Only Uncle Adam had been supportive, if from far away. I hadn’t seen him in years because after that last summer when I was ten, I’d had to stay home and watch my little brothers during the summers and after school. Then when I was fifteen, I got a job.
“Why are you here, then?” he asked.
I arched a brow. “I just moved in. Getting rid of me already?” I wasn’t going to tell him I didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“Not a chance.” He smiled, and yup, my panties were ruined. He reached out, stroked a tendril of hair back behind my ear. Again. As if the gesture was something he had to do. “The house is free and clear, right?”
I nodded, my breath caught in my chest. There wasn’t a mortgage on the property. The house and the land were all mine. “I know, all I’ve got to pay is annual taxes, heat, lights, but as anyone who’s not blind can see, there’s more to be done around here than just the electric.” I could get a mortgage to pay for the remodeling that needed to be done, but I wanted to avoid any kind of debt if possible.
His eyes roved over my face as if he were trying to memorize it. “Willow patched the roof last summer.”
I knew the woman because she’d impersonated me the year before as part of a case with the DEA to investigate a drug ring on the ranch next door. That had been interesting.
“Hey! Are the lights back on?” Nash yelled from the basement.
I blinked, having forgotten he was even here and went to the kitchen, flipped the switch on the wall. I heard the hum of the fridge and the overhead light worked.
“Yes!” I called. I turned again, and while I didn’t bump into Rand, he was right there, as if he couldn’t stay away.
“Um… while the fuse has been replaced, that doesn’t really solve the problem I called about.”
He nodded, his dark hair falling over his forehead. “I saw enough. You need a new fuse box, one that’s up to code. I can pick up the supplies and be back to replace it this afternoon.”
“Okay. I can probably swing that as long as you take payment in small bills.” When he frowned, I continued. “Tip money from Cody’s.”
He ran a hand over his face as if he wasn’t thrilled about that or something else. “Based on what was running through the basement, it’s all knob and tube wiring,” he added. I was expecting him to comment on my job, but he stuck to his. “The whole house needs to be redone.”
While I knew that, hearing it made my stomach twist into an anxious knot. What did I know about home ownership, much less ranch ownership? And I thought I could turn this place into a profit-turning endeavor? When it was literally falling down around my ears?
I was so screwed.
“I can’t afford to do it all at once. You do more than electrical, right?”
He looked me over once again, his lips quirking. “Lots more, Red.”
For some reason, it seemed like he was talking about more than just construction. Heat pooled between my legs under his steady gaze, and my nipples puckered in my bra.
Nash came up the steps and into the kitchen and cleared his throat.
I sprang back from Rand, suddenly conscious of how close we were standing. How we’d been staring at each other. That my gaze had been fixed on his lips.
“You might want to put the coffee maker in the living room for now, get it off the same circuit as the fridge and your other kitchen appliances.”
“Okay, right.” I nodded. Nash nodded back and glanced at Rand, who was still looking at me.
“Ready?” Nash asked. His curious gaze was still on Rand. “We should probably stop at Rob’s place to give him the news. You know, that Natalie arrived.”
“Yeah.” Rand seemed reluctant to move, reluctant to look away.
“Uh, now?”
“Right.” Rand tipped his cowboy hat at me. “I’ll be back, darlin’. This afternoon.”
“Sure. I’ll see you guys then.” I lifted a hand to wave.
“Just me,” Rand growled. “Nash has somewhere to be.”
Nash flicked his brows like that was news to him, but he gave me a wave and left.
“I’ll be back, Red,” Rand said again when the screen door slapped shut behind Nash.
I leaned my hip against the doorframe, a smile starting to form around my lips. “So you said.”
“Yep. Won’t be able to keep me away.” He winked and left, walking backward like he didn’t want to stop looking at me.
I watched, heat swirling everywhere.
Holy shit. Did Rand… like me? He had to be the way he stared at me and touched me and carried me and… God.
Guys like Rand weren’t usually attracted to geeks like me. I wasn’t bad looking, but in Los Angeles, I sure hadn’t turned many heads, mainly because I didn’t do the Barbie Doll routine with the straightened hair and painted nails. I had B cups, no implants. No designer clothes. Just wild red hair.
I was a musician who ran with the arty types.
Rand was a cowboy. Carpenter cowboy. Hot, carpenter wolf cowboy.
Who was coming back here this afternoon.
With a yelp, I ran for the shower. Montana living got more and more interesting every day.
4
RAND
“A bed and breakfast? No. Absolutely not. That is totally out of the question.”
Nash and I watched Rob, our alpha, pace around his giant kitchen after we gave him the news about Natalie’s plans for the Sheffield ranch.
He moved back and forth in front of the sink on the far side of the island. Nash sat at the large table, and I leaned against the fridge. I had no idea where Willow was, but with my wolf hearing, I knew she wasn’t in the house.
“That can’t happen.” He took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair.
“Well, obviously,” I agreed although my belly twisted. A wolf fucking lot. The urge to protect my mate was already at war with my alliance to my pack. I’d scented her at the swimming hole and confirmed it earlier.
Why the fuck did she smell like fucking apples and spice? Why did my wolf practically lick his lips to get a nice taste of her to see if she was just as sweet? Fuck, it wasn’t just my wolf. I wanted to get her beneath me. I wanted to find out if her scent was as delectable everywhere.
Now that I knew her by smell, I’d find her anywhere. That was the only way I’d been able to walk away earlier.
The fact that she was just down the road while I was standing here arguing with my alpha made my wolf angry. I knew I had to stay, to explain, but all I wanted to do was turn my truck around and get back to her. Open that front door, find her and set her on the nearest horizontal surface and claim her.
But no. I had to talk this shit out like girls at a slumber party. “It was an idea, a way for her to make a living,” I explained. “She doesn’t have any money to fix the place up, and it will need work, as you know.”
“I won’t forget my mate fixing that fucking roof,” he grumbled. “She sure as fuck learned her lesson about being up there.”
“Oh shit,” I muttered. The idea of Natalie on that steep pitched roof made me start to sweat. Yeah, she’d have a sore ass if she even thought about doing something as stupid as that. She wouldn’t dare. Would she? “There’s more to be fixed than the roof. I can’t imagine the B&B happening for a stretch. Might even take her a year or two to get the place ready, depending on how much she has to invest and that doesn’t even take into account furniture and decorating. Fancy sheets and whatnot. With her only income coming from bartending at Cody’s...”