Overprotective Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,23
fell away from his face. She could still feel the heat from his skin, and it moved through her, warming her even more.
“Thanks,” Ted said, his vocal cords suddenly infected with the same huskiness. “I think you look great too.” With that, he pulled open the door and nodded for her to go ahead of him. She did, the tension and awkwardness between them intensifying until he said, “My meeting is this way. I’ll see you later, Emma,” in a normal voice.
“See you,” she said, also as normally as possible. And since she was very good at stuffing things away and pretending everything was okay, her voice was normal too.
As she mixed up the formula for Patches, she couldn’t help smiling to herself. Just as quickly though, she remembered why she hadn’t dated since coming to Hope Eternal Ranch.
She wasn’t going to start a relationship with Ted. She could think he was good-looking, with a sexy beard, and just walk back and forth from the house to the stables with him. They could be friends.
After all, she was friends with Ginger, and she hadn’t told her everything. Friends was a category Emma was very good at. She knew which boxes people went into, and she knew which information to share with them.
“Yes,” she whispered to herself. “Just friends.”
Chapter Seven
Ted hadn’t worked this hard for years, and he didn’t entirely hate it. His muscles weren’t sure what to make of lifting the hay bales, and his legs hadn’t quite been walking around as much as he had the last couple of days—and yesterday, he’d only worked until lunchtime.
Today, he’d gone back to the Annex with Nate, and he’d enjoyed a ham and turkey sandwich with him and his son. They’d talked and laughed, and Spencer, Bill, and Nick had come in about halfway through.
Ted liked the vibe at the ranch, and he really liked the guys who lived in the Annex. They all seemed to know who they were and what they were doing, which for him, allowed him to give some thought to who he wanted to be and what he wanted to be doing.
He liked working with the horses, though he still had plenty to learn. Jess had told him today that the horses really liked him because he had “great calm energy.” Ted wasn’t sure what that meant, because out of him and Nate, Ted was definitely more high-strung. Ted could get fired up with a couple of wrong words, and he had more—and stronger—opinions than Nate. He’d been told by his best friend to “take it down a notch” and to not let his anger dictate what came out of his mouth.
When the horseback riding lessons began, Ted had a couple of hours off, and he wandered past the equipment shed and toward the river that bordered the ranch. He’d learned the Mission River ran along three sides of Hope Eternal Ranch, and he’d watched Nate take a group of tourists down the dirt road that led out to the swampier areas of the ranch. Apparently, they’d be bird-watching for the next three days.
The ranch hosted fishing too, as well as hunting. Daily classes on beehives and honey sales. Horseback riding lessons. Farming and hay sales. They even had a half-dozen cabins where people stayed overnight for a true “wilds of Texas” experience.
How Ginger managed it all, Ted wasn’t sure. Jess had emphasized over and over that the ranch relied on its horses for the largest percentage of its income, and it was her job to make sure they were properly cared for.
Ted had learned how to saddle a horse, how to check their hooves and shoes, and how to lead one where he wanted it to go. He had not ridden a horse in years. He had grown up in Texas, so he’d definitely been in a saddle before, but it had probably been twenty-five years at least.
He hadn’t dared mention that to Jess, because he was sure she’d simply stare at him with her mouth hanging down. Then she’d put him in the beginner class with all the children, and Ted would experience a deep sense of humiliation just by being the tallest.
The sun baked the ground he walked on, and once he reached the trees, the shade provided some relief. The river bubbled, and Ted figured it would probably dry up about mid-summer.
He approached a fence and leaned against it, sighing. He took off his cowboy hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead.