I do my best to smile, but the thought of having to go into town and possibly walk into a store and do some grocery shopping, then come home and cook dinner sounds miserable.
Nash seems to pick up on my thought trail and says, “Don’t worry. There’s a great bar and grill in town. We like to go get hamburgers and fries and milkshakes after a long day of work. It makes those sore muscles feel one million times better. I promise there’s something magical in those milkshakes.”
I smile at him. “I guess you would be the expert since you live here.”
Nash stops at the beginning of the sidewalk to the lodge. “Oh, I definitely am,” he says, giving me a wink.
I could get lost swimming in that gaze, I’m sure of it. Those eyes make me feel like I’m the only woman in the world he would dream of looking at. They’re the kind of eyes that make me want to tilt my head to the side and kiss him.
My eyes widen as I realize I’m slowly leaning toward him.
Thankfully, my wayward thoughts are interrupted.
“I’ve got to run over to my house and get cleaned up,” Max says, ruining the moment. “We can take my truck into town.” Then he turns and heads to the bunkhouse behind the lodge. I didn’t even see the bunkhouse when we pulled in last night because it’sdown a path behind the main house. But Max calling it a bunkhouse is slightly comical since it’s an adorable two-story farmhouse. Nash explained earlier today that Max lives here only sometimes because he splits his time between this ranch, and the other half of the ranch which is forty-five minutes away.
“Why did you come here then?” Nash asks him.
“I didn’t want to miss the show.” He grins and hurries to leave. Nash’s glare is probably burning a hole in the back of Max’s shirt.
“You know, you can set me down now,” I tell Nash.Before I do something that will embarrass both of us, I think.
“I could, but there’s a bathtub upstairs that you might like to take a closer look at.”
“A big one?” I ask, shifting my arms to rest one behind his neck and the other on his far shoulder. “A bath sounds like a little piece of heaven.”
“I’m not gonna lie,” he says while carrying me up the stairs. “I’m sore today too. Too much time in town doing office work.”
He’s only slightly winded by the time we reach the top, and I realize that this man has carried me all the way from the barn, up a fairly inclined driveway, to a big house, and upstairs. He really is all that.
“I’m not going to lie; I think I could get used to being carried around. Where have you been on my regular leg days?”
CHAPTER 27
Nash
I’ve givenher about thirty minutes to soak in the tub. I don’t know if that’s long enough or not, but I’m getting kind of hungry, so I knock on the door to check on her.
“Magnolia?”
There’s a slight sloshing sound.
I call out again, “Magnolia, are you alive in there?”
A little more sloshing.
“Magnolia, I need to know if I should break down this door and come do mouth-to-mouth.”
“They discontinued mouth-to-mouth a couple of years ago in the general classes. You’re way out of date on your first aid,” she calls back.
“Well, I could still volunteer to try it.”
Quiet splashing. Then she speaks again, “Nash Whitlock, are you flirting with me?”
“If you call talking about putting my lips on yours, then, yes, I am.”
She laughs, and I hear more sloshing. I can’t believe I’m talking to her about kissing. And she’s not screaming her head off. Then again, she might think I’m joking—I’m not.
“I just finished rinsing my hair. I’ll be out in a minute.”
