I clasped his hand. “You smell nice.”
Shit. Shit. Why did I say that out loud?!
“Thanks.” He chuckled as we shook hands. His grip was strong, fingers rough, hands of a working man for sure. “It’s a marked improvement, trust me. I was up to my shoulder in a very stressed cow.”
“Oh, is she okay?” I pumped his hand madly but couldn’t seem to stop. For some reason, he let me.
“She’s fine now, and the baby is as well. It was an unplanned breeding. Bulls do have a way of busting through fences when they’re in the mood for love.”
Wendy rolled her head around to watch us over her glasses.
“Maybe you should show him the back office, Aiden?” Wendy interjected into our stupidly long shake session. Cheeks hot, I released his hand as if it were a rattler.
“I’m not sure if I should. He might take one look at the boxes of printed notes and hightail it out of here.” He gave me that wink of his, pulled his shirt over his wet hair, which was a damn shame, and waved me into a room that used to be an exam room. Inside, there was a desk with a lamp, an inflatable raft still inflated, a life-size cardboard cutout of Woody fromToy Story, and two stacks of egg-shipping cases. “So the boxes are my notes.”
I looked at him in shock and horror. He had the good grace to grow sheepish. It only made him sexier. “Yeah, I know. They start maybe in 2020. During the pandemic, I sort of lost interest in being neat about such things and…yeah, well, I kept being lazy. Paperwork and I are in a love/hate relationship. Actually,” he rubbed at the back of his neck, “it’s more a hate/hate relationship. I’d never end up lying in bed, spent, sharing a cigarette with a stack of invoices.”
“Only thing he won’t take to his bed,” Wendy shouted from the front.
Aiden snorted in amusement and shrugged. “She’s not totally wrong. Can I help it if I enjoy the company of a handsome man instead of boring old medical notes?”
“Uhm. No?” I ripped my sight from those beautiful dark brown eyes. Staring at the boxes of papers to be put into order helped keep my dick from growing fully hard. “This is a mess.”
“It is, but I have no doubt that you’ll have it whipped into shape in no time. So do you think you want to tackle this job?” He waved at the egg-shipping cases. I shouldn’t have glanced over at him, but I did. Foolish, weak man that I am. And I got just as lost in his eyes as I always did.
“Yes, I will tackle this job.”
“You’re amazing. Thank you, Ford.”
Happiness sprouted deep in my breast. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell the family. They were always nudging me to be more outgoing. They’d be so pleased.
4
Chapter Four
“You did what?”
I paused in sprinkling grated Romano cheese over my plate of spaghetti to find Baker scowling at me over the basket of garlic bread.
“I agreed to help Aiden with his notes,” I replied and resumed sprinkling. There is no such thing as too much grated cheese on pasta. I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
“Can someone pry that bottle of cheese out of Ford’s hand so the rest of us can have a taste?” Linc asked, which made me sprinkle faster. Granny cleared her throat. I reluctantly passed the shaky cheese to my brother. “Thank you.”
“Can we get back to this working with Aiden thing?” Baker asked, leaning forward in his chair across from me with a fork jabbing in my direction. “I’m not sure that’s wise.”
Bella handed me a chunk of garlic bread before speaking up. “Why would it not be wise?” She started cutting her spaghetti. I loved her like a sister, but cutting was not how you ate spaghetti.You twirled. “Ford, stop watching me cut. I know what you’re going to say.”
I hurried to look somewhere else. At Hanley chasing a meatball around his plate, then to Baker, who had lowered his fork as he spoke to Bella.
“Because I know Aiden. He’s a player, and he’s been hot on Ford’s ass since you both arrived. I think he’s using notes to lure him into his seduction aura, then once he bangs him, he’ll dump him to move onto the next conquest.”
“Wow, that’s some way to talk about one of your best friends,” Linc said and got nods from Hanley, Bella, and me. Granny was silent, which was odd.
“Hey, I love the guy. He’s a great vet, a good friend, and a hell of a poker player. Would give anyone the shirt off his back, but do I want my little brother being sucked into his vortex of pump and dump? No.”
“Studebaker Bastian, must we be so crude while eating dinner?” Granny finally spoke up as I tried to get my thoughts in order.
“Sorry, but Ford isn’t really ready for such a prime-time player,” Baker argued, which pissed me right off. “He’s so timid and shy. He’ll get his heart broken.”
