“Go get ’em,” he urged, and Dog immediately trotted off. Luke grabbed the boots and stepped off the porch onto the grass. He waved his hat as he approached the main drive, hoping she’d spot him through the shrubbery that lined the drive. Heading straight would lead her to the main farmhouse; to get to his place, she’d need to turn off through an opening in the trees and follow a worn grassy track. It was hard to spot unless you knew where it was, and it would have benefited from some gravel surfacing, but that was yet another item on the to-do list he’d never quite gotten around to. At the time, he hadn’t thought it all that important, but now, with Sophia approaching and his heart beating faster than usual, he wished he had.
Thankfully, Dog knew what to do. He’d run ahead and was standing in the main drive like a sentry until Sophia brought the car to a stop, then he barked authoritatively before trotting back toward Luke. Luke waved his hat again, eventually catching Sophia’s attention, and she turned the car. A moment later, she pulled to a stop beneath a towering magnolia tree.
She stepped out, wearing tight faded jeans that were torn at the knees, looking as fresh as summer itself. With almost catlike eyes and faintly Slavic bone structure, she was even more striking in sunlight than she’d been the night before, and all he could do was stare at her. He had the strange feeling that in the future, whenever he thought about her, this would be the image he recalled. She was too beautiful, too refined and exotic, for this country setting, but when she broke into that wide, friendly smile, he felt something clear inside, like the sun breaking through the mist.
“Sorry I’m late,” she called out as she closed the door, sounding nowhere near as nervous as he felt.
“It’s all right,” he said, replacing his hat and shoving his hands in his pockets.
“I made a wrong turn and had to backtrack a bit. But I had a chance to drive around King.”
He shuffled his feet. “And?”
“You were right. It’s not all that fancy, but the people are nice. An old guy on a bench got me headed in the right direction,” she said. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” he said, finally looking up.
If she could tell how unnerved he was, she gave no sign. “Did you finish all you needed to get done?”
“I checked the cattle, split some firewood, picked up a few things at the store.”
“Sounds exciting,” she said. Shading her eyes, she turned slowly in a circle, surveying her surroundings. By then, Dog had trotted up and introduced himself, twining around her legs. “I take it this is Dog.”
“The one and only.”
She squatted down, scratching behind his ears. His tail thumped in appreciation. “You have a terrible name, Dog,” she whispered, lavishing attention on him. His tail only thumped harder. “It’s beautiful here. Is it all yours?”
“My mom’s. But yes, it’s all part of the ranch.”
“How big is it?”
“A little more than eight hundred acres,” he said.
She frowned. “That means nothing to me, you know. I’m from New Jersey. City girl? Remember?”
He liked the way she said it. “How about this?” he offered. “It starts at the road where you turned in and goes a mile and a half in that direction, ending at the river. The land is shaped kind of like a fan, narrower at the road and getting wider toward the river, where it’s more than two miles wide.”
“That helps,” she said.
“Does it?”
“Not really. How many city blocks is that?”
Her question caught him off guard and she laughed at his expression. “I have no idea.”
“I’m kidding,” she said, rising. “But this is impressive. I’ve never been on a ranch before.” She motioned toward the house behind her. “And this is your house?”
He turned, following her gaze. “I built it a couple of years ago.”
“And when you say you built it…”
“I did most of it, except for the plumbing and the electrical. I don’t have a license for those things. But the layout and the framing, that was all me.”
“Of course it was you,” she said. “And I’ll bet that if my car breaks down, you’ll know how to fix that, too.”
He squinted toward her car. “Probably.”
“You’re like… old-fashioned. A real man’s man. A lot of guys don’t know how to do that stuff anymore.”
He couldn’t tell whether she was impressed or teasing him, but he realized that he liked the way she kept him slightly off balance. Somehow it made her seem older than most of the girls he knew.