LORETTA HAD RUSHED home after she closed the bookstore at noon. She cleaned the house from top to bottom, which was ridiculous since Deacon probably wouldn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to the state of the house. But she had all this nervous energy and she needed to do something with it, so cleaning was as good a place to expend it as anywhere else.

She intended for the two of them to talk. Indoors, at the table or on the sofa, like two adults. Or so she hoped. She had stopped at the liquor store and bought beer and wine, then at the grocery store to pick up some food fixings. She whipped up some salsa and guacamole and put those in the fridge to chill, and now that she knew Deacon ate on the healthy side, she marinated some flank steaks to grill, which would go nicely with an almond and strawberry salad for dinner.

Now if she could just get her jittery stomach to calm down, maybe she could get through tonight. She needed something to occupy her time. Fortunately, the vegetable garden needed major weeding and some rich, fertile soil, which she’d had delivered the other day, so hopefully that might keep her mind off of Deacon. She changed clothes and headed out back to get started on that task.

When she heard Deacon pull up, she walked around to the front of the house. He was just getting out of his truck. Her heart did a little flutter at the sight of him. He was wearing worn dark jeans and a navy T-shirt. It looked like he’d already been at work today, because he also wore a thin layer of dust on his clothes.

“Did you work at the building this morning?”

He nodded. “I put in a few hours over there to stay on schedule. You look like you’ve been doing some work yourself.”

“Vegetable garden. Otis has been helping, and not in a good way.”

She looked down at Otis’s nose, which was covered in a splotch of dirt.

Deacon rubbed Otis’s ears. “He didn’t go with Hazel?”

“No. Tom is on the road for his campaign, so taking Otis along wasn’t an option, unfortunately. Hazel already misses him terribly. She FaceTimed with him early this morning.”

Deacon laughed. “I’m sure Otis enjoyed that.”

“He licked my phone screen, then tried to run off with the phone. So fun.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” He ran his fingers over the dog’s head.

“You’re probably tired. Are you sure you’re up for this today?”

His lips curved in that way that made her insides clench. The first time she’d laid eyes on him, he’d dropped that hot grin on her. It was a sexy, confident smile, and even as a boy, he’d looked like a man.

He was even more a man now.

“I think I can handle a little hard work, Loretta.”

She’d bet he could handle more than that, which sent her thoughts off in a wayward direction.

“Of course you can.”

He carried his tools out to the barn. Loretta followed with the keys so she could unlock the barn doors.

“Ladder’s inside.”

“I have my own, but thanks.”

She nodded. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Okay. I’ll be behind the house working on the garden if you need anything.”

“You got it.”

She went back to work, pulling weeds from the beds. Every time she pulled a weed, Otis grabbed it in his mouth and ran off with it. She figured he thought it was some kind of game of catch, though he didn’t eat the weeds, just discarded them around the yard and came back for the next one. As long as it amused him and kept him out of trouble, it suited her just fine.

Eventually Otis got bored with fetching weeds and decided to take a nap under one of the tall, shady oak trees. She continued to work, and when she finally had pulled all the weeds from the garden, she smoothed the dirt with her rake, making sure it was level.

Then she went into the shed to grab the shovel and started scooping up piles of the very foul-smelling manure and whatever it was that the garden store had told her would make excellent ground soil and fertilizer for her garden.

Wow. This stuff stank. She would definitely need a shower before dinner tonight. And if she’d been smart, she would have waited until she had the beds cleaned out first and then had them dump this stuff directly into them. Instead, she had to load it one painfully smelly shovelful at a time.

Sometimes you are not smart, Loretta.

Probably more often than sometimes. And it was a hot day, too, which meant the craptastic odor wafted up all too often. It even got the attention of Otis, who had awakened from his nap and had come over to take a sniff. He started to step into it.

“Out,” she said.

His paw lingered just at the entrance to the garden. He looked up at her, and she gave him a stern look.

“Out,” she said again.

He took a step back. Whether that was because of her command or Otis deciding maybe he didn’t want to roll around in the stink, she wasn’t sure.

“Need a hand with that?”

She turned around and saw Deacon standing there.

“Oh, I’ve totally got this handled.”

“Do you? It looks like a big load of dirt, and I’m pretty good with a shovel.”

In her new and improved life she was a total feminist. She could do everything for herself and for her daughter, and she needed no man in her life. But this dirt stunk like shit and she wasn’t stupid. The faster she got it done, the better. “I surrender. I’d love some help. There’s another shovel in the shed over there.”

He disappeared for a minute and came back with the bigger, heavier shovel, the one she’d bought thinking she could shovel like a boss, only to discover she could barely lift the damn thing. She figured once she’d built up some muscle she’d be able to use that one.

Deacon dug the shovel into a mound of dirt and lifted it up as if it were a speck of lint, his biceps bulging with the effort.

She ogled while he threw the dirt into the bed, then effortlessly lifted another large pile of dirt and tossed it in, and then another, sweat pouring down his arms. He didn’t seem bothered at all.

Loretta, on the other hand, was definitely bothered.

“Sorry it smells so bad.”

His lips lifted. “Shit makes stuff grow.”

She laughed. “I suppose it does.”

She found herself watching Deacon instead of doing work. How could she not? Sweat glistening on his skin, muscles rippling . . .

The man was a distraction. She moved to the other end of the bed to shovel, trying her best to keep her attention on the vegetable bed and not on Deacon.

Within a half hour they had all the dirt shoveled into the bed. Deacon grabbed the rake and smoothed it out for her.

“Do you have stuff to plant in there?”

She nodded. “I have seedlings in the kitchen and on the back porch that I’ve been growing in pots.”

“Let’s get them planted. You’re already well behind on planting season.”

“I know. But they’re growing like gangbusters in the pots, which is why I needed to get this bed finished.”

Deacon helped her grab the pots and trays and carry them to the bed.

“Tell me what you’ve got here and where you want everything planted.”

They got everything into the ground in no time at all. Planting, at least, was the easy part. She watered everything with the hose and laid the hose down.

“Thanks so much for helping me with this. I’m afraid it might have taken me the entire weekend—or maybe a couple of weekends—to get all that dirt shoveled in without your assistance.”

“I think you could have handled it. But now it’s done.”

“Yes. And now I’ve taken up time you were going to be working on the barn.”

His lips curved. “Barn’s not going anywhere. But those vegetables needed planting.”

“You’re right. They did. How are things coming along at the barn?”

“Good. I replaced the shingles on the roof, since that was the top priority. Windows will be next, but those can wait. Today I want to replace the window in Hazel’s room. Since you said she was going to be off visiting her dad, I figured now would be a good time to work in her room.”

“Oh, thanks. Would you like to do that now?”

“Doesn’t matter. I can—”

“Dammit, Otis.”

Loretta turned and ran off after the dog, who had torn across the property with a length of unattached garden hose in his mouth. She chased after him, but once he got a head of steam going, he was fast.

Deacon just stood there, not helping at all.

“Head him off,” she hollered.

Deacon shook his head. “If you stop chasing him, he’ll stop running away with your hose.”

She skidded to a stop. Sure enough, Otis stopped running and dropped the hose. Deacon walked over and grabbed the end of the hose. Otis picked up the other end.

“Otis, sit,” Deacon commanded.

Otis sat.

“Otis, stay.”

The dog didn’t move, so Deacon walked over toward him and grabbed the other end of the hose. When he had it wound up, he gave Otis a treat from his pocket.

Loretta came over. “I can’t believe you’re giving him a treat after he ran off with the hose.”

“He doesn’t realize he did anything bad. All he did was find something he thought would be fun to play with. And you encouraged it by chasing him around the yard. Plus, he did sit and stay, so that’s what he’s being rewarded for.”

She sighed. “Fine.” She took the wound-up hose and put it in the shed, then closed the door.

Deacon had walked over toward the shed, Otis right on his heels.

She would not comment on how well behaved Otis was whenever Deacon was around.

“Would you like to come inside and work on Hazel’s window now?”

“Sure.”

Loretta glared at Otis. “You can stay outside. Play with something that might actually be one of your toys for a change.”

Otis cocked his head to the side and gave her a dog smile, as if to say, “Everything outside is my toy.”

She shook her head. She wiped her feet on the back door mat. Deacon had pulled some supplies from his truck, so she waited for him, and they went inside.

“I’m not sure how much of a mess Hazel’s room is,” she said.

“I’ll have to move some stuff around to clear space to take that window out anyway, so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay. I’m going to go take a shower. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Fine.”

Deacon headed into Hazel’s room and turned on the light. She’d done a good job cleaning her room, so Loretta had nothing to worry about. There was a chair and a small stand next to her window, so he moved those out of the way.

A book fell onto the floor, so he picked it up. He was about to lay it on her nightstand when he happened to glance at the open page where Hazel had handwritten a list. It must be her diary or journal or something.

Fun Things to Do with Daddy Someday

His stomach clenched. He shouldn’t read this, but he couldn’t help himself.

Hadn’t Hazel already done these things with her dad? Apparently not, because the date on the page was recent. What kind of father was Tom, anyway?

It wasn’t his business, and he knew it, but at least she was with her father this week, so maybe they were off doing some of those fun things right now.

He hoped so. He laid down tarp and took the old window out, carting it to his truck. On his way back down the hall with the new window, he heard singing coming from the closed door to Loretta’s room. His brain blew up with visuals of a naked Loretta dancing and singing in her bedroom, her arms extended as she twirled around her bed, then lay down on it to stretch out her body and . . .

Bad idea, Fox. Don’t go there.

Loretta was someone else he had no business thinking about. Business with her was all he had going, and he was determined to remember that. Still, he couldn’t help but smile as he remembered her chasing after Otis, her ponytail swaying back and forth as she stopped and started while trying to corner the dog.

She’d always been athletic, had always had a lithe body he had never tired of running his hands over.

Great. Now he was getting hard thinking about Loretta, and that was the last thing that should be happening. He needed to keep his mind firmly on work and not on a naked Loretta.

Damn, it had been a long time since he’d seen her naked. It had been after his high school graduation. There’d been a huge party out at the McCormack ranch, since Reid McCormack had graduated the same year. Deacon and Loretta had snuck off to somewhere private and had gotten busy in one of the barns. He could still remember sliding the straps of her sundress down her arms, the silken feel of her skin as he pressed his lips to her neck, the way she had moved on top of him, the way she had looked with the sliver of moonlight streaming over her from the hayloft window . . .

“So, how’s it going in here?”

He jerked his attention back to the here and now to see Loretta leaning against the doorway. She had put a goddamn sundress on, and the past mixed with the present in a very uncomfortable way.

He cleared his throat. “Moving along fine. I should have this window in shortly.”

“Great. So, I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. I was going to grill a flank steak for dinner and serve it with a strawberry salad. I also made some killer salsa and guacamole. And of course there’s beer. You interested?”

He was interested, all right, but not in food. Not when her hair was damp and wavy and he wanted to lick the droplet of water that was sliding down her collarbone, headed for that valley between her breasts. “Uh, sure. Thanks.”

“Great. I’ll get things started.”

When she disappeared, he exhaled.

God, he was in so much trouble. Because keeping his hands off Loretta was getting harder and harder every time he was around her. And the last thing he wanted was to start up something he already knew was destined to end badly.

He’d been down that road with her once before. He didn’t intend to travel there again.