Hunter (Stud Ranch 2)

Mel closed the door behind her as she left. Isobel only took one more moment to look around the little room. Hardwood floors. Wooden paneling that went up half the wall, painted a soft eggshell that matched the rest of the wall. Otherwise, the walls were bare.

She glanced at the mountain of boxes. She hated to inconvenience them, but she was too happy to have a place to stay to balk too much.

Speaking of—her having a place to stay depended on her working for Hunter, so she better get her butt in gear. She hurried over to the restroom and set her bag of toiletries down on the counter. She brushed her teeth and changed clothes in record time and then jogged back downstairs.

In her rush, she almost collided with Mel at the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh,” Isobel exclaimed, stopping just short of plowing into her. “Sorry!”

“Common hazard of living here with so many people coming and going. Come on,” Mel waved Isobel to follow her. “It’s easiest to get to the stables from the back door.”

She led Isobel through a big common area that had a couple of long tables, a few leather couches, a fireplace, and a huge flatscreen TV. The lodge was all wood and decorated very simply with a few large oil paintings of landscapes and a huge antler chandelier overhead.

At the end of the room were double pocket doors that led into a restaurant-style kitchen. A couple of men sat at a table set up in a small dining area off to the side beside a large bay window.

“Nicholas. Mack,” Melanie said. “I’m glad we caught you. This is Isobel, she’s going to be staying here while she’s Hunter’s intern for the summer.”

One of the men stood up when Mel and Isobel entered. He was a huge guy with a barrel chest and shoulders so large he looked like he could bench press an ox. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He had kind eyes and light brown skin. “I’m Nicholas.”

“They raise them right in Alabama,” Melanie said, grinning at him. He looked embarrassed at her praise and sat down, even as Mel’s eyes narrowed at the other man. “You hear that, Mack? It’s called manners.”

Mack was wearing a Black Sabbath T-Shirt and had tattoos covering his arms, all the way down to his hands and fingers. He was muscular too but in a smaller, more compact way. Then again, anyone would look small next to Nicholas. Though if the way Mack was scarfing down his sandwich was any indication, the man was starved.

“Yeah, yeah,” Mack mumbled with his mouth full of sandwich, not even looking their direction.

Mel scoffed. “Are you even going to say hi to our newest arrival?”

After shoving the last bit of sandwich in his mouth, Mack grabbed a full glass of orange juice and started chugging it. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. And swallowed. And swallowed some more. He finished the whole glass before wiping his mouth with his forearm and standing up.

He finally looked at Mel and his eyes briefly flicked in Isobel’s direction. They paused and he looked her up and down, not even trying to hide the fact that he was checking her out. “Hey.” The single word came out in a low, grumbling bass.

Damn. This one had bad boy written all over him.

If Isobel hadn’t met Hunter last night, she might have been tempted to try rebounding with this guy instead.

As it was, she just said, “Hey,” back and fought a shy smile even as Mel shook her head.

“He’s hopeless.”

Mack didn’t respond. He’d already moved on from the conversation anyway. He was out the door, grabbing a baseball cap from a hanging rack right before slamming it behind him.

Isobel jumped from the loud noise.

Mel breathed out in a huff. “Well someone’s in a mood today.”

“More like every day,” Nicholas said, gathering both his and Mack’s plates. He carried them to the sink.

Mel’s eyes softened as she watched Nicholas. “Don’t worry about the dishes. I’ll get those later.”

“It’s no trouble, ma’am,” he said, rinsing the plates and grabbing the sponge.

Mel watched on like a proud mama. She leaned in to Isobel and whispered. “The woman who gets that man will be a lucky lady.”

Then she linked her arm in Isobel’s. “Now let’s get you to your first day on the job.” Her smile was infectious.

Isobel wondered what kind of man was lucky enough to win her heart because she seemed like a pretty awesome chick.

They exited out the same door Mack had slammed earlier and passed by a fenced in area with a chicken coop and several chickens walking around.