Austin woke at the crack of dawn. During the winter, sleeping in the barn had made his bones ache in the freezing cold, but now the Montana days grew warmer with spring taking hold.
After working all day yesterday, his whole body rebelled against the slightest movement. His muscles clenched every time he even thought about getting up. He didn’t know how many times he’d dragged the large trash cans out to the Dumpsters yesterday, but it was enough to tell him he was getting old and soft. If nothing else, all this hard labor would get him ready for the ranch work ahead.
Before he let his mind spin out on everything he needed to do to bring animals onto the ranch, he focused on what needed to be done today. He and the guys Sonya hired had cleared the main living space. It shamed him to let anyone see the place in such dire conditions. But what they did in one day would have taken him two weeks or more on his own.
He turned his head and stared at the piles of stuff on the tarps out in the yard. At first, he’d wanted to keep every little thing. A lot of the stuff had barely been used, if ever.
He found a vacuum cleaner in the box. Why? There wasn’t a square inch of floor you could use it on. Until now. He found other cleaning supplies and flattened boxes. Signs his grandfather had at least wanted to try to clean out the house, but like Austin, he had probably taken one look at the mess, gotten overwhelmed, and simply ignored it rather than do the hard work.
Austin had spent too long putting things off for later.
He’d put his whole life off for later.
Not anymore.
His muscles still protested, but he rolled up and turned to sit on his uncomfortable and too-small cot. Across the yard and next to her truck, Sonya stood on a mat in tight black pants and a pink long-sleeve T, her arms stretched up to the sky. She bent at the waist and planted her hands on the mat, her sweet round ass pointed right at him.
Damn. He’d spent most of yesterday trying not to notice the beautiful dictator. From the minute she arrived, she’d been in charge, telling him where to start, what to do, when to take a break, when to eat, when to quit for the day. She set up all the workers and contractors. She made the decisions for the updates to the house. He’d gone along for the ride because he’d been too hungover to think let alone keep up with her.
Today would be a different story. He didn’t need her to get the place in order. He could oversee the workers. She was supposed to write the checks and make sure he didn’t squander Roxy’s money. He wished she’d stick to that and stay out of his way. Because she was a distraction he didn’t need or want.
His aching morning wood didn’t heed his wishes. It wanted to nudge itself right past her round bottom and bury itself deep inside her.
But that would end in disaster.
She was Roxy’s sister. The last thing he wanted to do was give Roxy any reason to back out of their deal.
Besides, he didn’t have the money to take her out on a proper date and still fill the gas tank in his truck.
So he’d kept his head down yesterday and tried to keep up with the guys helping out.
Didn’t mean he didn’t notice Sonya’s boundless determination, her strength, and the way she defused his anger and frustration when it came to this place and how he’d let down his grandfather. The woman didn’t bat an eye at the mess, the roaches scurrying from one hidey hole to the next, or the rodents squeaking their displeasure at having their homes disturbed. She voiced her opinion about the atrocious smell, but never demurred when it came to cleaning unidentifiable grunge and droppings.
He’d had a moment when he stood in the middle of all that filth and disarray and thought he should just get a bulldozer and level the place. But with every memory he uncovered—the rocking chair his grandmother read him stories in, the paint-by-numbers floral painting his mother did in high school that hung proudly over the fireplace, cans of his favorite Hershey’s hot cocoa he used to sip by the fire while playing cards with his grandpa—he wanted to return the house to what it was for him: a home where he’d been safe and loved. Where he’d been enough.
Sonya moved into a deep lunge, arms overhead, then falling sideways as she stretched. Maybe he should join her and loosen up, though he doubted anything would untie the knot in his gut that pulled taut every time he looked at her. He tried not to look into her eyes. Every time he did, he saw something deep inside her. A longing and wanting.
Not the way he wanted her in his bed. It had been a long time since he’d satisfied the itch she exacerbated with every graceful move she made as she worked out in the soft morning light. No, she wanted something deep and meaningful.
How did he know that? He’d seen the way she looked at the house and talked about how his grandfather buried his memories. A life he’d lost with the death of his wife and daughter.
Austin felt their loss keenly. Yes, he’d lost his mother, but did that kind of pain even come close to losing a beloved wife and child? The ache in his chest had intensified with every recollection of the good times he’d had here with his family.
Granddad must have found the memories unbearable to have buried them deep in the chaos he’d created in the house.
Unwanted and unloved by his own father, Austin finally understood why he’d been drinking himself into oblivion. He missed his mother, his grandparents, and the love they’d given him unconditionally and wholeheartedly.
Their loss had hit him harder and more profoundly than his father firing him from the business and disowning him. At the time he’d thought Kelly would stick by his side. She didn’t get his connection to this place. She said he loved it more than he loved her. Well, he’d kept the land and let her go. If she didn’t get it, he didn’t need her.
That’s what he told himself.
But the long lonely nights always made him second-guess himself.
After what Kelly did the other day, he had no doubts he’d made the right choice. Her deceitfulness and calculation cut deep and showed him just how little she cared. Who could do something so despicable to someone they claimed to love?
Sonya rolled up her mat, set it in the truck bed next to the inflatable mattress where she’d slept last night, picked up a toiletry bag, and headed for the back door.
He stood and stretched his back. His foot knocked over a beer bottle that toppled two more. Sonya stopped and stared over at him. She didn’t show any outward sign of disapproval, but he felt it all the same.
She thought him nothing better than a drunk. Well, she’d had the barbecue and beer delivered last night for him and the crew, though three beers was nothing compared to what he’d been drinking lately.
He didn’t need to forget and numb his body and mind anymore. He had things to do, a business to start. He deserved a couple of cold beers at the end of a twelve-hour day.
She didn’t know anything about him and what he’d been through.
I’m arguing with myself.
Fuck.
He didn’t care what she thought.
To prove it, he grabbed his stuff and headed for the kitchen. They’d left the doors and windows open to air the place out last night. It only smelled half as bad as it did yesterday. They didn’t need the masks in the kitchen. The bedrooms they needed to clear today remained to be seen.
Sonya stood at the sink brushing her teeth. He set his bag of stuff next to hers, took out his toothbrush and paste, spread some on the bristles, and started to brush. She didn’t say anything about him standing so close. She spit in the sink, turned on the water, leaned over to drink from the faucet, swished, and spit a couple of times. She left the tap on for him to do the same while she raked her fingers through her long dark hair, drew it into one hand, then used the band around her wrist to tie it up in a ponytail. She cupped her hands under the water and splashed it on her face. While droplets dripped into the sink, she squeezed some liquid soap onto her fingers, set the bottle down, lathered the soap on both hands, then scrubbed her cheeks, chin, and forehead. She rinsed, then used the small towel draped over her shoulder to dry off.
“That stuff smells good.” Like the apricots pictured on the label. “Can I use some?”
She handed him the bottle. While he washed his face, she spread lotion over hers and massaged it in. When he finished rinsing his face, she handed him her towel.
“You’re quiet in the morning.”
“I need coffee.” The pot slowly dripped on the counter in front of him. “I’m sure you do, too.”
For some reason, that sparked his anger. “I’m not hungover. I had a few beers after a long day. Shoot me.”
She held her hands up in front of her. “Hey, I’m not your babysitter. Do whatever the hell you want. I only meant if you’re as tired as I am, it’s going to take a lot of caffeine to get through this day. You want to get smashed, be my guest. You’re the only one who can ruin this deal. I just work here.” She grabbed her stuff and walked out, leaving him feeling like a complete asshole and still holding her towel in his fist.
He pressed it to his big mouth, smelled her, and tossed it on the counter she’d cleaned along with two mugs. The rest of the dishes she’d salvaged from the cupboards and piles in the house were stacked and spread out on a tarp out back.
She’d worked her ass off yesterday, fed him and everyone else, then made the coffee this morning. He had no doubt she’d work just as hard today. For him. For this place he couldn’t let go. And he’d snapped at her because he was angry at himself for the way he’d been behaving this past year, not because she’d in any way reprimanded him the way he deserved to be.
Disappointed in himself for hiding in a bottle and treating the few people left in his life like shit, he vowed to do better and be better.
He rinsed the mugs in the sink just to be on the safe side, then filled both with hot coffee. He carried them out the back and found Sonya standing at the lowered tailgate of her truck. He handed one mug to her.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. And I’m sorry about snapping at you. Drinking to avoid my problems was beyond stupid. I want this project to work, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to make it happen. I don’t need a drink, I need this business to succeed, and I know that only happens if I’m on my game.”
She stopped studying the papers in front of her and turned to him. “Keep your shit together and work harder than you did yesterday.” Sound advice. She gave no quarter. He didn’t deserve any. But her direct manner still annoyed the hell out of him. “What do you think about opening up the casing into the living room and putting in an island?”
Back to business. “I think it will cost a lot of money I don’t have.”
She pinched her lips. “I think it’s just what the house needs.” She picked up her phone and tapped a button. “Ask the cabinet guys to add an island to the order.”
“How many messages did you record for yourself yesterday?”
“It took me twenty minutes to go through them last night and write them up on my various lists.”
He cocked his chin toward the phone. “Is that how you keep track of everything?”
“It’s easy and convenient. I don’t have to stop what I’m doing and find a piece of paper or my notebook.” She set her phone aside. “It may take an extra day or two for the cabinet guys to do the island. I sent them the final measurements for the kitchen last night. If you need the kitchen sink for anything, I’d do it this morning because I’m tearing out the old cabinets and sink today.” She opened the lid on a plastic bin and pulled out samples. “This is the floor I chose. Wide planks to match what’s in the living room.”
Sonya held up a white square. “I went with marble countertops. Classic. Because the floors are dark, I ordered white cabinets with brushed nickel nobs. They come in standard sizes, which is why I could get them so quickly. I’ll match the kitchen cabinets in both bathrooms with under-mount sinks and brushed nickel faucets. Roxy suggested wood-look tile on the floors.” She pulled a sample from the bin and set it on the tailgate. “She also chose the rectangular shower tiles.” Sonya showed him the light gray tile sample that had a soft texture that added depth to the pale color.
“I knew she wanted to redo the kitchen, but both bathrooms, too. That’s going to take time and a hell of a lot of money.”
“We talked about it and agreed that doing it all at once when the house was gutted was the best time. Once you’re working the ranch and busy with other things, you’ll never find time to do the improvements.”
“I take it the ‘we’ you’re talking about was you and Roxy plotting and planning my life.”
“I don’t see how redecorating is plotting and planning your life, but we did save you from picking tile and floor samples. If you want to change something, then say so.”
“I don’t want any of this. Yes, I wanted the house cleaned out, but I don’t want to be beholden to Roxy for all this money. She said she’d help me with the ranch. Okay. Let’s focus on that.”
“I’m sorry, Austin, but there is no way in hell Roxy is going to allow you to live like you’ve been living here. She grew up in some terrible places. She knows what it’s like to go to sleep and hope the cockroaches don’t cart you off in the middle of the night.”
“Roxy knows? Or you know?”
She stared into her coffee mug. “Roxy has a kind and generous heart. She wants to do this for you. It’s happening. Make my life easier and just go with it.”
“I heard you quit your job and gave up a huge salary and a chance at a promotion.”
“The promotion went to a coworker who did half the work and was a quarter as smart as me, but he had a couple years on me and the same equipment as the guys running the place, so despite my being the better employee, he got a job he’ll suck at and no one will do anything about it because he’s part of the boys’ club. They didn’t bat an eye when I gave my notice. But I’m still getting emails asking for help on accounts.”
“I hope you told them to fuck off.”
“If only. I might need a reference, so . . .” She shrugged and pulled more tile out of the bin. “What do you think of this for the kitchen backsplash?”
He gave up his objection to the renovation. Apparently he couldn’t win that futile battle.
Black, white, and light gray tiles in different sizes were held together by string or something. “I like the random pattern. The colors will go with the marble. It might be nice to have some color.”
Sonya dipped her hand into the seemingly bottomless bin and pulled out a sheet of dark blue glass tiles. “What if we pulled out some of the black and added in the blue?”
“I like green better. Maybe a dark and light shade added to the pattern. Green goes with everything, right?” He spread his hands out to indicate the massive fields around them. “Let’s bring the outdoors in.”
“Green it is. Any other requests?”
He didn’t want to add to the bill, but . . . “What about the appliances? I can live with a coffeepot and toaster oven, but an upgrade might be nice.”
A glimmer of a smile tilted her lips. “Everything new in stainless steel. They’ll be delivered in four days. So you’ll have to rough it a few more days.”
“I can’t believe you’ve got this all set up and ready to be done in such a short amount of time.”
“Yeah, well, it will be a few extra days to get the bathrooms done. But once they are, you’ll be thanking me. Well, Roxy.” She put away all the samples and folded up the blueprint of the house she’d drawn up. “Sun’s up. Let’s get to work. The crew will be here in about an hour, but I’m sure you and I can make a dent in the hallway to the bedrooms.”
“Drink your coffee first. I want to go through the donate and keep piles, see if there’s anything I want to switch.”
“Okay. I’ll drink my coffee and sort dishes. There’s so many random items and multiples of things that I need to see if there’s actual sets of things that make sense and donate some of the extra items. I mean, how many potato peelers do you need?”
“Two. One for me to help and one for whoever’s actually doing the cooking.”
She chuckled under her breath and smiled. This time a real one that brightened her eyes.
“You should smile more. It makes your beautiful face kind of sparkle.”
Her head dipped and she turned toward the house. “How many orange juicers do you want to keep?”
“None. Juice comes in a carton.”
He thought he caught the whisper of another laugh on the breeze as she turned behind the back of the house.
He dove into the piles of stuff he’d tossed on the donate tarp. At first glance in the house, he hadn’t thought he needed any of it, but now, thanks to Sonya making him see what the house could be, he took a second look.
Instead of looking at the place as his grandfather’s house, he needed to see its potential and what it would be as his place. Green glass tiles on the backsplash, a new kitchen island, and all. So he picked up the brand-new boxes of Christmas ornaments and put them on the keep tarp. He picked out the cream bath towels that still had the tags on them. A little dusty and dirty, but they’d wash up nicely. The black wrought-iron lamps would look good in the living room. He pulled the dirty shades off them and tossed them in the trash. He’d have Sonya add new shades to her growing list of items they needed to buy on their next trip into town. He saved a carved wood horse and an hourglass with deep blue sand to use as decorations in the living room. It felt good to look at the items and think of how he could use them in his house.
He lost track of time sorting the two piles and making sure everything he kept would have a place and purpose in the house. He’d have to buy some new furniture, but the mix of new with old would make for a good place to come home to after a long day working the ranch. Some of it he’d keep for sentimental reasons. Other items for pure practicality. But by the time he finished, he had a sense of what worked for him and it wasn’t the overpriced underused stuff he’d lived with under his father’s roof.
The apartment over the garage had been his getaway and as far as he’d managed to move out. He’d told himself it was because he’d worked for his father and needed to be on the vast property most of the time. While he didn’t miss his father, he did miss the 800-thread-count sheets on the massive king-size bed he used to sleep in. But when his father kicked him out, it had been with his clothes and not much else.
He stared back at the house and hoped the bedrooms weren’t as bad off as the front of the house had been. If he could salvage some of the bedroom furniture and the bed frames, in a few days, he could buy a new mattress and he might actually get a good night’s sleep.
Sonya had probably already thought of ordering a mattress. He’d never met anyone so efficient and thoughtful. She’d arrived and hit the ground running. From what he’d gathered, she and Roxy had spent a lot of time planning what needed to be done. Sonya had set that plan in motion. And despite his objections, things were moving forward whether he liked it or not.
He had to admit, he couldn’t wait to see the house restored.
“Hey, man, where’s the hottie?”
In a flash his blood boiled with anger. He turned to Chris. Josh and Mark, the other two workers from yesterday, looked very interested in their work boots. Chris didn’t catch the warning when Austin took two menacing steps toward him, barely able to contain his temper.
Austin took another step and crowded Chris so he had to look up, catch Austin’s narrowed eyes, and step back before Austin grabbed him by the shirt and shook some sense into him. “Sonya, your boss, is around back. I expect you’ll get your head out of your ass and remember to address her by her name with a hell of a lot more respect than you showed thirty seconds ago.”
Chris held his hands up and took another step back. “Hey, man, I didn’t know you two were a thing.”
Austin didn’t correct him. Chris should respect Sonya whether they were “a thing” or not, but if these guys thought they were together, they’d steer clear of her.
“Grab the empty trash cans we left by the Dumpsters last night and let’s get started.”
The men headed over to grab as many plastic garbage cans as they could carry. Austin turned back to the house and spotted Sonya standing on the wide porch watching him. He didn’t know if she’d heard the exchange, but something in the way she stared at him made everything inside him still and take notice. She didn’t shy away from looking right at him. He stared right back. With a nod that didn’t tell him a damn thing about what was going on inside her head, she walked down the steps and approached him.
“Do you have a sledgehammer?”
He cocked up one eyebrow. “Why?”
“Demolition.” The glint in her eyes told him how much she wanted to destroy something just for the fun of it.
“Garage probably.” He waved his hand out toward the two-car garage that stood twenty feet on the other side of the house. She walked beside him, quiet as usual. He grabbed the handle on the pull-up door but hesitated. “I haven’t been in here in a long time. Step back just in case whatever he’s got crammed in here comes down in an avalanche and buries you.”
Sonya took a few steps back. Austin pulled up the door and stepped back all at the same time, prepared to fend off anything that fell forward.
Sonya busted up laughing at his angry growl.
“All this time you’ve been camped out on the porch and the garage is empty.”
Everything stood as he remembered it as a child. The workbenches, toolboxes, tools hanging on the walls, every damn thing in its place and perfectly in order.
“Fuck me.”
Sonya swallowed another round of giggles and stared up at him with all innocence and anticipation in her bright eyes.
Austin shook his head. “I don’t get it. The house is crammed with shit. The barn and stables are ready to fall down around me. But the garage is in perfect order.”
Sonya touched his arm. The heat from her touch shot up his arm and spread through his whole system. The last woman to touch him left him repulsed in the end. Sonya ignited a wildfire. Though he knew she wanted to comfort him, he had other ideas about how she could go about doing that for the next couple of hours. Days, tops.
Sonya squeezed his arm and let him go. “I’d have thought it was crammed to the rafters, too.”
Austin missed her touch. “Maybe, but ten seconds later you would have checked to be sure. I was so pissed at my dad for kicking me out and spent every dime I’d saved to hold on to this dump, I just assumed and threw up my hands in defeat.”
“It’s okay, Austin. We can use this space to hold the boxes and bags you’ve got on the porch from your move here and some of the bigger items we need to clean up before we put them back in the house. I can restore the dining table and chairs, paint that cute little bureau, and probably recover the ottoman with those gorgeous swirled spindle legs.”
He didn’t think, just pulled her into his arms and hugged her with his cheek pressed to the top of her head. “You never criticize. You just come up with a plan and do what needs to be done.”
For a second, she pressed her hands to his back, then stepped out of his arms, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. “To do that, I need a sledgehammer.”
He’d enjoyed the moment they’d shared and he meant what he said, but he let it go because she didn’t want to make things personal between them. Like when he’d asked about her childhood being a lot like Roxy’s, she’d shut him down.
Sonya didn’t let many people close. But for a second there, he’d felt her let out a breath and draw closer to him. It was a start.
Of what, he didn’t really know because they still had one hell of a job ahead of them. And he was still broke as shit. And Roxy and Noah might kill him for dating her. As if that was even a possibility.
He walked over to the stand that held the shovels, rakes, and other assorted tools. He pulled out the sledgehammer and handed it to her just to see what happened.
The second she took the weight, her arms fell and she nearly dropped the heavy tool.
She glared at him. “You did that on purpose.”
“I love that you think you can swing that thing again and again to get the kitchen cabinets down, but you need the right tool for the job.”
“And what’s that?”
“Me, swinging this thing.” He tried not to smile, he really did, at her open hostility that he thought her, a woman, incapable of doing the job. She could do damn near anything. It really wasn’t her gender but the simple fact that she didn’t have the strength to swing the heavy head more than half a dozen times before she dropped it or hurt herself.
He’d never let that happen. When it came to a job that required brute strength, she’d have to let him handle it. “Don’t get mad. I’ve got something for you, demolition junkie.” He went to one of the toolboxes and pulled out a heavy-duty hammer that despite its weight he thought she could handle and not get hurt.
She tested the tool in her hand and the control she’d have swinging it with the shorter handle.
“Ready?”
The smile she beamed up at him said she was looking forward to it.
Before they headed back to the house, he grabbed a couple pairs of leather gloves and safety glasses from the workbench and handed her a pair of each.
“This is a well-appointed workshop.”
“Grandpa always said to put the tools back in their place, that way you know where they are when you need them.” The absurdity of it boggled his mind.
“I guess he meant it.”
Austin rolled his eyes. “Except he didn’t keep anything in its place in the house.”
“Let it go, Austin.”
“I’m trying, but it’s damn hard to look at those two huge bins filled with garbage and the damage to the house and furniture and not feel it all the way to my soul.”
“They’re just things. Not as important as the memories you hold of how much your grandfather loved you. That’s worth more than any broken plate, scratched table, or smelly house. It’s more than some people ever have to hold on to.”
“It makes me sad when you say things like that, because I know you’re talking about yourself.”
She scrunched up her face into an incredulous look. He hoped because she wanted to cover the fact that on some level he got to her, because in a very short time she’d grown on him. Her steady presence and thoughtful insights made him feel closer to her. He especially appreciated her easy way of letting him do and say what he needed to before she reminded him to move on.
And then ordered him to get back to work.
He was getting used to that, too.
Sonya tried to play off his comment. “Don’t cry for me, sweetheart. My life’s not that bad.”
“Anymore.” He added the qualifier she didn’t say out loud but he heard all the same, because she didn’t like talking about her past despite the little hints she dropped.
The snarky sweetheart was meant to make him back off and let him know she didn’t like it when he so casually called her that yesterday.
But he didn’t want her to dismiss what her life used to be. She’d gotten an up-close and gross look at his. All he wanted to do was get to know her the way she so easily seemed to know him just by paying attention. He wanted her to know he had his own insights into her life because he listened not only to what she said, but what she didn’t.
She held up the hammer. “Let’s go pound some shit. We’ll both feel better.” She walked away like she always did when things got too personal.
He followed her to the house and into the kitchen. She handed him a mask and put one on herself. He checked out the sink she’d already disconnected from the water source.
“I say we start with the countertop.”
Austin went with her suggestion, held the sledgehammer with his hands spread wide on the handle, swung down, then up into the corner of the Formica countertop, dislodging it with one shot on one end. Adrenaline burst through his system with the satisfaction that one swing made him feel. Four more satisfying thwacks and the entire counter came loose and lay haphazard on the cabinets that were already falling to pieces in some areas with the vibration from each swing.
At his side, Sonya opened the top cupboard doors, swung the hammer, and knocked them from their hinges. She stacked the latest one with the others she’d already taken down by the door.
She set her hammer on the floor and took one side of the countertop. He took the other. They held it upright and walked out the back door and tossed the heavy piece in the Dumpster. Without a word, they headed back into the kitchen and spent the next thirty minutes bashing the cabinets to smaller pieces and dragging them out to the trash. Austin got one of the guys cleaning out the hallway to help him dump the old stove. By the time they entered the kitchen again, Sonya had most of the walls down to the studs, old wires and pipes exposed.
“We’re not taking the whole house down to the studs, are we?”
Sonya pulled her mask off and coughed from the dust floating in the air. “No. But I anticipated there’d be some water damage from leaks of years past.” She pointed to the discolored floor where the sink used to be and the oddly repaired white-and-black pipes that connected to metal. “We’ll probably encounter more of the same in the bathrooms. Best to take care of it now, replace rotting wood and old pipes with new while we have the chance. The wiring doesn’t look that bad to me, but I’ll leave that to the electrician. I also asked him to look at the main panel, see if we need an upgrade.”
“We?” He cocked up an eyebrow just to rile her.
“You have one electrical panel servicing the house and outbuildings. If I’ve learned anything from HGTV renovation shows it’s that the wiring always needs to be fixed and upgraded. You want to run a modern ranch, you need power for water pumps, refrigerators in the outbuildings, computers in the office.”
“And a flat-screen TV,” he suggested. “I miss TV.”
She gave him one of those reluctant smiles. “Upgraded lights in the stables. A new stove so you can eat.” She raised her thumb and pointed back over her shoulder. “A washer and dryer for the mudroom to replace the rust bucket you’ve got out there now.”
He’d stopped letting himself get overwhelmed by the daunting task and number of new things coming to this place. “I’ll have one of the guys help me move those out.”
“I’ll scrape the linoleum off the floor, then join you in the back to do the rooms. We get those done today, we’ll be on schedule and ready for the contractors tomorrow.”
Austin raked his hand over his head. “I can’t believe how fast this is moving.”
“I’ll take over the house once the contractors are done here. You’ll be busy with them repairing and adding on to the stables and barn. Once that’s done, it’s auction time.”
“I assume you mean cattle and horses.”
“Can’t have a working ranch without them. Two, three weeks, we’ll be up and running.”
His hand went over his head again and he held the back of his neck. “I can’t believe it’s really happening. And this fast.”
“I find it’s best to focus on the task at hand instead of the whole thing. Makes it easier to stay on course and not get overwhelmed.”
He stared at her. So practical. But this was his life. His dream.
He’d had an easy life growing up. When it all went away and he had nothing, everything seemed so hard. He didn’t trust that they’d keep chugging along on the house and ranch and everything would work out fine.
“Trash the washer and dryer, then on to the bedrooms,” she ordered, getting him back on track.
“Chris,” he yelled. “I need your help in here.”
The worker poked his head into the kitchen and asked Sonya, “What can I do for you?” The suggestive tone made Austin glare.
Sonya pretended she didn’t hear anything and walked out the back door. Chris’s gaze followed her every move.
“I’m not paying you to stare at her ass.”
“I’ll do it for free.” Chris tapped him in the chest with the back of his hand like they were buddies picking up chicks in a bar.
Austin shoved him by the shoulder to point him toward the mudroom. “Get to work.”
He felt old. When did he turn into the guy who passed up fun and jokes to get the job done?
The last many months had truly changed him.
He hoped for the better.