Marry Me for Real, Cowboy - Valerie Comer Page 0,8
for a female employee in the middle of the men’s spaces.
“Let me start a fire in here, and then we’ll go have a look at cabin three and get it warming, too. Then we can scrub them both.” Tomorrow was soon enough to hit the saddle. Even Declan would allow that much.
Riley stood in front of his open bedroom door, head tilted to one side.
For just a second, Adam let his mind go there, but then he slammed the thoughts out. Nope. That was not how this situation was going to unfold. He wasn’t living that way anymore.
Not since weeks before Ace Desjardins’ accident, when Adam, Ace, and Sawyer Delgado had pledged to clean up their acts and recommit to the faith of their childhoods. Adam’s had never been strong, but he remembered church with both his parents. After Dad’s death and Mom’s remarriage, Mom had dragged all six boys — sporting clean clothes and freshly scrubbed faces — into town on Sunday mornings and sat them in a row. It had stuck with all of them... to varying degrees.
What had happened to the strength his mother had shown back then? Oh, yeah. Declan had worn her down. The man had a lot to pay for.
“Adam?”
He blinked Riley back into focus. “Sorry. Woolgathering.”
“It’s going to be okay.”
Was he that obvious? Or how had a woman he’d known less than twenty-four hours read his mood so easily? “You think?”
“Sure, why not? Your stepfather is intense, but you’ll win him over. You’re twenty-eight, not a kid to be bossed around.”
Adam narrowed his gaze. “I don’t remember telling you my age.”
She looked away, her face flushing.
“You ran a search, huh?” Of course she had. He’d done the same to her last night in the truck, though he’d found little.
“Yeah. Now I know all about you. I mean, what’s online.”
Had she gone back far enough to read the gossip rags about his relationship with the country singer last summer? She’d say something, wouldn’t she? Which meant maybe she didn’t know. He’d keep it that way for now. That had not been his finest moment.
He offered Riley a grin and bobbed his eyebrows. “Your Facebook is locked down to friends-only. And you haven’t been in the news.”
Her face blanched, and she reached for the countertop to steady herself.
Wait. What? “Anything you want to tell me, honey? Wanted in fourteen states for a crime you didn’t commit?”
“Of course not.” Her gaze ricocheted around the space, not meeting his, and landed on his trophy case. “Those all yours?” She crossed the room and touched one of the cast bronze statues.
“Yeah.” Maybe he could forget all about the new one buried beneath everything in the truck’s backseat.
She looked over. “You won another one, didn’t you?”
Adam crossed his arms. “I might not put it up.” Might use it for target practice.
“Why would that be?”
Her Google skills needed some work if she had no clue. “Ace Desjardins should have won it.”
Riley searched his face. “But you did. Right?”
Only because he’d ridden before Ace, and everyone who competed afterward was too rattled to ride well. “Long story.”
“Try me.”
Adam swallowed hard. Did he want to talk about the freak accident that had sent one of his best buds into a coma he was still drifting in weeks later? Did he want to talk about the wallop of Ace’s skull on the bronc’s rear, the slo-mo tumble, the crack as the sharp hooves rammed downward? The stillness of his friend’s body?
He shoved the entire memory into a box at the back of his brain and slammed the lid shut before meeting Riley’s gaze.
“No.” Not now. Not ever.
Chapter Four
Riley worked alongside Adam for a couple of hours, wiping down all the surfaces in both cabins and learning how to feed the fires inside the small wood stoves. It hadn’t taken long for warmth to permeate the spaces, pushing out the chill.
She had to hand it to Adam. No hints that he thought cleaning was beneath him. Or maybe he was only sticking with her to protect her from unwanted visitors. She shuddered at the thought of Declan deciding to drop by and interrogate her further. Even worse, he likely had a master key to all the cabins besides the one Nathaniel had dropped by.
An online search would show her other ways to keep him out. Not that he was likely that kind of man, but a woman couldn’t be too careful.
Riley turned to Adam. “What’s the Wi-Fi password?”
He blinked. “The what?”
“Wi-Fi.” She held up