Sammy replied and took off running toward the building in the distance.
“I don’t want him to be a bother,” she said to Lucas once Sammy was far enough away not to hear her.
“I’ll let you know if he becomes a bother,” Lucas replied. “I asked him where his father was and he told me he was probably on a yacht, that he is a very busy man.” Lucas’s blue eyes gazed at her not just with curiosity, but also with the heat of an interest in her as a woman.
Nicolette felt her cheeks warm. “I divorced my husband two years ago and he probably is on his yacht, or in his penthouse or someplace that is party conducive, because that’s what he likes to do.”
Lucas tilted his head, the cast of the sun and the brim of his hat momentarily hiding his eyes. “You don’t sound bitter about it.”
She smiled and shook her head. “I’m not bitter. It’s a long story and lunch is waiting. Sammy was the best thing that came out of my marriage and he’s all I wanted when I walked away. Samuel got to keep his yacht, his trust fund and whatever else he owned, and I got Sammy, definitely the best part of the deal.”
Lucas leaned his head forward so that she once again got a look at his beautiful blue eyes, and they appeared to be filled with a longing and an admiration that she wasn’t sure she understood.
It unsettled her and she smiled again and took a step backward. “I’m keeping you from lunch.”
He nodded. “I’ll see to it that Sammy gets safely back to the house after eating.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” She turned and hurried away, feeling the heat of his gaze lingering on her. She hadn’t been so attracted to a man since nine years ago when she’d first met Samuel Kendall, and never had two men been more different from each other.
She’d been a naive twenty-one-year-old when she’d met Samuel. He’d been elegant, airbrushed and hair sprayed, but he’d managed to sweep her off her feet with sweet talk and empty promises.
She had a feeling that Lucas Taylor had never made a promise to anyone that he hadn’t kept and that the wind-and-sun scent he carried was just as evocative as the expensive cologne that Samuel had worn.
“I see you found him,” Cassie said as Nicolette stepped up on the porch.
“He wants to eat lunch with Lucas at the bunkhouse.”
“Why is it that every time you say that cowboy’s name your cheeks get pink and your eyes sparkle just a little bit brighter?” Cassie asked.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nicolette scoffed and pushed open the door to enter the house. She walked through to the kitchen, where she and Cassie had prepared a chicken Caesar salad for lunch.
She sat at the round oak table and Cassie took the seat opposite her. “You know it would be crazy to get attached to any of the men here,” Cassie said.
“I know that.” Nicolette filled her plate with the salad. “I have no intention of getting close to anyone. How did things go this morning with you and Adam?” she asked in an effort to get the conversation off Lucas.
Cassie groaned. “There’s so much to learn. Thankfully Adam pretty much knows everything and can keep things going smoothly. He told me in the last couple of years Aunt Cass had depended on him more and more. I won’t be here long enough to learn all there is to know. I told him I wanted the repair work to be a priority.”
“Do you think he knows you want to sell as soon as possible?”
“I don’t think so. I told him I wanted him to teach me about the bookkeeping and the ordering process and whatever else I should know. Oh, and the big bell that hangs off the front porch? If we ever need help or anything, we ring it and the cowboys will all come running.”
Nicolette raised a brow. “That’s good to know, and it sounds like you and Adam are going to be spending a lot of time together. Adam isn’t too hard to look at, either.”
Cassie took a bite of her salad and washed it down with a sip of iced tea. “You don’t have to worry about me going crazy about any man here. I know where we belong, and this definitely isn’t the place.”
Nicolette stared out the window absently. Her problem was that since her divorce from Samuel, she wasn’t sure where she and Sammy belonged. As much as she loved Cassie, sharing her tiny apartment certainly wasn’t what she wanted for herself and her son forever.
“We need to take the rental car back tomorrow.” Cassie interrupted her thoughts. “I guess we’ll have to have somebody follow us into Bitterroot and bring us back here. Adam told me Aunt Cass has a car here, so we can use it to go back and forth to town once we get rid of the rental.”
“Did you ask Adam if he could follow us tomorrow?” Nicolette asked.
Cassie shook her head, her pale blond hair glistening in the noon sunshine that drifted in through the windows. “I didn’t want to ask him because I think he needs to be here to supervise things. We’ll snag one of the other men in the morning to take care of it.”
Nicolette nodded and focused on her salad. She wondered what Sammy was eating with the cowboys. She hoped none of them took offense to his being there, although she was certain that he was in good hands with Lucas.
Funny how she’d known the tall, handsome cowboy for only fewer than twenty-four hours and yet she trusted him without question with the safety of her son. She hadn’t ever trusted Samuel completely with their son’s safety.
There was just something strong, something solid about Lucas Taylor that invited trust. She didn’t want to think about the other qualities he possessed that had instantly sparked a physical desire.
As they ate, Cassie talked about new plans for the store, trying her hand at painting landscapes instead of cityscapes and the idea of a new apartment where the three of them could comfortably cohabitate when they returned to New York City.
Nicolette didn’t want to live with her best friend for the rest of her life. She knew she had to somehow figure out a plan of action that would gain her enough money to support herself and her son.
She also knew that there would probably never be a clothing line with her name on it. The idea that she could be a fashion designer with her own label had been born when she’d been the bored, neglected wife of a wealthy man.
Cassie had nurtured the idea because it worked with the idea of her store and her identity as a creative artist who surrounded herself with other creative people. The problem was since her divorce Nicolette hadn’t managed to figure out exactly what she wanted to do and where exactly she belonged.
After lunch Cassie disappeared into her bedroom and Nicolette sat on the back porch to watch for Sammy. A faint breeze blew the scent of grass and hay that was both novel and pleasant. In the distance she could see cows in the pasture, and she heard the rustle of leaves in the trees.
For a few minutes she felt completely at peace. Her thoughts didn’t linger on the painful past, or jump ahead to worry about the future. She was just in the moment, enjoying the lack of traffic noise and the press of people at a stoplight, the feeling that you were always one step behind everyone else in the world.
She sat up straighter
