Forty-one was barely starting life, and everything inside Nate tightened again. He didn’t relax until his first bite of the sugar-filled puffs, and even then, his mood had worsened. His head hurt a little, which made no sense given the amount of sleep he’d gotten last night.
The house sat in silence, and he wondered if the other cowboys were really asleep or if they had chores to attend to on the ranch. His money—if he were still a betting man—was on the latter, as animals needed to be cared for around the clock, a man’s sleep schedule notwithstanding.
He finished eating and put his bowl in the sink before he started hunting through the many drawers and cupboards in the giant kitchen. Even the chow hall at River Bay hadn’t been this big, and sixty men ate in there at the same time. He found neatly labeled shelves with everything from granola and protein bars to Pop Tarts to boxes of gelatin on them.
He counted seven other names, and his heart constricted and then tried to burst out of the tiny box it had folded itself into. He’d just opened a cabinet and spied the little white bottle that surely had painkiller in it when the back door opened.
Nate glanced at Ginger as he picked up the bottle, and then he focused on pressing and turning the lid to get it off. “Morning,” he said.
“What are you doing?” Ginger asked, taking three long strides and snatching the bottle from him.
He blinked, trying to catch up to the situation. “I have a headache.”
“These are sleeping pills.” She shook the bottle like he should know that, but he hadn’t even looked at it.
“Okay,” he said, frowning. “I didn’t even have a chance to look at it.”
Her eyebrows drew down, and her dark hazel eyes flashed with fire. “Did you sleep okay last night?”
“Once I fell asleep,” he said. “Before then…it was so quiet.” And that had left his mind to churn over too many thoughts.
“You should’ve been in the West Wing,” she said dryly, putting the bottle back on the shelf. She rummaged around for a few seconds and pulled out a much larger container. “These are your painkillers.”
“Was it noisy over there?” he asked, taking the bottle from her.
“Oh, Ursula must’ve been able to smell something. Foxes or coyotes or something. She barked all night.”
Nate tapped a few pills into his palm. “So Ursula is a dog.”
“She’s my German shepherd,” Ginger said as if he should’ve known.
“I didn’t see a dog last night.”
“She was out with Spencer,” she said. “She likes him almost as much as me, and he takes her for me when I have to leave the ranch overnight.”
As if on cue, a dog barked somewhere beyond the back door, and Ginger turned just as the huge black and orangey-gold shepherd came into the house. Ursula’s tongue hung out of her mouth, and she had big, brown, keen eyes.
“Oh, there she is,” Ginger said, pure joy in her tone. She bent down and scrubbed Ursula’s head and neck. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you? Noisy last night, but such a good girl.”
Nate didn’t know how to make the demanding version of Ginger who’d walked through the door a few minutes ago line up with the one talking like a baby to a dog who could easily knock her down and bite off her face. Not to mention the soft, kind woman who’d held his hand yesterday and bent to his every whim.
A wicked thought ran through his mind—what else could he get her to do for him?—and he banished it quickly. Number one, all of his mental energy went to Ursula as she came over, her nails clicking against the hard floor, to sniff him.
He wasn’t afraid of dogs, but he didn’t want one all up in his business either. He bent down and patted the German shepherd, because she was a magnificent creature. She seemed to like him well enough, and then she went over to Connor, who still sat on the barstool. The boy squealed and then laughed as he slipped off the stool to pet the dog. Ursula licked his face, and Connor giggled and giggled.
When Nate looked at Ginger, she wore such a blissful expression on her face that made Nate want to be able to put that look there again and again. He had no idea what that meant, and he filed the thought to think about later.
“I need to go to the bank tomorrow,” he said. “Do you drive me? Or should I ask someone else? Or…?” He let his question hang there, because he honestly didn’t know how to finish it.
“I’ll take you,” she said. “You can’t go anywhere alone, Nate, except around to do your work on the ranch.”
He nodded, suddenly needing a very strong cup of coffee. The brew behind bars was always too hot and too bitter, but Nate had grown accustomed to it. He glanced down the counter and didn’t even see a coffee machine. That would definitely have to change.
“I’m thinking I’ll put you with the horses,” she said as Spencer entered the house.
“Oh, Ursula made it back,” he said, grinning at the dog. “She barked at everything that moved today.”
“And last night,” Ginger said with a sigh. “I need to get her into that agility program.”
Nate’s interest piqued, because they’d had a couple of prison dogs, and he’d enjoyed working with them.
“He’s doing horses?” Spencer asked, stepping over to the sink to wash his hands.
“And I’m going to give him the beginning riding lessons.” Ginger looked at him, the questions right in her eyes. “And then the outlying work of fixing fences and bird blinds.”
“Sounds good to me,” Spencer said.
“What do you think?” Ginger asked Nate, who honestly had no idea how to do anything she’d just listed.
He told himself he could learn, so he just said, “Sounds great,” and hoped he’d be left alone to figure things out without too much embarrassment.
“Great,” Ginger echoed. “We’ll go to the bank and do any shopping you want to do tomorrow, and then I’ll get you started.”
The idea of him getting to mess up and fix it before she found out disappeared, but at least he’d get to have Ginger at his side.
He wasn’t sure if the thought was traitorous or exciting, but he knew for certain it was very confusing.
“Oh, and my girls are coming this way in a few minutes,” she said. “To go over a babysitting schedule with you.” She glanced around the kitchen. “Now, why isn’t there any coffee over here?”
Amen, Nate thought, a smile coiling through him that he didn’t let touch his mouth.
Chapter Six
Ginger left Nate alone for the afternoon on Sunday, telling herself she couldn’t glue herself to his side just because she found him handsome. She’d seen a glint in his eye a couple of times, but she had no idea what it meant. In her experience, ex-cons could lie like it was breathing, and she had all the proof she needed of that in her past.
So she’d made herself scarce while Emma and Jess went over the babysitting with him, while Spencer ordered pizza for the cowboys in the East Annex, and while Nate took Connor down the dirt path behind the huge homestead and out onto the ranch. She’d watched them for a few minutes, ducking down behind the counter when Nate turned and looked back toward the house, as if he could sense her eyes on his broad shoulders.