Liam opened his mouth to say there weren’t any cows but his phone vibrated with an incoming email. Suddenly nothing mattered but finding out everything he could about Andrea so he could keep his original plan of getting Andy in his bed. The skeletons in her past didn’t bother him; he had plenty of his own. The last thing he intended was to judge her for hers, but he wanted a chance to reconcile the woman he knew with the one Gabe dug up.
By the end of the hour, he knew more about mortgage securities than he’d ever wanted and was more confused about how they worked than before. He also felt like he’d found a completely new person buried under theGive Peas a Chancefarmer who’d been filling both his waking and sleeping thoughts. He flipped the tab on his laptop to the images search and the picture of the sleek, polished woman filled the screen. He could see his Andy underneath the artfully applied makeup and lacquered hair, but there was something else there too. A kind of arrogance in the tilt of her chin and the set of her shoulders in the power suit he’d bet cost more than all the clothes in his closet combined.
He’d seen the look before on some of the CEOs they’d protected. The younger ones who hadn’t lived long enough to know it was a hell of a lot harder to stay on top than to get there. That kind of arrogance was hard to make sense of with the woman he’d come to know over the past week, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to try. If anything, he was more interested in Andy now that he’d seen the woman she’d been.
What made her change? And what had happened with Millie?
Gabe sent over the bill of sale for the farm. The land had been deeded in Millie and her husband’s name, but Millie’s signature was the only one on the sale. It looked like her husband passed away before the sale. From the files, it appeared like the farm had been up for bank auction but Andy closed on it before that happened. For way above list price—hell, for way more than the property should be worth.
None of which made any sense. Liam shifted on the bed, easing his legs out from under him. He’d be more comfortable working at the kitchen table, but he wouldn’t risk anyone looking over his shoulders. It was one thing for him to dig into Andy’s past. Not that it was right, but he had no problem making his peace with it. It would be an entirely different thing for him to expose her to everyone else.
Gabe was right. She’d gone from the top of her career on a trajectory that might easily have landed her on their client list to dropping completely out of sight, only to emerge a year later as a do-gooding goat farmer. She must have had a good reason for what she’d done and Liam was a firm believer in letting everyone keep their own secrets. Just because he wanted—no, needed—to know everything about her didn’t mean he was willing to risk outing her.
Over the years, he’d learned to trust his gut and his gut was telling him whatever Andy had run from in her past was just that. In her past. The woman who spent her days taking care of everyone around her—including an irritating rescue dog—was the real person. He didn’t know why she’d made the choices she had and a part of him he wasn’t all that familiar with really hoped that someday she’d tell him. But knowing about Andrea didn’t make him want Andy any less. Lord knew he had enough secrets of his own.
Closing the laptop, he stood and smiled at the creaking of his bed. He was going to go spend a few hours learning about goats and then he was going to find his hippy farmer and test the structural stability of her furniture. And if somewhere along the way she decided to share her past with him, he’d hold onto it like the gift it was. Either way, he counted himself a very lucky man.
––––––––
DINNER HAD BEEN over for hours and everyone had finally cleared out of the house. Otter Fox crept out from his spot under the hall table to curl up on the rug between her and Millie’s feet. He’d taken to hiding under the table as soon as one of the men appeared, but he watched everything that happened in the house, and he’d stopped growling when one of the guys got close to her or Millie. She counted it as a win, even if it was a pretty shallow one.Baby steps.
Which left her sitting in the chair, staring at a book she couldn’t concentrate on while she tried to decide what to do about Liam. He spent dinner alternating between recounting his time with the goats and drawing Jake and the others into conversation. And somehow every single thing he did and said felt like a crazy kind of foreplay. He’d watched her all through dinner. She’d feel his gaze on her like a physical touch and glance up to find him looking at her like he was trying to puzzle something out. It kept her off-balance and she’d had to concentrate to keep from dropping things while she helped Millie with the food.
Although, honestly, she’d been off-balance since the kiss in her office. She remembered the feel of his hands on her body and the ache that made her forget about everything but getting as close as she could to the man who took up too much space to be ignored. She wasn’t a prude, not even close, but she’d never risked doing anything that would make her position on the farm awkward before. She’d never even considered it. But one afternoon with Liam, and she’d practically had sex with him in her office. With the door open.
If it hadn’t been for the dog, she couldn’t say what would have happened. She stretched her foot out to run a toe along the dog’s back, and he flopped over sideways, finally relaxing.
Liam seemed aware of how close they’d come to crossing a line she couldn’t afford to cross. She’d seen the heat burn in his gaze when he looked at her but he kept his distance until dinner was over. He’d been the last one to leave and when he closed the distance between them, coming close enough she could feel the warmth from his body, her pulse hammered so hard in her chest she worried for a moment it might burst.
He crowded her personal space, filling it with the clean scent of her soap and man and she tried not to picture him washing his body with something she made. Sliding his soapy hands over the muscles of his arms, his abs, his powerful thighs. She’d miraculously stopped just short of drooling, forcing her mouth closed when he leaned in to whisper in her ear.
“I’ll be waiting.” Three little words that practically tipped her into ovary overload. And then he left and she was stuck sitting in her living room trying to figure out how to get out of the house and what to do with the damn dog. There was no way she was taking him with her. The next time she got her hands on Liam, she wasn’t going to let anything stop her until they got what they both wanted.
She’d been wrestling with the logistics since before dinner and she wasn’t any closer to a solution. If she locked the dog in her room, she was afraid he’d whine and bother Millie. Not to mention, she hated the idea of leaving him alone. Not as much as she hated keeping Liam waiting but still.
“Oh, for the love of God,” said Millie, setting her knitting to the side. “You’re going to drive us crazy with the thinking all the time. Why don’t you take a walk? Past Liam’s cottage. And stay awhile.”
Andy bit back a gasp. She hadn’t assumed Millie was blind; she just hadn’t expected the older woman to be quite so perceptive.
“You think I didn’t see you two eye schtupping each other all night? The man barely touched my pot roast.”
“Eye schtupping?” Andy couldn’t have stifled her snort if she wanted to.
“You know what I mean.” Millie waved a hand in front of her, clearly running out of patience. “You didn’t expect me to give you the milk and cow lecture, did you? Go. Have sex and for God’s sake, don’t overthink things. And don’t chase him away afterward by getting all moody. He’s a good man, that one. You might try practicing some of that opening up thing you’re always preaching.”
“Jesus, Millie. Tell me how you really feel,” she said, smiling at the older woman who never ceased to surprise her.
“I liked sex. What can I say?”
Millie and her husband had been married for almost fifty years. Andy couldn’t imagine what it would be like to love someone that long and then lose them. And she never let herself forget it was her fault he was gone. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you are, darling. You’ve made a life’s work out of punishing yourself, and I’ve had enough of it. It wasn’t your fault.” She held up her hand when Andy started to protest. “Or if it was, you’ve done more than enough to atone for it. Look at me.”
Andy turned to face the other woman, forcing herself to meet Millie’s surprisingly piercing gaze.
“I have a good life here. I’m happy. Happier than I’d be if I was alone in this farmhouse. A hell of a lot happier than I’d be stuck in one of those assisted living places. You need to stop using me as an excuse to keep from living your own life. It’s not fair to either of us.”
Andy swallowed hard and nodded, unable to get words past her too-tight throat.
“Good girl. Now get on out there and have sex. I’ll take care of the dog and you can tell me all about it in the morning.”
“Millie! I’m not telling you anything.”
“Not details. Just whether he’s good or not. I can fill in the rest myself.”
Andy stifled a groan, not sure what to say that wouldn’t make things crazier.
“What are you waiting for? Go.”
