On the Fence

Chapter 10

Monday rolled around faster than I would have preferred, and I found myself stuck inside the ranch house again, working at the small desk, feeling Zeke's eyes on me.

"Taylor, did you enter those manifests into the books last week?" I turned and looked at him.

"What manifests?"

"The ones that I placed on your desk last Friday." My brow wrinkled, and I turned to shuffle around the papers on the desk, looking for them.

"I'm sorry, Zeke, I never saw them, and I don't see them now." I heard him get up out of his chair and come over to help me look.

I swallowed when he used a hand on my shoulder to lean over the desk and search. He pulled on the tiniest corner of a sheet of paper that had fallen behind the desk, pulling it out to place it in front of me.

"There it is," he said, smiling at me. I looked up at him with a smile of appreciation, and our faces were close again.

He stayed close for a long moment and then finally stood, still looking at me. He gave me a peruse and then returned to his desk. My heart had sped up when our faces were close, but out of nervousness, something about his closeness made me a ball of nerves. I could feel his eyes on me the rest of the day until I left his office.

Wednesday felt the same for me; oppressive and bizarre. I felt stifled every time I went into his office to work. He hadn't done anything wrong, but the sense I was getting off of him irked me.

I was about to leave his office for the day when he called me back.

"Do you have a moment, Taylor?"

"Ugh, sure, Zeke, what's up?"

"Shut the door, would you?" I did as he asked and turned to look at him.

He motioned for me to come back into the office. I walked over to him, curious about what he wanted. "Have a seat," he said. I looked behind me at his desk. Was he serious? OooooooKay. I sat on the edge of his desk and looked at him.

"Are you doing alright?" I looked to the side, confused by his question.

"Well, yeah. What do you mean?" He moved his chair a little closer to me.

"I heard from some associates that the guys have been heckling you. That true?"

"Well, not more than their usual, no." His face was a mask of grave concern.

"So they weren't yanking you around on the dance floor and kissing you as a prank?" His brow furrowed as he said it, his face tilting to catch my eye as he placed a hand just above my knee.

I was confused, "Well, no. We had a couple of evenings at the bar, where I danced with many of them. It's true that they had a bet going to," I blushed and looked down at the thought of Brant's kiss.

"To what, Taylor?" My eyes that were looking down widened a little as his hand shifted a fraction higher as he tried to get me to look at him.

I finally answered, "It was just a bet that if they could do a full eight on the bull, they got a kiss. I'm the one who agreed, and it was all in good fun. There isn't a problem, Zeke. The guys and I are all good friends. They look out for me."

He studied me intently with his hazel eyes. He used his hand on my thigh to help himself stand over me.

His other hand came to my shoulder, and he looked into my eyes, "You'd tell me if there ever was a problem, right?" I was so uncomfortable with his proximity and intimate touch that I had the hardest time not leaning away from him.

"Of course," I said, swallowing and wetting my lips. His eyes caught the movement and stayed there for a moment.

My heartbeat and breathing picked up a little. My god, did he just look down my shirt?