A Rancher To Love. Trish Milburn
on whether he was a good guy, safe to be around, whether he was married.
India waved at a blonde Leah didn’t know, and the other woman carried her hand basket over to where they stood.
“Gina, this is Leah Murphy. She’s the one who makes the beautiful jewelry I’ve had in the front display case at the shop. Leah, Gina Tolbert.”
Gina extended her hand for a shake. “You do lovely work. I had my eye on a lapis and pearl necklace of yours, but I waited too long and someone snapped it up. That’ll teach me to hesitate when I see something I want.”
“I’m sure you could convince Leah to make another for you,” India said with a smile that accentuated her natural beauty.
“Of course.” Maybe if she forced herself to start working again, it would actually take her mind off the things she didn’t want to think about in the first place.
“Leah has just moved here.” India met Leah’s eyes. “Gina has only been here a few months herself.”
“I’ve spent some time here over the years, though. My mom moved here when I was in my senior year of high school, when she got remarried. Though I stayed in Waco with my dad so I could finish school with my friends.”
“We’re lucky to have Gina here now, though,” India said. “She’s the new head of the tourist bureau, and she’s got so many great ideas to keep the local economy booming that she’s got all of our heads spinning.”
As the two women told Leah about the addition of photography classes by the local-wildflower tour company, the budding wedding industry, and how the rodeo crowds were growing and thus drawing bigger-name talent, Leah couldn’t help feeling their excitement.
India placed her hand atop Leah’s where it sat gripping the handle of the shopping cart. “And this will be perfect for you. We’re planning to have an arts and crafts trail soon where tourists can follow a map from one artist or craftsperson’s shop to the next. They can watch the artists at work and buy their wares. I can see you being really successful with that, as long as I still get some of your stuff for Yesterwear.”
“I can get you what information we have so far,” Gina said.
“Thank you.” In theory, Leah liked the idea a lot. But just thinking about strangers showing up at her doorstep had her stomach clenching and her skin prickling with chills. Not to mention the fact that it wasn’t truly her home to do with as she liked. She doubted Tyler wanted strangers coming and going all the time, especially when he had a child’s safety to consider.
“So what brought you to Blue Falls?” Gina asked.
Leah forced a small smile. “Just ready for a change. And I’ve always liked it here.”
“Leah is Conner Murphy’s cousin.”
If she hadn’t been looking at Gina, Leah would have missed the slight widening of her eyes. In a blink, the reaction was gone. What was that about? Hmm, perhaps she needed to ask her cousin about the pretty Miss Tolbert.
“Sorry to run, but I’ve got a meeting in twenty minutes.” Gina gave a little wave and headed off toward the front of the store.
“I should finish up, too,” Leah said. “Based on this conversation, I’ve evidently got lots of work to do.”
India gave her a quick hug. “Don’t forget what I said about the arts and crafts trail. It could really introduce your work to a lot of new people if it’s as successful as we hope it’ll be.”
“I’ll think about it.” She couldn’t promise more than that.
“When you get settled, give me a call or drop by the shop. We’ll have lunch.”
“Sounds good.” And it did, but Leah suddenly felt exhausted by the conversation. The need to retreat to her new home swamped her, but she did her best to shove those feelings away and continue her shopping.
When she’d finally finished and stowed everything in the back of her car, she sank into the driver’s seat feeling as if she’d just run a marathon. How could one event in her life change her so much? Rob her of her energy, her true personality?
She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles whitened. Damn Jason Garton. She wanted nothing more than to move beyond what had happened, but it looked like it was going to take more than a move to bring that to fruition.
Her phone buzzed, startling her. When she saw it was Tyler, a frisson of warmth zipped along her skin. She ran her hand back across the top of her head. How could she be so nervous around Tyler while also attracted? It was as if her old self and the one that had emerged after Jason Garton had invaded her life were dueling for primacy.
She tapped her phone’s screen and read the simple response to her earlier text.
No problem.
Only two simple words, and yet she imagined hearing them in that low-timbre voice. Maybe she should take her reaction as a good sign that she was on the road back to her normal self, nothing more.
But as she drove toward the ranch, she couldn’t stop hearing his voice in her head and even imagining him saying something other than the words necessary to answer her questions as his tenant. Something romantic. Something she suspected she wasn’t really ready to hear, from anyone.
Tyler slid his credit card through the reader on the gas pump then selected the appropriate grade. As he started filling the truck with gas, Greg Bozeman walked out of one of the auto service bays, wiping his hands on a blue shop towel.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Greg asked as he approached.
“Can’t complain.”
“That have anything to do with your new roomie?”
“Huh?”
“Topic of the day around town is that Leah Murphy moved in out at your place.”
Tyler sighed. “I rented the bunkhouse to her.”
“As I recall, that’s pretty close to your house.”
Tyler lifted an eyebrow. “When did you become an old gossip?”
Greg’s grin was full of mischief, not at all unusual for him. “Service stations are just as much a hotbed of gossip as the barbershop or the front corner of the Primrose in the mornings.”
Tyler snorted. Leave it to the biggest flirt in town to know almost to the moment when a new woman moved to the county. “Don’t you have a car or twelve to fix?”
“I can multitask.”
Tyler shook his head as he pulled the gas nozzle from the truck’s tank and replaced it back in the pump. “As far as I know, she’s free, if that’s what you’re after.”
“Not the road for me. She already turned me down. Can you believe that?”
Tyler braced his hand atop the gas pump. “Wait, you’ve already asked her out and she’s only lived here a day?”
“Nah, it was a few months ago, when she was here visiting Conner and his family. I pulled out my best stuff, too.”
A bark of laughter escaped Tyler. “And she turned you down. That’s got to be a first. I don’t know the woman well, but at least now I know she has taste.”
“Cold, man. Cold.”
Tyler laughed again as he rounded his truck. When he caught sight of Maddie coloring yet another page in the book she’d gotten at the café, he reined in his laughter.
“You must really like that coloring book.”
Maddie hesitated in the strokes with the red crayon she was using before finally