Had Nate just asked her out?
And worse, had she run away from him afterward? A moan started somewhere in the bottom of Ginger’s boots and worked its way up, tearing through her insides before it came out of her mouth.
And the worst part? She wanted to say yes, she’d love to have dinner with him. She slid down the door until she met the ground, and she stared straight ahead, trying to decide what to do.
Last time she’d allowed herself to fall for an ex-con, he’d stolen from her, broken her heart, and almost managed to get the ranch in his name.
Would the consequences of a relationship with Nate be worse?
Ginger didn’t want to find out. At the same time, she really did. Since she was now at war with herself, she simply continued to stare, hoping an answer to this new dilemma would present itself inside the shed.
Chapter Seven
Nate kept his eyes on the rear-view mirrors, and he saw Ginger high-tail it down the driveway and across the lane to the shed. She ran the last few steps, and he made an angry sound.
“Idiot,” he chastised himself. But surely the feelings he felt for her couldn’t be one-sided. She had to feel something. Didn’t she?
Nate had been out of the dating game for a while. A very long while. So long that he’d probably go out with anyone at this point.
“Not true,” he muttered. He knew what he liked in a woman, and he liked Ginger. At least he knew what the old Nate had liked in a woman, but he knew the financial sector Nate would’ve never looked Ginger’s way for longer than a few seconds.
He was looking now.
He was different now.
He got out of the truck and decided to face Ginger before retreating to the massive bedroom inside the huge house where he now lived. He went down the driveway and across the lane too, knocking a couple of times on the door.
“Ginger,” he said. “I’m going back to the Annex. Forget I said anything, okay?”
She didn’t answer, but Nate wasn’t going to stick around and add insult to injury. He turned and returned to the truck to get his groceries, and then he walked through the Texas sunshine to the Annex, where he found Jill coloring with Connor.
“I’m back,” he said, setting a few bags on the kitchen counter. He hated this uncertainty streaming through him. He just wanted someone to tell him where to put his coffee and creamer, but the house felt very quiet. “I can take him now, Jill.”
“Great,” she said. “I have to go get the horses ready for riding lessons this afternoon.”
“Oh, I think I’m helping with those,” he said. “What time do they start?”
“Three-thirty,” she said. “You can come watch if you want. I’m sure Ginger didn’t intend for you to start today.” Jill flashed him a smile that didn’t make his heart boom through his chest the way Ginger’s did.
So he definitely liked her. He wasn’t just lusting after her because she was a woman and he was a man who’d been in prison for nearly five years.
Jill left, and Nate abandoned the groceries on the counter. He sat at the table with Connor. “What are you drawing?”
“It’s a leopard,” Connor said. “See his spots?” He pointed with a brown crayon.
“Oh, yeah, I see that,” Nate said, though he couldn’t see spots anywhere on the page. He got up again and started unpacking the bags. “Listen, Connor, I have some things here I want you to take to your room.”
He made a stack of clothes, socks, and underwear, and called the boy over to get them. “Take them to the dresser, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll show you the toys I got for you.” He smiled at the little blond boy, his heart squeezing painfully at the parts of Ward he could see.
Connor grinned and hurried down the hall to put his things away. All Nate could think was that at last he’d done one right thing that day by buying Connor some toys.
As he went through the cupboards and drawers and found slots for his things, as he showed Connor how to play Go Fish, as they got settled in their lives, Nate’s thoughts revolved around Ginger.
“All right,” he said just after three. “Let’s go see if we can find the horses.” He reached for Connor’s hand, glad when the boy put his chubby fingers in Nate’s. The simple touch reminded Nate of how much good there was in the world, and he hoped he could experience a lot more of it right here at Hope Eternal Ranch.
The walk along the path, with the bright May sunshine overhead, soothed Nate’s soul. He’d been unsure about coming here, but now, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. He’d gotten a new phone and a new computer, and he needed some time to get them set up. He’d wished he could’ve bought them privately, but he was used to doing everything in the view of someone else.
He just wished it wasn’t Ginger. She’d asked about his money, and he’d managed to put her off in a way that he hoped she wouldn’t come back to it. Nate needed to do a lot more at the bank than he had, but he’d made Ginger sit there for almost an hour, and the vice-president had said Nate could call his personal line to finish the business they’d started.
“Look, Uncle Nate,” Connor said. “Look at all those horses.”
Nate looked up from the dust puffing up from his boots to the sight of dozens of horses. The majesty of them took his breath away, and his steps slowed. Several people, both men and women, seemed to be scurrying around, getting the horses in line and putting equipment nearby.
Nate had no idea how to saddle a horse, and his pulse started picking up speed. And when Ginger stepped around a particularly beautiful brown and white horse, Nate thought someone had turned up the intensity of the sun.
Jill stepped in front of him, and Nate blinked until he focused on her. She had light features, with minty eyes and blonde hair. She spent so much time in the sun that her tan skin didn’t quite go with her fairer features.
“Hey,” she said. “The kids are gathering on the other side of the stables. You could take Connor over there and keep an eye on them, if you want.”
“Okay.” Nate wasn’t sure where the other side of the stables was, and he had no idea what to do with kids. He led Connor away from Ginger, though he desperately wanted to talk to her, and they moved around the horses.
The stables spread before them, a sprawling, single-story red wood building that looked like something from a classic Texas farm. Several aisles led through the building, and he took Connor down the closest one to get out of the heat.
The sound of chattering and children laughing told Nate that he was headed in the right direction. Thankfully, a couple of other adults stood above the heads of the children. And even better, they were Spencer and Nick, the two cowboys Nate had already met.
“Hey.” Spencer grinned at him and turned back to the boy he’d been talking to. The kids that had swarmed into the corral all seemed to be about ten or twelve years old, not that Nate could really judge the age of children. They were a lot taller than Connor, though, and they had really big front teeth.
Connor let go of Nate’s hand, and panic reared through him. “Stay here,” Nate told him. The noise reminded him of the inmates jeering when someone would get in a fight. It happened rarely in the low-security facility, but it happened. Sometimes just an argument would break out about someone talking too loud while others wanted to sleep, and the Unit Officers would have to come tell everyone to be quiet and go to sleep.