even closer eye on her.”
“From Nate’s cabin?” Monica asked innocently.
“Maybe Steph and I can have a sleepover!” Emily said, as if she hadn’t heard.
Brooke and Monica exchanged an amused glance.
Brooke woke up to a foot of powder up on the hills Monday morning. She and Josh had a long-standing deal, alternating who got to go skiing and enjoy the occasional powder day in Aspen. They took turns covering for each other, and today it was her day to take off.
Josh and Adam had already loaded down the retriever with enough hay for the first couple pastures, and they’d be dropping mineral pellets as well, later on. She felt a little guilty—but not that guilty.
Carrying her skis over her shoulder, she ran into Adam in the yard.
“Aren’t you the ski bunny?” he said.
He gave a slow, thorough examination of her body with half-lidded eyes. She was wearing pink ski pants and a blue shell.
“Those pants nicely accent your ass. I’ll be thinking about it all day.”
She felt a rush of heated memory, and they kept staring at each other. It had been a few days . . . She found herself wishing she could invite him to go along, but besides the fact that he was working, she had their “no dating” rule to remember. And maybe he didn’t even know how to ski—after all, it wasn’t like his family had had the money. She imagined how it must have felt to know so many of your friends were doing what you couldn’t. And here she was, rubbing his nose in it again.
But Adam was smiling at her, that cleft in his jaw so masculine, his eyes alight. She knew if she got closer, she could see the gold flecks in their centers . . . but no, she wasn’t getting closer.
“Hey, you should have told me in the feed store that Josh’s belts were for sale there,” he said. “I would have liked seeing the display. He told me all about it.”
“He’s getting so popular. Have you been in Monica’s Flowers and Gifts? He’s got a whole display all to himself. He’s even considering an offer from an Aspen boutique.”
Adam gave a low whistle. “Impressive. No wonder your dad hired me. Sounds like Josh could hit the big time.”
“I hope so!” She glanced down at Ranger, sitting patiently at Adam’s feet. “Your constant companion nowadays?”
He lowered his voice. “Don’t worry, you have first dibs on my bed.”
And then they were looking at each other again, yards apart, but the air between them seemed to smolder.
“Come to me tonight,” he whispered.
Almost breathless, she whispered back, “I promised I’d go out with Monica.”
“No problem,” Adam said, rubbing his hands together. He looked over his shoulder and saw Josh heading for the retriever. “Gotta go. Have a fun day.”
Brooke sighed and turned away, only to see Nate coming out of the truck shed.
He glanced at Adam, then her. “Everything okay?”
“Of course.”
“Is he going skiing?” Nate asked.
“And desert his post? Incur your wrath?” The she lowered her voice. “You know, he probably didn’t ski growing up.”
He nodded, then arched a brow. “All concerned for him, are you?”
To her surprise, she felt more excited than nervous as she protected her secret rebellion. She’d never really had one before, an actual experience her family didn’t share and couldn’t express an opinion on. And she liked it. “Look, he’s a friend who’s going through some tough times.”
Nate nodded. “You’re right. Have fun today.”
She almost let out a sigh of relief.
It was a strange day for Adam. He hadn’t realized how much he looked forward to spending part of each day with Brooke. Even if they didn’t feed cattle together, they had lunch as a boisterous group with her family, and more and more, he’d begun to feel at ease, even with her protective brothers. Yeah, he was keeping a secret, but they were all adults, and it was none of their business what their sister did.
He liked the different sides of Brooke he saw, from a woman unafraid as a bull charged her, to one who spent time on the household pursuits that her mother enjoyed, to the woman who enjoyed dressing up in pretty, figure-hugging clothes for an evening. He even appreciated her bossy side.
At lunch, Adam found out that Lou Webster, the ranch’s part-timer, had come down with the flu. Nate asked Adam to take over being “on call” for the tourists, and sure enough, every time he got involved in a chore, the bell