Cowboy Take Me Away (15 page)

“Oh yeah, thanks for lunch,” Hope called out, remembering her manners. When she was around Chase she seemed to forget everything else.

Hope walked out of the kitchen with Chase and headed for the front door again to retrieve their boots. She took the sandwich he passed her, feeling like a kid again. It was times like this that she had to remind herself she was a grown woman—a mom and a specialist veterinarian—because so often she went straight back to feeling like a college kid in her early twenties again. Time had flown, and she'd had to grow up fast.

“I think Nate's already looking forward to Saturday night.”

“Ha-ha, I doubt it.” Hope straightened after pulling her boots on and unwrapped her sandwich. She glanced at the filling before taking a bite.

“Mrs. T's famous turkey and homemade cranberry chutney,” Chase told her as if he'd read her mind. “We always tell her we'll have everything, but hold the lettuce and tomato and anything else that resembles a vegetable.”

She took a bite. “Yum,” she murmured. “Tastes like home.” Her mom had always been amazing in the kitchen, only Hope hadn't inherited her skills despite all the hours she'd spent leaning on the counter waiting for cookies to come out of the oven. “My mom made everything from scratch. We had jars of sauce, pickles, and jams everywhere in our kitchen.”

“We were pretty lucky with Mrs. T. She was like a mom to us in plenty of ways. Still is, I guess. She's the only one you'll ever hear us saying
sorry ma'am
too. But back to Nate, he's a big softy. Don't let him get to you.”

Hope finished chewing, hand over her mouth before she spoke. “He didn't offend me, if that's what you're worried about. He's just like you. I get it. Some men like to win, and some men
really
like to win when it comes to showing off to women.”

“We're nothing alike,” Chase insisted, looking genuinely surprised.

Hope shook her head as they walked. “Wrong. You're everything alike, trust me. Talking to him was just like being with a slightly bigger version of you.”

“Damn, you think he's bigger than me?” Chase pulled a serious face before laughing. “But yeah, you're right. He's like the larger, badder version of me. Only a
smidge
taller though, I'll have you know.”

Oh, you're plenty bad enough
.
And big enough.
She bit her lower lip, keeping her thoughts to herself. Any badder and she'd be a mess.

“So what are we looking at?” she asked. If there was one thing she knew, it was that keeping the conversation away from dangerous territory was the safest bet between them.

“Nothing. Everything.” He turned toward her, walking backward, that damn, captivating smile of his hitting her head on.

“So this was just a ploy to get me alone?” So much for keeping the conversation neutral.

“Hey, it's not every day I get to spend time with a beautiful woman.”

“Bullshit,” she muttered, taking another bite of her sandwich even though her appetite had long disappeared.

“Well, during work hours,” he corrected, his dimple a flash of sexiness as he shrugged. “It's just nice seeing you again. Is that so wrong?”

“So what made you want to go organic?”

He stared at her, his lips twisting like he was planning on saying something smartass, but thought better of it. He spun back around so he was walking beside her rather than looking back at her. “You mean besides organic being the future of ranching?”

“Yes, smartass, besides that,” she said dryly.

“Hey, it took me a long time to convince Nate that this was a good idea. Sorry if I'm a little smug now that it's all coming together.”

“Your cows aren't in calf yet,” Hope reminded him.

“Yeah, but I have the best in the business working with me. What could go wrong now?”

“Chase,” she cautioned, not wanting him to jinx what they were working on.

His chuckle was more of a deliciously deep rumble than a laugh. “Nothing's gonna go wrong. You always were the worrier.”

She laughed incredulously. “Are you kidding me? If it had been up to you, you'd have drunk your weight in Jack Daniel's each semester.”

He leaned in close to her, slinging his arm across her shoulders again. The familiarity of his gesture made her uncomfortable, made her body tense. Goose pimples rippled across every inch of her skin when his warm breath touched her face.

“Thank you,” he whispered, before pressing a lingering kiss to her cheek. “All these years, I've never said thank you. So there it is.”

“You're welcome,” Hope spluttered. What the hell was going on? One minute they were into each other, then they were back to friends, and now he was … She blew out a breath as she extracted herself from Chase's arm, slipping away to force his arm to drop down.

“You can take full credit for keeping my grades up. Without you I'd have been a waste of space.”

“Says the guy who studied as little as possible and still managed straight As.” Hope had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. She'd worked her ass off right through college, determined to make her own way in the world, and Chase had been on cruise control and still managed to ace everything. Although she knew that deep down his determination to succeed had equaled hers, he just didn't like to show it. “I reckon you would have coasted through without me anyway.”

“Not a chance,” he insisted, stopping when they came to a post-and-rail fence that bordered a huge field that stretched all the way down the valley. The feed was plentiful and she could see a few horses grazing, their heads dipped into the long grass. “I was so damn determined to impress you, and it was pretty obvious from the start that my bank account and my good looks weren't gonna cut it.”

“So modest,” she quipped. “Seriously, Chase, could your head get any bigger?”

He shrugged, clearly not embarrassed in the least. “Hey, I'm just sayin'. Other girls made a play for me without any effort on my part, and you just gave me this look.” He paused, laughing. “
That
look.”

“What look?” She leaned on the same section of post-and-rail fence that he was propped against, only a little farther down so she wasn't close enough for him to try to touch her.

Chase's eyes were crinkled at the corners as he squinted into the sun, making him look older but even more damn gorgeous, if that was possible. He held up his hand to shield his face from the sun, golden-tanned forearm commanding her attention, reminding her what he'd looked like buck naked, how amazing that skin of his had looked stretched over muscle beneath her on the sheets of a motel bed.

“That look that told me in one quick sweep that I was being a dickhead and needed to pull my head in,” he told her. “The unimpressed stare that made me want to be a better man just to prove myself to you. Because I only cared about one person's opinion back then, and that person was you.”

Her heart was starting its too-fast beat again, thumping away in her chest like mad. “All that in just one look?” She tried to keep her voice light-hearted, but she could hear the wobble in it, hoped she was at least fooling him even if she wasn't fooling herself. They'd meant a lot to each other, and maybe they still did, which made what she'd done, or what she hadn't done where Chase was concerned, so much worse.

“Yeah. All that.” His voice was raspy, toe-curlingly deep.

“What do you want from me?” Hope asked, forcing her voice to comply with her thoughts, needing to ask the question.

“Isn't it obvious?” Chase's expression had turned from friendly to determined, the glint in his eyes telling her she was about to find out
exactly
what he wanted from her. “I want you.”

Hope gulped, focused on each breath, not daring to look away. Like being confronted with a predator, she had that feeling that she couldn't back down, had to stay strong and show that she was just as capable of staring back at him as he was her.

“Chase…”

“No, hear me out, Hope,” Chase said, leaning deeper over the railings, his dimpled smile like a touch straight to her heart, teasing her, making her body betray her. “What we did that night, it wasn't just some meaningless fun and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want a rematch. I think I made that clear the other night.”

She was speechless. Absolutely, utterly speechless. Hope kept her jaw clenched tight. It wasn't that she didn't feel the same, but …

“You want to hang out as friends, well, fine, but I want to lay it all out so you know how I feel.” Chase pushed back off the fence and moved toward her, his frame blocking out everything else when she turned to him, stared up into dark eyes that seemed to warm every inch of her. He raised his hand, fingers curling gently around her chin as he tilted her face up, eyes searching hers. “You change your mind about wanting something more, I'm here.”

Hope was transfixed, couldn't take her eyes off the man so confidently telling her exactly what he wanted. Part of her wanted to just scream
yes
, but the more dominant side of her was immobile, knowing it was all wrong. Sober, it was obvious that she needed to steer clear of Chase romantically; the other night it had been the alcohol talking, or at least that's what she was telling herself.

“So what do you say?” Chase's husky voice commanded her attention, her gaze falling to his full lips as he spoke. It would only take a second to close the distance between them, to remind herself what it was like having that mouth moving in time with hers, but she resisted.

“I say, I'll think about it,” she told him, her voice barely a whisper. If she went there with Chase, there was no way she could keep her secret, would have to come clean, and then what? He'd hate her and do what she'd always feared—want to share custody of her son, make her stay in Texas when her heart was still in Canada, with the land she was desperate to buy back one day.

“That's all I needed to hear.” He grinned, fooled her into thinking he was about to pull away. She took a deep breath at the same moment his mouth closed over hers, so softly all she could do was gasp against him as he kissed her tenderly, his hand resting on the back of her head, palm against her hair.

Hope was powerless to pull away, even though she tried. The soft push and pull of his mouth on hers, the warmth of his skin, the hard planes of his body as she leaned into him—it was too good, too mesmerizing to say no to.

A loud ringing ruined the moment, broke the connection between them. It was Chase who pulled back first, his lips moving slowly away from hers, hand running the length of her hair and then skimming down her back before trailing away. Hope was numb, a chill running through her body like a gentle shudder, cold when his body left hers.

“And the phone does it again.” Chase chuckled. “I think it's yours.”

She blinked, broke the trance she was in, and reached for her back pocket, plucking out her phone. “Shit.” She cleared her throat and took a second before answering. It was her boss.

She glanced up at Chase and wished she hadn't, not with the heat in his gaze that spelled out every kind of trouble. He wanted her and she wanted him. The only difference was that he'd come out and said it and she was still trying to deny it, even if her body had just betrayed her.

Hope focused on what her boss was saying, gazed out at the trees in the distance as she answered his questions and promised to hit the road straightaway to see a client in trouble. When she hung up, she was straight back into work mode.

“I have to go,” she announced, slipping the phone back into her pocket.

Chase grabbed her hand, stroked his thumb across her palm. “Saturday night?”

She nodded, wondering what the hell she was doing but knowing it was going to happen regardless. There was no way she wasn't coming over for poker night, even if the sensible thing would have been running a mile in the opposite direction. She was in too deep to just walk away now, at least until her work on the ranch was done.
Then
she could run for the hills.

“Yeah,” she muttered, taking a step back so that he eventually had to release her hand. “Yeah, I'll be here. But you call me before then if you notice any signs, okay?”

Chase nodded. “Hey, is everything all right? I mean, that wasn't about your son, was it?”

She smiled. “No. If it was about Harrison we wouldn't even be having this conversation because I'd be long gone.” She pushed her hands into her pockets for something to do, and to avoid Chase grabbing hold of her again. What she needed was to
not
have his skin anywhere near hers. “It was my boss, wants me to head to the Ramsey ranch. They're having trouble with some very late calving and they want me to see if there's anything I can do to help.”

“You want me to come lend a hand?”

Hope started to walk backward, shaking her head. “No, Chase, I'll be just fine. And it's not brawn they need, it's medical knowledge.”

“You sayin' I'm all brawn and no brain?” He flexed his biceps and made her laugh. “I've delivered one hell of a lot of calves single-handedly, I'll have you know.”

“Good-bye, Chase,” she said, running the pads of her fingers across her lips once she'd turned away.

“See you Saturday night.”

She kept walking, not looking back. Because the last thing she needed was to see that handsome-as-hell cowboy leaning against the fence with his sexy-lazy eyes trained on her. The memory of his kiss was more than enough to distract her for the rest of the day, especially when she had her arm elbow-deep in a heifer stuck in the second stage of labor.

 

Chapter 8

“So tell me about her.”

“Who?” Chase looked up, beer in hand. He'd just finished helping Chloe since Ryder was still nowhere to be found.