Kara glared at her. “Someone to help, not to manage,” she pointed out.
“Nick won’t be managing,” her father said. “He’s just going to check in on things while we’re gone. You know, lend a hand where you need it.”
Kara crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you make that clear to him?”
Her father didn’t answer. Instead, he picked up their two bags and headed out the door to the waiting car that would take them to the airport. After their luggage was in the trunk, her father turned to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Kare-bear. It’s three months. If you need the help, Nick’s here. If you don’t, I have no doubt you’ll send him packing.” Her father smiled down at her. “Now, if you need anything—”
“I won’t.”
Her dad and Luanna had been planning this three-month European vacation for years. She’d been looking forward to being left in charge for twice as long.
Then her father sprung it on her as they were walking out the door that he’d asked Nick to lend a hand. She knew Nick would translate that as him being left in charge. Like hell.
“Go, have fun.” She kissed her father’s cheek and then hugged Luanna. “Bring me back something from Paris,” she told her stepmother.
“Will do,” she replied as she got in the taxi.
Once the car had exited the large wood and iron gates at the end of the drive, she did a quick fist pump and a boogie dance.
She had the entire ranch all to herself for three whole months. Three whole months!
She danced around the large front porch singing. Three whole months to herself.
Oliver, their ten-year-old mutt, watched her little dance from his spot in the corner before losing interest and falling back to sleep.
“Now that’s a sight.”
The deep voice made her scream and jerk around quickly, and she caught her elbow on the doorjamb of the front door.
Wincing with pain, she glared down at Nick, who was leaning against the railing at the base of the porch stairs. Where had he come from? Had he been standing there the entire time that she’d been making a fool out of herself?
“What do you want?” she asked, her happy and excited mood now sour.
ChapterTwo
Irritation crossed Kara’s face, a face Nick had memorized so many years ago. A face he dreamed of. A face that he hoped one day would look at him the way he looked at her.
Still, that slight irritation had him smiling. If she was upset at him, at least she was thinking of him. Right?
“I’m here by request of your father,” Nick answered. “He wants me to watch the place while he and your stepmother are gone for the next three months,” he said, even though he knew it was a stretch.
Carl Montgomery had just asked him to check in on Kara and lend a hand whenever she needed it. But Kara didn’t need to know that. The more he was around, the better chance he’d have of finally asking her out.
Kara’s eyes ran over him. He could see more annoyance there and smiled even more.
“You’re only here to lend a handifI need it.” She put a long emphasis on the wordif.
“That’s not what your father told me,” he said, moving up the stairs until he could lean against the railing beside her. The porch blocked the sun so he could see Kara’s face more clearly.
The face that always had his heart racing and his breathing go jagged. Still, he had learned long ago—since that first day when he’d fallen off Hunter and ended up on his butt in front of her—how to play it cool around her.
From that moment, watching her disappear on her pony, he’d sworn that he would never lose his cool around her again. Over the years he’d tried dating other girls. At several points in his life, he’d convinced himself that he could overcome the crush that he’d had on Kara from the moment he’d spotted her standing by the creek.
Then he’d break off with the temporary distraction and his gaze would fall on Kara again. Always back to Kara.
“I’m here, doing what I’ve been asked,” he corrected. He remembered the long conversation he’d had with her father. What he’d been asked to do.