Where are all the big strong gentlemen when you need them? Using all the strength I can muster, I capture one, and then the other. I try to laugh at my exertions, but Jessamine James’ grim expression doesn’t budge. She simply glares at me warily, arms folded across her chest.
The luggage is large and heavy, but on wheels, and if I’d only had an extra hand or two, I’d have been more than fine dragging them along myself. As it is… alas, I have but two hands.
Summoning my last vestiges of optimism, I smile at Tucker’s sister hopefully. “You wouldn’t mind grabbing one of these, would you?” I’ll have enough difficulty managing one of them and my carry-on as it is.
My heels and tight pencil skirt, as sexy as they’d felt earlier this morning, feel utterly inappropriate about now.
I wore this outfit for Tucker. I wanted to doll up for him.
The disdain in his sister’s eyes, however, leaves me in no doubt that she thoroughly disapproves of my attire.
She lets out something of a huff, takes hold of the handle on one of the suitcases, and without saying a word, marches toward the exit.
I don’t know how someone with legs that short manages to walk so fast. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she’s wearing a comfortable looking pair of jeans and cowboy boots while I’m balancing on heels. I can barely keep up with her.
And then we step outside.
Did I mention that it was raining? Ah, yes.
Cats and dogs.
Now I have puddles and streams of water to contend with as well. Navigating the parking lot, a virtual landscape of rivers and lakes, I wince inwardly. These shoes were once my favorites. Now they are sopping wet and rubbing blisters into my heels.
Jessamine strides about ten yards in front of me for what feels like a mile. Damned if I’m not utterly relieved when she finally stops at a huge pick-up truck.
No back seat though.
No trunk.
She opens the tailgate. It’s littered with scraps of hay and mud. And then tosses my suitcase on top.
But?
I die a little inside.
I’m breathless as I arrive beside her. “Do you have anything we can cover them with?” I seriously doubt Louis Viton thought to waterproof the fashionable luggage when he designed it. I feel guilty about the plane being so late and I hate to be a bother but…
She grimaces. “Let me see if there’s something tucked behind the seat that we can use.”
I stand mournfully in the rain, in three inches of water, no less, while she opens the door and pulls out a blue tarp.
We spend the next ten minutes tying it down over my suitcases before both of us climb into the cab of the truck.
“What happened to Tucker? He’s not sick, is he?” I was so disappointed not to see him that I feel guilty when the thought strikes me while I tug at my seatbelt. What kind of girlfriend am I?
She would have told me if something bad had happened, wouldn’t she?
“Rain washed out a bunch of our fences.” Her answer is terse. “He and the boys had to take care of them. Ranch always comes first. You might as well get used to it.”
Poor Tucker! He’s probably beating himself up for not being able to come to the airport for me.
“Thanks for coming all this way today.” And in this weather!
Jessamine and I should have plenty of time to get to know one another. From what Tucker told me before, it’s a two-hour drive from the airport to the ranch.
“Bad weather all around then?” This storm must be huge. If fences washed out it must be raining in the mountains too.
Ashlee would have a field day with this. I stare down at my ruined shoes and shiver as Jessamine nods and then maneuvers out of the parking lot and onto a highway.
