CHAPTER FOUR
Jared
I couldn't quite believe it when I saw her.
I had noticed the car, standing stalled in the middle of the road out to the ranch. It wasn't a busy road, which was lucky, or it would have been in danger of being in an accident. It was the fact that it wasn't a busy road that made me notice it in the first place.
I rode over from where we were about to head out to the field and had a look. Maybe I could help the guy who'd stalled there. I rode over to investigate.
As the woman at the driver's-seat leaned back, looking out of the window, I saw her full-face and I stared at her. It was her!
Alex's sister.
That was when I'd tapped on the window.
“Can I help?”
“Maybe.”
I smiled. This was my area of expertise – besides house-painting, the only trade I'd ever really learned about was engines.
“Engine's overheated,” I'd said. “I'll get some water. Refill the radiator. We'll have it going in no time.”
She's scowled at me. Not that any expression on that beautiful, gentle-eyed face could have been called a “scowl”. Not exactly. But all the same, this came pretty close. I frowned.
“I'm sorry if I...”
“Don't worry about it,” she said briskly. “You're right. You can help. Thanks,” she added belatedly.
I nodded. “No problem,” I said. “I guess you know the oil's okay too?” I asked. I was showing off. I was hoping to impress her with my knowledge of engines, scanty as it might be. I wanted her to be impressed.
She rolled her eyes. “It's not my car, Jared. But yes. The oil is fine, or so the car-hire people tell me, anyway.”
“Good,” I said. I'd never hired a car in my life before, so how would I know anything about it? But one thing I did know about was overheating.
“I'll go get water,” I said.
She nodded. “Thanks.”
By the time I returned from the barns, a watering-can of water with me, she had alighted from the car and was standing near the front window.
“Oh,” I said. “The hood is up?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I can do that part, I think.”
Her words were acid-sharp, and I should have backed off, but I didn't.
“Good,” I said.
She scowled again. “Listen, mister.”
I sighed. “Sorry,” I said.
She beamed at me. “That's better. Now, let's get this car in working order again.”
I smiled as she waited for me to fill up the radiator, then headed into the car to turn the ignition and check all was working as it should. It was.
“Thanks,” she said. She sounded relieved. And impressed. Well, maybe I was making myself hear that part. But all the same, she sounded impressed to me.
“It's nothing,” I said shyly. I felt awkward. I hadn't exactly had much practice in things like this.
“Well,” she drew in a long breath. “I guess I owe you lunch.”
I stared at her. My brain fizzled with amazement. “Really?” I caught myself, realizing I must be gawping like a fool at her. “I mean...wow. Thanks. I accept.”
She smiled. It was a funny, secretive sort of smile. I wondered what it was all about. When she looked up at me her blue eyes held something that was as confusing as the smile. I shivered.
“Okay,” she said. “Well, where is a good place to eat in this town? Actually, I know. We'll go to Hillview.”
Hillview. That was Green river's answer to fancy dining. I had walked past it a few times. It was the town's way of catering for the tourists. It was all matte wood and pale green lettering and elegance. She was going to take me? To that place? No way!
“Uh... I mean. Thank you. A lot.”
She laughed. When she laughed, her head tipped back, exposing that pale throat. I stared at the tender skin and the images that ran through my mind had very little to do with restaurants. Or cars.
I coughed, trying to bring my mind away from the crazy alternative world in which I was sleeping with Alex's sister. She was so damn sexy, with those pale pink lips with their moist-edged shine and gentle curves that I couldn't help myself fantasizing that way, but I knew I shouldn't.
I don't even know her name.
At that thought, I decided to do something I'd never done before.
“I guess we didn't ever meet, really,” I said shyly. “I'm Jared Mitchell.”
“I'm Darby Gilmore.”
Darby. Nice name. Unusual.
We shook hands and the touch of her hand was like electricity, it jolted through my hand and up to my elbow, then to my heart.
I took my hand away quickly. I swallowed hard.
Her eyes were looking into mine. She wasn't smiling, not exactly. Blue and intense, those eyes held mine the way a magnet does scrap iron. They drew me into her and I felt as if the world was standing still a moment.
“Okay,” she said, breaking the weird atmosphere abruptly. “Well. I'll see you there in about twenty minutes, then?”
“Great,” I said. My voice came out tight and awkward, not like my voice at all. I tried to clear my throat but it didn't seem to help. I looked away from her for a moment. “In twenty minutes.”
“Great.”
She got into her car and drove away. I stood there like I was made of stone. I watched the cloud of dust follow it as she drove away, heading back into town.
That left me with some explaining.
At that moment, any amount of explaining would have been worth time with her. I walked back onto the farm, found my horse and headed back to the barn.
There, I found Jeff. The others had all already gone to the fields.
“There you are!” he said. “What happened? Where were you?”
I sighed. “It's a long story. Listen, could you tell the others I have to go? Just for an hour, two hours? It's kinda urgent...” I trailed away lamely.
Jeff frowned uncertainly. “Well, fine,” he said. “But just don't do it again, okay? It's late on in the season and we need all the spare hands we have around here.”
I nodded, feeling bad for leaving them with the extra workload. But what could I do? This was the chance of a lifetime!
“Thanks,” I said.
I headed back to the shed where we kept our clean clothes, showered and changed. The cracked mirror on the wall above the sink showed me a long face with a firm jaw and big blue eyes, a thin scar above one where I'd just avoided having a far worse injury in a street-fight. I supposed I wasn't too bad. I combed my hair. Then I found my own rusty, ancient Mazda pickup and headed into town.
To have lunch with Darby.
Now I knew her name.
I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking about her. She had looked so good standing there in the dusty road, a blue shirt and darker blue jeans and that pale hair in a big cloud around her face. She wasn't just sexy – and yes, the erection I could feel stirring in the front of my jeans was showing me that – but she was beautiful. Really beautiful.
I snorted. I was not the kind of guy who thought like that. I wasn't, usually, the kind of guy who thought very much about anything in particular. I'd given up on it when I was a kid and my thoughts had been such a frightening, caging place that I'd wanted to join my mother in her world of drink-hazed oblivion. But now I was thinking. And I thought that woman was one of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen before.
I would have laughed at myself, except that I hadn't ever felt so serious about something before.