April Arrington - A Home With The Rancher

She met his eyes and hitched the bag strap higher on her shoulder. “I’m actually here to—”

The strap snapped and her bulky bag slammed to the floor, clothing spilling from the gaping hole left behind. An unladylike word burst from her lips.

Blushing, she knelt beside the bag, gathering up lacy bras and ragged T-shirts then shoving them back inside. “Sorry.” She puffed a wisp of hair out of her face. “That was rude.”

A rusty chuckle stirred in Mac’s chest. Smothering it, he grinned and tried his best to keep his gaze from straying to her tempting cleavage. “You really do need this job, don’t you?”

Her hands stilled. “Honestly?” She looked up, eyes lingering on his smile. “I really do need to be here. And woman or not, I know I can help you.” Her slim throat moved on a hard swallow. “If you give me a chance to prove it, I promise you won’t regret it.”

Mac’s smile slipped at the shift in her tone. A strange coldness trickled into his gut and pricked at his skin.

“Trial basis.” He forced the words past stiff lips. “It’ll only take a day or two for me to see if you can hack it.”

Chapter Two

Dani was going to hell—straight down a hole she’d dug herself. And she was tempted to drag lead hand, Cal McCoy, with her.

“Now this here is what we call an ax.” Cal’s mouth—still chewing on that filthy straw of hay from earlier—delivered each syllable with slow, exaggerated movements. He eased the tool closer to her face, pointed a blunt finger at the sharp end and raised his brows. “And this here is the blade.”

Dani narrowed her eyes on the scruffy cowboy in front of her, a spark of anger overtaking the guilt that had lodged in her gut one hour earlier during her conversation with Mac. Only ten minutes in Cal’s presence and she was ready to flip her wig. How in the world was she going to hold on to her temper long enough to secure this job?

“And this here...” Cal grabbed a log from the ground, balanced it in his palm then hefted it in front of his chest. “This here is what we call wood.”

“Butthead.”

Choking back a laugh at the muttered insult, Dani glanced over her shoulder.

Jaxon stood several feet away, leaning against a fence and tossing a baseball into the glove on his hand. Just as he had for the past ten minutes as Cal led her through her first assigned task on the ranch.

“What was that, boy?” Cal frowned at Jaxon, the hay dangling precariously from the corner of his chapped lips.

Jaxon looked away and thrust the baseball harder into his glove. “Nothing. Sorry, sir.”

“You got fire, kid,” Cal said, laughing. “I’ll give you that. Ain’t you supposed to be babysitting? Your dad’s havin’ a time keeping up with those sisters of yours and getting the hikers started.”

Jaxon stared down at his glove and didn’t answer.

Dani leaned to the side and peered over Cal’s shoulder. A small group of guests was gathered at the edge of a nearby field, packing backpacks and listening to Mac’s instructions for the impending hike.

Mac gestured toward Tim, who stepped forward and took over speaking to the group, then knelt beside his daughters. He tugged something from his back pocket, pulled one twin close and started brushing her hair.

Judging from the girl’s muddy jeans and unhappy expression, Dani guessed it was Nadine. She craned her neck for a clearer view and smiled, the sight of Mac’s big hands moving gently over the girl’s long hair stirring warm flutters in her belly and an ache in her chest.

When she’d concocted this plan to gain access to Mac, she’d expected to meet a ruthless man holding out for top dollar in a deal. Not a grieving father who loved his children and was clearly in over his head.

And she’d lied to him.

That ache in her chest tightened and a bead of sweat trickled across her temple. It didn’t matter if she’d never intentionally deceived someone before. She’d done it today.

“...heard a word I just said?”

Dani snapped back to attention, her gaze jerking from Mac to Cal’s disgruntled face. “What?”

Cal rolled his eyes. “Whatever you missed, girlie, I ain’t got time to explain it again. And if you were a man, I wouldn’t have to explain it at all.” He tossed the ax in the dirt at her feet then ambled off, saying over his shoulder, “Just split those piles of wood and stack them. You got one hour.”

Dani frowned. Jaxon was right. Butthead fit the bill perfectly.

She stared at the high pile of thick logs and shook her head. Female pride or not, if she had any sense, she’d grab her tattered bag, hop in that pathetic car and burn rubber back to New York.

Her shoulders sagged. But that would mean standing in the boardroom and facing a roomful of male executives—including her father. And what would she say? Sorry, Dad. I know I promised to make this deal but...

But what? She’d failed to deliver yet again? Prove that he’d been right all along and she wasn’t equipped to run the company? That she was just another spoiled, rich girl who couldn’t pull her own weight?

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

Dani looked over her shoulder. Jaxon straddled the top rung of the fence and stared intently at her. His green eyes held no mockery or disdain. Just a concerned, empathetic light. And the kind note in his small voice made her think he knew much more than foolish men like Cal gave him credit for.

“No,” she said. “I don’t.”

Jaxon glanced down and shrugged. “I could help you. I mean...if you wanted me to, I could.”

She smiled, her heart melting for this boy who’d lost so much, and whispered, “That’d be great. Thank you.”

He looked up, revealing a crooked grin.

Dani’s breath caught. The tilt of his mouth was so similar to his father’s brief smile earlier. The one that had lifted the sagging fatigue from Mac’s muscular frame and the heavy shadows from his handsome face. The one that had made it too difficult to come clean entirely and risk adding to the painful load he carried.

“Okay.” Jaxon straightened on the fence rung and gestured toward the stacks of wood. “First, you gotta pick out the best logs. My dad says the seasoned ones with the cracks in ’em are the easiest to break.”

Dani nodded then sifted through several logs before hefting one out of the pile and tilting it toward Jaxon. She drifted a finger along a deep crack in the wood. “Like this?”

“Yeah.” He pointed at a large stump on the ground. “Now, put it on that and hit it right on the split.”

She set the log on the stump, steadied it then grabbed the ax. “All right.” Taking a deep breath, she lifted the ax and started to swing. “Here we go.”

“Wait!”

Dani jumped and her hands slipped on the ax handle. The tool plunged to the ground, slicing into the dirt and lodging dangerously close to the toe of her sneaker.

“Sorry.” Jaxon winced. “But if you stand like that, you’re gonna chop your foot off.”

She raised an eyebrow, a humorless laugh bursting from her lips. “Sure looks that way.”

Jaxon hopped off the fence, tossed his baseball glove on the grass and walked over. “You gotta stand wide and bend your knees.” He tapped her insteps with his boot until her stance met his approval then squatted slightly and held his hands up as though gripping the ax. “Like this, see? One hand high and one hand low.”

Dani grinned, grabbed the ax and mimicked his posture. “This way?”

“Yep.” Jaxon smiled and tossed his brown hair out of his eyes. “Dad splits two piles every day and saves ’em up for the cabins during winter. He lets me help sometimes. He told me it ain’t about strength. It’s about finesse.”