“Nothing this entertaining!” Drake hollered.
Jack’s long legs covered the yard and had him close enough to see the four-year-old reindeer with a naughty side approaching the woman at the fence.
“You’re pretty, but you’re right antler is crooked,” said the woman. She turned at the sound of Jack’s approaching footsteps and his breath caught in his chest. Her caramel-colored hair had highlights running through it that he hadn’t been able to see from the porch. Her blue eyes were round with wonder and delight and shock as she took him in. Her round face had all these interesting angles he wanted to stare at for hours. His feet stopped so suddenly that the rest of him kept going, and he stumbled like a fool.
A fool for her.
Her appearance here, at this moment, was a shock to his system, as if he’d been waiting for her his whole life and only just found out she existed on the same planet.
“It’s you,” she said. Her mittened hand went to her hair, and she glanced down at her clothing as if they mortified her.
“It’s me?” Jack questioned. What did she mean? “Have we met?”
Sugar leaned over the fence and snatched the woman’s hat right off her head. She let out a yelp and threw her arms up.
Jack jumped between them, his hands up to ward off Sugar’s next reindeer prank. “Sorry!” he said to the mystery lady. “She’s jealous of beautiful women.”
Sugar stomped her hoof.I am not.
If he weren’t careful, she would take his hat too. He was rather fond of his black felt hat. “For no good reason,” he crooned to her. “She’s a stunning creature.”
Sugar lifted her tail, and her chin flicked both like a girl throwing her hair over her shoulder and, prancing away, dropped the beanie in the snow just out of his reach.
“Rascal!” Jack called after her.
The woman stared at her hat, covered in reindeer slobber and frayed from the chewing Sugar decided to inflict upon it.
She groaned. “How am I going to stay warm now?” She wrapped her arms around herself, and he suddenly had a picture of his arms around her.
“I have a few ideas,” Jack said the line without running it through a filter. If he’d taken even one extra second, he would have reminded himself not to flirt, not to follow the arrows that pointed his heart toward her. The organ was worn out from trying and failing to find love for two years. It deserved some time on the bench to regroup. Besides, this must be an actress from California. A fling was not in his future.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and smirked. “No, thank you.”
His ears burned, and he felt like an idiot. He’d just met this woman and already embarrassed himself in front of her. However, he couldn’t let her freeze. He took his cowboy hat off and dropped it on her head. “I’ll be back to get that from you later.” He walked backward a couple of steps, taking in the view. By darn it, if that cowboy hat didn’t look better on her, then it ever had on him. Shoot, this woman was a stunner.
He’d just have to avoid her for the rest of the month. It shouldn’t be too hard.
“Jack!” called Drake, waving him over to the porch where the blonde-haired boss woman waited. Great, it was time to meet Natasha. He should have guessed that the loudest woman there was her. She seemed like the kind to take charge and run with it. Well, he had an assignment, and he’d better get to it.
Even as he moved in that direction, he glanced over his shoulder to see his reluctant cowgirl stomping after him. He didn’t want his hat back, not yet anyway, though he was reluctant to figure out why he wanted her to wear it.
CHAPTERFIVE
Natasha hurried after Jack Nicholas.
Yes, she’d recognized him. Not that she’d stared at his picture several times over the last week. She was too busy to have time to daydream about what kind of man was behind that infectious grin. The problem was that she’d had to communicate with him several times, and every time he was charming.
Every. Time.
Her: Do you have an open space, the size of a parking lot, where we can park trailers?
Him: I’ll make one for you.
He’dmakeone for her?
He’d make onefor her?
No man had made her toast before, let alone a parking lot.
