Page 44 of Love Off-Limits
Or it was beingverykind to me. Depending on when you asked.
Logically, I shouldn’t be enjoying the warmth radiating off of Tyler’s sun-kissed skin. But he was so close. And the goat was so sweet. And it all just felt so much like some ridiculous fantasy. Shirtless men and baby farm animals? There was money in this idea. There had to be.
But I was his boss. With a long list of reasons why I had to keep my distance.
I was not here for ridiculous fantasies.
A stack of old Stonebrook Farm t-shirts sat on the top shelf of the storage room where we kept the powdered milk and other supplements. Getting irrevocably dirty wasn’t that much of an unexpected occurrence, so Kelly generally kept shirts stashed in various places around the farm. I pulled one down and checked the size before holding it out to Tyler. He shifted Penelope in his arms and took it, draping it over his shoulder.
“Want to hold her?”
“Absolutely,” I said, not at all motivated by how close Tyler would have to get to settle her in my arms. I was thinking about how sweet the goats were in those early days, when they loved to be snuggled and loved on. That was theonlything on my mind.
I returned to my seat on the hay bale, Penelope in my lap, while Tyler removed his camera bag and pulled the shirt over his head.
I watched as his muscles stretched and flexed with the movement, a tiny bit sad when he pulled the t-shirt into place.
“You okay?” he said, dropping back on the hay bale next to me.
“What? Sure.”
“You seem distracted.”
By your body? Yes. Yes, I am.“No, I’m good. You had your camera with you.” I couldn’t help but be impressed by my convincing redirection.
“Oh. Right. I just thought...I don’t know. The sunset was looking promising, and I was hoping to catch the goats before they came in for milking and...” He shrugged. “I’m just playing around, mostly. Shooting random things here or there.”
“Yeah, Kelly told me.”
“Is that okay?” he asked, suddenly looking concerned. “I can stop if you’d rather—”
I waved a hand to dismiss his concern. “It’s not a big deal at all. I mean, it might be if you wanted to use the shots commercially, but even then, I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more beautiful place,” he said.
I smiled. “I’ve always thought so. I don’t think people actually know what beautiful landscape looks like until they see the Blue Ridge.”
“I’ll give you that. But Stonebrook takes it a step further. It’s pretty special.”
A pulse of warmth throbbed in my chest. Whoever I ended up with, I wanted him to love where I lived. To be able to imagine a place for himself here.
Not that I was imagining Tyler...oh hell,who was I kidding? I totally was.
“Do you not feel that way about Charleston? I love Charleston.”
“I love it, too,” he said. “It’s definitely got its own charm. And since Darcy is a historian, she’s helped me reframe my view of the Lowcountry to include all these interesting things about history and culture. But I don’t know. Every morning, I wake up here and step outside and think, it’s the middle of June. It’s the middle of June and it isn’t blistering outside. Plus, the views are killer. I just keep looking around and shaking my head. From every direction, something looks beautiful.”
“We should...” The words died on my tongue. I’d almost invited him to hike up to the lookout with me. It was the highest point on farm property and the view was unbelievable. But that almost sounded like a date. “We should call Kelly,” I said. “She’s probably home by now. She’ll want to know about this little one.”
Tyler sat up, as if sensing the change in my mood. “I can do that.”
Tyler put the call on speaker and gave Kelly a quick rundown of what had happened. After Kelly reassured us she was on her way over and would check in with Mom to make sure Penelope’s mama was okay, I nudged Tyler with my knee. “You’re good at this,” I said.
He eyed me incredulously. “Good at what?”
I shrugged. “You just rescued an abandoned baby goat, fed her her first bottle, and gave a report to the farm manager like you know exactly what you’re doing. That’s no small thing.”
“I had someone capable talking in my ear the entire time, telling me exactly what to do.”
