Amberley thought about it. At seventeen she’d wanted to get as far away from Texas, her siblings and the ranching life as she could. She’d wanted a chance to be on her own. But her family hadn’t had the money for college and, to be honest, Amberley had only been an okay student. No one had been offering her any money for school and this job with Clay had come along at the right time. She’d met his foreman when she’d been rodeoing during her early teens and he’d offered the job.
It hadn’t been her dream, but it had meant she’d be out of her dad’s house and away from the siblings she’d had to babysit, and that had seemed like a dream.
At times, it was easy to forget she’d once wanted something else from life. She wasn’t a whiner and didn’t have time to listen to herself think of things that might have been. It was what it was.
“Not really. I have my horses and Clay pretty much lets me have the freedom to run the barn the way I want to. What more could a gal ask for?” Amberley said, hoping that some of her ennui wasn’t obvious to Cara.
“I hope I feel like that someday.”
“You will. You’re seventeen, you’re not supposed to have it all figured out,” she said.
“I hope so,” Cara said. Her phone pinged.
“Go on and chat with your friends. I can finish up the other horse. You know he mentioned he didn’t know when he’d be down here.”
“Here I am,” a masculine voice said. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Amberley felt the heat on her face and knew she was blushing. She could blame it on her redhead complexion, but she knew it was embarrassment. She could only be glad he hadn’t arrived any earlier.
“Not disappointed at all,” she said, reaching for her straw cowboy hat before stepping out of the stall and into the main aisle of the barn.
She’d sort of hoped that he wouldn’t be as good-looking as she remembered. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, his thick blond-brown hair looked even thicker today and his jaw was strong and clean-shaven. His green eyes were intense and she couldn’t look away from him.
She told herself her interest in him was just because he was so different than the other men around the ranch.
If he had a pair of Wrangler jeans and some worn ranch boots she wouldn’t be interested in him at all. But the fact that he had a Pearl Jam T-shirt on and a pair of faded jeans that clung to all the right spots was the only reason she was even vaguely attracted to him.
She noticed his mouth was moving and she thought she wouldn’t mind it moving against hers. But then she realized he was speaking when Cara, who’d come out of her stall as well, looked at her oddly.
“Sorry about that. What did you say?”
“I was just saying that I’m sorry if just showing up messed up your schedule. I do appreciate you being available on my timetable,” he said. “If you need more time to get ready I can wait over there.”
She shook her head. He was being so reasonable. But she just had a bee in her bonnet when it came to this guy. Well, to all men who came from the city. She wished he wasn’t so darn appealing. That maybe his voice would be soft or odd, but of course, he didn’t have some silly city voice. Instead, his words were like a deep timbre brushing over her ears and her senses like a warm breeze on a summer’s day. Since it was Texas, October wasn’t too cool, but it was fall and she missed summer.
But with him... Dammit. She had to stop this.
“I’m ready. Cara, will you show Mr. Brady to his horse?” she asked her apprentice, who was watching her with one of those smirks only a teenager could manage.
“Sure thing, Ms. Holbrook,” Cara said sarcastically.
“You can call me Will,” he told Cara.
“Ms. Holbrook, can Will call you Amberley?”
That girl. She was pushing Amberley because she knew she could. “Of course.”
“Thanks, Amberley,” he said.
She told herself that there was nothing special about the way he said her name, but it sent shivers—the good kind—down her spine. She had to nip this attraction in the bud. Will was going to be here for a while helping Max St. Cloud investigate the cyberbully and blackmailer Maverick, who’d been wreaking havoc on the local residents, particularly the members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, releasing videos and other damning stories on the internet. Will was the CTO of the company, so he was more of a partner to Max than an employee, and rumor had it they were old friends.
“No prob,” she said. “How’d you end up here in Royal?” Amberley asked Will while Cara went to get his horse.
“Chelsea Hunt and Max go way back. So she asked for our help to try to find the identity of Maverick.”
Maverick had been doing his best to make life hell for the members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. He’d been revealing secrets gleaned from hacking into smartphones and other internet connected devices. He’d made things uncomfortable for everyone in Royal.
“I like Chelsea. She’s smart as a whip,” Amberley said. And she seemed to really have her stuff together. No shrinking violet, Chelsea was one of the women that Amberley looked up to in Royal. She lived her life on her own terms, and Amberley was pretty sure that if Chelsea liked a guy she didn’t have to come up with reasons to avoid him...the way that Amberley herself had been doing.
Cara came back with Will’s mount and Amberley went back into the stall and saw her faithful horse, Montgomery, waiting for her. She went to the animal and rested her forehead against the horse’s neck. Montgomery curved her head around Amberley’s and she felt a little bit better. She had always been better with horses than people.
And normally that wouldn’t bother her. But it would be nice not to screw up around men as much as she just had with Will. She didn’t enjoy feeling like an awkward country bumpkin.
* * *
Will hadn’t expected to feel so out of place in Texas. He’d been to Dallas before and thought that the stereotype of boots, cowboy hats and horses was something from the past or in the imagination of television producers. But being here on the Flying E had shown him otherwise.
Amberley was cute and a distraction. Something—hell, someone—to take his mind off Seattle and all that he’d left behind there. All that he’d lost. To be honest, coming out here might have been what he needed. His baby girl was sleeping with her nanny watching over her, and he was someplace new.
Max hadn’t batted an eye when Will had told him he needed to bring his daughter and her nanny along with him to Royal. His friend had known that Will was a dedicated single dad.
He had work to do, of course, but he’d ridden a long time ago and thought getting back on a horse might be the first step to moving on. From his wife’s death.
It was funny, but after Lucy’s death everyone had been comforting and left him to process his grief. But now that so many months had gone by and he was still in the same routine, they were starting to talk, and his mom and Lucy’s mom weren’t
