Page 17 of Lost and Found Cowboy
The late springsun had already heated the day up by midmorning, and the barn was warm as Mack mucked out the stalls and laid fresh straw for the horses. He’d taken his shirt off earlier, tossing it over the gate of the nearest corral, and he rolled his shoulders as he stopped to take a sip of water from a bottle he’d brought out to the barn.
The cool water felt good on his dry throat, and he took off his hat and splashed a little on his head before pushing his hair back and cramming his straw cowboy hat back on. He’d just picked up the pitchfork to start the next stall when he heard one side of the barn door swing open.
“Gertie’s gonna be mad she missed out on seeing you working without your shirt on,” a voice called from behind him.
A grin was already creasing his face as he turned to face Lorna. She looked different from the night before, more like the way he was used to seeing her in a pair of black yoga pants,sneakers, and a hot pink V-neck T-shirt, but still gorgeous with her thick curly blond hair gathered and pulled into a messy knot on top of her head. “Hey there. You’re the best thing I’ve seen all day.”
Lorna glanced into the wheelbarrow of muck he’d been cleaning from the stall. “That would be more of a compliment if I couldn’t see my competition. Doesn’t seem like I’ve got too much in the way of opposition.”
He laughed. “What are you doing here? Not that I’m not glad to see you.”
“Maisie was coming out to see Dodge, so I grabbed a ride with her to get the rest of my stuff and pick up my van.” Her eyes roamed over his chest as he leaned on the pitchfork. “Dang. Did you have to pay for all those muscles or were you just born that way?”
He grinned as he reached for his shirt, giving her a quick flex of his bicep in the process. “I earned every one of them.”
“You don’t have to wear your shirt on my account. Especially since it is pretty warm in here.”
“Is that why your cheeks are so flushed?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She pressed her fingers to her face, her cheeks going even more pink. “Anyway, Duke told me you were out here, so I wanted to pop in to tell you Max is dying to get started on that Lego set, but he’s under the impression that you are planning to build it with him, so he doesn’t want to do any of it without you.”
Mack chuckled, touched that the boy would want to wait for him. “Yeah, I would love to help him build it. Just let me know when’s a good time.”
“How about later this afternoon? I’m making spaghetti and wanted to invite you for supper anyway as a thank you for all your help last night.”
“No thanks necessary. I was happy to do it. But I have never turned down a plate of spaghetti—it’s one of my top three favorite meals—so I’ll be there.”
“Four o’clock?”
“Works for me. Can I bring anything?”
“Just your LEGO building skills, your appetite…” Her lips curved into a coy grin. “And those muscles.”
Chapter Eight
No matter how many times she told herself to stop doing it, Lorna couldn’t help flirting with Mack Lassiter. It was so fun to see his neck go pink when she played with him or to watch the grin teasing the corners of his lips.
Even though she’d told him he didn’t have to bring anything, he still showed up with a bottle of wine and a carton of vanilla ice cream—two of her favorite things. And both would go with the surprise she had for him after supper.
She’d set up a folding table in the small family room off the kitchen and taped the instructions for building the pirate ship on the wall next to it. From past Lego sets, they’d learned to divide out like pieces into small containers before they started, and she and Max had spent an hour before Mack got there prepping for the build.
“Wow, it smells amazing in here,” Mack had said when he’d walked in the door and inhaled the scents of tomato sauce and garlic filling the house.
She’d taken advantage of Izzy’s afternoon nap and had got the table set and the garlic bread buttered and wrapped in foil. She’d put together a salad and made the spaghetti sauce then put the salad in the fridge and the sauce in a crockpot so all she’dhave to do is boil the pasta and pop the bread in the oven when they were ready to eat.
Mack had been super impressed with their prep work and the Lego building command central they’d created, and over the last twenty minutes, they’d put together the base of the ship and were starting on the sails.
Lorna spent most of her time trying to keep the small pieces away from Izzy’s eager fingers and was relieved when the baby arched her back and kicked her legs to be let down. But she was quite surprised when the baby crawled across the floor and pulled herself up Mack’s leg then lifted her arms toward him. She was even more shocked to watch the cowboy absently lift her and a stuffed toy from the floor up into his lap, tuck her into the crook of his shoulder, all while still fiddling with trying to fit two Lego pieces together.
Izzy usually shied away from men, with the exception of the Lassiter men, Chevy and Duke in particular. Lorna assumed it was because one was around all the timeandher new uncle and because of the other one’s similarity to Santa Claus.
But Mack hadn’t been around for months. It was true that he’d held her a lot when she was an infant—Lorna remembered the first day she’d met Mack and how surprised she’d been when he took a turn carrying Izzy strapped to his chest for hours while they dished up samples at the annual chili cook off.
He’d always been comfortable around the baby and Max. A sudden thought occurred to her.
“Izzy doesn’t usually take to people like she does to you,” Lorna told him. “And most men aren’t eager to hold a baby, but you just scooped her right up.”
He leveled her with one of his serious stares. “I think I’ve mentioned before that I amnotlike most men.”
