“I’m surprised Louie didn’t try to get underneath your pit. It smells like apples.”
“He did.” I laughed. “This is why I do not spend much time with the horses.”
She grinned, coming in close and placing a smooch on my temple. “We’re short staffed, Sis. Ty went to meet the new recruits. Granny vetted and approved them herself. They’re only temporary. Cruising right on through town.”
“Should I get the cabins ready?” I asked.
“Done.” She whistled in the opposite direction, calling Judge and Juri to her side. “Wanna bet how long they’ll make it? Ty said they have a really nice truck.”
Atta and Ty always judged how long a man would stay by the state of his truck. The newer the truck, the less likely they believed he would survive the hard work. Atta called them wannabe ranchers who watched a television series and thought that they, too, could do what was being shown on the electric box. Most of them were “outta here,” as Atta would say, not long after they arrived. Dude Ranch time was over. This was real work requiring long hours and tough circumstances.
“How nice?” I asked.
She shrugged. “He didn’t give me details. He just said, ‘really nice truck,’ take the bets. Then he hung up.”
Judge and Juri’s ears perked up a minute before we heard it. The crackle of the driveway, before dust clouded the area. Ty flew out if it, coming to a harsh stop. Judge and Juri’s ears perked up even sharper, and Atta and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised. The truck behind Ty’s was one of those Dually monsters. It was not only growling with power, but showy. Matte black, dark tinted windows, and red rims to compliment the trim. The music causing the windows to tremble was clear to hear. Hip Hop Country. “Ms. New Booty.”
Ty raised his eyebrows and grinned, then started moving his shoulders to the beat. Atta and I started laughing.
“Half a day!” Atta squeezed my arm. “That’s where my money’s at.”
“I don’t know,” Ty said. “That’s all I’m going to say. People are not always who they seem at first glance.”
Atta and I looked at each other, both of our eyebrows raising again. Then my feet were raised off the ground and I was being turned around in circles.
“Sis!” Ty was giving me a bear hug as he spun me around.
This was the first time I had seen him since I had arrived. I looked down, setting my hands on his wide shoulders, and smiled at him. He looked up at me, and all I could see was Hannah. He was the spitting image of her family. His smile could tease the sun out of the clouds. I tried to respond to him, but he was hugging me so tightly, I could barely breathe.
“How long are you here this time?” he asked. “Forever. Forever, right?”
“Sis has a cottage with her name on it.” Atta smacked me on the behind. “Ms. New Bootyknows it.”
My cottage. My perfect little slice of heaven. Hannah, who I called Granny as well, had basically given it to me. She felt it was where I belonged. She knew it would become my happy place.
“I wish,” I barely got out, then I started to choke on my own spit.
The two men, the two new ranch hands, had stepped out of the silent truck—the music had been turned off with the motor. When the shot-gun rider had set his feet on the ground, it was like an earthquake had hit.
Ty had stopped spinning me, but my head kept going around in circles. I could not catch my breath. The man’s eyes automatically connected with mine, then his narrowed stare went straight to Ty.
“Lord,” Atta breathed next to me. “No wonder Ty didn’t want to bet. That truck is dang deceiving. Those men don’t fit, but I have no doubt they’re going to pull their weight around here.”
Exactly!This was what I was trying to explain all along. However, I could not even agree, because my eyes were locked on the Casanova Prince. He had found me.
He had found me!
I was not sure how.
Except…
I was responsible for designing and creating their jewelry, and Casanova’s line put tracking devices in their pieces—jewelry that was worn often. Before my time they didn’t, but my grandfather and father told me this practice had started after an intelligent man who headed their security had started it. His name was Mac. His son, Saverio, was married to Mia, Mariano’s sister. The only piece of jewelry they could have bugged on me was the necklace, and I had not taken it off and given them the chance to bug that.
How the hell did he find me?!
He did not look happy. At all. The smugness seemed to be wiped clean from his face, and it was set into a mask of stone. His eyes were narrowed. His lips pinched. A vein on his forehead was swollen. His muscles seemed bigger, somehow. His T-shirt too small. He was wearing a pair of old jeans and boots. A worn-down ball cap, emblazoned with the insignia of Italy’s football (soccer) team, sat atop his head—turned backward, which only reinforced the serious set of his face. His jaw could cut steel.
Dang,as my cousin would say.I was in so much trouble.
