Teaching the Cowboy by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online

lip, and she froze in place for a long moment, struggling to squelch her sudden desire to grab it between her teeth and pull.
    She swallowed. “No. No hard feelings. John, you didn’t have to drive all the way over here just to apologize.”
    “I know that, but since I was out anyway dealing with the steer, I figured I’d tack on a side trip.”
    That bit of arousal she’d felt ebbed now that she knew she rated right up there with the cattle. Not sexy.
    She ground her teeth and smiled regardless. “No need to trouble yourself in the future. Just call. My phone reception isn’t so great out here, but eventually your message will catch up to me.” Assuming I don’t delete it unheard.
    He walked the periphery of the room, examining this and that without touching anything.
    What must he have been thinking, studying her lodging like that?
    “I’ll get you a phone,” he said, pulling open a cabinet door and peeking inside. Becka had stashed paper towels there. Nothing special.
    “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.”
    He closed the cabinet and leaned his butt against the counter edge. “Yeah, I think it is. You don’t want to be on a ranch like this and not have a way to reach people when you need to, or for people to reach you . I’ll just add it to the long list of things I have to do tomorrow.”
    Well, don’t do me any favors, guy. She grinned her beauty-queen grin and shook her head, hoping he didn’t think she was just being overly accommodating. “You’re a busy guy, so don’t trouble yourself. Maybe I’ll start a fire and send up smoke signals. Got anyone on the ranch who can interpret those?”
    “Funny.” He focused that intense blue gaze at her and licked his lips again.
    Ronnie looked away first and hid her burning cheeks.
    “Are you comfortable here?”
    “In Wyoming?” She sank into the desk chair again and resumed her email scrolling, not that she could see straight. The man was crossing her wires in all the right ways. Or maybe the wrong ways. “I haven’t been here long enough to make that determination. Haven’t even unpacked.”
    “That’s good.”
    “How’s that good?”
    “If you want, I can move you over to the Lundstrom ranch. There’s a furnished guesthouse we built for my in-laws. More amenities. Actual hot showers.”
    She widened her eyes again, and this time she didn’t work so hard to look calm. He couldn’t see her face from where he stood. She kept clicking random things on her computer screen.
    Her shower hadn’t exactly reminded her of ice water, but it was far from luxurious. She figured it was a consequence of trailing Phil’s forty-minute shower more so than the fault of the small hot water heater. Either way, she didn’t want favors. Especially not from this guy.
    “No, thank you. This’ll be just fine. More than enough, even.”
    “You gotta let me do something for you. Pull my weight. I mean, if you’re doing all the teaching over here at the Ericksons’ and you’re living over here, too, I feel sort of like I’m slacking off.”
    She turned around in her chair and faced the man, who was now rubbing his stubbled chin and pacing near the dinette set. Pacing must have been his vice. She filed that away for later.
    “Mr. Lundstrom, John , did you and the Ericksons not have a conversation about my accommodations before I arrived?”
    He shrugged. “To be perfectly honest, I completely forgot about the arrangement until Landon showed up for lunch today saying you were on the way. Days start to blur together for me, Ronnie. Sometimes I forget what commitments I’ve made until someone tells me I’m supposed to be somewhere. He’s the one who reminded me I wrote a big-ass check back in May when Becka and Ted proposed this scheme.”
    Sounds like Daddy . He never remembers anything. Who could blame him, though? “Maybe you should hire an assistant.”
    His lips curled up into a tiny smirk. “Nah. I lost the one I had in the divorce, not that she