Pulling his mind back from a place it had no business going, he nodded and stood, stopping long enough to take his mug and plate to the kitchen sink.
“Lead on,” he said. “I’ll follow you.”
––––––––
ANDY HAD BEEN expecting a lot of things out of her day. A big blond Viking parked in her kitchen hadn’t been one of them. But once Millie got started, there was no use trying to stop her and Andy had known from the moment the older woman pointed Liam out they were in trouble.Shewas in trouble.
How the hell was she supposed to get him out to the back pasture where Jake was plowing? The guy was too big to prop himself on the four-wheeler’s running bar. He’d tip them over before they topped the slope. And the machinery was too fickle to let some guy she didn’t even know drive it. He’d break it and she’d be screwed—and not in the fun way. Not that she was thinking about that. She wasn’t.
It would take the better part of an hour for them to walk to Jake, which left her no choice but to drive him out there herself. He could sit behind her. There was plenty of room. She took Millie all the time. The older woman loved seeing the changes on the farm and despite her strength of will, her body wasn’t up to hiking across the acres of land anymore. Millie wasn’t as big as Liam, and it didn’t matter if her legs brushed Andy’s hips. It would matter with Liam. God, she really was in trouble.
Stomping down the porch steps to put some distance between her and the man while she could, she forced her attention away from the four-wheeler logistics and back to Jake. Maybe Liam would be able to help him find his way back. She’d been really worried about the young man with the haunted eyes. She’d forgive the big blond interloper a lot if he managed to help.
“How do you know Jake?” she asked, crossing the yard and heading to the shed. She was walking as fast as her legs would carry her. He was eating up the ground, matching her distance with a pace more like a Sunday stroll. It pissed her off.
“We served together. He was a newb on my last tour.”
She knew it. As soon as she saw the way he stalked across her yard, she’d have bet he was in the military. There was an economy of motion that rarely came from anything else. She nodded her understanding. He didn’t elaborate, and she didn’t expect him to. She had a feeling Liam was used to playing things very close to the chest, which suited her fine. Oversharing was overrated. She ignored the irony for the moment. Jake’s case was different. He needed to talk to find his way back to civilization. She, on the other hand, didn’t need to share her story to know some things were better left buried in the past. She had a feeling Liam would agree.
She thought for a moment, weighing her words carefully. She didn’t know the man gaining on her but her gut said she could trust him—at least with this, and things with Jake were heading toward critical mass. If something didn’t change soon, she worried it would be too late. She paused with her hand on the shed door and he closed the distance between them.
“He could use a friend.” It wasn’t her place to tell the strange man that she knew Jake had been having more than the usual amount of trouble sleeping. The bunk house was small and even though she didn’t sleep there, she heard talk. She debated saying more, but she didn’t want to feel like she was betraying Jake’s trust. Not that he’d given it to her, but he never would if he felt like she talked about him to a stranger. She settled for something generic. “Coming back is harder for some people.”
The blond man scowled down at her, his gaze telegraphingno shitas clearly as if he’d rolled his icy-blue eyes.
“Lady, that’s an understatement.” He kept thedarlingandpoor dumb thingsilent but he didn’t have to say it out loud for her to hear it.
Arrogant jerk. She used to eat men like him for breakfast and move on to their competition for lunch. The familiar urge to take a chunk out of a know-it-all man reared its head, and she tamped it back down, shoving the feeling in a deep, dark hole before she gave in to its seductive lure. Power felt good. She didn’t need a lesson from a mansplainer to understand that. She needed to remember what it could cost. She glanced over his shoulder to the old farmhouse, standing strong and well-loved in the spot it held for over a hundred and fifty years. Shaking her head, she readjusted her priorities and turned away from the man and back to the shed.
She pushed open the door, careful to stop before it reached the end of the track. She hadn’t had a chance to replace the stop block and if the door rolled off the rails, it was a bitch to get it back on. The four-wheeler waiting in the dim light hadn’t magically grown overnight and her logistical problem moved itself to the forefront again.
Screw it. He could ride behind her like Millie did. She already decided she didn’t like him so what did it matter if his legs brushed hers? He should be the one who was uncomfortable. Not her. She climbed onto the geriatric machine, straddling the worn vinyl seat with a bravado she didn’t really feel. When she glanced up to motion for Liam to climb on, she found him watching her, and his expression shifted into something she couldn’t quite read.
“Jake called me,” he said, momentarily frozen. “That’s why I came.”
He was silhouetted in the open doorway, the sunlight outlining his big shape. The man was a freaking wall. His size alone ought to make him intimidating as hell, not to mention the badass demeanor. It suddenly occurred to her; she didn’t feel even a hint of trepidation around him. Not even the normal wariness that came from being around a man who was that much larger than her. Shoving the thought aside to consider later, she patted the seat behind her.
“I’m glad,” she said, feeling like he’d offered her some kind of olive branch and not sure exactly what it was. “I was hoping he’d reach out to someone. Climb on. I’ll take you to him.” Reaching up, she tightened her ponytail so her hair would stay in place while they rode. May as well eliminate the variables she could.
He tipped his head to the side, considering, but he only hesitated for a moment before coming to stand beside the four-wheeler. She scooted forward as far as she could on the slippery seat and tried to ignore the way the machine settled as he climbed on behind her. He was too big for them to ride without touching each other but at least he kept his hands off to the side. The only contact between them was his knees brushing the outside of her hips. It was still enough to make her want to get him to the back field and out of her hair as soon as possible.
“Hold on,” she said, turning the key and saying a silent prayer the temperamental machine would start without a fuss.
The engine choked and sputtered, but it caught. She pulled out of the shed a little faster than she intended and felt his knees squeeze her hips for a moment before shifting away again. She could do this. No big deal—just drive the Viking out to the field and leave him. Jake would bring him home when they were finished.Totally manageable.
She turned the four-wheeler onto the narrow path following the fence row and started across the two front fields still lying fallow under their cover of winter rye. They planted the grain to keep weeds down over the winter and turned it under in the spring to boost the nutrients in the soil. She’d have to remember to talk to Jake about turning the front field over when he finished what he was working on. She wanted to see about moving the goats onto the middle field for a few weeks first. She’d get Mike and Travis to rotate the pasture so the handful of goats they kept for milk could graze on the red clover before they moved the chickens in.
She got so caught up in playing out the scenarios in her head, she almost forgot about the blond giant sitting behind her. At least until she started up the bank and slid back on the seat, landing squarely against his chest. It was like hitting a wall of muscle and she heard him let out a grunt before his hands closed around her arms, steadying her. His thighs caged hers and he gripped her biceps, but despite the way he pinned her in place with his strength, his touch was surprisingly gentle.
“Okay?” he asked, his voice a warm murmur against her ear. She barely heard him over the noise from the engine and the air rushing past them. And the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears.
“I’m fine.”
She wasn’t, but she would be as soon as she put some distance between them and stopped smelling the coffee and mint on his breath and the underlying scent of something richer. More masculine. And as soon as he stopped touching her, his warm, strong hands practically scorching her through the soft cotton of her hoodie. Using thigh muscles she didn’t know she possessed, she inched her way to the front of the seat and away from the warmth of his chest.
They crested the top of the hill and she slid the last few inches away from him, grateful for the distance, no matter how small. He let go of her arms as they started downhill, presumably to hold onto the bars on either side of the machine to avoid crushing her against the steering column. Andy quickly shoved aside thoughts of being pinned under Liam, his bulk pressing into her. There was no way on God’s green earth she was letting her mind continue in that direction.Not a chance.
She followed the path down the hill and along the edge of the field until they reached the place Jake was plowing. As soon as the tractor came into view, Andy squeezed a breath past her too-tight lungs. It felt a little like running a marathon and having the finish line finally come into view. Circling the four-wheeler in front of Jake, she watched, waiting until the tractor slowed.
“Here you go,” she said, coming to a stop and motioning with her hand for Liam to get off.
She waited just long enough for him to climb down and for the cab to the tractor to open before pulling away and putting as much distance between she and Liam as she could.
