“Sounds like a conversation to have with Melanie.”
With a shrug Sarah said, “In case you haven’t noticed, she hates me.”
David shook his head. “Melanie has too much on her plate already to care about much else, so I doubt that.”
Remembering what Melanie had said earlier, Sarah asked, “What’s going on with her son?”
David said, “Not my place to talk about it.”
Sarah walked down the steps to stand in front of David, not wanting her questions to be overheard. “Does Tony know?”
Looking uncomfortable with her line of questioning, David hedged. “We’ve never discussed it.”
She attempted to explain her motivations, as much to herself as to David. “David, I don’t know if Tony and I are going to work out, but I do understand why he bought this place. He told me about the girl who died.” David’s eyebrows shot up, the only sign that her words surprised him. “I know what guilt can do to a person. You can’t run from it. You can’t hide from it. If you try, you lose a piece of yourself to it every day. I was lost before I came here. Now I see that I am strong enough to face what I did. I don’t want to hide anymore. I don’t think Tony does, either.”
David looked past the barn to where Tony was still watching them and said, “He’d tell you that some creatures are damaged beyond help.”
Sarah followed his line of vision and said, “You don’t believe that, do you?”
David said, “I wouldn’t be here if I did.”
Setting her shoulders in determination, Sarah said, “Where is this town that everyone talks about? Looks like I have some shopping to do.”
David coughed into his hand and asked, “You going dressed like that?”
Sarah’s smile widened as she met Tony’s eyes across the distance. “Oh, yes.” After David gave her the directions, Sarah said, “Could you have some of the men put two tables together under the tree on the side of the house? Make sure there are enough chairs for everyone here and Tony’s brother.”
David asked, “You invited Dean?”
“I did.”
“And Tony knows?”
Chin held high, Sarah said, “He does.”
David whistled and raised his hat in admiration. “Tony needs someone like you.”
Truly surprised, Sarah said, “Thank you.”
David replaced his hat and said, “I hope he’s not too much of a damn fool to realize it.” He walked away and left Sarah standing there, thinking about what he’d said.
I hope so, too.
Unable to concentrate enough to work, Tony tried to release some of his frustration through good old-fashioned manual labor. He cleaned, he stacked—anything to keep his mind off Sarah. When he saw her talking to David, his stomach clenched with an emotion he refused to acknowledge.
I’m not jealous.
She can talk to whoever she wants to.
David leaned down to hear something she said and they both smiled. Oh, hell no. Find your own Yankee. Tony fought the urge to stride over there and punch his manager. Thankfully, David walked away.
Sarah headed toward her SUV. Where the hell is she going?
The question had barely registered when Tony realized he’d dropped the bale of hay he’d been holding and had practically sprinted over to her vehicle. She was already in the driver’s seat, lowering the automatic windows to cool it off. He grabbed the car door and opened it. “What are you doing?”
She kept both hands on the steering wheel. “I told you that I have to organize things for tonight. We need some supplies so I’m driving into town.”
“Not alone, you’re not.” He didn’t plan to say that and he wasn’t entirely sure why he had.
She rounded her eyes innocently at him and asked, “Should I ask one of the ranch hands to come with me?”
“No,” he growled. The idea of her spending the day with another man was enough to set his heart pounding in his chest angrily.
“Did you want to come with me?” She asked so sweetly he knew she was deliberately trying to push his buttons. Going to town was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to run his hands down the long expanse of bare thigh that her shorts revealed. Too vividly, he could imagine sliding his hand into the open neckline of the shirt she wore and beneath the pink lace of the bra that its lack of buttoning displayed. “There is no way in hell you’re going to Fort Mavis dressed like that.”
Sarah’s lovely breasts heaved with irritation. “I don’t remember giving you the right to tell me what to wear.”
“Do you want people to think that you’re a . . .” He stopped before he said the word.