She had never seen the man look even remotely uncomfortable. Not like this.
“If I take a compliment, then I’m going to get complacent.”
He took a bite of the strawberry roll, and his eyes went back in his head. “Lord Almighty. This is amazing.”
“Complacent in what way?”
“I don’t know, it might turn me evil.”
He was keeping his voice light, but she could see that he meant it.
She reached out and put her hand over his. “Cody Grayson, you are the farthest thing from evil. You’re a damn good man.”
They finished eating in silence after that.
Chapter Eighteen
The ranch was doing brisk bookings for different excursions, for both guests and non-guests of the ranch. The trail rides were incredibly popular, and even people staying a couple of hours away would come out to do the trail ride, particularly one that went up above Painted Ridge and offered occasional views of the Mustang herd.
For the last few weeks, Cody had spent almost every night with Marlowe. She had a girls’ night with Cara, but that was pretty much the exception to the rule.
He snuck in and out of so many entrances and exits at the hotel that he felt like one of the rats hiding out in the walls. But he didn’t mind.
She would do the same. Staying at his place and then making an effort to swan downstairs in her work clothes after sneaking in one of the fire exits.
It was fun. It was the kind of thing he’d never done before. He’d never… had a relationship before. He didn’t know if it was a relationship if you didn’t have a label, and if you didn’t have any intentions of it going anywhere.
The thought made his chest feel so sore. But there was noreason for the soreness. It was Wednesday, and a lighter guest day at the hotel, and he’d been toying with the idea of inviting Marlowe on one of the trail rides. He went on the occasional trail ride, though generally Nolan would lead those.
They were toying around with the idea of wilderness skills workshops, too, which is something that Zane would lead, but he feared that Zane would need a personality transplant. Even with that, he often went on the trail rides because it was like having search and rescue along with you. And a medic.
He texted Marlowe and asked if she could get away for the three o’clock trail ride, and she responded with an emoji that had heart eyes, which made him smile, and that kind of irritated him, because he felt like he should think it was silly. It was silly, he just didn’t feel like it was silly.
She showed up in jeans that hugged her pretty ass in ways he could only thank God for, and a tight tank top that made him want to drag her right back to the bedroom.
When was this going to subside? He just had no framework for it. He didn’t have any idea what had happened to make him want this one particular woman more than any other woman in the entire world.
And he didn’t know when something like that was supposed to cool down. How much fuel there was in a fire like that, because it had to exhaust itself eventually.
He was aware he was standing there staring at her, but suddenly he was overcome by the idea, the realization that it was possible she would get tired of him before he got tired of her.
And then what would he do? Watching her wander around the ranch looking like this when he knew full well he couldn’t have her?
It would kill him.
Unfortunately, one thing he did know, one thing he had never worried about, was that being obsessed ran in his family.He’d been so worried about being his father he had never even considered that he could become his mother.
An idea that made him extremely uncomfortable.
“I’ve never ridden a horse before,” she said, smiling.
“What?”
The declaration knocked him out of his musing.
“Yeah. The farm that I helped with just had miniature horses. So I’ve been around them, but I’ve never ridden them.”
“Well, luckily, this is pretty easy. And these are the kinds of horses that just follow the leader.”
