Always on My Mind Page 0,5

of leaving, she took another step toward him on the most gorgeous pair of legs he'd ever seen in his life. "I can help you."

He made himself sweep a hard, unimpressed look over her, even though in his previous life he would have drunk her in with extreme pleasure.

"What experience do you have working on a farm?"

When she bit her lower lip, his blood pressure shot so high he could actually hear it rushing in his ears over the ongoing complaints of his chickens, who were still in high excitement over the car, the crash, and the very unexpected visitor in her glittering outfit.

"Well," she said slowly, "none yet. But I'm very determined."

He laughed out loud at that, a rusty sound that held absolutely no pleasure in it.

"Determination isn't going to get the new coop finished or the fence post replaced. I need someone who can actually do the work I need them to do." Jesus, he couldn't believe he was actually standing here debating her qualifications with her. "You can't be my new farmhand."

She looked momentarily distraught as she stared at him and then back down at his want ad clutched in her fist. He could almost hear the gears churning in her pretty head, before she nodded as if she'd made a decision.

"Tell me something you need done and I'll do it. Right now, in front of you, so you can see that I'm serious." She faced him squarely. "I want this job, Grayson."

The sound of his name on her lips, her slightly husky voice playing out the vowels a little longer than the other letters, made his gut clench tight. He didn't like the way he was reacting to her.

Didn't like the fact that he was reacting at all.

He looked down pointedly at her shoes. "You're telling me that you're going to get to work on my farm in those?"

She glanced down at her sparkly high heels as if she'd forgotten she was wearing them. How, he wondered, could she have possibly forgotten when her feet had to be killing her?

She shrugged. "Sure. So what do you want me to do?"

He scowled as he scanned his property for something she could try to do without hurting herself, since he couldn't waste the time it would take to get her to the doctor. Still, it looked like the thirty-minute delay had just turned into an hour. At least.

* * *

First chance she got, Lori was going to give that kid at the General Store a piece of her mind. Why hadn't he told her that Grayson was not only young, but also one of the most ridiculously good looking and virile men she'd ever set eyes on?

Not, of course, that she'd asked, but she could guarantee that if the sandwich maker had been a teenage girl, she wouldn't have forgotten to mention those very important details.

Only, it didn't matter that he was good looking, did it? Not when she was completely done with men.

Done.

She didn't trust them anymore, not one single man that she wasn't already related to. They were all cheating, manipulative scum. Still, it wasn't exactly easy to remember all of that when she was standing in front of two hundred pounds of muscle, piercing brown eyes, and a square jaw liberally dusted with dark stubble that any woman in her right mind would want to reach out to run her fingertips over right before she leaned in for a ki -

Lori forcefully shook the thought out of her head. Okay, so maybe the second she set eyes on the magnificent Grayson she should have climbed right back into her car and gotten the heck out of there. After leaving her insurance information for the busted fence, of course. But it had felt like every word out of his mouth was a challenge.

And Lori had never been able to back down from a challenge.

"So," she said, "what's first on your list?"

Just as she asked the question, a chicken decided to peck at one of the sparkles on her shoes. She tried to step out of the way, but it just followed her and pecked harder at her foot.

"Pick up the hen and put her in the coop."

She knew the joke was supposed to be on her, that he thought she was going to screw this up, but how hard could it be to pick up a chicken?

"Sure, no problem."

As Lori squatted and reached for the small body, the chicken was so focused on trying to