Page 14 of Christmas with the Cowboy
Her thighs began to protest, so she shifted from crouching to sitting as she continued to sand. The cottage was going to be adorable when she finished—another reason she’d chosen it over the farmhouse—and so far, she’d managed to renovate on a shoestring budget.
The down payment had eaten a big hole in her savings, but because she had lived lean and saved scrupulously after being cut off from the family funds, and had used the small trust from her mother to whittle down her student loans, she’d had a decent nest egg. Now her egg was more like a marble, but she still had a bit of a cushion—enough to renovate while leasing a small studio apartment in Marietta, where she would live while teaching. The cottage she would rent out to fishermen and vacationers.
Granted, money would be tight until the rental began paying for itself, but in time she’d be glad she’d made the investment. The community college didn’t pay top dollar, and her chances for funded research were slim, but there was a chance at permanence with the college, something that was increasingly rare in academia these days. Teaching contracts were getting harder to come by, and she was home.
She may not love the ranch, but she loved Marietta and she was close to friends.
Close to Reed.
Not going there.
But talk about a curveball.
Trenna began to put some muscle into her work, focusing on following the grain as wood began to show, until the sound of a vehicle outside caught her attention.
Trenna set down the sanding block, pulled off her dust mask, and went to the door in time to see Jay McClain, one of her dad’s ranch hands, ease his way out of the truck. He was a good-looking guy, a year or two younger than her, with rugged squared-off features, a thick head of dark hair, and ridiculously broad shoulders.
He was obviously aware of his attributes, and the effect they had on women in general, and he seemed flummoxed by the fact that when he flirted, Trenna did not flirt back. So he pushed, and Trenna withdrew. He became more familiar, and she became more formal. Nothing worked as far as backing him off, but she didn’t see the guy that often—every now and again on her dad’s ranch, more often when she and Jill headed out for a girls’ night in Marietta—and she didn’t want to confront one of her father’s employees, thus possibly dragging Carter into the matter, so she practiced the fine art of avoidance. It was only mildly successful. Jay simply couldn’t understand or accept the message, even when she’d told him point blank one night at the local microbrewery that she wasnotinterested. Jay, it seemed, thought she was playing hard to get.
“Hey, Trenn,” Jay said as he started up the walk, stopping a few feet away from her. Trenna felt the pressure grow beneath her temples.
“Uh.”
He gave her a perplexed look.
“Uh. My name is pronounced Trenn-uh.”
He lifted his chin. “All right, Trenn. Uh.” He drew the last syllable out in a purr that irritated her more than the shortened name. “Your dad wanted me to pick up that copy of the original ranch deed you had framed for Dawn.”
“I’ll have to dig a little.” She had tucked it into one of several boxes of items she’d purchased at an estate sale to decorate the practically barren cottage.
“I’ve got an errand to run down at the river, so I can stop on my way back.”
It was then that she noticed another guy, approximately the same size as Jay, sitting in the passenger seat of the truck.
“An errand at the river?”
“Somebody’s trespassing. Your dad picked them up on the cameras, and we’re going to ask them to leave nicely.”
Oh yeah. She was certain they’d be nice. Then it hit her.
“Are those trespassers neighbors of ours?”
Jay shrugged his big shoulders. “Could be. The image was blurry, so it’s hard to tell. We can’t be having people mess with the property.”
“Next thing you know, they might claim it.” Jay gave her an odd look, and Trenna continued, “One thing about cameras, Jay. They work two ways.”
“Depending on who’s on the operating end,” he said in a voice that kind of chilled her. “See you on the way back, Trenn…uh.”
“I’ll take the deed to Dawn myself.”
“It’s no trouble. This shouldn’t take long.”
“I don’t want you stopping by.”
“I don’t mind.” He gave her a look that made her want to smack him, and that in turn caused the dam to break. Trenna was done with withdrawal. This was a man who couldn’t take a hint—or the direct message that she wasn’t interested.
“Stop coming on to me, okay? If you’re teasing, it’s coming off wrong. If you’re not, then please stop. I amnotplaying hard to get. I want you to leave me alone.”
