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She blew out a breath. “It’s going to be hot, Mac.”
His shoulders tightened. “I know.”
“And there’s not much shade.”
“I know that, too.” He looked at her.
And there it was. She knew. Of course she did. Jodie knew everything about everyone who worked at Watchdog.
Everything.
“Are you worried because you’re my friend,” he asked, “or because you don’t think I can handle the work?”
“I know you can handle it.” She shifted closer. “I also know you stay off the range when it’s really hot. And I noticed Saturday, carrying me down that mountain, that you did fine. Better than fine.”
His stomach tightened. “You were paying attention? To me?” The words came out before he could stop them.
Jodie stared at him. Her cheeks turned pink.
“Well.” She looked toward her car. “You were carrying me. I didn’t have a lot else to look at.”
A laugh escaped him, taking some of the heaviness with it.
“I’m not trying to tell you what you can or can’t do,” Jodie said, quieter now. “I’d just worry, that’s all.”
“You wouldn’t need to. Not about that.”
He could feel the heat coming off her even in the cool evening air. One step closer. That was all it would take.
Then Jodie drew in a slow breath, and Mac shut his eyes for half a second. When he opened them, she was smiling.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, no.”
Her smile widened.
Mac stepped back before he embarrassed himself further.
Jodie climbed into the RAV and pulled the door closed. She started the engine, gave him a little wave through the window, then backed out of the space. Mac watched her taillights disappear onto the street.
Lavender.
He groaned and scrubbed both hands over his face, then pulled out his phone to give away the best table in Lyons.
He was going to need a very cold shower.
SEVEN
Jodie pulled into Arden and Kyle’s already-packed driveway Sunday morning, found a spot near the front, and shut off the RAV. Her ankle was feeling much better—Kyle had forced her to baby it at work—and she was ready to pitch in with getting the pasture ready for additional horses. Camo came tearing around the side of the house, skidded in the dirt when he saw her, then approached at a considerably more dignified pace as if he remembered the ankle. He was flanked by two other adult dogs named Flo and Reggie, and trailed by a younger one named Benny and a puppy renamed Pretzel—the Watchdog welcome committee.
“Hi, babies.” Jodie had pets and scratches for them all as they surrounded her, then escorted her through the house and to the back deck. One look at the backyard and Jodie immediately understood why Arden had texted her I need an adult here.
The ranch looked like a home-improvement store had exploded across the yard.
Stacks of lumber and fence posts lay beside the barn. Bundles of steel panels leaned against one another near the pasture, and somebody had parked a rented auger beside a stacked pile of bagged concrete. Toolboxes lay open everywhere. Orange paint marked the ground in two long lines from the barn toward the pasture, where the locate service had come out Friday and flagged the existing water line. Beyond them, Bear and Kyle were standing over a set of stakes with a tape measure while Gabe and Ben unloaded posts from a trailer.
Jodie smiled.
