“Thank you for helping. Would you like something to drink? I’m parched.”
“Sure.” He followed her into the air-conditioned kennel office and watched her open a small fridge behind the counter. She took out two bottles of water and handed him one.
He uncapped his and drank thirstily, watching her drink from her own bottle. Some of the mud on her face had been washed away from the bath water, but a few specks remained. Her shirt read, “Pride for Puppies” which gave him an idea of her personality. Not just anyone could work with animals, especially those who liked to get into mischief.
Placing his half-full bottle on the counter, he turned to investigate the small, tidy space. Black and white pictures of dogs in funny poses hung on the wall. On a board were several snapshots of Lexi and two other women who looked similar to her. “Is this your family?”
“My mom and sister.”
“Do they live in Tarnation too?”
“Yes. They moved back recently.”
More of her hair had fallen around her flushed cheeks and her eyes were bright and shining. Her lips were full and pale pink, the corners flirting with a smile. She looked young and yet she couldn’t be too young because he saw something in her, a maturity and sincerity. Although she didn’t appear nervous being near him, he caught her modest expressions, her fleeting glances. “If you don’t mind…” He reached for a tissue from an open box and used it to wipe the remaining spot of dirt from her cheek. Their gazes met and held, her bottom lip trembled, and he had an overwhelming urgency to kiss her—to hold her. Leaning in, he caught himself before he did something crazy stupid and kiss a woman he just met. He’d left those types of impulsive actions back on the circuit.
He backed up as she continued to stare at him in question—maybe even a touch of curiosity. Did she sense his desire? Or did she think he was an idiot? “I guess I should be heading back to the ranch. Thank you for the water, and the basket.” He tossed his bottle into the trash can on his way to the door. He couldn’t move fast enough.
Sweat slicked his skin and it had nothing to do with the heat.
Climbing into his truck, he darted a look toward the office as he backed out, but he didn’t see her. The dogs were still watching from their pens.
What had come over him? He barely knew her…hell, he didn’t know her at all.
Truth was, he wouldn’t mind getting to know her better.
*
Lexi stood in the paint sample aisle at the hardware store when she heard a familiar raspy voice. Her heart skipped a beat and her nipples tweaked. Warmth spread through her body. She hadn’t been inflicted with such strong emotions since…well, never.
Curious, she casually took a step so that she could look down the aisle. There he was, the tanned cowboy with an angular jaw covered in several days’ worth of stubble. What was not to like? He’d been kind enough to help her out at the kennel. At one point she thought he was going to kiss her before he darted out of the office. Maybe she had hoped he would…
In her defense, it wasn’t every day Tarnation had visitors—especially cowboys that looked as handsome as the man in the blue plaid button-down shirt and well-fitting jeans. He was tall, at least six feet with a muscular frame, but it wasn’t his frame that had her listening to his conversation with the employee, Betty Sue. Apparently, the cowboy found the pretty blonde interesting because as she spoke to him in a purring, seductive tone, he chuckled after every sentence, even leaned in closer as she told him where the fencing was in the store.
Lexi’s stomach turned. Of course he would be attracted to Betty Sue. Most men were with her cute, luring smile and paid-for breasts. Heck, Lexi didn’t judge the girl for buying double Ds.
Ash turned and Lexi almost knocked over paint cans as she hurried to abandon her position from the eavesdropper’s aisle and pretended interest in hammers. She heard him pass, smelled him too as he left a trail of leather and outdoors in his path.
Several minutes later she heard a loud clunk and a curse from three aisles over. She bit back laughter and picked up a steel claw hammer and touched the shiny head uninterestedly.
She heard the thudding of his boots on the floor and listened. Where was he? She tiptoed down the aisle and stood at the end, peeking around to see if she could find him.
“Lexi?”
She popped around so fast that she almost lost her balance. “Ash! Hello.”
“Hi. Are you okay? Looking for something?” His smile seemed to stretch for miles.
“Oh…just tools.” She held up the hammer. “I need to hammer some nails.” She silently groaned. I need to hammer nails?
“I thought that was you. I wanted to stop and say hello. How’s Damon?”
“Fine…just fine. No more escapes or skunk assaults.”
“Great. I better get going. Adam is waiting for me in the truck. Enjoy hammering.” He winked.
She stood frozen in her spot as he strolled to the counter and paid for his item while Betty Sue was as proud as a cat who caught the canary.
Lexi seethed. She was being foolish, liking a man like Ash Colt. He strutted around knowing he made women wilt in their shoes. She refused to be one of them—refused to be led by all the sensations rushing through her. Betty Sue could have him. Lexi would wait for her soul mate, wherever he was right now.
Betty Sue gave Ash a flirty wave, and once he was gone, she licked her lips.
It almost made Lexi sick to her stomach. Not because Betty Sue was unbelievably tall, naturally beautiful with an hourglass frame that she liked to show off in low cut shirts and Daisy Dukes, but because she was known for chewing up men, spitting them out, and picking out the bones from her teeth with her magic wand.
To Lexi, it looked like Ash would be the next man to go down. Fine. If a man his age couldn’t read between the lines, then who was Lexi to interfere.
She grabbed a gallon of paint, the hammer that she’d been holding, and took them to the counter.
“Are you coming to grandpa’s birthday party, Lexi?” Betty Sue asked half-heartedly. The two had never been besties.
Her ‘grandpa’ was turning ninety and a friend of Lexi’s. He’d gone into the hospital last year after falling and breaking a hip and Lexi had taken care of his Shorkie at the kennel for two months until he had fully recovered. “Of course, I’ll be there. How’s that hip treating him?”
Betty Sue gave a shrug of her shoulder. “He’s still walking with a limp.” A smile popped up on her flawless face. “Did you see who just left here?” She batted her mascaraed lashes.
Lexi pushed her glasses up her nose. “Wasn’t that one of the Colt brothers?” There was no reason for Lexi to act like she knew Ash. After all, she didn’t. Washing a dog together didn’t make them friends.
“Isn’t he delicious?” There she went, licking those puffy lips again. “I gave him my number. How long do you think it’ll take before he calls?” She gave a snobbish toss of her hair over her shoulder.
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll never be soon enough.” Lexi sat the can down a little too hard on the counter.
Confusion flickered over the woman’s face. “Yeah, I guess. Is this all for you?”
“Yup, just the paint and the hammer.” While Betty Sue was ringing up the items, Lexi stepped over to the window and looked out onto the sidewalk. Ash was long gone but the impression he left on her, and Betty Sue, remained. Lexi didn’t understand why she was even fretting over Ash. Women like Betty Sue Oliver always got the guy. Even back in school she could flash that smile or blink those doe-like eyes and she’d have a boy following her every command, and it hadn’t changed since.
“You ready to pay?” Betty Sue asked with a note of irritation in her tone.
Pulling out the exact amount, Lexi left the store, waving to a few passersby on her way to her car.
Back at home, she toed off her shoes and placed her purse on the table, then went into the kitchen. There was a note stuck to the fridge from Anita. She and their mother we
re shopping.
Lexi was grateful for some peace and quiet.
Inside the bathroom, she started water in the tub, adjusting the temperature to hot, then poured in a good amount of bath oil.
Undressing, she stepped in and eased down into the water, her muscles relaxing.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror on the wall.
Lexi guessed Betty Sue didn’t entertain herself on Saturday nights with a book and bath. No, she was probably giving the cowboy the good ol’ Tarnation welcome and showing him her version of why they were known for being the friendliest town in the state. Oh brother. Normally she wasn’t so…well, snarky. Irritated. Maybe she just needed to face the facts. Three days ago, she had almost been kissed by Ash, and since then she’d hoped she’d have a second chance.
Moaning, she whispered, “Girl, you need to get your head on straight.”
Normally, she found joy in everything, but for the last few days she’d been feeling different. Lonely, which she shouldn’t because she had her mother and sister here with her now—or rather invading her personal space.
Gliding her hand through the vanilla scented water, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. How light her limbs were, yet her breasts felt heavy.
Her mind drifted to the cowboy.
Of his lips lowering to hers.
She found herself a tad envious that Betty Sue, the piranha, had the courage to slip her number to the man. Lexi had never been that brave or confident. Or seductive. Or like her sister who could also step in and sweep a man off his feet.
Lexi was different. Although she didn’t consider herself ugly, she wasn’t sexy like the Betty Sue and Anita. Men like Ash probably didn’t look twice at women like Lexi. Her eyes were a little too far apart. Her skin was too pale and tended to freckle when she was out in the sun. She was on the voluptuous side and her inner thighs jiggled when she walked. It wasn’t that she ate unhealthily or didn’t work out. She went to yoga class, even led the class on occasion, and the days in between she ran, mostly walked, in the local park. She wasn’t athletic but was damn proud of her curves. She believed her friends thought of her as smart, caring and funny, but they certainly enjoyed teasing her about her virginity as if a woman couldn’t be twenty-five and still not have met the right man for the job.
Ash must like women with sexual confidence. Admittedly, he’d eaten up Betty Sue’s come-on like moist chocolate cake. So, he liked her type and Lexi just wasn’t one of them. She never would be—didn’t want to be. At one point as a teenager, she’d gone through a rough time with low self-esteem, worrying about her weight, her looks, and the dreadful case of acne that none of her friends seemed to have but her. She found herself and her confidence through reading and realizing everything was a temporary spot. Life did get better, or maybe she just got stronger.
Ash Colt and his brothers were temporary residents of Tarnation. She needed to keep that fact in mind.
Why hadn’t she just told her friends that she’d taken a basket over to the Grinning Spurs Ranch to welcome the cowboys like a good neighbor would? They would put too much into the gesture, especially if she told them he visited her at work. They’d have a field day playing cupid’s assistants. However, she wasn’t innocent. The seductive dreams she’d been having about the cowboy for the last few nights didn’t fit in the category of neighborly or simply sociable. They were erotic and left her tingly into the next morning.
She realized just how ridiculous she was being. Sitting in her tub debating Ash’s intentions, she ultimately decided she didn’t care.
Would she have taken any other new neighbor a basket? Cookies? Something? Probably so.
Pushing thoughts of the cowboy from the recesses of her mind to hopefully have a peaceful soak in the tub, logic wasn’t having it.
When a woman found a man attractive, she could easily lose herself, forget her strengths and needs. Lexi wanted a man who didn’t want to take her individuality away, but instead would encourage her to continue to be the person she was before they met. She wanted someone who loved her for who she was and not who he wanted her to be. A man who would appreciate that she’d saved herself for his touch only.
Lexi liked being alone—on most days.
She was fine as she was.
“We’re home!” Anita called through the closed door.
“Buy anything?” Lexi asked.
The door came open and her sister stuck her head in. “A few things. Can I pee?”
“If you must.”
“It’s not my fault you have only one bathroom in this house.” Anita sat on the toilet. “Anyway, I bought the prettiest dress. It shows off just the right amount of skin.” After she finished her business, she flushed. “Are you almost done?”
“Why? Did you decide you’d like to watch a movie with me?”
“I’m zonked. Maybe tomorrow night.” She yawned for affect then left, leaving the door open behind her.
Closing her eyes again, Lexi was almost relaxed when she heard a noise. She slanted one eye open and found her tuxedo cat, Paws, standing on the side of the tub, watching her with curious green eyes. “At least I have you. Right, buddy?”
The cat hissed and took off running out of the bathroom at a high rate of speed.
“I guess watching a sappy movie with me tonight is out of the question?”
Even the cat ditched her.
“Lord, I’m becoming a cat lady. I’ll never get married or have children.”
With that disgusted thought, she stood and toweled off. Pulling on her robe, she padded down the hallway into her bedroom where she fished an old T-shirt out of her drawer and dragged it on. She had the thing for years and it had more holes than Swiss cheese, but who did she have to impress? Not one damn person. That was the luxury of being alone.
Yet, maybe she did have someone to impress these days. With their properties nudged together on the backside, she did wonder how long the Colts would be staying in Tarnation. Buzz Colt, their father, had been a cantankerous grouch who hated the world, but he had some good qualities too. One afternoon, after she’d bought the kennel property, he’d stopped by to say hello and they’d had quite a conversation. She wasn’t sure she could have called Buzz a friend, but that day she’d learned that he did have a beating heart. He’d even given her some business pointers that had helped her.
So, were his sons the same way? Grumpy men with layers that needed to be peeled away? If that were the case, Betty Sue could have every last one of them because Lexi didn’t have time to peel layers to find a heart of gold.
She pulled back the curtain on her window and stared into the darkness in the direction of the Grinning Spurs Ranch. Although she couldn’t throw a stone and hit their house, she was within walking distance.
What the hell had come over her? Had she swallowed a funny pill? She couldn’t just prance over there and say hello to Ash. Yet, why not? What better gift for herself than to do something courageous. Interesting. Exciting.
Wasn’t happening.
Grabbing her favorite jeans, she climbed into them, zipped and buttoned them, and headed out into the kitchen. The half empty bottle of Tequila sitting on the counter seemed to draw her. It belonged to Anita who was now tucked up on the corner of the couch snoring softly. Apparently she’d had a few before she zonked out.
Lexi glanced from the bottle to her sister several swipes before she reached for it and poured a small amount into a jelly glass jar. She took a sip, cringing as heat penetrated her esophagus, pooling into her stomach. She wasn’t a wussy, but there was a reason why she didn’t indulge in hard liquor.
Grabbing a magazine, she sifted through the pages then gave it a toss.
She was bored.
She could wake Anita to keep her company, but her sister would be a bear.
Her mother was in her bedroom probably asleep too.
And Lexi was lonely.
Glancing at the clock, it was still only ten thirty. Late to some, ea
rly to others. It was Saturday. No one had to get up early on Sunday morning. Tarnation believed that Sundays were “rest day”, and most shops were closed. After morning church service, people went home to enjoy dinners with family and to relax.
Thrumming her fingers on the counter, she used her restless energy to wipe down the cabinets, wash a few dishes, scrub the bottom of the pans, then sweep the floor. And she was still wide awake.
Her attention was drawn to the window and, from her vantage point, she could see a light in the distance. She was curious about the cowboys—or rather one in particular. Pretty much everyone in town was curious.
Shutting off the lights, she had taken a step for the bedroom when she heard a soft knock on the door. “Mom, are you expecting company?” she asked from outside the bedroom door. When she didn’t get an answer, she opened it and peered inside. Her mother was asleep.
Looking out onto the porch, she saw a large silhouette. Switching on the light she sucked in a breath. Could he be a figment of her imagination?
Ash was leaning against the doorframe. His hat was missing exposing a mass of black hair with strands of silver. His shirt was open at the neckline and the sleeves rolled up on his toned arms. Through the window their gazes met. His smile was lethal, and she wasn’t immune to the sensations that took charge of her body. He was the best visitor a girl could ask for. Opening the door, she felt a heat wave and it had nothing to do with the temperature.
“I didn’t wake you, did I?” His husky twang seemed to work its way into her bones.
“No. I’m just surprised to see you.” She was very aware of the quiver in her tone.
“Am I interrupting plans?”
“Of course not.” Stepping out onto the porch, she closed the door behind her. He didn’t make a move to back up to give her space, so they were standing close, arms brushing, sending waves of unfamiliar vibrations through her. “I-I was cleaning.”
“I was coming from town, saw your lights on and decided to stop. I hope that’s okay.” Although it was dark outside, the light from the overhead globe caught his eyes turning them into twinkling orbs. “I’m assuming you don’t need any help with the dogs.” One corner of his mouth lifted into a flirtatious smile. The man certainly knew how to work his charm.
Secured by the Lawman (Mountain Force Book 2) Page 20