Page 59 of Then You Happened
Jack doesn’t look convinced.
“Mr. Sutton?” I don’t recognize the voice, but before I can ask who the heck is on my ranch, Jack glances over his shoulder.
“Yeah?” he says as a man who looks to be in his late teens, early twenties walks out from the stables.
“Who’s that?” I ask immediately.
“That’s Will,” Jack answers, and I swear by the look on his face as he studies my reaction, he’s waiting for me to be on the defensive again.
I am, but I bite my tongue and try to hide it. “And he is?”
“I’m here to help get everything done.” He tips his hat my way and grins as if his baby face weren’t smeared with dirt and his jeans weren’t speckled with remnants of hay.
“Everything?” I repeat, looking at Will before turning back to Jack. “You didn’t have me approve—”
“He said you’d be mad,” Will interjects, making Jack fight a grin.
“He did, did he?” My hands are on my hips as I lift my eyebrows at Jack. He just smirks, his dimple showing, and crosses his arms over his chest.
“He did.” Will takes a few steps toward me as he stutters over what to say. “But I’m a hard worker, and he hired me on a temp basis. I’m new in town so I don’t know anything about anything and—”
“And Jack told you to say that?” I ask.
“No,” Sylvester says as he takes a step forward, always the peacekeeper. “I did.” He nods, slow and steady. “He’s a good kid, Tate. He needed some work. We needed some help so I told Jack about him.”
I meet all three pairs of eyes, feeling as if I just walked into a planned intervention and hate the feeling.
“Jack.” His name is a command as I nod at Will and Sylvester before walking away, expecting him to follow.
His footsteps fall behind me, and I wait until we’re out of earshot before I turn to face him.
“This isn’t a power play, Knox,” he says before I can get a word out.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” He leans his ass against the railing at his back and hooks the heel of one boot in the bottom rung. Willow walks around behind him, nudging his shoulder, and he absently puts a hand up to rub the underside of her neck as his eyes lock on mine. “This isn’t a power play. I’m not trying to assert my dominance or take your place or, god forbid, know what I’m doing.”
“That isn’t what I was thinking.”
He smiles with a soft shake of his head. “Yes, it was.” There is something in his eyes I can’t place, and it doesn’t make me uncomfortable, but it . . . it makes me feel as if he actually cares. “You’re sexy when you’re angry. You know that?”
“What did you say?” I ask, his words throwing me for a loop.
“You heard me.” His tongue darts out to wet his lips.
“Look, Sutton.” He lifts a lone brow, but I smirk. Two can play this game. “I married a man who tried to deflect me with his charm. I won’t fall for it again.”
That has the flirt melting away from his expression. “Watch it, Knox. I told you not to compare me to your husband.”
I snort. “How can I not? You hired a man without even asking me if it was okay and then try to flirt with me so I drop it.”
“Last I checked, I am the ranch manager.”
“And I’m the owner.”
We wage a battle of visual wills as the humidity thickens in the air around us. Sylvester laughs in the distance. There’s a clatter of something against a trough. Willow brays behind Jack.
But we just stand in the paddock with the world moving on around us while I try to remind myself that I’m learning to trust him.
