The Expectant Executive

“That’s an understatement. He’s waiting right now for me to get off the phone so that he can bring me breakfast in bed.”

“You do realize he’s going to drive you nuts?”

Looking up, Fin watched Travis walk into the room with the bed tray laden with every kind of breakfast food imaginable. “He already is, sweetie.”

Chapter 9

Travis cautiously watched Fin walk over to the couch and sit down. He’d tried to get her to take another day to lounge around, but she’d pointed out that the doctor had told her to take it easy for a couple of days and it had already been four since her fall. He hadn’t liked it, but he’d reluctantly agreed to her being up as long as he was in the same room with her when she got up and started moving around.

She’d given him a look that would have stopped any of her male coworkers dead in their tracks. But it hadn’t fazed him one damned bit. She was on his turf now, not some corporate boardroom where she said “jump” and the people around her asked, “How high?”

“Travis, will you please stop watching me like you think I’m going to fall apart at any moment?” She shook her head. “Aside from my ribs being sore, I’m as healthy as one of your horses.”

He shrugged. “You don’t look like a horse.”

“Thank you.” She frowned. “I think.”

“Miss Fin, would you like for me to fix you somethin’ to eat or drink,” Spud asked, walking into the room.

“No, but thank you anyway, Mr. Jenkins,” Fin answered politely.

“Well, anything you need, you just give me a holler,” Spud said, giving her a toothless grin. “I’ll see that you get it.”

“I appreciate your kindness,” she said, smiling.

Travis eyed the old man as he walked back into the kitchen. Fin had charmed his housekeeper’s socks off the first time she’d visited the ranch, and when Spud learned she’d be staying with them for a while, he’d been happier than a lone rooster in an overcrowded hen house.

“I think there’s something I need after all.” She rose to her feet before Travis could get across the room to help her off the couch.

“Where are you going?” He pointed toward the stairs. “If you need something from the bedroom, I’ll get it.”

Shaking her head, she walked over to the coat tree by the front door. “I’m going outside for a breath of fresh air.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” he asked, following her.

He knew better than to try to talk her out of it. If there was one thing he’d learned when he was married, it was never tell a woman she couldn’t do something. It was a surefire way to get a man in hot water faster than he could slap his own ass with both hands.

Holding her jacket for her, then shrugging into his own, he tried a different angle. “The temperature has dropped a good ten degrees since this morning and we’ve had a few snow flurries. You might get a chill and shivering would probably cause your ribs to hurt.”

“Give it up, cowboy. You and Mr. Jenkins won’t let me do anything and I’m going stir-crazy.” She smiled. “Now are you going to stand here and argue, or are you coming with me?”

Resigned, he reached around her to open the door. “As long as we’re going outside, we might as well check on the horses and see that they have hay and plenty of water.” At least if they were in the barn, she’d be sheltered from the wind.

Her green eyes twinkled merrily and she looked so damned pretty, he felt a familiar flame ignite in the pit of his belly. “We’re returning to the scene of the crime?”

Laughing out loud, he nodded. “Something like that.” He didn’t tell her, but be hadn’t been able to go into the barn one single time since that night and not think about her and their lovemaking.

“How is the colt?” she asked as they walked across the ranch yard.

He didn’t even try to stop his wicked grin. “You actually remember there was a colt?”

“You’re incorrigible, Mr. Clayton. Of course, I remember the colt. That’s the reason we went into the barn that night in the first place.” Her smile did strange things to his insides and reminded him that he hadn’t been able to make love to her in what seemed like a month of Sundays. “I’ll bet he’s changed a lot in the past month.”

“All babies, no matter what their species, grow faster in their first year than any other time,” he said, nodding. Pushing the barn door open, he waited for Fin to step inside. “When Jess was a baby, she grew so fast there were times I could have sworn she changed overnight.”