But I wasn’t staying behind. If he and I were going to be faking a relationship, I fully intended on doing it the right way.
CHAPTER 14
TRENT
Imet up with Colby to get the lowdown on everything that had happened while I’d been gone. Thankfully, my foreman had never been one to mince words.
We stood next to the main barn while he gave me an update that sent relief trickling all the way through to my soul. The cows were healthy, the bulls were thriving, and the breeding program was still on track.
I nodded along, trying not to zone out once he turned to less important updates, but it was harder than it should’ve been. Unfortunately, while I couldn’t really afford it after being gone for so long, I was distracted today.
Charlotte looks damn good in that dress.
She was picking her way across the yard in her shiny heels, carefully avoiding every stray clump of dirt. I caught her glance at me with wide eyes, clearly a little overwhelmed with the situation but evidently still determined to join me instead of staying put and sitting pretty in the house.
God, I should’ve given her a hat at least.
I’d been so surprised when she’d asked if she could come with me that it had never even crossed my mind. Now, the poor girl was shielding her eyes from the brutal Texas sunshine witha manicured hand, the sun beating down on her bare shoulders, and while I should’ve thought about it as her problem and not mine, some protective instinct was growling and snapping about getting her to the safety of shade.
When she finally reached us, instead of acting on that impulse, I cleared my throat and waved at my foreman. “This is Colby. Colby, this is Charlotte, my girlfriend.”
Both of his eyebrows shot up, clearly trying to reconcile the glamorous woman in front of him with the rough-and-tumble ranch work part of me he knew so well. But he simply tipped his hat and pretended not to notice that she was wearing a powder blue, designer dress that would never survive this dirt.
“Miss,” he said cautiously. “Welcome to the ranch.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a polite smile, looking like she was trying to appear unshaken, but I knew better. “I’m thrilled to be here.”
As she said it, she slid a hand onto my shoulder and stepped closer to my side, flashing me a sweet smile and batting her eyelashes. Seeing it as the challenge it was, I slid my arm around her waist and absolutely didnotnotice how well she fit against me.
Colby glanced between us, smiled, and tipped his hat again. “It’s nice to meet you, miss. I’ll be seeing you around. Maybe get your girl some boots, Trent. What kind of gentleman are you?”
She smiled up at me, enjoying herself. “Yeah, Trent. A gentleman would have gotten me boots. Thank you, Colby, for keeping him in line.”
Colby chuckled and took off toward the barn, undoubtedly to ask the others if they’d met the boss’s city girl yet, but as soon as he was gone, she let go of me and lifted one dark, perfectly arched eyebrow. “How was that for not overthinking it?”
I shrugged. “It could’ve gone worse.”
A faint smile spread on her lips, her delicate hands finding her hips now that she seemed to have found her footing in the dirt. “Sure, Cowboy. Keep telling yourself that.”
I will, thanks. What else am I going to tell myself, that I had a brief flash of what it might feel like to have you underneath me, completely at my mercy? Yeah, that’s not happening.
“Let’s go, Westwood. We’re burning daylight and we’ve got a lot more people to check in with.”
“That was all you needed to discuss with your foreman?” she asked, her brow furrowing. “It seems like that meeting could’ve been an email.”
“It’s not all I need to discuss with him,” I said, looking away from her to sweep my gaze across the yard. “There’s a whole heck of a lot more, but for that, we need to be in front of a computer. This was just the highlights.”
“And so, even ranching has moved into the digital age,” she said solemnly before she winked at me. “Soon, your hands will be as soft as Alex’s.”
I sighed, spun around, and smiled when she squeaked as she realized she’d have to try to keep up with me. “Ranchinghas never been as backward a business as you seem to think.”
“Clearly.”
She sounded impressed, but I didn’t turn to check. I shouldn’t give a shit what she thought.And yet…
Introductions to the ranch hands we ran into went about as smoothly as I might’ve expected. There were some polite nods and a few curious glances but mostly we encountered skepticism—and way too many roving eyes when they thought I wasn’t looking.
Eventually, in an effort to quell the rising tide of possessiveness I had no business feeling, I let her wander a bit while I finished off. As soon as I was done, I went over to whereshe’d been standing overlooking some of the paddocks and jerked my head toward the truck.
