“You know that Buckjoy likes him? A wild horse that only likes two men on this ranch: father and Garrett. How do I even know if Dad wants me to stay away from Garrett? He’s never said that to me.”
“Sarah, stop,” my mother said as she looked at me with a stern look.
I knew that the conversation was officially over at that point. Whatever I thought I felt toward Garrett wouldn’t matter at all because soon he’d be moving on and I’d still be at the ranch. Maybe my mother was just trying to protect me from a broken heart, but I knew she had to have her reasons if she was so unwilling to continue our conversation.
“I was going to invite Garrett to go riding with me out to the river. I don’t want to go alone and Buckjoy is one of the only horses that can make the trip out and back, besides Roxy. Can he come with me? It’s been weeks since we went into town.”
“I don’t know.”
“I was going to take some photos of the land up north of the river because father was looking into selling it. I think I could get a much better price than that man who is trying to buy it from father, although I really don’t think he should sell any of it. Would that be all right? Does Garrett have permission to be alone with me for a couple of hours if we stay on the property?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. You don’t have to ask permission to talk to the man. I just mean no more running into town with him and don’t fall in love with the guy. I don’t care if you’re alone with him.”
“Wait, what? Will father approve, too?”
“I’ll make sure he’s okay with it. But don’t go overboard. You both have jobs to do and riding out to the river can’t take away from the real work there is.”
“Okay,” I said as I hugged my mother. “So just to be clear, there’s nothing about Garrett that I need to know? There’s no reason that father would have told him to ignore me?”
“Your father didn’t tell him to ignore you. Maybe you just scare him away with your angry face.”
We both laughed; it was a bit of an inside joke that when I was thinking a lot my face looked really angry. My mother wasn’t the only one who thought I had an angry concentration face; my coworkers had said the same thing. They started to call it my resting bitch face.
My mother had always been the more levelheaded of my parents, there was no denying that. I went to find Garrett and see if he wanted to head out to the river early in the morning. Some sunrise photos would look amazing if my father was really going to sell that part of the ranch. Plus, I really had an urge to be alone with Garrett.
Over the previous several weeks I had found myself sneaking peeks at Garrett when he was working and would take his shirt off. I even said a little prayer that it would get hotter outside so Garrett would have to take his clothes off more often. His chiseled body had me all sorts of distracted and I hadn’t expected that to happen when I returned home. Garrett wasn’t only a handsome guy; he exuded self-confidence that was appealing as well.
Most of the men on the ranch weren’t very cute or self-confident, so Garrett stood out among them. He was out of place, yet seemed at home all at the same time. His smile alone made him stand out among the other ranch hands we had working for us at the time. I knew I should stay away from him; there was a gut feeling that Garrett wasn’t telling the truth about his past or maybe even more than that, but the attraction I felt kept pulling me toward him. I wanted to know Garrett more, I needed to know him more; there was no stopping me.
As I made my way around the big barn and toward the chicken coop, I saw Garrett standing in the corner with one of the hens staring him down. As much as I wanted to help him, I couldn’t resist stopping to see how well he was able to handle the hen. He hadn’t been bit since the pig incident and a good bite from a hen would give me something to tease him about later.
“No,” Garrett said firmly to the hen as he pointed at it.
I giggled at his sincerity and firmness with the animal. He looked amazing in his tight jeans and white t-shirt. His muscles bulged from his biceps and I could see sweat from under his tan cowboy hat. I knew he would notice me soon, but for the moment I liked watching him totally undetected.
“Do not come any closer. I’m just trying to clean out your coop so you can relax. You like me, you know you do,” he continued to talk to the animal.
The hen seemed to listen to him and stopped staring at Garrett and went back to walking around with the other hens. I had to laugh at his effort to tame the animal; at least he was making an effort and not just running around like he had done with the pig. Every day he learned from watching others or talking to my father, it seemed like Garrett was starting to actually enjoy working with us.
“You’re the hen whisperer, we should get you your own television show,” I said as I walked up to him.
“Your father told me to be firm with them,” Garrett laughed. “I’m sure I look ridiculous.”
He did look ridiculous talking to the hen, but downright delicious at the same time. As I moved closer to him I felt electricity between us. There was excitement because we h
adn’t talked for so long and there was pure animal attraction, I couldn’t deny it. If I was the type of woman who bedded a man just for fun; Garrett Reynolds would have certainly been that man. I could only imagine how skilled he was in the bedroom and just how much enjoyment he would deliver to my body.
I shook my head to get the sordid thoughts to move on. I was just there to see if he could come with me to the river, nothing more and nothing less. I wasn’t the type of girl to just fling myself at a man and certainly not a man who could be gone at any moment. He was a traveler, he wasn’t a business man, he wasn’t a stable guy, Garrett Reynolds wasn’t the guy for me; or at least I kept trying to tell myself as I lusted after him.
“No, it looks like you’ve made a lot of progress with the animals the last few months.”
“Thanks, I really have been trying.”
“So I need to head up to the river early tomorrow morning. How comfortable do you feel you are with your horseback riding skills? Mother said you should come up with me.”
Garrett looked nervous almost instantly. I could tell whatever my father had said to him had scared Garrett enough that he didn’t want to go against him in any way. In that aspect, Garrett was a good man for sure; a lesser man would have jumped at the opportunity to get me alone and wouldn’t have cared what my father thought. But Garrett respected my father, I could see it in the way the two of them talked to each other.
“It’s okay, the river is all part of our ranch and mother said it was all right. We need to take some photos up there.”