And what did Cole fear from Eva?
A memory of her mischievous smile flashed through his mind, her long blonde hair, her snappy retorts, their kisses.
His heart constricted.
Yeah, he hadeverythingto fear. West had one thing right. No one could play with Eva Trout without serious consequences.
Cole had never saddled his horse so fast, but it wasn’t fast enough for West. His brother came around the bend, dressed a little more hurriedly than usual, but still looking sharper than Cole did in his getaway outfit.
“Five thousand dollars,” West said with a level look at his brother.
Cole tightened Sleipnir’s cinches. He shook his head.
“I’m not finished. I’ll give you five thousand dollars every day. And I promise to carve pumpkins with her when you get back today. I’m going to make this very easy for you. It won’t even feel like you’re working.”
Of course, it wouldn’t. This was Eva. His brother didn’t know what he was asking.
“No.” Cole shoved his foot in the stirrup and jumped onto Sleipnir’s back.
He rode off without looking back.
Chapter Thirteen
“So, Cole really needs my help?” Eva asked.
West grunted out in the affirmative. “He’s been crying about never having any extra hands since we all left to live our lives.”
She looked over at West as he drove them over the country road that morning in his daddy’s pickup. Lizardman crawled over the bench seat, wriggling and barking out with excitement. She wrapped her arms around his scrawny back to hold him still.
Everything was muddy from the storm the day before, but West had taken off with one of the farm trucks, so they weren’t even restricted to the roads anymore. It was a strange feeling riding over these meadows. “You don’t hire any extra hands?” she asked.
“Oh, we do, but you know… it’s hard to find help during the holidays.”
Eva thought over what Westwasn’tsaying. His family had financial troubles. They could easily get help from West, but she had a feeling he’d already offered. They didn’t take charity, did they?
Would her help be considered an insult?
She clicked her heels together in her nervousness. Eva had bought her boots from the famous designer Sandbarrel, and had even packed six pairs of them because she’d been so eager to fit in at Harvest Ranch. These ones were black and matched with the cute cowgirl hat that she’d scored from one of her daddy’s rodeos. She usually paired them with a short, flirty dress, but on the off chance that West was serious about her actually doing some good here, she put on her cutest pair of jeans instead.
Just because she was on the range didn’t mean that she couldn’t make a fashion statement.
“Anyway, don’t mind Cole,” West said. “He won’t say it, but he’ll appreciate all the grunt work he can find.”
Well, that didn’t sound like the Cole that she knew, but then again West wasn’t exactly observant. Lately, it seemed he wouldn’t notice a bear if it jumped out at him wearing a leotard and turning cartwheels.
“There he is.” West pointed. “I figured ‘the baby’ would be hiding out in the farthest part of our grounds today.”
Eva straightened in her seat, spying Cole fixing a gate out on the marshland. His black tee had the sleeves yanked off. His muscles strained against the post as he pushed it back up. She jumped when she saw that he was wearing humongously baggy overalls. He’d rolled down the bib, and tied off a makeshift waistband with some rope.
She hid a laugh. Eva might have something to do with his strange getup. He’d left the house too early for her to tell him her plans for his wardrobe.
If she didn’t make it up to him, he’d never let her live this down.
“We’d better park back here,” West said, “or we won’t get this pickup out of the mud.”
West drove to the edge of the marshland before turning off his engine. The grass was awash in autumn colors with oranges and reds and yellows and greens. The lake in the middle of it all was swollen from the storm. It washed out over the banks, making its own little tributaries that overflowed into the reeds to form still ponds.
It would be a mosquito jungle out there.