Captivating A Cowboy

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“I’ll go get some groceries.” He started to turn toward the front door.

Julie grimaced. “Not necessary.”

She motioned to him to follow her to the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. There were five casseroles inside. “I will be eating tuna and noodles and chicken and rice for the next week.”

Tony surveyed her newly filled refrigerator and shook his head. “Looks like a church potluck on Saturday night.”

“Yeah,” Julie remarked sourly. “People just couldn’t wait to come and see Julie, all grown up and clumsy.”

Tony shot her a startled look, but didn’t say anything. He started touching the sides of the casserole dishes, then lifted the foil on the corner of one on the second shelf. “This one is still fairly warm. Want to start with it?”

Why was he being so nice? He couldn’t like tuna and noodles that much. “Are you sure you don’t have anything better to do?”

“What, and miss a free lunch? No, ma’am.” He grinned and pulled the glass dish out of the fridge.

Julie settled down onto one of the chairs and watched him scoop a huge amount of casserole onto a plate. When he started to fill the other plate she said, “Whoa, cowboy. I need less than half of that.”

He carried the plates to the table, found some silverware, and sat down. Julie watched, fascinated as he methodically and quickly cleaned his plate.

“Do you always eat that much?”

He shrugged. “Usually. I stay pretty busy during the day.”

She shoved the food around her plate. “Speaking of that, I’ve done a lot of thinking. I’m going to need some help, but I want to make sure you have the time. I mean, that you’re not going to regret your offer.”

He studied her face. “I wouldn’t have made the offer if I didn’t want to do it.”

She felt herself warm under his direct gaze. “Well, I just wanted to be sure.”

“I do need to keep working on my place, so how about I come in three days a week? We’ll see how it goes.” Tony stood up and carried the dishes to the sink.

“Okay. How long does it take you to get here from where you live?”

“If there’s no fog and the road isn’t washed out, about an hour and a half.”

That was worse than the commute times in L.A. “You’re kidding? You live that far out?”

“Have you been down Petrolia Road to the Lost Coast?”

She’d heard of it. “No. My grandmother never allowed me to go. She thought that’s where kids went to drink and get into trouble.” Besides, she’d been such a loner in high school she’d only been invited once.

Tony grinned at her. “She was right. I’ve chased kids off my property on occasion.”

He came around and helped her as she scooted back out of her chair. “Why don’t we take a look at what needs doing.”

Stiffly she got to her feet and stretched to get some of the kinks out. “Well, you’ve already seen the ceiling upstairs.”

“You did a nice job of cleaning it up.”

“Thanks.” She felt a glow of appreciation at his approval.

They wandered through the downstairs rooms, Julie pointing out what she wanted to do, as Tony nodded and added suggestions.

By the time they went upstairs into the room where she slept they’d settled on an hourly wage and Julie had a good idea of how long things would take. She felt better about her decision to hire Tony.

He was so businesslike she felt foolish thinking they would have problems working together.

She wandered over and looked out the window at the backyard, wondering if she should just forget the outside until later. The yard was a mess. Dead bushes and scrubby patches of grass filled the yard, along with the ugly supports for a clothesline that looked like two giant croquet wickets made out of thick galvanized pipe.

If she did any work on the yard now she’d just have to keep it up until the house sold. The yard could wait until the house was finished.

This plan was going to work, she thought as she gazed down on the dead grass and scraggly shrubs. Tony was friendly but businesslike, they agreed on what needed to be done, and paying him when the house sold fit into her tight budget.

Her worries over them having a personal relationship that got in the way of their business had been silly thinking.

Julie turned to mention the yard to him and came up against a very firm male body. She hadn’t heard him step behind her.

She lurched back in surprise and lost her balance. He reached out and grasped her around the waist to steady her. She smelled soap on his skin.