earn it.”
“Deal.” He stuck out his hand. They were standing so close, his fingers brushed her arm.
They shook on it, and Noelle had to snatch her hand back or fall victim to the magnetism between them and never let go. She had to plant her feet back on the ground. “I don’t even know your last name.”
“Davis. Jim Davis. Everyone calls me J.D.”
“Where are you from, J.D.? What are you doing in Buck Ridge?” If she kept up the interrogation, she could ignore these other feelings swirling in her head—feelings traitorous to Alex.
“I’m from Texas. I grew up on a ranch. I was recently discharged from the service. Just trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.”
Military. She could see that. Polite. Stand-up guy. And he had no problem jumping into dangerous situations. He’d be handy to have around in more ways than one.
“Working on a run-down ranch is what you want to do with your life?”
“Not with my life, but right now, it works for me, and it works for you, too.”
“I suppose you want to go back to your hotel and come back tomorrow with your stuff. Or is tomorrow too soon?” She sealed her lips together. Didn’t want to seem too eager to have him here.
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather check it out now and stay there tonight. I’ll get my stuff tomorrow.”
She pressed her back against the door. Could she trust this man? She knew next to nothing about him and yet he’d come to her rescue twice already. Did chivalry motivate him or something else?
Releasing a breath, she ducked around him and snagged the key to the guesthouse from the hook in the kitchen.
“Your castle awaits.”
“Castle?” He lifted an eyebrow in her direction, oblivious that she’d already been thinking of him as a chivalrous knight.
“Maybe I exaggerated. It needs some work, but everything in the bathroom is in working order and it’s furnished.”
“As long as there’s a bed.”
She dropped the key she’d been juggling between her hands and bent over to retrieve it, hiding her warm cheeks in the process. The idea of this man in bed—any bed—lit a fuse under some wicked thoughts that had been dormant for too long.
As her fingers groped for the key chain on the dark porch, J.D. crouched beside her, sweeping his hand across the back of hers.
“Here they are.” He held them up, and they jingled between them. “Do you have a flashlight? I think we’re going to need one if we hope to make it to the guesthouse without tripping over each other.”
She popped up and spun back toward the house, eager to escape his overwhelming presence and the guilt she felt every time the electric current zapped between them.
“I have a flashlight in the closet. I don’t know how I thought we’d get out there without one.”
She stumbled back into the house and grabbed a flashlight from the closet shelf. When she got out to the porch, she shined the light on J.D., leaning against a sagging wood post, tossing the keys in the air and whistling.
But he didn’t fool her. Even in this relaxed stance every fiber of his being seemed to be standing at attention. What had him on edge? Maybe he was suffering from PTSD.
She’d been plagued by the same ailment, and a lot more, after Alex’s murder. If she opened up to J.D. about it, maybe he’d open up to her.
She snorted and aimed her beam of light onto the dirt path to the guesthouse. J.D. was here to work, not get psychoanalyzed.
“Wait up.” He scuffled behind her. “You’re the one with the light.”
She slowed down just enough so that he could catch up to the light but not enough for him to be breathing down her back. He’d probably laugh in her face if he could hear all her ridiculous thoughts about him.
He still had the keys, so when they reached the guesthouse she stopped and illuminated the doorknob.
“No dead bolt here either?” He shoved the key in the lock and turned. He pushed the door open with the toe of his boot.
A musty smell engulfed Noelle as J.D. waved her through the door ahead of him.
“I could’ve cleaned up first if you’d waited a day.” She flicked on a light switch, which turned on a lamp.
“Are there clean sheets on the bed?”
Why did he have to keep saying that word? She snapped her fingers. “No, but I’ll bring them from the house.”
She left him to