He didn’t look happy about that, Chloe thought, but that was all right. It meant he wasn’t as unaffected by her as he was trying to pretend.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” He checked the ties on the tarp.
“Why not?”
He scowled at her. “Because I’m stopping by my place on the way,” he said. “I need to see it for myself. Make sure everything’s all right after the storm.”
“What a great idea!” She grinned and added, “I’d love to see your ranch. After all, if I pass your test, that’s where the camp will be.”
Shaking his head, Liam muttered, “I’m not getting rid of you today, am I?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” she said, still smiling.
Frowning, he thought about it for a second or two, and Chloe was glad she couldn’t read his mind.
“Fine,” he said. “If you’re coming...” He whistled, a sharp, clear sound and caught Tim Logan’s attention. The cowboy ran over and Liam said, “Take Shadow back to his mother, will you, Tim?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“I’ll see you later, Shadow,” Chloe said, and bent to kiss the tiny horse’s forehead.
“Oh for—” Liam bit back the rest of that sentence, but she didn’t need to be told how it would have ended.
She climbed into the passenger seat of his truck, and caught him watching her as she buckled her seat belt. “Are we going or not?”
“Yeah.” He slammed the passenger door, and Chloe hid a smile as he stomped around the front of the truck and got in behind the wheel. He fired up the engine, shot her a telling glance and ground out, “Looks like we’re both going.”
* * *
Liam’s ranch was beautiful.
Chloe loved it at first sight.
Texas live oaks dotted the yard and were almost a part of the house itself. Liam hadn’t torn them out to build. Instead, his house had been constructed around them. The home itself, unlike Sterling Perry’s massive, glittering white mansion, was a sprawling, two story building with a wide porch that snaked along the outside of the structure. The walls were wood logs and river stones, and the roof was cedar shakes that gave it a mountain cabin look.
But it was so much more than a cabin. It was warm, welcoming and was laid out in a jigsaw pattern, she thought as she looked at it, to snake around the oaks that shaded the roof against the hot Texas sun.
“I love this,” she whispered. Turning to look at him as he shut off the engine, she said, “It’s beautiful. I love that you left the trees.”
He shrugged, but his expression said plainly that he was pleased with the compliment. “Those trees have been here longer than I have.”
“Most people would have ripped them out,” she said, turning to look at the house again. She could see two stone patios, created by the house circling one or more trees. Those patios held wooden tables, and chairs with bright cushions, and in the shade of the oaks, they looked like tiny oases.
Liam got out of the truck and Chloe did the same. While he strode across the ranch yard toward a much shorter man hurrying up to him, she looked around. There wasn’t much evidence of storm damage here. It looked like a few of the trees had lost some branches, and the ground beneath her boots was still soft and sodden from all the rain. But otherwise, everything about this place was perfect.
It wasn’t just the house that was impressive, though. The whole ranch was laid out carefully, with a big corral, a stable and a huge barn. There were outbuildings, bunkhouses probably for the single cowboys and two smaller houses, one of which was no doubt for his foreman. The corral fence was painted a gleaming white, while the barn and the huge stable were painted brick red with white trim.
While Liam talked to the man she assumed was his foreman, Chloe turned in a slow circle taking it all in. The land itself was gorgeous, trees, meadows and in the distance, the silvery shine of water in a stock pond. It was quiet, but for the wind in the trees, the horses in the corral and what sounded like a chorus of birds.
If everything went as well as she hoped it would, her girls’ camp would be here. She took a deep breath and looked to the far side of the house. That, she told herself, was where she would put her cowgirl camp. If nothing else, she had to have convinced Liam by now that she could do the work. That she had been made for this kind of life.