“Wow,” Kay said and glanced over her shoulder at Vaughn, who was frantically motioning to her. “Good luck, Charley. Nice to meet you?—”
“Yeah,” Sully said without giving his name. And with that, he dismissed her by looking at his menu.
After the woman, whose hair at the back of her head was maroon, walked away from their table, with a soft laugh, Charley asked, “Where did all that come from?”
“I don’t know, but you started it,” Sully replied with a smothered chuckle. “Maybe we can write this lunch off as a business expense now that we’re partners.”
“Yes, definitely,” Charley agreed with a giggle. “By the way, that text I got was from Rod saying he and Kay are definitely not back together.”
“Something tells me they deserve each other,” Sully muttered with a shake of his head.
When the waitress returned, they ordered burritos and quesadillas with rice and beans, along with margaritas on the rocks. They enjoyed their meal without further interruption. Sully wouldn’t let Charley pick up the check, and upon leaving the cantina, they both ignored the table where Rod and Kay sat. Out on the sidewalk, they headed back to Charley’s place. They paused at the door to her shop.
“I need to start the cleanup process,” she said.
“Nah,” Sully said. “Leave it for today. It’ll be there tomorrow. Come back out to the country with me. We’ll go for a ride on horseback or the Harley, and I’ll show you around your new ranch. Then I’ll make smash burgers for supper.”
“That sounds too good to pass up but?—”
“Then don’t pass it up. Come on.”
“Since I don’t have usable shower curtains, may I take a shower at your house?”
“Absolutely.”
Sully held out his hand, and she slipped her dainty one into his. They walked up the hill to his truck, and Charley ducked into her apartment long enough to put a few things into a leopard print duffel bag. Back out in his truck, Sully headed for home. He couldn’t help but wonder who was plaguing the beautiful young woman sitting in the passenger seat of his truck. He could tell with a quick glance at her pretty profile she was perplexed as well.
“In the last month, I’ve experienced an attempted rape, two murders in my neighborhood, my car damaged from top to bottom, and my apartment and shop vandalized,” Charley said softly with a note of wonder in her voice. Looking at Sully, she said, “I don’t understand it, but I’ll figure it out if it’s the last thing I ever do.”
“In the last month you’ve gotten a whole new family and made friends with your new neighbor-slash-business manager.”
“Yes.” When Charley smiled at him, her blue eyes sparkled with what Sully was fairly certain represented a mixture of tears and joy. “Thank God for family and friends.”
Sully reached across the console and took her hand. He gave it a squeeze and winked at her. She sighed and looked out the window. He let go of her hand and drove out of the Springs into the country. Entering the driveway of his ranch, he stopped the truck outside of his oversized three-car garage.
“Horseback or Harley?” he asked, and with a click of a remote, the garage door opened.
“Hmm…Harley today, country boy.”
“You’re on, city slicker.”
He pulled the truck into the garage, and they hopped out. His Harley was parked in an empty space next to the truck. Two spots over was his Jeep. Leaving Charley’s bag and purse in the truck for now, he fitted her with a helmet. She was a mixtureof innocence and sex appeal wearing a black helmet. He put his own black helmet on and backed his Harley out of the garage.
“First time on a motorcycle, right?” he asked and straddled the Harley.
“Right,” she said.
“Step onto the foot peg and thread your leg between me and the sissy bar,” he told her, and when she’d done so, he gave her left knee a pat. “Hold onto me like you did when we rode Storm.”
Never had a ride on his bike been so much fun as it was with Charley Cooper wrapped around him. He toured her through her ten-thousand-acre ranch and then took her across some of his thirty-thousand acres. Sully drove her over hills, around curves, into valleys, and across the countryside, all the while seeing it fresh through her eyes. They made stops here and there as she asked questions. The afternoon hours passed quickly, and by the time they pulled into his driveway again and parked the Harley, Sully felt like he’d known Charley forever.
“Hard to believe we only met twenty-four hours ago,” she said, taking off her helmet.
“My thoughts exactly.” Sully placed his helmet and hers on a shelf in the garage near the motorcycle. “Twenty-four hours ago it was suppertime. Hungry?”
“I am, but I’d love to take a shower if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“Absolutely no trouble.”
