Page 23 of Second Chance with the Rancher
“I couldn’t agree more,” he said, though he wasn’t referring to the river.
“Did you bring a measuring tape?” she asked.
“Sure did.” He handed her the one he had attached to his belt. “Let me know if you need any help. I’m going to start caulking the window sills.”
“And I will start measuring the space for furniture.” He went to the tool bag he’d brought and found the caulking gun and tube of caulking. They were quiet as they worked for nearly ten minutes. She made notes on her phone, but didn’t dictate like she said she would.
The silence between them was driving him crazy.
“Tacos,” he blurted out.
“Huh?” she was in the kitchen taking pictures with her phone.
“My favorite food is tacos. My favorite color is green. My favorite drink is an old fashioned, but after a long, hard day of work I prefer to kick back with an ice-cold beer.”
Her right brow lifted. “Ooookaaaayyy.”
“I told you I was going to help you get to know me, since apparently you don’t know me at all, so this is me starting.”
She slowly nodded. “Okay.”
“Feel free to reciprocate.”
“I’m good.”
A growl rumbled in his chest. Why did she have to be like this?
“Hunt for Red October.”
“Favorite movie?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Okay.”
“Fall.”
“Fall what?” Irritation glimmered in her eyes, but he was enjoying poking this bear. She needed to loosen the fuck up and try to have fun. It was almost as if as much as he was determined to show her how great ranch life could be, and help her get to know him, she was just as determined to not get to know him or see how great ranch life was. Stubborn minx.
“Fall is my favorite season.”
“Oh.”
“Horses, obviously.”
“Favorite animal?”
He nodded again. “Yep. But dogs are a close second. Bruno wanted to come with us, but the bears are just coming out of hibernation and are hungry. I don’t need him running off and either getting in trouble or eating a bunch of bear shit. I’m also not a big snake person. I wouldn’t call it a phobia, but you won’t see me volunteering to foster any snakes or put one around my neck at a carnival.”
That seemed to pique her interest. “I’ve done that. In Thailand I put a massive albino Burmese python along my shoulders. It was really cool.” Her smile was cheeky and did all kinds of things to his balls and lower belly.
Shuddering, he shook his head emphatically. “Nope. No thank you. No bueno.”
She giggled. “So the big bad rancher slash SEAL has a weakness?”
He narrowed his eyes at her and stalked across the cabin until he was right up in her space. “Snakes aren’t my weakness, Minx. They’re a rational fear, since they can kill you. My weakness is sassy, stubborn women who make me work impossibly hard for their attention.” He had her crowded against the small kitchen counter now and could tell that she wasn’t as unaffected by his proximity as she wanted to be. Her chest heaved, her nostrils flared and her brown eyes widened. “Stubborn women who can’t see all that they have to offer the world, and everything that’s being offered to them.”
She swallowed.
