Page 28 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
“So am I.”
She gave him a look that clearly said she knew something else was going on, and that she’d like to know what. He’d be happy to tell her if he knew.
“Take the job, Spence. I appreciate all your help, but it can wait.”
“I might not have the time after Dad’s surgery.”
“A chance I’ll take.”
“Are you kicking me off the Lone Tree?”
She considered. “Is that what it’ll take?”
“Did it ever occur to you that I may not want to take the job?”
“Is that true?”
Yes, but since he didn’t know why exactly, he merely shrugged. Hayley wasn’t having it. “Sidestepping, Keller?”
There was something about her challenging tone that had him narrowing his eyes. “You got a problem with that?” he growled, and Hayley laughed, a wonderful throaty laugh that made him want to make her laugh again.
“I think you should take the job.”
“I think you’ve never welded in the southwest in the early summer.”
“Probably better than in the dead of summer.”
“You have a point.” He indicated the lines he’d marked. “A good rain will take them away.”
“We’ll do them again.”
“We?”
Now she shrugged. “Why not?”
He smiled a little, enjoying the way the sunlight turned her hair aflame, but knowing better than to stare after the last time she’d called him out for commenting on her hair. “I’ll think about it. In the meantime, I’ll do this.”
“Good enough. Just one more thing.” She ambled a few steps closer, until the toes of their blunt-toed leather boots were only a few inches away from one another. “You’re not hanging around because of that late-night phone call, are you?”
One corner of his mouth tightened. “A little bit.”
“I’m good. He’s not going to do anything now that the water is flowing.”
Spence put a hand on the back of his neck and squeezed the taut muscles there as he looked down at Hayley. Her features were delicate, but there was no denying the strength in her expression. Whoever had helped her come out of her shell had done a good job.
Or maybe it had been all her.
The air between them went oddly still as they regarded one another. Spence felt as if he couldn’t—or maybe it was shouldn’t—move and thus break the spell. The moment stretched and hit the point of near awkwardness. Something was going to happen. It felt inevitable and who was Spence to defy fate?
The afternoon light slanted over them, turning Hayley’s hair to fire and warming Spence’s back. He reached out to lightly trace the back of his finger down the side of her face.
Her lips parted at the contract, but she didn’t back away.
It was odd how one night of shared adventure years ago made him feel like he knew her. Maybe he did, on a primal level. Maybe that shared experience had cut to the essence of their beings. And maybe that was why she was looking at him in a way that caused his groin to stir.
Oh, yeah. Just what he needed. He shouldn’t have touched her.
But he did, and now he was about to touch her again. He leaned in as her hands came up the front of his jacket to lightly touch his face, then brought his head down until their lips met, drew apart, then met again. Spence realized several seconds in that he could lose himself in this woman in a serious way. There were things about her that he wanted to know. Things that he wanted to discover. But, for the moment, he contented himself with exploring her mouth as he pulled her close.
