Chapter Thirty-Two
Hailey
A Few Days Later, Late September
I forgot how much fun Eric was to hang out with, but over the few days Cash was away for the funeral, we got a chance to pal around quite a bit on the farm, him showing me all the chores that had to be done in order to keep things up and running. It gave me a real appreciation of how much work Cash had to do, and it was invaluable for my research. The weather had been extremely warm, unseasonably so, to hear Eric talk, so we’d been riding just about every day after the work was done, exploring the trails around the ranch that I hadn’t seen before. We were out enjoying ourselves now, Eric on Lettie and me on my old boy Buck, who seemed to be well used to me.
“Cash seems okay,” I told Eric as we went along. “I’ve talked to him a few times on the phone since he left and it seems like he feels good about the funeral and how it was handled. It was uplifting, to hear him describe it. I think that’s all he wanted, to remember his uncle the way he was, not the way the last few painful weeks were for him.” I was happy for Cash. He’d so wanted a celebration of his uncle’s life, not a depressing affair full of woe and crying. I could understand that fully.
“That’s good,” Eric said, looking over at me as a sly smile spread across his face.
“What are you smiling about?” I asked, smiling myself.
“I’m just happy for Cash, too.”
We were turning back towards the ranch now. Cash was due to be home this afternoon. I’d wanted to meet him at the airport, but he’d left his car parked in the lot, so there was no real reason to drive there as well. I just wanted to see him as soon as I could, even if it only shaved an hour off the waiting time.
“What do you mean?”
“That y’all two are dating and getting to know each other better,” he replied.
My cheeks turned red by what he was implying.
“You know, I invited you out here to stay without even asking Cash.” Now he was smiling like the devil he was, those dark eyes glittering in the ample sunlight.
My jaw dropped open, and he gave a full-throated laugh. “What?”
“Yep. I just wanted to get our old boy out of his shell. And I hoped a beautiful, intelligent, sweet woman would be the one to answer the ad. And here you are.”
I frowned, the color rushing back into my cheeks at how I was just a piece in Eric’s game, but then Cash was too, and we never would have met if it hadn’t been for Eric putting together this ridiculous scheme. That explained why Cash had seemed so put out when I arrived. And why he’d been frosty for the first week or two to the point of not even wanting to look at me. I’d been an intrusion on his life, but he’d been too much of a gentleman to tell me to leave after Eric arranged for me to stay.
“You are really a piece of work,” I said with a laugh. “No wonder Cash seemed so standoffish the first time we met.”
“Yeah, he nearly tore me a new one when I went inside with him!”
We both laughed hard at the memory. At the end of it, I was wiping away tears.
“Well, it turned out alright, didn’t it?” he said. The wind had ruffled his blond hair, and the way it was lying all over his forehead gave me a glimpse into what he must’ve looked like as a kid. He had a baby face attached to a man’s lean, muscular body. Put all that together with his sharp sense of humor, and he had to be popular with the ladies.
“It did work out. And I might just use your scheme in one of my books.”
“Well, just remember to make my character the hero, not Cash.”
We laughed again as we rode back to the ranch, the horses trotting towards the stables where a good brushing was waiting for them. I was getting excited to see Cash and had a great dinner planned for just the two of us. It felt like years since we’d seen each other.
We brought the horses around to the corral and climbed off of them.
“I’ll take care of these beauties if you’ve got things you need to worry over in the house,” Eric said.
He’d been so kind to me and to Cash over the last few days, taking time off work to take care of things on the ranch and keep me company.
I pulled him close to me and gave him a long hug. He seemed surprised at first before putting his arms around me as well.
“Thanks for everything, Eric.”
He turned to kiss me tenderly on the cheek, his warm mouth lingering a little too long.
A cleared throat from behind caused us to spring apart.
Cash was standing just in front of the house, hands on his hips, face screwed up in a nasty frown, and green eyes shooting fire our way. He wasn’t supposed to have been home for at least another hour.
Eric looked from Cash to me, the concern apparent in his dark eyes. “I best be on my way,” he said. “Give a holler if you need anything else, Cash.”
But Cash didn’t really answer unless grunting noncommittally was an answer.
Eric watched him a moment before telling me goodbye and walking out to his truck. As he drove away, I started walking over to where Cash was standing stock still by the porch.
“Can we talk inside?” he asked, the ice in his voice knocking the tentative smile off my face.
He seemed extremely upset, too upset to even give me a hug. Maybe everything he’d said about the funeral being uplifting had just been for show. It looked like his trip had affected him a lot more than he’d expected. My heart hurt for him at the thought. I knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. I’d been planning a fun night with dinner and some sexy lingerie I’d bought in town, but that could wait. It might be better to let him talk through his feelings tonight, just to process them without the pressure of expecting him to act normally.
I followed him inside, ready to listen and help any way that I could.