Summer's Indiscretion(Divine Creek Ranch 7)(40)

She knew what Margot would say. Her sister would tell her she was being naïve by trusting them so soon. Margot had told her in the past that some of the relationship difficulties she’d had were because she trusted too easily. Margot might be right, but Summer preferred supposed naïveté to cynicism.

As if on cue, Summer heard Margot’s voice. “Will you get the hell away from me! Where is my sister? Summer!”

Summer was curious over the cause of Margot’s irritation and called out, “Back here, sis.”

“What the hell happened in here?” Margot asked in shock as she made her way to the back of the house. She was stepping over a pile of lingerie in the hallway and lost her balance when her high heel caught on a G-string as she stood on it with the other foot. A man Summer had never seen before caught her as she started to topple backward. Summer’s embarrassment was complete when her poor G-string shot across the room and Ace caught it with a grin then stuck it in his pocket.

“I said to stay the hell away from me!” Margot growled at the unknown man as he steadied her and then put up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

In a deep, growly voice he said, “Fine, next time bust your grouchy ass on the floor. No sweat off of my back.”

His words were harsh, but his tone was slightly amused, and Summer squinted at him, wondering who he was. He was wearing blue jeans, a white button-down shirt, and beat-up cowboy boots. Margot glared at him and then blushed as he smiled nonchalantly at her and leaned against the door frame. His black hair was in need of a trim, and he had a day-old beard gracing his devilishly handsome face.

Ace smiled and went over to the man to shake his hand. “Hey, Jake. I see you made it. Already on the job?”

The darkly attractive man replied, “Yup. Looks like I’m just in time for all the excitement, too.”

Ace nodded and said, “I’ll say. Summer, this is Jake Redman. He’s a friend of ours from San Angelo. He’ll be helping us for a while.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Jake,” Summer said as she cast a glance at Margot. It wasn’t like her to be inhospitable to someone new in the area, but she now stood to the side, her arms crossed, looking out of sorts.

Ace said mildly, “I see you and Margot have become acquainted.”

Margot scoffed and muttered, “Yeah. You could say that.”

Margot’s tone promised there was a story there, which Summer planned to get out of her as soon as possible. Margot was normally very levelheaded, but she obviously had her panties in a twist about her new bodyguard. The men excused themselves and set about hunting down the supplies and leftover paint she kept in the garage.

Margot and Summer began sorting through and hanging all the clothing back in the closet and putting her other things back in their drawers. Her sister was unusually quiet.

To distract herself from the task at hand, Summer gave in to her curiosity. “Spill it, sis.”

“Did Ace and Kemp tell you that they are tailing us?” Margot asked in a clipped tone.

Summer decided to ignore her sister’s pissy attitude in favor of getting to the bottom of how she’d come to be in her present mood. “He told me tonight, but I knew they would be watching out for us off and on. Why?”

“Well, I didn’t know they were going to dedicate someone to following me around, snooping on me.”

“Uh-oh. What happened?”

“I couldn’t sleep tonight. I was worried about the shop and thinking about you with two guys, and I couldn’t get my mind to stop churning.” Her sister continued rattling on about everything else that was keeping her awake. At times Margot seemed to think that the world would stop turning if she wasn’t there to worry about it and sometimes took on more of a burden than she needed to at the store and in her personal life.

“What does your crazy life have to do with Jake Redman?” Summer asked, trying to get her back on track.

“He’s a Peeping Tom!”

Summer had to stifle her shocked laughter. “A what? Come on!”

Margot lowered her voice and said, “Well, what would you call it if someone was peeking in on you while you took a bath? Hmm?”

“Oh, boy. So what happened?”

“I was in the tub reading and trying to relax. I happened to look up and there is this strange man peeking in my window!”

“What did you do?”

“What the hell do you think I did? I screamed my head off.”

“Did he really see you naked?”

“Of course he saw me naked! I was in the tub. No bubbles, just me and my e-reader, and…”

Summer noted the red flush stealing over Margot’s cheeks. There was more to tell in this story. “And?”