Maggie lit out of work as if she had a rampaging grizzly on her tail after her shifts on both Wednesday and Thursday, successfully managing to avoid Asher when he came in to work on the barn. And Friday night and Saturday weren’t an issue since he took that time off.
By Sunday, she was about to declare a ghosting victory for the week, when a client called her cell, interrupting her post-lunch attempts to train Jackson in her backyard.
“Maggie! Thank you for picking up, dear. I just—I’m in a pickle, and I need your help.”
Gertie Rafferty was a longtime Sutter Creek local and one of the more community-minded seniors in town. She was also Lachlan’s landlord, and the grandmother of Stella’s jerk of an ex-boyfriend. Maggie chose to ignore that particular connection just now.
“I’m just training Jackson, Mrs. Rafferty. What can I do for you?”
Gertie cleared her throat. “I was training Kittay to use the toilet, you see...”
“Uh, the litter box?”
“No, the toilet. I saw it on the internet, and it looked like an excellent idea. Now that we’re in the senior’s living community, I figured it better to have one less thing to clean up.”
“I’m afraid I’ve never trained a cat to use a toilet, Mrs. Rafferty. And it goes against feline instinct, so it’s not—”
“That’s not the problem, dear. Kittay got stuck in the toilet.”
Maggie stopped dead. “Say what?”
“She caught on quick like a bunny. Was on a streak of using it for a week straight. But then... She fell in. And it must have sent the water level high enough to trigger the auto flush, because I heard this awful yowling, and when I went into the bathroom, Kittay’s hind leg was down the crapper.”
“I—” Maggie cleared her throat. This was certainly a first. “Were you able to get her out? Does she need care?”
“Well, I called my grandson.”
Maggie held in a growl at the mention of the Sutter Creek sheriff. He’d get some ribbing about this one at the station. Good. His long-ago actions meant Maggie and Lachlan had been limited to a long-distance relationship with their older half-sister since high school. Ryan Rafferty deserved every bit of grief thrown his way. “Did the sheriff have any success?”
“Kittay was too wound up to let him get near. Scratching his arms into ribbons. We called in the fire department.”
And no doubt guaranteed themselves a spot on the front page of the Sutter Creek Sentinel.
“Mrs. Rafferty—” as much as this story was bound to be recited in the streets and pews for the next weeks, and Maggie had first access to it, she really needed to prioritize the health of her patient “—did the fire department get the cat out? Does Kittay need veterinary care?”
“Well, it took some time, but they did manage to free her. And I know we’re supposed to go to the emergency clinic in Bozeman on your days off, but I’m afraid putting Kittay in a carrier for the car ride would right do her in. Could I impose—”
“Of course. I’ll meet you at the clinic in ten minutes.” So much for having all of Sunday off. And so much for keeping her distance from the hot librarian who kept popping into her thoughts at the most inconvenient times. After hanging up, she stashed away the noisemakers she’d been using to try to condition Jackson and put a hand between his shoulder blades. “Come on, buddy, time to go to work.”
He stood at attention.
She shook her head. He was so darn good at this part of being a service animal. But her attempts to work with him on his fear of noise were not going as well. She’d planned to spend her day working up to his desensitization training. With any luck, whatever attention Kittay needed wouldn’t steal too much time away from their schedule. She clipped Jackson’s short leash on his collar and they trudged across the road. “Maybe if we go through the front, Asher won’t notice we’re here. We can get in and out quick.”
The dog cocked his blocky head.
“Oh, you don’t think we can be stealthy? I know I can,” she said to him, letting herself in the front door. Asher was up to his ears in laminate, according to Lachlan’s reports. Hopefully he’d keep to the back building.
After a thorough examination, she determined Kittay was freaked right out, but hadn’t suffered any injuries. She escorted Mrs. Rafferty and the unhappy, carrier-bound cat back to the front reception area.
The bell dinged, and thudding footsteps entered the room. Crud, Asher had—
She glanced up and her heart sank. Not Asher. Ryan Rafferty. She couldn’t decide what was worse. Asher challenged her willpower, but Ryan brought back echoes of her sister’s tears. Especially when he was dressed in cowboy getup, as opposed to his sheriff’s uniform. Gah. How many times had she seen her sister jump in Ryan’s truck and melt all over his bad-boy-on-the-range self? Only to have Ryan toss Stella’s heart out the window when he got in that truck and took off for the other side of the state after a teenage run-in with the law. He’d never responded when Stella tried to contact him to tell him she was pregnant. Or that she’d miscarried.
Yet another reason why Maggie had been reluctant to get into a relationship, and why getting walked out on herself had been extra painful—she should have known better. A short, sex-only fling was okay now and again, but dating someone just wasn’t worth the risk. Not even a seemingly nice guy like Asher. If she let herself dip her toes into the pool of temptation, she’d end up drowning again.
She fixed a neutral, professional expression on her face and nodded at the sheriff. “Good afternoon.”
“Hey, Maggie.” His smile faded. He took the cat carrier from Mrs. Rafferty and gave the older woman a quick hug. “The truck’s open, Gran.”
Mrs. Rafferty thanked Maggie again and left out the front door.
Ryan, for whatever reason, stayed behind.
Maggie stood behind the desk and crossed her arms. It was always a fine balance with the sheriff. She couldn’t forget his past with Stella, no matter how long ago it had happened. Her loyalty lay with her sister. But Sutter Creek was a small town, and both Maggie and Lachlan worked with Ryan on search and rescue operations. The sheriff was the technical head of SAR operations in the county, so as much as she wanted to snub the man, she couldn’t compromise their professional connection. “What can I do for you?”
“Thanks for humoring my grandmother,” he said, tone as tentative as an arrogant, self-involved law enforcement officer’s could be.
“I wasn’t humoring her. Kittay could have had significant joint damage.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess. I appreciate you coming in on the weekend either way.”
She stared at him. Why wasn’t he getting the memo that he wasn’t welcome here? Did he forget what he’d done, stealing a key part of her family? With their parents never providing a warm and loving home in Chicago, Maggie and Lachlan had depended on their summers in Sutter Creek to be their foundation, their chance at normalcy with their grandparents and older half-sister. But when a heartbroken Stella had vowed never to return and took off for the East Coast, Maggie and Lachlan lost their close relationship with her. Stella hadn’t only cut Ryan out of her life, she’d thrown up walls with her siblings, too.
The silence must have grown uncomfortable enough for Ryan to have to break it, because he said, “I—uh—I heard Stella’s investing in the expansion.”
“News travels,” she said, teeth gritted.
“Do you think she’ll be coming for a visit, then?” Faint hope lit his eyes.
Well, it was her job to crush that hope to dust. “You don’t get to ask about her, Sheriff.”
“I know, but, Maggie—”
“But nothing. You’re good at your job, and I respect that. And I’ll take orders from you during any SAR incident when we’re both on scene. But I’m not discussing Stella. And we’re not going to be friends.”
He exhaled, a frustrated noise that filled the otherwise empty waiting room. “Let me know if we can change that at some point.”
Turning on a heel, he trudged out.
She was about to lock up when a throat cleared behind her. She jumped and let out a truly pathetic shriek. Spinning, she took in the burly frame of the man standing in the hall that ran perpendicular to the front desk. His hands were jammed into his worn jeans.
Putting a hand over her thrumming heart, she took a breath and squeaked out, “Asher!”
He sent her an apologetic smile. “Thought you heard me come in.”
“Clearly not.” Oh man. Cotton T-shirts everywhere were probably begging for the opportunity to grace this man’s shoulders. He’d trimmed his beard, and the hitch at the corner of his mouth... A little knowing, a little nervous, a whole lot sexy.
Gah. Those shoulders, that mouth—they were not for her enjoyment. She really needed to keep it friendly.
But the flutter in her belly was not getting the memo. She steeled herself, fighting the silly, instinctive smile that wanted free.
“Third time’s a charm,” he said.
She lifted a brow in question. “What do you mean?”
He took his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms, and good gracious, that made the ropes of muscle in his forearms bulge in spectacular ways. “You weren’t here either Wednesday or Thursday.”
“I wasn’t. I was, uh, out training Jackson.” That was truthful enough. She didn’t need to explain that the reason she’d taken the dog elsewhere was to avoid having to look into Asher’s dark brown eyes and feel things she shouldn’t be feeling. “Good thing Jackson’s napping in the back room. You would have scared the daylights out of him.”
“Instead, I scared you,” he said.
Heat spilled into her cheeks. “Startled. A little.”
His lips twitched. “If that’s what we’re calling it these days.”
She lifted her chin. “We are.”
“So, uh, who was the guy? An ex?”
“I don’t date,” she snapped.
One of his dark brows raised in a wary arc. “Apologies for hitting a button. I just wanted to make sure you’re safe.”
She inhaled through her nose. “Sorry. Forgot that you’re not a local. You wouldn’t be privy to my life history. That was the sheriff. My sister’s ex.”
“Being in law enforcement doesn’t necessarily mean he’s safe.” Asher’s serious tone was so darn soothing. As was his caution. Her pulse slowed from her earlier anger at Ryan and being startled by Asher.
“He’s not a physical danger,” she said.
“Which isn’t the only kind of safety that matters.”
And by saying and knowing that, Asher was all the more fascinating to Maggie, pushing her that much further into the danger zone.
She backed up a few steps until her rear hit the desk. She glanced pointedly at the clock on the wall. “It’s my day off. I should really get out of here.” If she left now, she could put in three hours of training and playtime before dinner.
His face fell. “Oh. I was going to ask you for a favor. But if you have to go, don’t worry about it.”
Curiosity piqued, she sighed. “What do you need? Someone to hold the tape measure?”
He smiled sheepishly. “No, I’ve conscripted Ruth for that. But she’s been really patient today, and I want to get another hour of work done. I was wondering if she could hang out with your dog.”
“Well, I—”
“Sorry, you probably have plans. You weren’t even supposed to be in today, were you?”
“It’s always something. Today happened to be a cat flushing itself down a toilet.” She smiled, just a small one. If she gave him more than that, she might be tempted to give him even more still.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “With intent?”
“There were no witnesses.”
He chuckled. “Is that why the law showed up? Taking the cat into custody for self-harm?”
Had the law enforcement officer in question not shattered her sister’s heart, she would have laughed, too.
“Nah. But the fire department got called.”
“Oh man. A story destined to make the rounds,” he said. “By the time I open the branch tomorrow, I’ll have three people telling me they heard the firefighters had to give the cat CPR, and extracted the entire toilet from the house, and it took the Jaws of Life to finally rescue the poor feline.”
She smiled fully. With teeth, almost. Shoot. But she couldn’t help it. She could see him standing behind the circulation desk in a dress shirt and jeans, looking sexier than any person deserved to look, humoring a stream of patrons as they spread exaggerated tales of Kittay’s trauma. “You’ve got Sutter Creek figured out.”
“I hope so.”
His eagerness hit her right in the chest. It was impossible to miss how he liked the quirkiness that made the small town home. Given she wasn’t ever going to make a family with a partner, being a part of the community, no matter its overbearing moments, gave her a place. And Asher seemed to want that, too, for him and Ruth.
And I could help with that. With friendship, that is.
“I have to put in a few hours with the dog this afternoon to make up for losing time here,” she said. “But maybe Ruth can give me a hand with desensitization training. She can make noises for me.” The invitation spilled out, unwanted but impossible to take back. No matter. She could figure out a way to ignore the curling heat in her belly for the sake of helping this man and his daughter feel like they were a part of the town. “And I was planning to take him for a walk down Main Street later, if you want to come with.”
He grinned. “I think we can make that work.”
A couple of hours later, Asher wiped the sweat and sawdust off his face and forearms with a rag he’d tucked in the back pocket of his jeans. He was using the main space of the barn as his work area, what Lachlan had explained would be the indoor training and multipurpose area. But for now, it was a cement-floored, empty-walled, square room, about half the size of a small tennis court. A safe enough space for Ruth, as all the major construction work was done and she knew the rules about being safe around power tools and stacks of supplies. Boring for her, though. Asher was halfway through installing the flooring in the office spaces and classroom. The cabinet work would take longer, so he had weeks left of Ruth’s long sighs. He’d emphasized how this would mean skiing soon, and she was on board, but hanging around watching her dad do construction work wasn’t exactly riveting.
Hopefully Maggie didn’t mind having Ruth pitch in with the dog. They’d vacated for the yard once he turned on the circular saw. The dog had nearly hit the ceiling at that noise.
After cleaning up his work site, he headed outside to find his daughter. He was sorely tempted by Maggie’s invitation for a walk, but would he be outstaying his welcome?
At least he knew she wasn’t looking for a deep connection of any kind. Her “I don’t date” had been pretty damn clear. Which lined up nicely with his commitment to keeping Ruth’s and his life simple.
The part of him that wanted to stare at Maggie’s dancing smile and lithe form all damn day would just have to piss off.
He stepped onto the grass, and a hundred-and-fifty-plus pounds of Great Dane galloped toward him like the world’s most ungainly white-tailed deer. Jackson wasn’t wearing his vest, and a chew rope dangled from one side of his mouth.
“Hey, buddy.” He scratched the dog’s ears and got a full-body lean in return that rocked him back on his heels. Catching his balance, he grinned at Ruth, who stood across the lawn with Maggie.
Maggie smacked her hands against her jeans-covered thighs to call the dog back. “Jackson, come.”
A brilliant smile split his daughter’s lips as she motioned for the dog to drop the rope and then tossed it, sending the beast gamboling across the lawn again.
His heart squeezed at the joy on Ruth’s face, and he strolled over.
“Liking that smile, peanut.” He took in Maggie, her blond curls bouncing around her face. “Thanks so much for including Ruth.”
“She was a big help,” Maggie said. “Did you decide on the walk?”
He hadn’t needed to decide—his daughter’s happiness did it for him. Even if it meant hiding how, in an ideal world, he’d be more interested in an adults-only date. “Yeah, we’re up for that. As long as we find some ice cream on the way.”
A half hour later, Asher handed Maggie her raspberry cheesecake swirl cone. Her appreciative smile hit him square in the chest, and he almost stumbled back against the waist-high counter from the impact. Man, this woman’s smile could shake the earth.
And all his good intentions.
He mentally steeled himself and smiled back.
“Thank you,” she said, Jackson in his vest at her side as she waded through the Sunday afternoon crowd in the ice-cream shop, Gallatin Gelato. “You have good taste in flavors.”
He raised his own double scoop—the same flavor as hers—and held the door open for her. No reason to read anything into coincidentally ordering identical treats—it wasn’t that odd a choice. “Too many good options. Ruth and I might have to make a weekend habit of coming here so I can try them all.”
He and Ruth followed Maggie as she turned right along the town center’s raised sidewalk. Ruth was quiet, busy enjoying her blue bubble gum scoop nestled in a waffle cone.
“I’d say your waistline would complain from repeat visits,” Maggie said, “but you don’t look like you have to think about that.” A second after casually tossing that out, she stumbled on the wood planking. Jackson went on the alert, nudging her ankle and freezing in place.
“You okay?” Asher asked, chest warming a little that she’d admitting to paying attention to his physique.
She reddened, and he got the distinct impression that her stumble hadn’t been a training exercise. Had she not meant to give him the compliment, either? It had been fairly offhand. Maybe she hadn’t meant it as anything but an observation.
“I’m fine,” she said. She praised the dog and started walking again. They spent a few minutes strolling along the sidewalk with Ruth leading the way. Maggie pointed out some of the stores in the vicinity.
“The town should hire you as a tour guide,” he said.
Her cheeks pinked again, matching the swirl of raspberry in her cone. “I used to work for the Chamber of Commerce during the summer. Old habits die hard.”
“No, I appreciate it. I mean, Caleb and Garnet have shown me around a few times, but it never hurts to have another perspective. Got any leads on used ski equipment for kids? Garnet’s employee discounts don’t extend to her fiancé’s niece, so she can’t help with Ruth’s ski costs as much as I’d hoped.”
“Yeah, Skis and Spokes runs a consignment program.” She waved her free hand at a large storefront anchoring one of the four sides of the town square. The pedestrian-only area, four streets framing a pristine lawn, buzzed with activity, despite it being the early October shoulder season.
“That’d be perfect. What do you say, Ruth—should we check out some skis next Saturday?” Next Shabbat was an off week for their small synagogue in Bozeman. His beliefs didn’t run as deeply as his mother’s did or Alex’s had, but Ruth had really benefited from the community and rituals since Alex’s death. Asher made it a priority to attend services whenever possible.
Her face lit up even more than when she’d been playing with Jackson and he’d suggested ice cream. “Seriously, Daddy?”
“Of course. As long as you can keep being patient while I get the finishing work done, we can start looking at getting you up on the hill. We’ll have to wait to figure out the ski team, but Garnet’s happy to give you lessons once the season starts, regardless.”
Ruth frowned. “Oh. Not the team.”
“Not yet.” His gut pinched. He had no problem saying no to his daughter when it had to do with setting healthy boundaries, but having to deny her a new athletic activity made him question his parenting abilities. “I’ll see how much money I manage to save while working on the barn.”
“I know, Dad.” She trudged ahead, glancing longingly at a high-end sporting goods store window as they passed.
A flash of turquoise, Ruth’s favorite color, caught his eye from the window display. The snow jacket looked to be her size. Maybe if it went on sale at some point, he’d see about getting it for her birthday in January. But that was something to deal with later. Right now, he was far more interested in getting closer to the woman walking alongside him. The breeze fluttered around them, sending little whiffs of her scent his way, and damn, she smelled like a dream. “Jackson seems a hundred percent in tune with you.”
She blew out a breath. Her knuckles whitened around the dog’s short lead. “He’s awesome as a support dog. But you saw him today with the noise from the saw. I’m running out of ways to help him over his fear.”
He hated the defeat in her tone. “That sucks, Maggie. What’s your next step?”
“Sound recording therapy. But I dunno. If he hasn’t responded already...” Her lips screwed up tight for a second. “Failing is the worst.”
“Grandpa says that if we fall down seven times, stand up eight,” Ruth said offhandedly before taking a big lick of her bright blue ice cream cone. “And Papa told me failing’s part of learning.”
Maggie’s mouth twitched from disappointment to amused. “That’s solid advice.”
“Alex was a teacher,” Asher said. “Infinitely more patient and wise than I am.”
To the point where, in his lowest moments, his blackest grief, he wondered why in the world it had been Alex to die rather than himself. That Ruth would have been better off... But it didn’t do much good dwelling on life’s mysteries. He’d just follow Alex’s advice and do his best. And learn any time he screwed up.
“Sounds like your Papa was a pretty great guy,” Maggie said to Ruth. “Which doesn’t surprise me, because you’re a rather lovely kid.”
“Thank you,” Ruth said, a hint of “I know” coloring her tone. She’d been praised lavishly since she was a baby, so she accepted it as truth. “Maggie, I was wondering...”
“Dr. Reid,” he murmured.
“Maggie said I could use her first name, Dad.”
Oh, the beleaguered tone of a preteen. “Excellent. Just checking.”
“Anyway,” Ruth continued, dark eyes growing serious. “What happens... Well... What happens if Jackson doesn’t get used to noises?”
Maggie paused as they crossed the street to the green space, clearly weighing her words. “Well, the organization I’m training him for will rehome him.”
Ruth stiffened. “You’re not going to keep him?”
“He’s not mine to keep.”
“Well, that’s the worst,” Ruth announced. “Oh!” She perked up. “There’s Harper. Can I go say hi?”
“Of course,” he said.
She sprinted across the lawn, skirting the gazebo, a frilly, pastel-painted structure reminiscent of the Cape Cod houses they’d rented as a family on summer vacations. It had been a tradition from his childhood that he and Alex had kept up as parents, up until Alex got too sick to travel.
“She’s delightful, Asher,” Maggie said, gaze tracking his bounding daughter. Jackson looked longingly in Ruth’s direction, but stayed close to Maggie’s side.
“I like to think so.”
“Says a lot about you.”
He shrugged. “It’s all guesswork. And following my parents’ example.”
Her forehead furrowed. “Can’t say my parents provided any parenting skills I’d want to mimic.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
She sighed. “I don’t want kids of my own, so it’s moot.”
Yeah, he doubted that. Deciding not to have kids was fine and good, but growing up with crappy parents sure wasn’t. He’d experienced that intimately with Alex’s family. And Maggie deciding to open up intrigued him. A change from her guardedness, from how she’d so obviously been avoiding him. How much time would it take to fully break through the wall she had built up? But that wasn’t the right way to look at it. He cringed at the thought of breaking something about her, even if it was a metaphor. Talk about exactly what Alex’s parents had tried to do to their son. No, any leeway into Maggie Reid’s psyche would have to be freely offered up. An autumn project, perhaps. Convince her he was trustworthy.
He’d start with some semi-common ground. “I wasn’t sure about parenthood, myself. I could have gone either way. But Alex loved kids—I was happy to follow his lead. And Ruth, well... Can’t ask for a better child.”
She nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, I love kids when they’re older, but I’m not maternal around babies.”
“No judgment here.” He held up his hands. “I had lots of kid-free friends in Brooklyn. And I can’t say the infant stage was my favorite part of fatherhood. Ruth keeps getting more fun the older she gets.”
“A bonus to living in the city—far more people who aren’t hitched and procreating.” She motioned toward the groupings of families tossing Frisbees and lounging on the grass. “Even though Sutter Creek has its fair share of seasonal employees, the core is pretty two-parent, three-point-four-kid based. I’m an outlier.”
She was? She’d had conversations with about eight different people while they’d been waiting for their ice cream. “You seem pretty tied to the town.”
“Oh, I am. Sutter Creek is in my blood. Through my grandparents, that is—I can probably count on one hand the number of times my parents have been here in the past twenty years. They haven’t even come to meet Laura yet. Stella hasn’t, either. And that’s not the kind of person or neighbor I want to be. I just meant that being single and not being a mom doesn’t really fit the mold.”
“Better to break the mold than force yourself into it,” he said. “Trying to live a lie eventually hurts more than it does to live outside everyone’s expectations.”
She raised a brow and corrected Jackson when he sidestepped too far from her hip. “A personal lesson?”
“Yeah. The assumptions people make about me being bi never fail to amaze.” Fortunately, he’d been born to accepting, open parents. His road hadn’t been quite as bumpy to travel as some of the journeys of his friends back in New York, but had still had its challenges. He’d started to think about coming out at eighteen, first wondering if he was gay, then being told by a school counsellor that it was likely just a phase because he’d had a girlfriend. For a while he’d believed there was something entirely wrong with him before he finally broke down in front of his mom. She’d talked things out with him, had accepted him, helped him to accept himself. Having a safe retreat had made it easier when people questioned him about when he was going to pick a side or assuming he was attracted to every living, breathing human on the planet.
Maggie blew out a breath. “Learning to be true to yourself isn’t exactly painless, though.”
“No, not at all,” he agreed. “Didn’t magically get easier with age, either. Alex and I had to accept that our love meant never having a relationship with his parents. Not the easiest thing to explain to Ruth. But we decided living life—rejecting hate—was the best example to set for her.”
“They... But...” Her mouth fell open.
“Don’t worry about defining it. There aren’t the right words.”
“Do people give her a hard time?”
“Sometimes about having two dads, sometimes about her ethnicity. Depends on where we are. She’s pretty resilient most of the time. More than I was at her age.” He waved at his daughter, who was halfway across the lawn, skipping in his direction.
She came to a halt, cheeks pink and eyes bright. “Harper asked me over for dinner. Can I go?”
“What are they having, love?”
“Cheeseburgers. But I can ask to keep the cheese off,” she said hurriedly, smile wobbling.
He nodded at his daughter’s attempt to fit their eating habits in with her social life. “Okay. Just do your best. And be honest with whoever is cooking dinner if you need to. If there aren’t enough options, you can eat when you get home. We have leftover udon in the fridge.” He turned to Maggie. “Be back in a minute.”
He walked Ruth back to her friend and confirmed details with Harper’s dad, who seemed unfazed by the particularities of Ruth’s diet.
Asher left his daughter to make friends. Was that what he was doing with Maggie? Making friends?
He couldn’t tell if his jittering nerves were from leaving Ruth with a new family or from the time alone with Maggie.
She was doing a big loop around the grassy square with the dog, practicing training maneuvers and occasionally having to calm him when he got spooked. He made it back to her side just as she was rising from a simulated fall like the one in the library that he’d thought was real.
She brushed off her knees and cocked a blond brow. “I’m ignorant on this one—cheeseburgers aren’t kosher?”
“Nope. No milk and meat in the same meal,” he answered.
“Huh. I feel I should have known that, given I’ve eaten at your brother’s house a few times.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Caleb’s nonobservant. And I’m not a hundred percent. Other than on holidays, we only keep a kosher-style kitchen. Alex and I decided it was enough to strike a balance.”
She nodded. “Well, you’re safe at my house. I’m vegetarian—my kitchen’s been meat-free since I bought the place from my grandfather a few years back.”
That was close to an invitation—
Close, but not exactly. She isn’t interested in you coming over.
Nor could he afford to wish she was. Best to keep things in friend mode. “I’ll remember that if we’re ever at a group function—I’ll bring something vegetarian friendly.”
“Thank you, I—” She coughed, blushing. “Are you going to finish up more work on the barn? Now that you’re free and easy for a few hours?” Her gaze darted to the dog, who stood at her side, intent on his task. Her hand tightened on his lead.
“I will. But I’ll probably grab something to eat first.” No time like the present to work on trying to get her to relax a little more. Friends could share a meal out, after all. “Feel like joining me?”
“Sorry. I need to keep working with Jackson.” She tugged on her lip with her teeth. “You’ll be at the barn on Tuesday? With Ruth?”
“By myself,” he explained. “She has Hebrew school that afternoon. Caleb’s going to take her to Bozeman—he has some errands to run.”
“Do you like Thai food?”
“Love it.” Loved where this was going, too.
“Tofu pad Thai okay? And veggie green curry?”
Warmth bloomed in his belly and he grinned. “Absolutely.”
“I’ll grab takeout. See you then.” Dropping a quick goodbye, she jogged off, the dog loping at her side.
He barely had time to say goodbye, or to thank her for the tour around the square before she was out of earshot. And her impulsive offer had seemed to surprise her as much as it had him. But something about her determination made him believe that, unlike last week, when she promised she’d see him at work, she’d follow through.