Which pissed her off.
Charlotte folded her arms across her chest. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Obviously she had no idea they’d run into each other again, or she’d have reconsidered her “one night of enjoying the cowboy” plan. He could just turn that frown he was giving her right around.
She lifted her chin. “I’m on my property looking for my dog.”
“Is that right?” he challenged. “Because this here property line separates my property from Mrs. Gram’s. And if memory serves, I don’t recall your name to be Mrs. Gram.”
“No, it’s Miss Gram,” she shot back. “And I don’t recall you mentioning several things about yourself, including your status within the cow industry or the fact that you lived next door to my grandmother.” Not that he had cause to, but still.
Tripp opened his mouth to argue, but the other cowboy laughed and closed the distance between them. “My word, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Gram,” he said, and took off his hat, revealing all that thick black hair. “I’m Bo Drake. I run the Montgomery ranch with Tripp and my cousin Cash.”
Ah, the uncles Grace mentioned. Definitely not the John Wayne types she’d imagined.
“I’m sorry for my friend here’s rude welcome,” he finished.
She shook his hand. “No problem. I’m just here helping my grandma recover from ankle surgery.”
Tripp’s frown deepened. “She said Charlie was coming in to help her.”
Charlotte smiled. Her Grammy hadn’t called her Charlie in a while. “That’s me.”
Tripp’s eyes went wide just as Bo said, “Well, hot damn. Looks like we’re neighbors!”
Charlotte’s blood ratcheted up a few degrees. From desire? Or her rising irritation? She thought she’d never see Tripp again, and now they were literally landlocked. Her body chose that moment to ache in delicious memory of all the things he’d done to her. Traitor.
“You’re taking over the Gram farm?” Tripp asked.
His disbelief doused the heat building in her core faster than if he’d thrown a bucket of ice water at her. She nodded and lifted her chin higher, hoping he couldn’t read on her face that she was 1,000 percent out of her element.
Apparently she failed, because Tripp let out an amused laugh. “Well, good luck to you, darlin’. Running a farm, even a small one like Gram’s, is a job.”
“Good thing I know how to work.”
Tripp muttered something under his breath about her foot attire that didn’t sound flattering. “We’ve gotta get on our way. Good luck to you.”
Grace wiggled out of her father’s grip and threw her arms around Charlotte’s waist, giving her the biggest mini hug she’d ever had.
Uh… Charlotte’s hands fell to her sides. What was she supposed to do? Hug the girl back? She looked to Tripp for help.
He just scowled.
Like the fact that his daughter’s hugging her upset him.
Which made her feel kind of crappy.
Charlotte went with an awkward pat on the girl’s head. “Nice meeting you,” she said to Grace.
Grace smiled up at her. “Don’t forget shopping tomorrow.”
“Wait, what?” Tripp choked out.
“Me and Charlie are going shopping for boots,” Grace said proudly.
Great, now the girl was calling her Charlie. “We were just chatting about boots,” she offered lamely. “We don’t have to go.”
“Yes we do. You promised!”
If he’d looked unhappy before, Tripp looked at a total loss now. Seriously, what was this guy’s problem? “We’ll talk about this later,” he said.