Loving Cara (3 page)

Josh begins to pack up the remains of our lunch and I take a deep breath and join him.

“When he smiled at you earlier? That’s the first time I’ve seen him smile since he’s been here.”

“Josh, I’m so sorry. He’s a great kid, and he’s really smart. I think we’ll have him back on track with his grades without a problem.”

“Thank you.” Josh replaces the lid on the fruit and throws it in the cooler. “You know, Kyle didn’t tell me who he was sending out here. I was surprised when I saw it was you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but I’m glad you’re here. I wasn’t kidding before—you look fantastic.”

I blush and concentrate on rewrapping the chicken and placing it in the cooler.

“I’m not a hermit, Josh. Like I said before, you’ve seen me around.”

“In passing. Not like this. I like it.”

I stand up and cross my arms over my chest, then frown when he stands too and is more than a foot taller than me.

I’ve always been so damn short.

“Are you flirting with me?” I ask.

“Maybe.” He pushes the lid down on the ice chest, then moves around the table to stand right next to me, and I have to tilt my head way back to see his eyes. “You always were a little thing.”

“Little?! Oh my God.” I giggle and throw a hand over my mouth. “I’m just short. Hell, in high school I was f—”

“If you say
fat
, I will take you over my knee, Carolina. You were not fat then, you’re not fat now, and next to me, you
are
tiny.” He sets his mouth in a disapproving line and pulls on a lock of my hair. “Your pretty blond hair is soft.”

“Don’t f-flirt with me,” I stutter halfheartedly. Instead of moving away, I sway toward him, my heart racing.

“Why not?” He grins and continues to gently pull my hair between his thumb and forefinger, watching the strands as they fall out of his grasp.

“Because I’m your employee for the summer, and I like my job. It’s not like there are dozens of middle schools here in town that I can work at if I get fired.” I step away, pulling myself together, doing my best to remind myself of the blonde I saw leaving his house this morning and how I do
not
want to be another notch in Josh King’s bedpost. I open his sliding screen door and gather my tote bag and purse and turn to find him standing right behind me again. “I have to go.”

He sighs, props his hands on his hips, and looks as if he wants to say more, so I turn on my heel and walk briskly to the door.

“I’ll walk you out,” he mutters, and walks quickly to keep up with me. He holds his front door open for me, and I feel his hand on my lower back as he guides me to my little blue car.

He opens the door for me and settles my bags into the passenger seat.

“You’re very chivalrous,” I inform him dryly.

As I move to sit in the driver’s seat, he runs his hand down my bare arm, very much as he did with Blondie this morning, and smiles.

“Thanks for doing this, Cara. Don’t forget to wear jeans tomorrow.” With that he winks and shuts my door, stepping back to watch me drive away.

Looks like I’ll be wearing shorts tomorrow.

CHAPTER

Two

“Where are your jeans?” Josh asks as he meets me at my car the following morning.

“These are jeans.” I pull my tote bag out of the car and walk toward the front door of his house. “Is Seth here yet?”

“No, he’ll be a few minutes. I have him feeding the dogs at the big house.”

“Okay.”

“Those are not jeans.” Josh is scowling down at my denim shorts as if they were the devil incarnate.

“They’re denim.”

He narrows his chocolate eyes at me, but I see the humor there, and my stomach clenches.

I love riling this guy up.

“Fine, they’ll have to do. Go ahead and get settled, Seth will be here in a minute. I have to ride out with a few of the guys to repair a fence, so I’ll see you at lunchtime.” He pulls on some gloves and settles his green baseball cap on his head.

“You don’t wear cowboy hats?” I ask without thinking.

“Not usually. I have one, if you’d rather I wear it.” He smirks.

“No, just curious,” I mumble, and head toward the house.

“Don’t leave before I get back. I have plans for you.”

He grins wide, winks, and saunters off toward the massive barn that sits between his house and the big house.

Well, isn’t that view nice? His Levi’s hug his ass perfectly and sit low on his hips, and as he walks, I can see his buttocks and thighs flex.

Dear God, I’m lusting after a rancher.

Pulling myself together, I go inside and begin pulling out materials for today’s lesson.

Do I even
want
to get on a horse?

Not really.

But I have a feeling these two guys are going to talk me into it.

The front door bursts open and Seth strolls in. “I’d rather be helping the guys with the fences today.”

“I’d rather be lying on a beach in Hawaii today, but neither of us is going to get our wish.” I sigh and gesture for him to sit, pulling the book he’ll be reading this summer out of my tote bag. “This is going to be your homework.”

“I’m going to have homework?” he asks, shocked. “But it’s summer!”

“I’ll make sure you finish all of the worksheets while I’m here each day, but I also want you to read this book, and we’ll talk about it every day so I know you’re reading it.”

“I hate the books the school makes us read,” he grumbles. I smirk and mentally agree. Some of the mandatory reading material is dry, and I understand why the kids don’t go crazy about it.

“This isn’t a book the school would make you read. It’s a book for fun, and I’m going to read it with you.”

“Really?” This piques his interest and he takes the book from me. It’s
Exiled
by M. R. Merrick.

“Really. This book is science fiction, and it’s about a boy who has to deal with demons and hunters and all kinds of stuff. I think it’s going to be fun.”

“It’ll probably suck,” he states defiantly, but he flips the book over and immediately begins reading the blurb on the back.

Adolescent boys are fun.

“You’re right, it probably will suck, but we can talk about all of its suckiness together.” I smile sweetly and push a math worksheet under his nose, hand him a pencil, and we get started with today’s lesson.

Halfway through fractions, my phone chirps with an incoming text. Seth is hard at work and not paying any attention to me, so I quickly check it and smile when I see Jilly’s name.

What are you doing?

Typical Jill, just get right to the point.

Good morning. I’m working. What are you doing?

I set the phone aside and check Seth’s work. All of the answers are correct, and he’s worked through them quickly.

“Impressive,” I murmur with a grin. “You were right, you
are
good at math, Seth.”

His lips twitch, as though he wants to smile, but he keeps his eyes on the paper, working diligently, and mutters, “Thanks.”

I give him another worksheet with more of the same type of problems just as my phone chirps.

Just closed on a house & on my way to show another. Miss u. Talk soon?

I smile and respond.
Miss u too. Call me.

Glancing up while tucking my phone back in my pocket, I see Josh riding to the back fence of his house with two other guys. The horses are beautiful, two black and one white with red patches. The guys are dripping in sweat, dirt clinging to their clothes and skin. They stop to talk, pointing to various parts of the ranch and even laughing once in a while.

While still in the saddle, Josh pulls his cap off, pushes his hand through his sweaty hair, then pulls his T-shirt over his head to wipe his face with it.

Holy Mary, mother of God.

Wow.

He’s more than built. His muscles are toned and defined, thanks to all the work he does on the ranch. He has an amazing abdomen, and I can see the top of a sexy V rising out of the waist of his jeans, but it’s his arms and shoulders that have me mesmerized and my panties suddenly soaked.

His biceps have to be the size of my thighs, and not in a gross he’s-gotta-be-on-steroids way. I wonder what it would be like to have those arms wrapped around me, to feel the muscles flex beneath my hands.

His shoulders are broad and tanned, and he has just a light sprinkle of dark hair over his chest.

I could eat him with a spoon.

Josh pulls a bottle of water out of a saddlebag, takes a drink, and then laughs at one of the other guys. He swings his leg over the horse, dismounting easily, ties the rein to the fence, and waves as his companions ride off toward the barn.

“Why are you looking at him like that?” Seth’s voice is hard and angry.

“What?” Oh, crap, he caught me. I’m so embarrassed. “I’m not looking at anything. Just daydreaming, I guess.” My face is bright red when I look down at Seth, but he scowls and pushes his worksheet toward me.

“Girls are dumb. You shouldn’t look at him like that. He’s a jerk.”

Josh saunters in through the sliding glass door off the kitchen, his shirt still off, and I bite my lip as my eyes wander down his torso. When I glance back up, he’s grinning, that sexy dimple is winking at me, and I flush.

Maybe I should start working with Seth over at the big house.

“Are you guys almost done?”

“Almost.” I nod.

“I’m going to catch a quick shower and then put you up on a horse, my friend.”

“Cool!” Seth exclaims, surprising us both.

“Um, I wore shorts.”

“I noticed. You have gorgeous legs. We’ll make it work. I’ll be out in a minute.” With that, he saunters down the hall and I hear a door close.

“Why do you think he’s a jerk?” I ask, still stuck on the
gorgeous legs
remark. Does Josh mistreat him?

“Because he’s my dad’s brother. They’re twins.”

“And you think your dad’s a jerk?”

“He
is
a jerk,” Seth insists emphatically.

“I don’t remember your dad being a jerk, Seth.” I check over Seth’s work.

Something is wrong. Well, not something,
everything
. Every single answer on this sheet is wrong. But as I read through the work, it’s correct. He’s purposefully worked out every problem the right way and marked the wrong answer.

“What the heck, Seth?”

“What?”

“All the answers are wrong.” I frown at him and wait for his answer.

“So?”

“So, the work is right, and you wrote down the wrong answers on purpose.” I sit back in the chair and cross my arms over my chest. Seth squirms in his chair, his mouth set in a tight line as he frowns.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s wrong.”

“Well, yeah, it does because you’re being graded on these, Seth.” I tilt my head and watch him squirm some more. “You are so smart. Why are you doing this?”

His startled gaze meets mine, making my heart ache for this boy. He seems so lonely and sad. I just want to pull him to me and hug the defiance right out of him.

“I’m not doing anything,” he whispers, and looks down at his sheet.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Josh says, returning. His dark hair is wet from the shower and he’s changed into clean jeans and a white tee.

“Why did you put on clean clothes?” Seth asks with a frown. “They’re just gonna get messed up again.”

“Because I’m sure Cara doesn’t want to stand next to me when I smell funky, kid. That’s gross.”

“You smell funky no matter what,” Seth taunts.

Josh’s eyes light up with humor. “Back at you. I’m glad you’re staying over at the other house because I hate to think of what your bedroom must smell like.”

I watch the banter with a huge grin plastered on my face. I don’t think they joke with each other like this often.

“It smells like stupid air freshener because Gram keeps sticking smelly stuff in my drawers and stuff.” Seth wrinkles his nose.

“Take it from me, kid, air freshener in a young man’s room is mandatory.” Josh shakes his head and laughs. “Shall we?”

“Really, I—”

“Yep, we shall!” Seth jumps up and runs out the back door.

“I guess we shall,” I mutter, and stand to follow him.

When we step outside, Seth has already reached a tall, black horse and is petting its nose, talking to it softly.

“What if the horse doesn’t like me?” I whisper to Josh. He smiles down at me gently and tugs on my hair. I want to lean into his touch, so I step away.

“She’ll love you. She’s a gentle horse, Cara. I wouldn’t put you on one of the mean stallions. Magic is a sweet mare and she’s patient with the newbies.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Besides, she’s
my
horse. I know her better than any other animal on this ranch. You’ll love her.”

“I could love her from afar,” I mutter.

He laughs at me, and as we approach the horse, I hang back and watch Josh and Seth pet Magic, both crooning softly to her. She does seem sweet. She nudges their hands and nods her head as if she knows what they’re saying.

And her big, brown eyes shine with intelligence.

“I’m gonna go get her an apple!” Seth runs back to the house with excitement.

“Come here, Cara,” Josh murmurs gently, and holds his hand out for mine. I take it and immediately love the way his large, callused hand feels wrapped around mine. He tugs me to his side and places my hand on the mare’s nose. “Just pet her.”

“Hi, pretty girl.” I pet her nose, then run my hand down her long, soft neck. “Are you going to be gentle with me?”

Magic snorts softly. I smile at her and continue to pet her gently. Just when I’m beginning to relax, she steps to the left a bit, her heavy foot startling me, and I jump back in surprise.

“Easy, girl.” Josh steps up behind me, his chest pressed to my back, again covers my hand with his, and I don’t know if he’s talking to me or the horse, and frankly I don’t care. “Easy.” He guides my hand down her neck and then leads me to the side of the horse.

“She’s really tall.”