“Okay. I’ll get your help mucking out a few stalls.” He took her bag again. “As long as you remember which end of the shovel is the working bit.”
The soft snicker that escaped her felt good. “Trust me. I’ve got that part down pat.”
They crossed to the cabin. She slipped into his bathroom to change out of her good jeans. It was too short a pit stop to do much more than admire the concrete vanity and the pinewood trim on the mirror and cabinetry. She caught a brief glimpse of blue and brown tiles, but the rest she’d take a closer look at when they returned.
She tucked her bag beside the corduroy-covered couch in the living room and met Zach at the door.
He had also changed into work clothes. He examined her before giving a brief nod. “You’ll be happy to know we have rubber boots you can borrow.”
“Any good dude ranch has extra rubber boots,” she said cheerfully.
He strode toward the main barn. “Not sure this is a good dude ranch quite yet,” he admitted. “We’ll get there, but right now it’s a bit of a reach.”
Zach got her situated with footwear and a shovel, pointed to the three stalls he wanted her to take care of, then left her alone.
He stepped farther into the barn and got to work, so she followed his example and got down to it.
The physical labour of lifting pellets into the wheelbarrow calmed her racing thoughts.
It had always been like that. The repetitive motion helped her step away from her brain fluttering on repeat. By the time she went through the final motions, her leg and back muscles ached in different places than from the earlier dancing.
Plus, she’d figured out some possible bartering chips to toss toward the upcoming conversation.
Zach paced past, nodding his approval. “Good job. And thanks—you saved me a bunch of time.”
Julia shrugged. “Caused a bunch of trouble already, so it’s the least I could do.”
He tilted his chin toward his cabin. “Grab a shower. I’ll finish up and join you in about half an hour.”
This time as she let herself into his place, Julia allowed herself the luxury of taking a long, slow look around.
For some reason, Zachary had moved into what would eventually be a family bungalow. It wasn’t decked out yet like it would be down the road. She knew that from talking to Karen about the level of clientele they hoped to attract to Red Boot ranch.
This looked more bachelor chic. A comfortable couch sat opposite a sturdy coffee table, the surface well-scuffed from where countless feet had rested. A couple of scorch marks marred the wooden surface, one large enough to proclaim a pizza pan had gone straight from the oven to the tabletop.
She hurried into the bathroom, this time able to appreciate the high-quality tile around her. The rain shower fixture overhead delivered a heck of a lot more water pressure than she’d had in her admittedly disgusting apartment.
Between the chores, the shower, and the bit of time to breathe, Julia had come up with a plan.
It would still be awkward, but she felt a whole lot more in control as she met Zach in his living room, settling in the easy chair to the side of the couch.
Settling might’ve been the wrong word—she perched at the front, hands folded in her lap to keep from fidgeting.
Zach had returned to being the poster child for relaxation. He leaned back on the couch and propped his woolen-sock-covered feet up on the coffee table.
His gaze drifted over her, examining her before nodding decisively. “Okay. It’s problem-solving time. You need a temporary boyfriend to stop some nasty rumours. I get that, and I can agree, because wiggling lips don’t stop once things get rolling.” He lifted his chin and looked her straight in the eye. “But first you need to come clean. Why the hell did you come here? To Heart Falls, and to this job? Because it sounds as if there was something between you and Brad in the past. While I don’t believe for one second that you’re fooling around with him now, I don’t want to get blindsided in the future.”
Thank goodness she was dealing with an intelligent man. “We didn’t have that kind of a relationship.”
“Great. What kind of a relationship did you have?”
So much for keeping the truth a secret. “He rescued me.”
Zach’s casual relaxation vanished. He rocked forward on the couch, blinking hard. “Excuse me?”
It was Julia’s turn to raise