Page 24 of The Rancher’s One and Only

“Sure thing.”

She closed the truck door, and he drove away, and she noticed that her heart was still pounding particularly hard.

She ran her tongue over her teeth again.

There was no reason to go getting all worked up about him.

No reason at all.

Chapter Six

He probably shouldn’t have teased Ernestine last night the way that he had. He didn’t know her well enough to do that, and very few people brought that side out of him, but she was just funny. She brought up topics that no one else would ever dream of exploring, either because they were sensitive or just obscure. He enjoyed it. Because of the way his life had gone, sensitivity seemed pointless. A little bit too careful.

Rowdy and Dakota both remarked on her quirkiness when he got back to the house, and he felt oddly defensive of her, even though it was undeniable that she was quirky. And it wasn’t like that was a bad thing, necessarily. Like rodent teeth. He shouldn’t have said that. Honestly. That had been insensitive.

He felt weird and bad about that one.

He also felt compelled to go see her dig for a little while today. He had a full day of work ahead of him, but some of it was paperwork, and he felt inclined to avoid that as best he could.

Also, he was just curious. She was doing this whole thing on their property, and whatever discovery she made was going to be relevant to them for that reason.

They might be able to use it as a marketing thing. Who could say? So, that was how he found himself driving out to her dig site. And yeah, some of that was because he wanted to make amends for what he said last night. But some of it was genuine interest in what she was doing.

It was funny, the whole conversation about academia versus physical labor. He didn’t have much in the way of intellectual insecurity. Mainly because it wasn’t something that came up in his life, honestly. Ernestine made him feel a little bit…understudied. She seemed to know about everything, but at the same time she asked more questions than anyone else he’d ever met.

It was an interesting juxtaposition. To say the least. But he thought about what she’d said last night, and he supposed there was merit to that. Nobody was an expert in everything. There was no point in pretending. So you might as well ask some questions.

He was sweaty, having just done a whole lot of gravel spreading out by the Oregon Trail camp. He was used to being sweaty. That was part of being a fighter, but he felt a little bad rolling up to her dig smelling like a horse that had been ridden hard and put away wet.

Which was weird. Because he wasn’t sure why he would think about what she thought of how he smelled.

He pulled up to the dig site, and just like the first time he’d been out there, Ernestine herself wasn’t visible. He got out of the truck, and slammed the door shut. “Ernestine?”

She scrambled up over the rock, coming to stand on the highest point of it, about two feet above his head. “Oh. Hi. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” he said. “But I thought I would come out and observe.”

“Why?”

“I’m curious. And you made me think a little bit about curiosity last night.”

“Oh. I know that sometimes my questions get a little bit intrusive. I guess I can see why—beyond the fact that my teeth are big—you compared me to a rodent.”

“What?”

“I’m bright-eyed and in everyone’s business.”

“I’m sorry that I said that. I really didn’t mean it to come across as unflattering. I thought it was cute.”

She wrinkled her nose, and yet again, cute was the major descriptor. She pushed her glasses up her nose, and then lowered herself down onto her rear, sliding down the side of the rock formation, until she reached a lower shelf of the rocks, then jumped off in front of him. She moved around like a kid on a playground, and there was something charming about it.

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Well, I just wanted you to know that I wasn’t trying to insult you.”

“I processed that.”

“I didn’t want it to be a thing that you had to process. You said that you like small mammals.”