be sweating buckets by the time he reached his destination. Now he needed Lauren Shayne’s business more than ever. He’d launched the branded-beef business with his family’s blessing, hoping to contribute his part to the diversification that would allow the Rocking Horse Ranch to stay solvent and in the family, something that had been touch-and-go on more than one occasion. But if he didn’t land some big accounts soon, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep seeing money going out without enough coming back in.
Sure, the business was less than a year old, but there wasn’t a day that went by when he wasn’t conscious of the figures in the operation’s balance sheet. None of his siblings, or his parents, had said anything about his shuttering the operation, but he was also aware that his attempt to carve out a distinctive place for himself in the family’s business was costing more than Ben’s saddle-making or Angel’s photography supplies.
By the time he reached the restaurant, he’d managed to adjust his attitude from his earlier annoyance to being the friendly, approachable local businessman he needed to be to meet a potential customer. A small blue hatchback sat alone outside the building. He grinned at the big yellow smiley face sticker on the hatch. It was surrounded by several other stickers—a few flowers, one that said I Brake for Cake, one of a stick figure lying beneath a palm tree and another that read Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
Lauren Shayne seemed to be a happy-with-life type of person. He supposed that was easier when your business was a roaring success. Although her car didn’t look as if it was driven by one of the rich and famous.
Well, if nothing else, maybe some of her happy vibes would rub off on him and finish vanquishing his frustration and concern.
He took a deep breath, stood tall, fixed his pitch in his mind and walked through the large, wooden double doors. The first thing he saw when he stepped inside was Lauren Shayne standing on the top step of a ten-foot ladder, stretching to reach a banner hanging from one of the large posts supporting the ceiling. His instinct was to steady the ladder, but he was afraid any sudden movement would cause her to fall. Instead, he stood perfectly still until she gave up with a sound of frustration and settled into a safer position on the ladder.
“Would you like some help with that?”
She startled a bit, but not enough to send her careening off her perch, thank goodness.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
He couldn’t help but smile. “I thought that’s what I was offering.” He pointed at the banner.
She stared at him for a moment before descending the ladder. “That’s not necessary. I’ll get some help in here at some point.”
“I don’t mind,” he said as he walked slowly toward the ladder, giving her ample time to move away. His mom had taught him and his brothers to never make a woman feel as if she was trapped or threatened. The fact that there was only one vehicle outside and no signs of other people in the building told him that Lauren was here alone. “You almost had it anyway. My just being a little taller should do the trick.”
She didn’t object again so he climbed the ladder and nabbed the cloth banner bearing some unknown German coat of arms and several years’ worth of dust. When his feet hit the wooden floor again, he held up the banner.
“This thing has seen better days.”
Lauren made a small sound of amusement. “That it has.”
He shifted his gaze to her and momentarily forgot what planet he was on. The picture on Lauren’s website didn’t do her justice.
“I’d introduce myself, but I’m guessing you already know who I am.” She didn’t sound snotty or full of herself, more like...
“I suppose you’ve already had several visitors stop by.”
“You suppose correctly.”
“Small town. News travels fast.”
“Oh, I know. I grew up in a town not much bigger than Blue Falls.”
He found himself wanting to ask her about where she grew up, to compare experiences of small-town life, but his visit had a purpose. And that purpose wasn’t to keep Lauren talking so that he could continue to appreciate how pretty she was or how much he liked the sound of her voice, which for some reason reminded him of a field of sunflowers.
Wouldn’t his brothers—heck, even his sisters—hurt themselves laughing over the thoughts traipsing through his head right now?
“So, the question remains, what brings you by?”
Right, back to business.
“I’m Adam Hartley, and I wanted to talk to you about locally sourced beef from the Rocking Horse Ranch.”
“No mistaking this for anything but the heart of Texas. You’re the second beef producer to come see me in the last hour.”
Someone had beaten him here? He silently cursed that deer for making him later to arrive than he planned. A sick feeling settled in his stomach.
“May I ask who it was?”
Please don’t say Carrington Beef. They’d claimed a number of contracts he’d been in the running for, and if he missed out on being first with this huge opportunity because of hitting a deer, he might have to go to the middle of the ranch so he could scream as loud as he was able.
“Carrington Beef.”
Somehow Adam managed not to curse out loud, though the parade of words racing through his head was certainly colorful.
Lauren pulled a business card from her pocket. “A rep named Tim Wainwright.”
It was as if Fate said, “You think I can’t make your day any worse? Here, hold my beer.”
“Honestly, it’s going to be a while before I’m ready for any sort of food products,” Lauren said as she shoved the business card back in her pocket. She lifted her gaze to Adam Hartley’s in time to see a flash of what looked like frustration on his face before he managed to hide it.
“I understand,” he said, back to the friendly, engaging man he’d been since his arrival, as if the moment when he’d clenched his jaw and then finally let out a breath had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination. “I’d appreciate it if I could tell you about our products, however.”
His approach was different enough from Tim Wainwright’s that she wanted to give him a chance. It was possible that his good looks—dark wavy hair, lean build and a face that was far from difficult to look at—might be a factor in her decision, too. She wasn’t interested in getting involved to any extent with anyone—might never be again after what Phil had put her through—but it didn’t hurt anything to look.
And while Tim Wainwright had also been attractive, his personality was a little too slick and polished—a bit too much like Phil’s, she now realized—for him to appeal to her in that way. Granted, it could all be an act he put on for work, but it didn’t really matter. She was so not in the market for a man. The market wasn’t even on the same continent.
