“I fell and hit my knee right over that tree,” she said, pointing to the large oak tree near the shed. “Daddy was shoo-ing one of the horses and left to come and blow on it. Then he promptly sat me down to tell me a story of a little girl who wouldn't stop running around.” She shook her head with a smile. “He used to make up stories for the occasion and had me believing that it was an actual story. He was very good at doing that. At night when I was in bed, he would come in with several books and we would read together.” She stared off into the distance for a moment, forgetting that he was sitting there. “I really miss him and didn't get to spend a lot of time with him.”
“Your mother took you away when you were a little girl,” he said softly.
She nodded. “She said she wanted to expose me to another kind of life, so that I could choose. I chose her lifestyle. Divorce tends to tear a child in two. I spent summers here when I was a teenager but I never really enjoyed it. I wanted the summer camps, the movie theaters and the excitement of my mother’s dance studio. You went through something similar when you lost your Mom. How did you cope?”
“I had the ranch and ever since I was a little boy, I knew that it was something I wanted to do.”
“I always admired that about you. You always knew what you wanted to do.”
“Keep the place, Amy. There's going to come a time when you need somewhere to just have a little peace and quiet,” he advised.
“All there ever is here is peace and quiet.”
“You're wrong,” he told her with a slight smile. “We had a robbery at the Wilkin’s farm just last week.”
“No!” The exaggerated look on her exquisite face caused him to burst out laughing. “A hungry vagrant looking for a few fruits?”
“Tommy Shelton had way too much to drink and climbed over the fence to pick a few apples.”
“How much jail time did he end up with?”
“None. He had to muck stalls for the afternoon,” Lance said with a grin.
“That’s rough,” Amy said solemnly. “I bet he's still traumatized.”
“So much so that he's sworn off apples for a month,” Lance said tongue in cheek.
She shook her head at him. “Would you like another beer? Your bottle is almost empty.”
He lifted the bottle and peered at it. He really should go. Even though it was Saturday, there had been some major damage caused by the storm and he had some inventory to go over. His assistant was a pain in the ass and a stickler for details and never stopped nagging him until he responded to emails or signed whatever he had to sign. It didn't help that she'd been his Dad’s assistant and had seen him in diapers. “I would love another bottle. Thanks.”
He watched as she went in and came back out with four bottles.
“Four?” His thick eyebrows lifted.
“So that I don't have to get up again,” she told him with a saucy grin. Her phone rang and she fished it out of her pocket, frowning as she looked at the screen. “Not now,” she muttered as she turned off the phone.
“Persistent boyfriend?” he asked lightly. “You can go ahead and answer. I don’t mind.”
“No boyfriends, thank God!” she said with a heartfelt sigh. “Just a girlfriend who's going through a rather messy divorce.”
“And you hung up on her?”
“She's been going through that same divorce crap for the past three months. It's on an off again for her. She married an asshole who can't keep his dick inside his pants for two minutes, and I told her about him and she would not listen to me. They were married for two minutes and he started cheating on her with someone from her work. He tried to come onto me, but I told him where to go and I told her. She didn't talk to me for a week, which wasn't a problem for me. She finally came to her senses and decided to get rid of him, but he keeps coming back to her with some sob story and they end up in bed. I told her that she gets two free passes and then I am done. The only drama I need in my life is in the books that I edit.”
He took a swallow of the beer and was taken back to when they were kids growing up. She'd always been brutally frank and never gave the slightest thought to what others thought of her. She'd been a chubby kid and had been teased often but had used her fists to bring across her point. “You're tough,” he said in admiration.
“Years of practice, buddy.” She pointed her bottle at him. “Remember when that big guy with the wild hair backed you into a corner at the football field?”
“Gary Mullins,” Lance said with a musing smile on his face. “His dad still works on the ranch and, so does he.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Lance said with a nod of his head. “And he happens to be a good ranch hand.”
“So I'm guessing that you two made up?”
“We were kids, Amy, and besides I feel psyched that he now calls me boss.”
“You make him call you boss?”
“Occasionally.” He lifted his glass and she lifted hers in a toast.
“I like that,” she told him. “He was a jerk. Is he still one?”
“He's mellowed since. Married now with two kids; a regular family man.”
“To each his own,” Amy said with a shake of her head. “Speaking of family and women and all that; what about you?”
“What about me?”
“You have all this package.” She gestured at him. “The looks, the money, the ranch and the laid-back manner, which by the way is the biggest part of the charm.”
“I don't consider myself charming,” he disagreed.
“So where's the long line of women beating down your door?”
“There is no line.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Believe it. I'm married to the ranch, the way you're married to your career.”
“I guess you're right. I was dating an author a year ago and he was more into me because he could get free editing. I dumped his ass as soon as I found out I was being played and the sad thing about it, his book wasn't even that good.”
“Did you love him?”
She frowned at that. “Why would you ask me that?”
“It’s a simple question. Were you in love with him?”
She tilted her head and considered. “No,” she admitted slowly. “I mean, he was passably good in bed, not that great, but I put up with the not so great sex because we could talk and he was an avid reader, the way I was, and we could discuss books and current events.” She flopped back against the cushions. “So no, I wasn't in love with him.”
He turned his head to look at her, following the thick strands of hair spread out on the colorful cushions. He shook his head at the thoughts tumbling around in his brain. “And there hasn't been anyone since then?”
She laughed at him, her dimples peeking out. “I'm not a nun, honey. I had a passionate fling when I was in Italy several months ago with this gorgeous Italian with the most amazing dark eyes and thick dark hair.” She glanced at him. “Kind of like yours.”
“And?”
“He had two girlfriends and was on the verge of getting married.”