Odin watching Eve. Joe watched Odin and me with a speculative eye.
“Well, as much as I’m sure this will be fun, I like my paycheck. So…I’ll see one of you in the morning.” He smiled.
I didn’t. “Bye, Joe,” I said softly.
He stalled next to Odin. “I’d take the out he gives you.” Joe patted the heavier man’s shoulder, but the seated ranch hand never so much as budged, his eyes still fixed on his prize like he never heard a word.
I needed to have a chat with Jude about letting the hands drink every damn night. Maybe every second. It might cause a mutiny, but this season we had enough problems.
“Do you want to do this here, or outside?”
Joe disappeared discreetly as Odin finally turned his attention to me. “Do what?”
I shrugged, propping my ass on the edge of the long wooden table that sat beneath Red Hart’s magnificent antler chandelier. “I mean, we can do this inside, but it’ll make a mess. I’ve got some things to say to Eve after, and I don’t want to waste time cleaning up.” I unbuttoned my shirt, conscious of Eve listening to our conversation, making sure my voice was loud enough to fill the suddenly empty space that I’d engineered.
Odin frowned at me. “Hey, I didn't mean anything by that, you know.”
I nodded. “Sure. The comment about staying on another season so you can screw with my girl. That one?”
Odin’s mouth opened and shut in quick succession.
I offered him a faint smile. “I didn’t think so.” I dropped my shirt on the bench seat, holding his gaze. I might be a handful of years older than the man still seated at the table and apparently collecting his jaw from the floor, but I worked my ass off to keep up with the younger Rangers who entered the unit each year. My theory had always been that if I wanted to lead them, then I had to match them at the very least.
And matching anyone had never been my strength.
“Yeah. I got it.” Odin shoved his plate away and stood. His height left him a few inches taller than me, but at nearly six feet I was no slouch.
“Outside is better,” I murmured, holding my ground.
Odin glared at me for another minute, then stormed away. The door to the big house slammed behind him.
I shook my head, gathering the leftover plates. The kitchen was empty, and I finished cleaning up alone.Damnit.I knew better than to show pony around Eve. She hated every inch of it. Subtle and snarky was more her style.
Finishing up, I wiped down the enormous bench that ran the length of the kitchen and stacked the dishes in their places.
“I’m impressed you remember where everything goes.” Eve appeared from behind the divider that led into the larger living room on the other side of the pantry. The windows there looked out into the foothills of the mountain behind the house. At night the outlook would be pitch black, but the light to my cabin would be visible off to the east, the bunkhouse in the opposite direction.
Maybe that was why she put me there in the first place.
“Smart girl,” I murmured.
“That’s not the usual response to that comment you know.” Eve placed a bottle of whiskey in front of me. “Share?”
I pulled a pair of glasses out from a nook beside the fridge. “Always.”
The faint smile that curled the corners of her lips left me aching for her.
“You lost your shirt,” she observed, her gaze sweeping over me. Somehow her study meant more than Odin’s pithy assessment.
I breathed shallowly. “What do you think? Am I too old for you, Eve?” I asked softly, the decade’s difference in our ages having always been a sore spot for me.
She shrugged. “I’ve never really cared how old you are, Rhys. Just how much of an asshole on occasion. Come on.”
I blinked. “Ouch.”
Her laughter led the way through the house to the living area on the other side. She’d left the lights off, the kitchen providing an ambient glow.
“Have you always been so vicious, or did I not notice last time?” I grinned as she tossed my shirt at me.
