to the tailgate of the truck and did what her father asked.
He watched her until she went up the steps and then he turned back to Preacher and Etta. She put one hand on the stroller handlebars and cocked her hip, clearly female-speak for Well?
“Surprise,” he said with that devilish smile that made her stomach turn to heated marshmallow and made her mind conjure up such fantasies as tasting his mouth with hers.
“Surprise?” she repeated. “That’s what you have to say for yourself?”
Chapter 2
August Winters swallowed and looked at his new boss. He shook his head, far too much glee on his face. Preacher Glover wasn’t going to help August, that much was clear.
“I told you I got a new job,” he said. “This is it.”
“You know I’m a Glover.”
“Yes,” he said with a smile. “As you’ve told me a million times now.”
“I have not, you rascal,” Etta said, stepping out from behind that stroller to swat at his chest. He laughed as he warded off her hands, managing to wrap one of his around her wrist.
Sparks and fireworks and entire forest fires moved through August’s bloodstream. He hadn’t felt anything like this with a woman since he’d met his wife, about fifteen years ago now.
Josie had been the sun to him, and he’d been willing to be her satellite, revolving around anything and everything she did.
Etta Glover possessed the same magnetic, centrally strong pull on him that Josie had, and August had no idea what to do about it.
Etta finally stopped struggling, her own smile decorating her pretty face. She huffed out her breath and tugged on the bottom of her jacket. Her fingers slipped through his as they faced Preacher, and she said, “I was just telling Preach about this man I’d started seeing. And then, like fate, there you were. Here you are. Here he is.”
August grinned at Etta, because it was rare to see her flustered. A slight pinkish hue had crept into her cheeks, and that only made August’s desire for her shoot toward the stratosphere. He’d met her siblings and mother a couple of weeks ago, but not her cousins.
Well, Preacher he had, obviously.
“August Winters,” she said. “I’m seeing August Winters.”
Preacher lifted his right eyebrow. “Is this going to be a problem for me?”
“No, sir,” August said quickly.
His boss’s face melted into a smile as Etta started swatting at him, saying, “You—walk—yourself—around—Mister,” with every playful whap against his shoulder and chest. August noted that she stayed on his left side, as Preacher walked with a cane on the right. He didn’t know the whole story there, and he didn’t need to.
He understood how some things weren’t fun to talk about—a fact that stared him in the face every single day that he continued to text and talk to Etta and he didn’t bring up his late wife. She hadn’t asked yet, but August suspected she would soon enough.
“We’re never going to beat the timer now,” Preacher said, laughing the same way August had at Etta’s pretty pathetic attempts to punish him.
“Yes, we will,” she insisted. “I’m just going to have to push you harder.” She resumed her spot behind the stroller, the cutest, chubbiest baby girl sitting up in the front seat. “Lovely to see you, Mister Winters,” Etta said, her chin aiming for the stars. “Let’s go Betty Boop. Your daddy has walking to do.”
She continued by him, and August watched her go, stunned that was really going to be the end of their interaction. No other questions? No invitation to the homestead for lunch? She’d been texting him pictures of all the delicious food she was feeding other cowboys this week, and it had taken a great deal of willpower to stay at his construction site and eat his sad peanut butter and honey sandwich.
They rounded the corner, Preacher tossing a look over his shoulder at August. Etta, however, did not. The woman was like a rock. A steel rock, and August wasn’t sure if he liked that or if it intimidated him.
He turned back to his truck, plenty left to unpack. He got busy doing that, because he only had today and tomorrow to get himself and Hailey settled in this house before he had to start the job here at Shiloh Ridge.
Everything about this job was better than where he’d been for the past seven months. He hated the construction job, because he had to be clocked in by six a.m., and that made life really hard with Hailey. He