Eenie Meenie Minie Mo

Chapter Thirteen

  I gave him two days. That was how many days I was standing a truce. Even though I was basically over it, I still had to talk to him about what nearly happened at the party—just to make sure it never happened again.

  Unfortunately he was gone all day and next thing I knew four o’clock rolled around. Time for work. I was getting used to the horses little by little and wasn’t as nervous around them as I had been. My favorite was Reese, though. I mean, who couldn’t have a soft spot for a pregnant mare? Plus she was just downright sassy. She didn’t take Terry or Chief’s crap. That was just sort of admirable.

  When I pulled into my normal parking spot, I noticed a shiny red truck that didn’t belong just ahead. Maybe the Nelsons finally sold that old white truck and bought a new one.

  In any case, I just went down to the barn to do my job. I had officially graduated to being basically alone down there now! At my insistence, I now cleaned the horses up before putting them in their stalls. I knew Liam hated me doing all the work down there, but I knew he was busy and needed to go to his own job.

  As soon as my feet hit the barn room floor, though, I knew something here did not belong. The air, while stuffy and full of horse crap—a smell I was growing accustomed to—just felt wrong, everything left unbalanced.

  And when the tack room door slid open, I found out why.

  Leander flashed his signature wise guy smirk. “Well, well. You’re a little late, Hollywood.”

  I put my hands on my hips. He knew, too, then, that the temporary truce was over. Good. That meant I didn’t have to spell everything out for him. “What are you doing here?”

  He shrugged, shlucking a full bucket into Reese’s stall. Because of her pregnancy, her diet had changed and there were a million things I had to put with her grain, along with dampening it. “Just visiting the relatives. Mind?”

  “I meant down here,” I reiterated with a frown.

  He gave me another shrug. “Dunno. I like it down here. An since my dad won’t leave already, I just kinda found myself wandering down here.”

  “When did you get the truck?” I asked, already heading into the tack room to get the scoops of feed for Terry and Chief. “I haven’t seen it before.”

  “That’s ‘cause I keep it in the garage,” Leander answered.

  “It’s pretty sweet.”

  “Uh oh,” he laughed. “She likes my truck!”

  “Why is that ‘uh oh’?” I walked out and started toward the end stalls.

  Leander took the water buckets out of the stalls and went to filling them. “Cause when a girl likes a guy’s truck, it always means trouble.”

  I rolled my eyes while dumping the contents of the scoop into Terry’s feed bucket. “Oh brother. And guys say girls overanalyze everything.”

  “Except for you.” Pulling the water pump handle down, Leander commenced to hauling two full buckets of water toward the stalls. Damn his short sleeved shirt, showing off those nicely toned arm muscles! Total show off.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I filled Chief’s feed bucket.

  “You don’t overanalyze anything.”

  I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I still asked, “Such as?”

  “Well, okay, since you brought it up.” He leaned against the stall’s doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. “I almost kissed you the other night and you haven’t said a word about it.”