Page 18 of A Rancher's Bride
Luke? To be with him? To be a part of the Stone family for real? That seemed too lofty a goal. Tangled needs and desires taunted her, and she tossed her confusion to the stars and made a wordless wish for happiness.
If the gala went ahead,thatwould be her sign it was time to act on her attraction to Luke. Short term or long term, she’d leave that up to fate to decide.
* * *
Waitingto hear back was going to kill him.
Luke wandered between the barns and his house for the next two days in a mindless haze, worried about what had gone wrong. It wasn’t until he realized he’d filled in the application on a Friday night and chances of anyone getting back to him until Monday morning were slim to none that he decided he wasn’t screwed. There was still hope.
Didn’t make him any less grumpy as he worked with his family.
Caleb’s warning looks were coming far too often by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. “Somebody giving you trouble?”
“No,” Luke rumbled.
His brother swore softly, pausing in the middle of his task to fold his arms over his chest. “Want to talk?”
Since this wasn’t something he could discuss yet, “No.”
Caleb moved in closer. “Something happen with Penny?”
Instant reaction. “Hell, no.”
His brother shook his head. “In other words, there’s nothing wrong and you’re just being a jackass, or something’s wrong and you don’t want to talk about it.”
Luke thought about it for a second. “Pretty much.”
Caleb gave him a raised brow then laid down the law. “Get your head out of your ass or go find something to do that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to put up with you grumbling like you swallowed a beehive.”
It wasn’t his goal in life to make things more difficult for his family, so Luke coiled up the rope in his hands and hung it outside the stall. He stepped past his brother, patting him on the shoulder as he went. “Doing as ordered. I promise I’ll tell you as soon as I can.”
As he kept marching toward the exit, his brother’s words offered a final assurance. “Tell me sooner if you need to.”
His family was the best, which is why it was even more important for this event to be successful.Ifthey got to go.
Damn it.
Since he couldn’t talk about secrets with just anyone, it made sense that his feet carried him to Kelli’s bunkhouse. When there was no answer there, he walked the rest of the way around the corner to their foreman’s small cottage.
As he guessed, Ashton knew exactly where the woman was, and ten minutes later he’d tracked her down at the front entrance to Silver Stone.
Kelli paused as he approached, the dogs running alongside the ATV he’d grabbed instead of saddling his horse. She had a warm woolen band covering her ears, with her cowboy hat firmly jammed on top. Head to toe in sturdy Carhartts, she tucked her hands into her pockets to protect them while she waited for him to turn off the vehicle.
“Need something?” she asked.
Luke suddenly felt stupid, because there was no reason for him to interrupt her work. He went with honest. “I’m antsy waiting for news, and I can’t tell anyone why I’m jittering like a twelve-year-old boy on a double shot of espresso.”
She grinned, bright understanding flashing across her face. “You and me both. I had to bite my tongue a dozen times this morning. Alex was teasing me at breakfast that I must have a hangover because of the faces I was making. Did you know that a couple years back both Lightning Arabians and Sweet Sugar Pie ranch had invites to this kind of event?”
He gaped at her. “Are you serious? And how did you find that out?”
Kelli rolled her eyes. “There’s this thing called the World Wide Web…” She pulled a screwdriver out of her pocket. “You okay if I keep working while we talk? I have this real exacting boss who will give me shit if I don’t figure out how to fix this before I head to the chow line.”
“Let me help.” He stepped closer and eyed the gate. “I didn’t know you dealt with electrical fixes.”
“I don’t do the tricky stuff, but Ashton said this one was my speed.” She pointed to one side of the rolling gate. “It’s less about fixing the electrical and more about making sure the pathway is clear. Tamara doesn’t need to be getting out of the van every time the gate needs closing.”
Luke moved forward and helped the way he would have with any of the hands, lifting and passing tools, working around each other in an easy rhythm. He rose high over her, though, and took control when the gate decided to come off its tracks.
