Page 75 of Nanny for the Cowboy

“Well, I’ll admit something, too.” He steps closer, gazing down at me as the sun silhouettes him from behind. “I like having you here. Darby does, too. We…make a good team.”

I’m smiling before I realize it, and seeing Brooks look at me like this, with hope in his hazel eyes, feels damn good.

It flickers though. Because we both know why this conversation started. I might be leaving soon. I’msupposed tobe leaving soon.

Facing that sounds awful to me, and I know Brooks won’t do well all cooped up in his head like that, so I continue my grin, playing up the gracious flirting as I stuff my hand in the bag of sheep feed.

Then, without breaking eye contact, I flick the feed at Brooks’s face. It scatters across his cheeks and nose, and I burst out laughing. The fluffy crumbs stick to his five o’clock shadow, and he brushes it off with a playful glare.

Too busy caught up in my fit of giggles, I don’t notice that Brooks gets closer.

“You little brat,” he teases, shaking his head with a smirk. “You’re going to get it now.”

In a flash, Brooks surges forward, lunging at me. I yelp, breaking into a run as I fling sheep feed backward at him. The sound of Brooks spitting has me cracking up, and I just keep running, circling the pen until I hit the exit and then dashing through.

“I’m going to empty this bag over your head!” Brooks’s call is loud, right behind me, and I run faster. “Sheep be damned!”

We’re both out of the pen, and I abandon my feed bag, letting it hit the ground as I rush for the barn up ahead. There’s some part of me that hopes it’ll make me faster, but Brooks has longer strides than me, and he’s gaining.

“No! Get away with that stuff!”

My heart is pounding as I breathe hard to maintain my speed. I do a quick shift, banking suddenly to the right so that I can circle around the barn.

Best of all, though, I can’t stop laughing, and I know Brooks is the same. His honest laughter booms out behind me, along with a slew of curses.

“Dammit! Clover, get that ass back here!”

I’m quickly losing energy, but damn, this is fun. I feel like a kid again. Some silly teenager enjoying punking her boyfriend.

It’s delightful, and I know this kind of thing just couldn’t happen in the city.

When I reach the barn, I know I’m done for. I can’t keep going, so I bee-line it for a hay bale, collapsing on it. With my eyes closed, I laugh as I hear Brooks close in on me.

“Oh, sure. You just plop down. Was this the finish line or something?”

Giggling, I nod. “Yes, and I won.”

I can feel my heart in my ribs, hear it in my ears, and even though I’m a sweaty, disgusting mess, I swear this is the happiest I’ve ever felt.

The world slows down.Thisisthe happiest I’ve ever felt.

Casting a glance next to me, I see Brooks lying back on his own hay bale, his eyes up to the sky as a tired smile stretches across his face.

I don’t want to leave him.

He looks over at me, and our stares connect. There’s something in Brooks’s eyes, something I think is reflected in mine.

We’re both quiet, just holding the eye contact as our breaths slowly return to normal. We know what I’m not saying.

Iknow what I’m not saying.

I’m supposed to be leaving. I’m needed back in NYC. I have clients there who depend on me, a life I left behind.

“We should go back inside. We’ll need to get dinner ready soon.”

That’s all Brooks says, but I hear something so different because of the way he’s looking at me.

I hear,“You’re not staying for much longer, are you? No. We should enjoy it while it lasts.”

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