Page 146 of Fish out of Water
Her son wouldn’t have a father to show him how to be a man.
Just a twat who couldn’t be bothered to put any effort into the child he helped create.
Clara tucked her chin as she passed Brett. She was right in the open doorway when the ridiculous height of the truck stopped her in her tracks. “How do I get into this thing?”
“Reach right up there and grab the handle.” Brett leaned in close enough his body almost brushed hers. “Get a foot in and climb.”
Clara pushed up on her toes, managing to get one hand on the handle he pointed out. Getting her leg up was another thing altogether. She hadn’t planned to climb up the side of a mountain of a vehicle today, and her knee-length sundress was not cut out to keep her poor child and her new boss’s son from seeing the thong she wore under it.
Which meant she ended up dangling from the damn handle, hanging on for dear life like she might be able to hoist her entire body up and in with the strength of that one arm.
Brett’s eyes skimmed down her body, the quick pass stopping at the hem of her dress. “I didn’t really think that one through.”
Without giving her time to prepare, he grabbed her waist and lifted her up and in, hefting Clara into the seat like she weighed nothing.
Somehow she managed not to yelp or flail around in surprise, so that could be counted as a win. Especially on a day like this.
“You’re up, Little Man.” Brett bent at the waist, locking his fingers together and holding them out. “Step up in there.”
Wyatt grabbed the door and immediately punched his foot into Brett’s hands, easily jumping into Clara’s lap. Brett closed the door, holding one hand up for Wyatt to slap. “Good job.”
“Thanks.” Wyatt grinned as Brett walked around to the driver’s door.
“How am I supposed to buckle us in?” Clara fought the seatbelt as Brett opened his door, tipping his head inside to watch her with amused eyes.
“We’re just going two miles down the road. I’ll drive real careful.”
She let the belt retract into place and wrapped her arms tight around Wyatt’s waist, prepared to act as a human restraint should the need arise.
Wyatt’s questions started the second Brett was seated. “Do you have horses at your house?”
“Yup. Lots.” Brett had one hand slung over the top of the wheel, not paying any attention to the road as he answered every question Wyatt shot at him.
“Do you have more dogs?”
“Yup. And cats.”
“Do you ride them?”
“The horses or the cats?”
Wyatt cackled. “You can’t ride cats.”
Brett draped one arm over the line of the open window, whistling while his truck ate up the last miles to Red Cedar Ranch. As they got closer, the basic wire fencing was replaced by split posts and rails. Cattle grazed in grassy fields, their coats shiny in the bright summer sun.
It was like a completely different world from the one she’d been in for the past ten years.
Hopefully that was a good thing.
A metal archway stretched across a break in the fencing. Brett slowed the truck and turned onto the thick gravel covering the lane leading to Red Cedar Ranch. Wyatt sat up a little taller on her lap. “Where’s your house?”
“It’s coming.” Brett angled the truck around a sharp bend flanked on one side by a thick line of trees.
“Holy cow.” Wyatt stared out the windshield as the tree line broke, revealing the first glimpse of their new home. “That’syour house?”
“Yup.”
Clara stared alongside Wyatt.
