it happened in the air conditioning didn’t mean it would hurt less.
Ames took a few steps toward her but stopped at the end of his truck. Several feet still separated them. He drew in a breath and blew it out. Said nothing.
Sophia had never known Ames to hold back. He always said what was on his mind, usually in a brisk tone of voice that sent tremors of fear to the recipient. She could still hear him telling Patsy she had no right to hurt Cy.
“Well, you’re home,” Sophia said. “I don’t know if you saw Colton’s text. He said he’s going to come to stay with you. He’ll be here tomorrow.” She backed up and reached for her door handle again.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know why I didn’t call.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “You’re not interested.” She pulled open the door and used it as a shield between her and Ames. “I get it.”
“What if I am interested?”
Sophia paused, cursing whoever had invented sunglasses. She needed to see his eyes, because Ames told everything with those eyes.
She didn’t want to be the desperate woman who clung to him every time he happened to descend to her level to give her the time of day. Gripping the top of the door until her fingers ached, she lifted her head slightly. “My number hasn’t changed. If you’re really interested, you can call anytime.”
With that, she slid behind the wheel, started the car, and left him standing in his driveway with a couple of bags hanging from his left hand.
Chapter Four
Ames dipped the sponge in the water bucket and lifted it back up to the cabinet. He couldn’t believe he’d nailed his thumb to the wall. And to make matters worse, he had to run into Sophia at the drugstore?
How humiliating.
At the same time, he was thrilled that she’d been there. Otherwise he might have passed out and been found in the middle of the aisle by anybody. As it was, Colton would be arriving that afternoon, and Ames felt a mountain of foolishness descend upon him. He didn’t need his brother to come take care of him. He wondered if this was how Cy had felt when he went to Coral Canyon last year for a couple of weeks. Probably.
Ames needed to swallow his pride and make a plan to become the man he wanted to be. Was that someone who worked another man’s ranch? He wasn’t even sure if he was in the right place. Three Rivers had felt like home for the past few weeks. But was he in the right place?
He was so far from family when he needed help, and he hated that. Ames had never had this problem before. He knew what he wanted, and he worked to get it, just like Gray had done when it came to the Boston Marathon.
He wanted it. He worked and trained for it. He got it.
The problem was, Ames didn’t know what he wanted.
He liked dressing a little eccentrically sometimes. He liked making all kinds of different egg dishes. He loved being in charge of meetings and crews and people. At the same time, he could take directions too.
That was what he did at Seven Sons Ranch, and he had no problem listening to Jeremiah, or Orion tell him what he needed to do. He just did it. He didn’t mind putting his head down and getting the work done. In fact, it brought him a great sense of accomplishment, and he craved the feeling that he’d done something good at the end of every day.
“But what have I done good lately?” he asked himself. He also disliked that he was having this out loud conversation with himself as he scrubbed his own blood off the newly painted walls and freshly manufactured cabinets. Worse, he wasn’t sure what good he’d done lately.
He wasn’t sure he could remember much from last night and the things that Sophia had said, but something triggered in his memory. She wasn’t a permanent resident here.
He wasn’t sure why she’d come into his mind right now. He rinsed the sponge again, the blood almost gone now. But Sophia wouldn’t leave his mind. He’d enjoyed his time with her last fall, and his pulse had acted erratically when she’d called him over Christmas.
He’d said he’d call her back, and then he hadn’t. Last night, she’d seemed a little hurt by that, and he wondered if the chemistry and spark between them could be rekindled,