Chapter 1
Eve
A month. Somehow, I had managed to survive a month in this tiny, one stoplight town and not drive myself crazy.
It’s exactly what I needed though.
I’ve kept to myself. Worked the job I’m incredibly overqualified for just to escape my past and the asshole I left behind.
It was a much slower pace, the people seemed genuine, and they didn’t want to know every aspect of my life. A life I was hoping to forget, or at least some of it.
I shook my head as I gripped the steering wheel of my beat up pickup truck and hummed along to the Beyoncé song. The dirt road shook the truck and rattled the windows but it was nothing like how my life had been rattled over the last six months.
I glanced down at my phone as service cut in and out. The map seemed to be stuck on thirty-seven miles until Heather’s Forge, the town over from where I had decided to temporarily build my new life. I’d been on the same road for what seemed like forever and I hoped I hadn’t missed a turn somewhere.
There was no way of actually telling until my phone picked up service again. There weren’t many, if any, street signs. Only farm names.
I should have known better then to take advice from someone I barely knew but I wanted to get out of that tiny town, if only for a day, and the old guy seemed nice enough, even though he was a little too friendly.
“Ugh, don’t be paranoid,” I muttered. Everyone in town had that country vibe. I just had to get used to it. This wasn’t the big city anymore, and not everyone had a secret agenda.
The wholesome folk here, man, that’d take more getting used to than the loneliness. All the more reason to get that cat, one of the other reasons I had decided to visit Heather’s Forge for the day.
The Beyoncé CD skipped, and I frowned at the player. I’d pretty much listened to it on repeat since the divorce.
I figured my life was a series of her songs.
I’d been fooled to let that asshole, my college sweetheart, put a ring on it. Then I’d spent years catering to him and finally caught him cheating. The difference here was I’d packed up all my boxes and left instead of throwing him out.
It’d felt wise at the time. After years in a relationship with Bryan, I’d lost myself. I’d lost the will to cook, and that was a big deal for a professional chef. Slumming it in a dirt town, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Hope Creek was exactly what I needed.
An escape. A way for me to make that lemonade.
A female voice made my phone spring to life. “Recalculating route.”
“Finally,” I yelled as I glanced down at the phone, trying to get my bearings.
I quickly yanked the steering wheel to the right and turned the corner, tires kicking up dust. “To the left, to the left, mmmmm,” I sang as I thought about the cheating bastard I had left behind.
The CD skipped again, mid-line.
“Seriously?” I banged on the dashboard of the old truck, hoping it would help but it didn’t. “I need an upgrade…for my entire fucking life,” I shouted into the air.
Of course, that would mean I’d have to pay for it and cash was at an all-time low thanks to a lack of pre-nup and Bryan taking half of everything I’d had.
He knew he’d screwed up but I honestly didn’t even want to put up a fight for anything. I gave him what he wanted just so I could remove him from my life forever.
The song resumed but Beyoncé’s voice was garbled and hiccupped again.
“Come on,” I said and smacked the dashboard again.
The woman’s voice on my phone interrupted my protest, and I quickly looked down at the map to see my next turn.
I looked up at the road, a quick glance, and my eyes widened.
“Shit!”
I pulled the wheel to the left as I slammed on the brakes but not before seeing a flash of blue and flannel, tanned arms waving, and then a man diving to the side of the road.
My beat-up truck swiped the rear bumper of his truck and then, finally, stopped about forty feet away.
“No, no, no, not happening,” I yelled. A cloud of dust and grit spat up behind me and drifted across my field of view. “Come on, please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.”
I placed my hand on the door handle and glared at the rearview mirror.
The dusty brown cloud cleared and all I saw was an empty dirt road.
“Hello? Are you okay?” I edged out of the truck and slowly walked toward the back of the truck. “Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead,” I whispered to myself as I walked closer. Each step put me further on edge. “Hello?”
“What the hell? Is this your first day driving?” A half-naked man appeared from behind the truck. He wore tight, dusty jeans with a flannel shirt tied around his waist.
“Oh, my God, thank you, you’re not dead.”
“No, I’m not dead but only because I was paying attention. Obviously, something you weren’t.” He took a deep breath, looked at the bumper of his truck and then back at me. “Are you all right?”
I couldn’t help but stare, half amazed I hadn’t killed him and half amazed at the incredibly fine cowboy I had almost run over.
If Calvin Klein sold flannel shirts, he would have definitely been one of their models, even though he was covered in a thin sheen of sweat and dirt.
The fear of having actually killed someone dissipated slowly, replaced by relief.
“I’m good, I was just… I looked down for a second and…”
“Playing on your phone? A text from the boyfriend?”
“What? Um, no. Hell, no!” I reached over and fixed the strap of my summer dress that had slipped off my shoulder. “I thought I was lost, I was looking at…” I followed his glance from me to the back of his truck and then back to me. Shit. “I’m sorry. But you’re parked in the middle of the road. I… I’ll pay to get it fixed.” I walked closer to him to assess the damage I had caused as my boots crunched in the gravel of the dirt road. The sound was quickly drowned out by the thumping of my heart in my chest. “I just got this job, and it’s probably going to take me a bit to save up to repay you…” I could feel myself rambling.
The hot guy blinked and stared at me. He didn’t say a word.
I finally reached him and, oh, shit, this guy was much hotter up close. Hot enough that I completely forgot I had sworn off men for good. Bryan, my asshole ex-husband, had wiped my desire for romance off the table. How could I care for someone if I didn’t even know how to care for myself?
Or who I was for that matter?
“I don’t care about the money,” the guy said. His voice was melted chocolate on a fudge nut sundae.
“Yeah, right,” I quipped back. “What is it with all of you people in this little town? Everyone is so easy going, like nothing matters...” I lost myself a little as I stared at him, almost willing myself to somehow get mad and blame him for my not paying attention but I couldn’t. I let out a quiet exhale in relief, hoping he was serious about not caring about the money.
“Nope. I don’t care about the money. First, I just wanted to make sure you were okay, which I can see you are… Second, maybe slow down and pay attention, little miss.”
“Wait… did you just… did you just call me little miss?”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “I guess every now and then the country comes out in me and you haven’t given me your name, yet.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was kind of in the middle of almost having killed you!” I snapped back.
“Calm down… and as you can see, I’m fine.”
I sucked in deep breaths and looked past him at the massive, old, glinting truck. “What are you doing out here parked in the middle of the road anyway? It’s like 120 degrees out here.”
“Trust me, I know,” he said, and gave a half-smile. “I ran out of gas.” He rolled his eyes. “I guess I fixed everything in that truck except for the gas gauge.”
“I guess so.” I said, my natural sarcastic tone coming out.
“I’ve got to bring a kid to its new owner.”
“I – what? A kid?”
“Yeah, a kid. A baby goat. Not an actual child.” A line of sweat trickled down his oh-so defined abs.
I looked back toward the truck and noticed the small white goat standing in the front seat and then couldn’t help my eyes from darting back to his washboard stomach.
“You probably gave him quite a scare when you hit the back of my truck.”
“Huh?” I gasped and then looked up at his eyes. “Oh, the goat. Yeah, sorry.” I kept drifting back and forth from a bad nightmare to an amazing dream. I wondered when I was going to wake up laughing.
“I need to get Billy down the road.”
“The goat’s name is Billy?”
“Yeah, Billy the Kid.”
I snorted, then blocked it with the back of my hand.
“A smile’s better than all that yelling,” the handsome farmer said.
“I – what’s your name?” I asked.
“Joshua,” he said, and stuck out a hand.
I took it and he dwarfed me. His palm was calloused, too, and nothing like Bryan’s. Ugh, why was I even comparing them?
“I’m Eve,” I said. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you but under the circumstances –”
“It’s a pleasure for me,” he said, and tipped an invisible cowboy hat. He let go of me and jerked his thumb back to the truck. “Think I can borrow that phone of yours?”
I rolled my eyes and hesitated before answering. “Sure,” and walking back toward my truck. Joshua followed me. “Where are you headed? To whom does this goat belong?”
“Oh, a guy over in Heather’s Forge,” he said. “Expected me there an hour ago. I rushed out or I’d have checked the gas and charged my phone. I’m bringing it to his daughter for her birthday.”
The tall farmer grabbed the phone and punched in a phone number. “Hey, George, it’s me. Sorry, I’m running late but I should be there within the hour. Oh, can you bring a couple gallons of gas?” He tossed me the phone and walked toward the front of my truck. “Guess you got lucky that you only hit the corner. There isn’t much damage. We can probably get that fixed up pretty easily. Not that you could tell by the other dents in the front.” He laughed and shook his head. “You definitely fit in here for sure.”
“I’m not worried about my truck… and no, I don’t fit it in here.” I stared at the dented metal bumper, a timeline of my driving record through high school, college, and marriage. My truck was the only thing that seemed to be dependable and reliable in my life. “An old pickup truck doesn’t define who I am, and let me tell you—”
“Easy now,” he cut me off before I could really get on a roll, tearing into him. “I was only kidding with you. My truck, on the other hand, took me a few years to restore, so that dented bumper and my broken gas gauge are the only things I now have to fix. Again,” he added. “Which brings me to what I was about to say. Here’s how you can repay me.”
I fixed my gaze on his crystal blue eyes. Shit, at least he didn’t have on a cowboy hat to complete the swoon effect. My rage ebbed away. “And how’s that?” A list of random ideas popped into my head. The first was of me shoveling some kind of animal crap in a barn somewhere but that was quickly replaced by me fixing him some lemonade on the front porch of some rundown farmhouse.
“Drive me over to Heather’s Forge so I can deliver him.”
The way the entire conversation was playing out made me laugh. “Him? You mean the goat? You can’t call someone for that? Seriously, I’d rather save up my money and just pay you.”
“Why should I call someone when you just stumbled right into your own country adventure?” He laughed. “Besides, since you almost killed me, dented my bumper, and don’t have the money to repay me, consider this your duty and payment.”
I waited for him to laugh again but he didn’t. Instead, he shot me a stunning smile, which perfectly complemented his perfectly chiseled features and tanned skin.
It figured he’d be heading in the same direction as I was. This had to be the Universe’s idea of a joke. It’d thrown a tanned, handsome farmer at me to remind me of what I’d never have – a stable relationship.
“Fine,” I said, before I could second-guess this decision. “I’ve got space in the back for a baby goat. And I’ve got a canopy.” I patted the back window of the truck. “You can call someone to help you with your truck on the way there.”
“No need. You’re going to help me with that, too.” He smiled again. “I guess it’s just my lucky day.
Man, what had I just gotten myself into here? This incredibly handsome dude could be an ax murderer and I’d invited him to get into my vehicle and bring his baby goat with him.
“Say, do you have any water? I’ve got enough for Billy but I haven’t had any myself.”
“Sure,” I said, and opened the passenger side door. I lurched forward to swipe up the bottle and cracked my head on the top edge of the opening. “Ow.” I stumbled back.
The farmer caught me, placed his hands on my waist, and steadied me. “Whoa, there, are you okay?” He rotated me and studied my hairline.
“F-fine,” I said, and gripped my forehead.
He was far too close, and his touch wasn’t exactly cool in the sweltering heat.
Joshua touched his thumb to my skin. “No blood. You’re good. Little bump, though. We’ll have to get you some aspirin in Heather’s Forge.”
“Yeah,” I said. Wow, what a reply. Linguist of the year, right here. Close contact with a hot guy, and I’d lost the will to produce real sentences.
Joshua’s gaze swept down from my hair and to my eyes. We froze, stared at each other for an eternity of sweat, heat, and dust. I swallowed. “The goat,” I said. “We’d better get going.”
“Right.” He stepped back, instantly. “I’ll get Billy.”
“I’ll get the water.”
“Just like that, we have a game plan. A plus for team work.” He chuckled and sauntered off.
I’d always been a ‘back’ girl, and he had a muscular one. I turned my back on that view before I was caught in the act and clambered into the cab. I found the water bottle, far from chilled but better than nothing, then backed out and left the passenger door open.
“Here you go,” I called out.
Joshua reappeared around the side of his truck with the most adorable creature I’d ever laid eyes on. The goat was tiny, white, with tufty black ears and a pink tongue that protruded from the side of its mouth.
It let out a tiny bleat and my heart melted into a goat-shaped puddle. “Oh, my gosh, isn’t he just the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen.”
“He’s a handful, all right,” Joshua said, the kid tucked under one impossibly large bicep, and the other hand holding the goat’s food and water tray. “I’ve just let him out to do his business, so we should be fine all the way to Heather’s Forge.”
“You two can both sit in the cab with me,” I said. Which was ridiculous, of course. Why did I want the strange man to sit in the truck with me? Apart from the obvious eye-candy reason. God, when had I become this shallow?
I’d never cared that much for looks. Personality counted for more. Yeah, and that had worked out great for me thus far.
“You sure?” Josh asked. “He’s not named after the Billy the Kid for nothing.”
“One hundred percent sure,” I said. “Heather’s Forge is only thirty minutes’ drive. We’ll be fine.”
Billy bleated his approval of the decision.