking her surroundings in. It was hard not to be overwhelmed.
As he began to take her on a tour, Dillon tried to see the house he had been living in for the last few months through Hailey’s eyes.
He had to admit that he envied her being able to feel such awe. He tried to remember the last time he had felt anything remotely akin to that.
Maybe when he was a kid?
But probably not even then, he decided. Dillon was fairly certain that what he had felt was nothing like what Hailey was experiencing, judging by the expression on her face.
“I take it your wow means that you like it?” he asked, amused.
Hailey drew in a deep breath, and then another when the first breath didn’t seem sufficient enough to help her put her thoughts into words.
When she finally spoke, it was to tell him, “I don’t think like begins to even remotely describe something like this. I mean I’ve never thought of myself as being sheltered, but this—” she turned around slowly, taking in as much as she could of the expansive area “—this is a completely different world than anything I’ve ever known.” Looking around again, she tried to envision her own home nestled in here. “I think I could fit my whole house—and then some—into what you refer to as a wing.”
Amused, Dillon laughed. “You’re exaggerating,” he told her.
“No. I’m not,” she insisted. “You grew up in a house like this?” she asked as they continued on their tour, passing a massive bedroom and an equally sized game room followed by a den.
“I grew up in a house,” he said vaguely. “With my family.” He deliberately stressed what they had in common, not their differences. “And now I am going to take a lovely spa manager—”
“I don’t know about the lovely part,” she murmured, embarrassed.
“I do,” he assured her. “And I’m still taking you horseback riding—unless you’d rather continue the house tour.”
“Definitely horseback riding,” Hailey declared. “I pick horseback riding.”
Dillon laughed, nodding. “Good choice. All right, let’s head over to the stables. Are you game to walk over there, or would you rather we drive?” he wanted to know, giving Hailey a choice.
When they approached the property, she hadn’t noticed where the stables were. Since everything on the property appeared to be so sprawling, she didn’t want to bite off more than she could chew right from the beginning.
“Just how far away are the stables?” she tactfully asked.
He thought for a moment. “About a half a mile,” he judged. “Maybe a little more.”
She gave him a look that seemed to ask if he thought she was some sort of fragile flower. She could do that distance with one leg tied behind her back, she thought.
“I’ll try not to be insulted—and we’ll walk,” she informed him.
Dillon’s smile spread across his lips. “Whatever you say,” he told her.
“There’s no sense in letting a beautiful day like today go to waste,” she said, as if that was what had made her decide on walking there.
He grinned. “Ah, a lady after my own heart,” he responded.
Oh, if you only knew.
* * *
Like his house, the stable turned out to be massive, as well. So far, it was only half filled with horses. But from what she could see, it looked as if there were no two horses that were alike.
“Are all these yours?” she asked Dillon in awe as she moved around the well-maintained stable.
“Yes,” Dillon answered, “the horses belong to all of us in the family. And we keep some on hand for company.”
Hailey was impressed. That was happening a lot lately, she realized. “Do you ride a different horse every day?”
“I hardly have time to ride every day. In fact, I don’t ride nearly as much as I’d like,” he confessed. “This is actually a treat for me. Nothing makes you forget your troubles faster than being on the back of a horse, feeling the wind in your hair, the sun in your face and, riding with no particular destination in mind, just to enjoy the ride.”
He really sounded as if he meant that, she thought. Apparently there was something that he really enjoyed doing outside of making the structures that he drew on paper come to life. She liked that, she thought. It made him seem more human somehow.
Her eyes fell on the dapple gray stallion. Her heart beating hard, she crossed over to his stall. Because the
horse didn’t really know her, Hailey approached the animal slowly. She raised her hand very carefully toward his muzzle, and then, when the stallion didn’t pull back, she petted him. She was really pleased that he didn’t move his head back but accepted the contact.
“So who rides all these other horses?” she wanted to know.
“My brothers and sister. And their friends—or spouses,” Dillon said, correcting himself. He had to admit that at times it was still hard for him to get used to the idea that both Callum and Steven were married now. And Stephanie was engaged and living with Acton on his ranch. Not only that, but Stephanie was ten weeks pregnant, as well. It felt as his life was just galloping passed him.
Dillon focused on his stallion. “I think Rawhide likes you,” he noted with genuine pleasure.
“Of course he does,” Hailey responded, running her hand along Rawhide’s muzzle. “I’m very likeable.”
She wasn’t bragging. She had always made a genuine effort to try to get along with everyone, and felt that her attitude just naturally radiated toward everyone, animals included.
Dillon was standing directly behind her. From his vantage point, he could breathe in the natural fragrance of her hair. Despite the fact that he had promised himself that this outing was going to be purely platonic, there was no denying that standing this close to Hailey stirred him.
His thoughts went beyond just taking a simple ride on his favorite horse with a pleasant companion. Moved, he was exceedingly tempted to slip his arms around Hailey’s waist and hold her against him.
Not the way to go, Dillon. You can’t afford to get involved at this point. Maybe later, when things are all ironed out, but not now. You know that.
For one thing, he wasn’t free to get involved with someone here when all he had been thinking about ever since he had arrived in Rambling Rose seven months ago was getting back to Fort Lauderdale.
He constantly had to remind himself of that when he was around this woman. He looked down at her as she patted Rawhide’s velvety muzzle, imagining those hands on him.
“He’s beautiful,” she said as she looked up at Dillon.
“Handsome,” Dillon corrected her. “I think Rawhide would prefer being called handsome,” he said with a wide grin. “He’s a male.”
“Sorry, boy, didn’t mean to insult your manhood,” Hailey told the stallion, playing along. For his part, Rawhide seemed to accept the apology. Hailey smiled, continuing to pet the horse. “I think he forgives me,” she told Dillon, pleased.
Who wouldn’t?
Dillon wasn’t aware that he’d said the words out loud until Hailey turned around to look at him in surprise.
“That’s a very sweet thing to say,” she told him.
“I didn’t—I mean...” Dillon flushed, his tongue feeling thick and cumbersome as thoughts went shooting through his head with the speed of a comet.
Feeling his best bet was to change the subject, Dillon cleared his throat and asked, “Would you like to meet your mare?”
“I would love to meet her,” Hailey told him. Stepping away from the stallion, she looked around. “Which way to her stall?”
“Delilah is right over here,” Dillon answered, leading Hailey over to another stall. This one was located at the far side of the stables.
The second she saw Delilah, Hailey fell in love.
“Oh, she is beautiful,” she exclaimed in awe. Holding herself in check, Hailey carefully went through the same process she’d used with Rawhide in order to get close to and pet this new horse. She grinned at Dillon, looking at him over her shoulder. “And since Delilah’s a girl, I can say that,” she added, pleased.
“Yes, you can,” he agreed. He found himself being charmed despite all his best efforts to remain detached and distant. There was no denying that the woman was getting to him. “Let me know whenever you’re ready to go riding,” he told her, although for his part, he would have been content just to continue watching Hailey pet her mount.
Hailey’s eyes sparkled as she turned them toward Dillon.
“Now. I’m ready now,” she informed him with enthusiasm.
“All right, then I’ll get them saddled up and we can get going,” he told her as he went to get the equipment.
Hailey watched as Dillon returned with a saddle, a blanket and a bridle, setting them down in the stall. Then he did the same for Rawhide. The man did keep surprising her, Hailey thought, leaving Delilah’s stall and making her way over toward Dillon’s stallion.
“You saddle your own horse?” she asked.
He laughed at the expression on her face. To him there was nothing unusual about what he was doing.
“It’s part of the total experience. Why?” he asked. “What were you expecting?”
Hailey shrugged as she petted Dillon’s horse. “I thought you’d have one of your stable hands saddle up the horses,” she confessed.
He didn’t bother to hide his amusement. “In case you hadn’t noticed, despite our last name, we like to get our hands dirty,” he said as he slipped a bridle on the stallion.
Once he did that, he put a blanket on Rawhide’s back, then placed his prized hand-tooled saddle onto the blanket. Securing the saddle in place, he checked each cinch in turn, making sure none was too tight or too loose.
“Okay, Rawhide’s ready to go,” he announced, hitching the stallion’s reins onto a post in the stall. “Now let’s get Delilah ready.”
“You’re going to have to walk me through this,” she told Dillon, following him into the mare’s stall. “I’ve never saddled a horse before.”
Surprised, Dillon turned around to look at her. “But you have gone riding before, right?” he asked, realizing that he had taken some things for granted.
“I have, but they always saddled the horse for me at the stable. I don’t own my own horse,” she interjected, in case he had gotten the wrong impression.
“Well, don’t worry. I was planning on saddling your horse for you, too,” he told her.
“Thanks, but I’d rather you just showed me how to do it,” she said. When he looked at her, she added, “This way I’ll know how to do it the next time.”
She was planning on a next time, he realized. As for him, he wasn’t planning on anything beyond this afternoon that they were going to be spending together.
For a second, he thought of saying something to make her understand that there was nothing long term in the making here. But for some reason, he just couldn’t get himself to say the words. Part of him felt that it would wind up terminating this ride before it even happened.
So instead, he just said, “Sure. If that’s what you really want, I can show you how to saddle Delilah.”
With the same equipment ready—a bridle, blanket and saddle—he got started. Gently holding the mare’s head so that it remained still, Dillon talked Hailey through all the steps. As he guided her, she slipped the bridle over the mare’s muzzle and ears. Putting a blanket on the mare’s back was simple enough, but when it came to positioning Delilah’s saddle, that turned out to be a little trickier.
When she first slipped the saddle’s strap in through the cinch, she wound up not tightening it enough and the saddle slid when Dillon tested it.
“No, it needs to be tighter,” he told her. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to hurt her,” he said, second-guessing what Hailey was thinking.
Getting in behind her, Dillon placed his hands over hers and told her, “This is how it’s done.” With that, he carefully showed her exactly what she needed to do.
Hailey was independent and preferred doing things for herself, but even so, she could really get used to this, she thought, her eyes slipping closed for a second as she absorbed the moment and the feeling of Dillon’s hands on hers.
The close contact generated a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Hailey re
leased the breath she realized she had been holding and then drew in another. “I think I have it,” she told Dillon, looking at him over her shoulder.
Her mouth was so close to his, for a split second Dillon was really tempted to give in to the desire that even now was growing more and more demanding.
And he probably would have if a ranch hand hadn’t picked that exact moment to stick his head into the stall to look in on them.
“Is everything okay here, Mr. Fortune?” Manny Salazar, the caretaker at the ranch, asked, peering into the stall. “Do you need anything?” He smiled politely at the woman with his boss. “Can I get you anything?”
The answer to the man’s first question was yes. The answer to his second one was no. Without his knowing it, the ranch hand had managed to rescue him from making another mistake, Dillon thought.
“No, we’re good to go, Manny,” he assured the man. “Thanks for asking.” He looked at Hailey. “Are you ready to get into the saddle?” he asked, holding the mare’s reins in his hand.
“That part I know how to do,” Hailey answered with a smile. The next second, she swung herself into the saddle and then took the reins from Dillon. “Now all I need is you—to get on your horse,” she added, realizing that her pause, coming where it did, had made for a very awkward moment. Even though what she’d said was true. All she did need was Dillon, away from his obligations, away from all the things that distracted him.
That went for the phone that even now he kept checking, as if he were expecting some sort of earthshaking notification to come across its screen.
Dillon swung himself into his saddle without bothering to even put his foot into the stirrup. As he leaned over to pick up his horse’s reins, Hailey couldn’t help thinking that he looked nothing short of magnificent astride the stallion like that. The only thing that could have improved the image he cut, Hailey mused, was if his dapple gray had been a midnight black stallion instead of the color it was.
But even so, she couldn’t help thinking, Dillon really was nothing short of magnificent.
Fortune's Greatest Risk (The Fortunes 0f Texas: Rambling Rose Book 4) Page 11