Forever's Embrace (Forever In Luck Series Book 2) (31 page)

Stepping
in close, she studied the map, and he studied her. She had super dark brown
hair pulled back and wrapped tightly into a knot, held in place by what looked
like a big oval barrette but with a stick instead of a clip. Her skin was
smooth and tanned from time in the sun, and she had a small scar on her left
cheek bone under her eye in the shape of a U. It almost looked like a horseshoe.
She licked her lips again, and he noticed her bottom lip was fuller than the
top. She was tall. Damn near six feet he’d bet. No matter, he still had several
inches on her.

“Quit
staring at me,” she said, with a raspy voice as she looked at the map.

Naturally,
he didn’t listen. “Why?”

“Because
it’s rude.”

So
what, he didn’t care if it was rude, he felt compelled. “When did it become
rude for a man to look at a woman?”

“When
he looked so much she had to tell him to stop.”

He
laughed. The more she pushed him away, the more inclined he was to have her, go
figure. “How tall are you?”

Turning
and looking at him, she said, “I need hay. You have any to spare or know
someone who does?”

Looking
down at her, he smiled seductively and tested the waters. “I’ve got what you
want.”

She
damn near fell to the floor in hysterics. Laughing and laughing, trying to gain
control, she soon wiped her eyes and answered, “No, you don’t, but I’ll still
take some hay. Nice try, big guy, I’ll give you that.”

Oh,
he liked her. Mmhmm. He loved the sound of her husky laugh, and that she had a
sense of humor amongst her gruff demeanor was mighty appealing. She had his
motor running, and every time he revved his engine, she put him right back to
idle. “You want to look at the map some more, or you ready to go for a drive?
I’ll show you around.”

“I’m
done, tell me about your farm if you don’t mind.”

Heading
for the door, he held it open for her. “My family settled here in the
mid-eighteen hundreds. We have several hundreds of acres, around nine hundred
dairy cows, and we own and operate a small creamery on the property where we
make specialty cheeses and butters. What milk we don’t use there is sold to a
larger dairy cooperative in the area.”

Moving
towards his pickup, he continued, “My dad and the three of us boys run the
operation for the most part, with the exception of the creamery, that is mostly
Jake and Jules deal. We help them here and there, but mostly only during the
holidays when it’s busy. We have a bedding recovery unit on the property, as
well as an anaerobic digester wherein we collect the methane gas in partnership
with a larger utility company. We grow our own feed and are currently
participating in some seed studies with the University of Wisconsin. Am I
allowed to open the pickup door for you?”

“You
do and you’ll be eating dirt.”

He
sighed, any other woman would’ve been flattered. As incredibly complicated as
this woman was, he felt surprisingly comfortable talking to her. She was straight
forward and direct, a no bullshit kind of gal, and as a result he knew where he
stood with her at all times. How refreshing for a guy like him, one who didn’t
appreciate the games women played. “Figured as much. How can I treat you like a
lady when you won’t let me?”

Getting
in the truck, she put on her seatbelt. “How about you skip the lady bit and
just treat me with respect.”

Oookaaay,
what the hell did that mean? “And I wouldn’t be if I treated you like a lady?”

“We
got us a buckshot bingo! You’re pretty sharp for a guy. Where we going first?”

He
smiled. Guess he was all over the place, but at least he was able to keep up.
“Going into Luck. I disagree, I’d be respectful if I treated you like a lady.”

She
shook her head as she looked out the windshield, more interested in the
surroundings than him. “You a lady?”

“No.”

“Then
how would you know? Do you purposely open car doors for your guy friends?”

“No.”

“Do
you respect them?”

“Yes.”

“Then
respect really has nothing to do with treating a female like a lady. The two
are separate behaviors that may, or may not, be combined. Therefore, it can be
said that you can treat me like a lady and have absolutely no respect for me at
all. Plus, given the condition of your neck wound there, and the fact that you’ve
made at least one, if not two, indirect passes towards me within a few hours of
meeting me, I’d say my later argument holds true.”

Damn
it. Pulling into town, he went down Main Street and pointed out the various
businesses, then drove around showing her the different landmarks. Stopping at
the local feed and seed cooperative, they headed in and he introduced her to
the manager. She took information on setting up an account for later and they
were back in the truck. He tried pulling the conversation back to where it’d
been. “So, no more neck wounds. This was the last one.” She threw her head back
and laughed. He should have been embarrassed but he wasn’t.

“How
convenient. Sounds like scuttlebutt to me. Where we going now?”

She
thought he was bluffing, “St. Croix. I’m serious.”

“Aha.
Keep dreaming. I need fencing supplies.”

He
liked this and he liked her. “Let’s go out to dinner sometime.”

“Absolutely
not! Uh-ah, no way,” she answered firmly, as she slowly and purposefully shook
her head back and forth, punctuating each syllable and word.

Don’t
give up. Undeterred, he continued. “Why not? I meet my guy friends for dinner
from time to time.”

Unimpressed,
she shrugged her shoulders. “That’s nice, you should give them a call, go
hangout.”

He
laughed. And here was the one woman who wouldn’t care one lick if he went out
with the guys and had a good time. This should get her. “If not dinner, then
how about we meet for drinks some evening?”

Snapping
her head around, she looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Hell no! Were you
like, kicked in the head or something when you were little?”

She
was pretty damn funny. Grinning, loving that sexy voice of hers and wanting to
hear her talk, he ignored her question and asked, “Why not?”

She
went back to looking at the road. “Because.”

“Because
why?”

“Because
I said no, that’s why.”
           

“You’re
making this hard.”

“Mmhmm,
exactly.”

*****

Sitting
at the breakfast table the next morning, Nik started in. “I think she could
take you in a fight.”

Kris
shook his head, perplexed by the woman called Dani. “Yeah, you think?”

Nik
nodded. “Yep, and I believe it when she says she can change you from a bull to
a steer in under minute. One crack of that whip and your nuts are toast. She’s
a handful, you may want to wear a cup, you know, protect the family jewels.”

There
were chuckles all around.

“You
gave up pretty damn quick,” Kris said snarling, narrowing his eyes on Nik.

“Hell
yeah, it’ll be more fun watching you go down. You’re hooked, and damn near
whipped already. You need a nut cup and a bib. Linnie give him one of the
baby’s bibs.”

“Excuse
me?” He was not whipped, he would never be whipped. They all ignored him.

“It’d
be too small,” Linnie answered, laughing at his expense. “We could use a
burping cloth though, that would work.”

 
“A bib? I don’t need no bib,” he responded
firmly, annoyed with their ribbing.

“Ahh,
yeah, you do,” Nik answered, nodding his head while exaggerating his words.
“You’re slobbering like a baby and it’s embarrassing. Next you’ll be holding
her purse while she shops the mall.”

More
chuckles.

“Shut
up, you’re an ass.”

“An
ass with nuts, thank you very much.”

 
He ignored them. Taking his egg in one big
bite, he chewed and swallowed as he sat thinking of things, the topic of her
lingering in the air. “She’s a tough cookie. She won’t allow me to treat her
like a lady, she won’t answer any personal questions, and she refused to go out
to dinner or meet for drinks. And it’s abundantly clear, she’s the boss and
means business, no messing around. It’s her way or no way, and I see no way
out. My hands are tied, so I ain’t worried about holding her purse or going
shopping as I’m going nowhere fast.”

“You’ve
met your match,” Jake said, high fiving Nik. “I’m going to love watching this.”

“Yeah
me too,” Nik added with a glimmer in his eye, happy to poke the rattlesnake.
“You’ve always been domineering, but she’s the one with the whip. It’ll be
entertaining watching her knock you on your ass.”

Pausing,
he glared at his two smiling brothers. “You two are starting to piss me off
with the less than flattering characterizations.”

“Awww,
poor baby. Dad get your hanky, Kris’s feelings are hurt.”

“You
need to find out where her interests lie, go from there,” Jules interrupted,
stopping the fight that was sure to follow.

Looking
at her perturbed, Kris replied with the obvious, “A little tough to do when she
won’t answer personal questions.” Reaching for the rhubarb jam, he spread some
on his toast.

Jake
shook his head at his apparent ignorance. “Don’t ask, doofus, look around her.
See what she’s involved in and take an interest, you’re bound to find common
ground somewhere.”

Kris
sat back in his chair and looked around the table in frustration. “Gosh, I
thought flowers or candy maybe, tell her she looked pretty, or something else
as equally nauseating.”

Everyone
started shaking their heads, even his dad, and that was saying something.

“Umm,
Kris, from the way things went yesterday, I don’t think she’d appreciate that,”
Jules answered. “Plus it seems too soon. You’re going to have to take it real
slow, it’s going to take some finesse, I think.”

“I
don’t do slow,” he grumped, “and what the hell is finesse when it comes to a
woman?”

Jules
answered with a kind smile. “Use of skill and tact in dealing with a delicate
situation.”

Nik
laughed with glee, then said smugly. “Basically, your weakest area.”

The
twerp was going to get it when the girls weren’t around.

“I’m
with Jules,” Linnie added. “Think about it. I don’t think the tough girl
thing’s an act, she was pretty quick and savvy with the responses yesterday,
and as such, why would that be? I think she’s had to be tough, or risk being
taken advantage of and maybe still was.”

Okay,
so the thought of that helped to put the brakes on things. He couldn’t help but
remember the scar on her cheek.

“Besides,”
Nik spoke up, “you don’t tell a good looking woman they’re pretty, they hear
that come on all the time. And in her case, I guarantee you she’d hate being
valued for her looks. But if you decide to go for it, let me know first, I want
to be there to see her take you down, maybe get some pictures.”

Why
did he have to have brothers? “Very funny. Okay then, since you’re so smart,
what do you say to a beautiful woman?”

Grabbing
a hunk of meat, Nik answered, “Easy, you tell them how smart you find them, or
how talented they are, and talk about the details like you mean it. She’s so
smart, she’d see a con artist a mile away.”

“How
would you know?”

Nik
knocked on his head with his knuckles. “Learned the hard way on that one.”

Taking
a drink of his coffee, Kris tried making things out like it was no big deal.
“Yeah, I don’t know, I’m thinking it’s probably not worth the hassle.”

Jake
and Nik fell back in their chairs laughing, knowing better. “Giving up
already,” Jake asked, with a telltale grin. “I always knew you were a pansy.”

Giving
him the bird, Kris looked across the table. “How about you Dad, what wealth of
knowledge do you have to offer?”

Chewing
on his toothpick, his dad sat contemplating, then answered, “Listen to Jules
and Linnie. Some of the best times your mother and I ever had were spent just
sitting together quietly or going for a walk. With Dani it would seem that less
is better. I do wonder though, she’s pretty young to move away from everything
and everyone she knows, and take on the responsibilities of a ranch all alone,
albeit a small one. Seen a lot in my time, but something tells me there’s more
to the story here, and given her behavior...” He shook his head a little and
took a drink of his coffee. “I pretty much see red flags all over this one.”

Well,
couple that with what Linnie had said, and Kris pretty much came to a complete
stop. Could she be on the run? “I’ll finish up with the morning chores and head
over there. We picked up supplies for a new fence yesterday and I’m sure she
wants me to put it up.” Well, at least he thought she wanted his help.