Page 58 of The Rancher’s One and Only

His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled. Her heart leaped against her chest. “We’ll get all the things ready for the trek. You’re going to dig all day?”

“That’s an oversimplification.”

“I’m sure it is. But I mean dig as a broader term for all the things you do here at the dig site.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “I am. I’ll probably work half the day until it gets too warm, and then I’ll head back to the glass cabin.”

“I’ll meet you there. I’m sure you’ll need a shower.”

Oh, he was being playful, and she really liked it. She smiled. “I’m sure that I will.”

She continued to dig, and try to make absolutely certain that she wasn’t wrong about what she had found. She wanted to be absolutely sure that she wasn’t wrong. This was too important to mess up, and she couldn’t afford to have any information about it leaking. Which sounded a little bit paranoid, until you remembered that she was in the most intense bone war since the Gilded Age. Something she could never forget. But she also thought about Jax a lot more than she would’ve thought she would. Usually, when she was totally obsessed with the work thing there was no room for anything else.

She wasn’t sure if she liked that he was splitting her focus or not. It was unusual, strange and very much not something she would normally expect. But there he was, in her mind along with everything else. Right next to the significance of this discovery. And every time she moved and her body ached in a certain way she thought of him. It was because of him.

It was an interesting thing, moving through a workday like this and having something else on her mind. And when she got back to the glass cabin, she realized that he was coming over, and she did a little happy dance in her kitchen. She’d thrown herself into work almost on purpose right after they’d had sex. Maybe it was a self-protective thing, because she had felt the impact of it. But then when he’d come again, and he was nice, and he wasn’t different or a stranger it was just… Nice. It was just really nice.

And when his truck pulled into her driveway she couldn’t stop smiling. She opened the door, and she didn’t even try to suppress what was bubbling up inside of her. She did what she had done down at the dig site. She hugged him. And kissed him. He chuckled, and wrapped his arm around her waist. “A guy could get used to a greeting like that.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling flushed with pleasure.

“I brought some ingredients to cook you dinner.”

“You’re going to cook me dinner?”

“Yes. I’m good at it.”

“What are you making?”

“I thought that I would make you spaghetti.”

“How did you know that I love spaghetti?”

“An easy guess. Mostly because I don’t know very many people who don’t like it.”

“True.”

“Just a second.”

He went back to his truck, and returned a few moments later with shopping bags. He had all the spaghetti supplies in them, and a new jug of lemonade.

“You know that I like it,” she said, filled with wonder.

“You told me.”

“Yeah, but… Most people don’t care.”

He shook his head. “It’s not a hard thing.”

It’s not a hard thing. But it had always seemed hard. She was different, and she knew that. Having reasons didn’t make it easier on her or the people around her, but he acted like it was easy.

He had no idea what that meant to her. No idea.

She perched on a chair, and watched him cook until she looked at the time and realized that she had lost track of everything entirely, and she was supposed to FaceTime her parents.

“Oh. I have to… I have to make a call.”

“Okay.”