Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(32)

She finally went to sleep but dreamed of blazes that reached from earth to heaven. She was on one side and Elijah was on the other. She could smell the smoke, feel the heat as it singed her hair, and hear him singing “Hello Darlin’.” She wanted to strangle him until he turned blue, and then the big Harley came through the fire unscathed with Elijah riding it. He pointed to the passenger’s seat behind him and extended a hand. She took it, hopped on, wrapped her hands around him, and in seconds they were riding beside a bubbling creek with bright green grass growing right up to the edge. The moon hung low in the sky, and stars twinkled around it like subjects bowing before a king.

Hard knocking on the door awoke her with a jerk. She threw a pillow over her head and groaned, but the rapping continued. She threw the pillow at the door and muttered. It went on. Fully awake, she looked at the clock and gasped. It was nine o’clock. The caterers would be there at ten, and her new crew was probably already in the bunkhouse.

She slung the door open to find Elijah standing there with a big grin on his handsome face.

“You going to sleep all day or do you want to help supervise the caterers?” he drawled.

“My alarm didn’t go off,” she said weakly.

Looking at him in those jeans, scuffed up boots, and T-shirt caused her breath to catch in her chest. Getting a whiff of Stetson aftershave sent her heart into double-time. Then she noticed that his ponytail was gone.

“What did you do to your hair?” she asked.

“Ran into Baird this morning and got a haircut. Figured it might look a little more respectable for a rancher,” he said.

She was slightly disappointed. “You going to keep it cut all the time now?”

“No, ma’am. Probably get it cut once a year for the sale. Don’t see much sense in all that expense and trouble through the year. Now, answer my question. You going to sleep, or are you getting up and having some breakfast with me?”

Sophie yawned. “I’m awake. You haven’t eaten?”

“Nope. I told you I got a haircut. Stopped and got us some doughnuts for breakfast. Coffee is made. How long is it going to take you to get to the table?”

“Give me five minutes,” she said.

He shut the door and she fell back on the bed. Life was certainly not boring with Elijah Jones in the house!

She gave herself one minute to think about how he’d looked without his ponytail, his black hair feathered back perfectly. Handsome didn’t begin to describe him that morning, leaning on the doorjamb, a smile making his blue eyes twinkle. She could think of a dozen other words that did, and “sexy” topped out at number one.

She hopped up and grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet, then put them back on the hanger. It was going to be another hot day, so she chose a pair of denim shorts that barely reached her knee and a sleeveless chambray shirt that buttoned up the front. She swept her unruly curls up into a messy ponytail and put on a pair of socks before stomping her feet down into her oldest work boots.

The table was set with saucers, coffee cups, apple juice, and a dozen doughnuts stacked up pyramid-style in the middle of the table when she reached the kitchen. She pulled out a chair and sat down, picking a maple-frosted doughnut from the top of the stack.

Elijah grabbed a glazed doughnut at the same time, and their arms brushed against each other. Her bare arm barely touching his created a stirring down deep in his heart that he’d never experienced before. He’d dated women, lots of them, but not a one ever affected him like Sophie McSwain.

Sophie bit into the maple doughnut so she wouldn’t have to say a word. The kiss wasn’t a big Angus bull sitting at the table with them, creating awkwardness between them. But it had opened the floodgates for emotions that she thought she’d buried for good. Just his touch on her arm had sent tingles up and down her spine. Yes, sir, the quicker she could get this sale over with and go trailer shopping, the better.

“Barn looks really good. Guys have moved their gear into the bunkhouse, and they’re out there giving it one more good sweeping before the caterers arrive this morning. We should be set up for finger foods and drinks when the first buyers come to look over the stock at noon,” Elijah said.

Sophie knew all of that, except for the part about the three hired hands moving into the bunkhouse at the crack of dawn and sweeping out the barn, but she liked to listen to Elijah talk. His slow drawl sounded as if it was born in Texas or maybe Louisiana. She realized that she knew so little about him, and in the same instant, that she wanted to know everything.

“Where were you born and raised?”

Elijah chuckled. “Well, that sure came out of left field. I figured that you’d stomp your way to the kitchen fussin’ about that kiss we shared and then give me what for about my plans all day.”

“I might later,” she said.

“OK, I was born in Silverton, Texas. It’s out in the panhandle plains where there is nothing but dirt and sky. Go a few miles north and you’ll fall off the world into the Tule and Palo Duro Canyons, but mostly it’s flatland good for cattle and cotton. My folks had a big cotton operation, and I swore if I ever got away from cotton fields, I’d never go back. Dad died five years ago; Momma followed him the next year. My brothers and I sold the cotton farm and split the money. I wished a thousand times since then that I’d bought them out and kept it.”