Page 22 of Swift and Saddled

“Gus Ryder. Nice to finally meet you,” he said as he shook my hand. Firmly. Ah, so he was one of those guys.

“Likewise. I like your kid.”

Gus shook his head, but I could see a smile in his eyes. “She’s a good one.”

“All right.” Wes clapped his hands together. “Now that we’ve all met, Gus, I’ll give you the walk-through.”

“It’s okay,” Gus responded as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the workbench. “I want to talk to Ada about the project.”

I’d never seen Weston anything less than jovial until now. He looked…nervous. His throat was working and he was tapping one of his index fingers on the workbench repeatedly while he rubbed his chin with his other hand.

“I’m happy to walk you through,” I said. “But Weston knows everything that I know.”

I didn’t know why I suddenly felt the need to do something that I thought would calm Weston down.

That wasn’t like me.

Chapter 10

Wes

I learned a lot about myself this week. First, I apparently had a thing for tattooed women in overalls who ignored me most of the time. A really big thing. Second, apparently I gave off the energy that I would kiss said woman in a bar hallway while I was engaged to someone else.

That didn’t make me feel good, and I hated that Ada had assumed that about me. But it also made me wonder if she knew someone whowoulddo that.

And if that was the case, I hated that too.

It was so easy to forget that she didn’t know me and I didn’t know her—even though I desperately wanted to.

It was the end of the first week, and the project had been coming along without a hitch. I knew that wouldn’t last forever, but damn, Ada was…impressive. She and Evan connected with the crew in a way that made them want to listen. Ada was quiet and professional—I’d heard crew members refer to her as “cool,” or “aloof,” but I didn’t think that was the case. Especially because every once in a while she’d throw out a joke that got the whole crew hollering. Thenshe’d sink back into her work, which is where she seemed the most comfortable.

She was always tucking pens behind both of her ears. She was so immersed in her work that she didn’t realize she already had one, so she ended up with these little pen horns.

It was fucking adorable.

I liked her a lot. But it was obvious that she was trying to have as little contact with me as possible, so I did my best to take the hint.

Even though all I wanted was to be near her.

I wanted to figure out what else made her laugh the way she did that night at the bar. I wanted to know what songs she listened to when she was having a bad day, or a good one, and what her favorite food was.

I wanted to know if her body reacted to mine the same way mine did to hers.

I wanted a chance.

But none of that was in the cards. Ada had drawn her line, and I didn’t want to cross it. Well, I did want to cross it. But I wanted her towantme to cross it.

Our kiss was still running on a loop in my brain. Every time I saw her, I remembered how pliable her body felt under my hands and how responsive she was to my touch.

I remembered the way she bit my lip and how she moaned into my mouth when I pinned her hands to the door.

Goddamn.

I didn’t get this way about women. I didn’twantto get this way. Because of that, I sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with me. I mean, I knew there were some things wrong with me—there are some things wrong witheveryone—but my neutrality toward many of the women who had ever shown interest in me made me the odd man out, especially because I grew up around Gus and Brooks.

Before Emmy, Brooks was a playboy, and Gus would deny it now, but before Riley, he wasn’t exactly known for commitment because he never let any woman in. Except for Cam, but it wasn’t because he was in love with her, it was because she was his friend and he respected her.

Now he wasn’t a commitment-phobe, he was a dedicated father, and women liked that, too, but Gus still had the door closed on any sort of relationship.

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