Page 13 of Headstrong Cowboy
“Uh-huh.”
Ryder really did want to have a look around.Wanted to see what the land was like behind the buildings.If he could recognize anything from the one grainy photo he had of his mom standing on Munro land.Would Chrissy give him a tour if he asked?Only one way to find out.“This is your family’s business?”he asked, keeping his tone inquisitive, as if he didn’t already know the answer to that question.
“Yes, it is.If you really do want flowers, you should visit the florist in town.They have some lovely arrangements.”
“I’m sure they do, but...”He stepped closer to Chrissy, not to intimidate her, but because he wanted to be near her.She drew him in like a bee to pollen, and he wanted to get stung by her.
Since their encounter the day before, his thoughts had been on her constantly, and not because of his interest in her family’s land.The vision of her sliding around the barrels and the look of happiness on her face when she’d finished were not easy to forget.Nor the way his body seemed to come alight when they’d touched.
Would it happen again if he touched her right now?
Ryder wasn’t one to do anything to make a woman uncomfortable, so he controlled the urge, but he didn’t miss the way her breathing quickened as he got close to her.
“But what?”she asked when he didn’t say anything else.
Did he take the risk and tell her what he was thinking and feeling around her?As someone who’d ridden bulls for a living, taking risks was something he thrived on.Every time he climbed on the back of an ornery beast, the outcome was unknown, but he’d survived every time.Even though the last time he got battered, he was still alive.Still standing.
If he told Chrissy what being near her did to him, the worst thing that would happen would be her laughing in his face and rejecting him.The best thing?She might tell him she felt the same because everything about the way her body swayed toward him and her tongue darted out to swipe across her bottom lip showed him the attraction wasn’t one-sided.
“But I don’t want to leave just yet, now that I’m here.I want to spend more time with you.Get to know you.Because you intrigue me, Chrissy Bloom.”
A twinge of guilt hit him that he was keeping the real reason for being on the property from her.He hadn’t been lying when he said he wanted to get to know her better, though.He did.His reasons for wanting the land may not make sense to others, but they made sense to him.
“I-uh...”She swallowed and that cute pink tongue peeked out again before swirling over her top lip this time.Ryder bit back a groan as his body responded.
Did she know how tempting that action was?
Probably not, because there was no calculating glint in her eye like he’d seen on buckle bunnies who wanted to bag the champion bull rider.
“How about you show me around?I’ve never been at a flower farm before,” he said, letting her off the hook from saying anything about what he’d said to her.It didn’t matter that she didn’t say she found him intriguing as well.Her body was saying everything she couldn’t say.
“You really want to see what we grow?”she asked, skepticism clear in her tone.
“Sure, why not?”
“Fine.Let’s go.”She turned on the heel of her dusty cowboy boots and marched up the stairs to the building they stood in front of.
The scent of soil and a light fragrance hit him as he followed Chrissy inside.Ryder took in the space, noting that it was a decent size, even though it was a little cluttered at present.
The more he looked around, the more he wondered if members of his family treaded across the scratched wooden floors.Had they laughed and joked in here?Or had they argued with each other when the truth of them losing their livelihood was revealed?
The cliché “if these walls could talk” filtered into his mind, and he wished he could make it come true.Wished that there was a way he could find out exactly what had happened and how prosperous land could be lost and split up to create the parcels that the Bloom Flower Farm now sat on.
He had an opportunity to claim a part of his origin.A part he didn’t know anything about, but now that he was here, standing on the soil his ancestors had sweated over, he wanted to know.
“What are you thinking about?You look like you’re making plans in your mind.”
Ryder looked at Chrissy.She was right beside him, her fiery blue eyes full of questions.He would have to tread carefully.“I was thinking this must be where the magic happens.”He canted his head toward the pots.“Looks like you’ve got some new stock to plant.”
Chrissy shrugged.“Sunny and my dad did all the work with the plants.They’re the ones who always knew how to make them flourish.But, yes, I believe Sunny will be moving these to the greenhouses soon.”
Ryder nodded, as if he was totally interested in the inner workings of how to grow flowers.He was more interested in the woman in front of him.“What do you do here if you don’t work with the plants?”
“I help out with the maintenance of the garden beds, but that will slow down with winter approaching.I’ve only been back on the farm for a few months.I lived in Buffalo for quite a while.I do some contract accounting work as well.”
He filed those bits of information away and asked the question that had been noodling in the back of his mind since he saw her on the back of a horse.“Did you compete in many rodeos while living in Buffalo?”
Chrissy touched the leaf of a rose plant gently, as though she were trying to soothe it.“No.I haven’t competed in a very long while.”
