River's End (River's End Series, #1)(35)

“I could have died up there! What were you thinking by taking me up there? Taking me anywhere, but in the arena to ride? I told you I didn’t know how to ride.”

Joey stepped back in obvious surprise. She’d never lost her temper with him. She’d never spoken to Joey in anger, but always in flirting and fun. But he put her in a dangerous situation, and with Jack as her only witness, she knew she might be hastening the date when she would get kicked off the ranch, but in that moment, her anger far outweighed her caution.

Joey threw his hands up as if in surrender. “I didn’t know you were that bad. You should have said you were scared up there.”

“My eyes were closed. If you’d just once glanced back, you’d have known that.” She suddenly spun on her heel and stormed off to her trailer before slamming it shut on both of them.

****

Jack chuckled to himself. He couldn’t hear Joey’s words, but heard loud and clear what Erin said, repeating word for word some of what he told her. He busied himself unsaddling the horses and rubbing them down. Joey should have done it, but he guessed by now, poor Joey was confused by what he’d done to the usually flirtatious, mild-tempered Erin Poletti. Joey really had no idea how scared Erin was.

God, she was pretty little thing. It was hard not to notice when she was nearly pinned in front of him. Her head was just below his chin and her dark curls sprang off her head and flew into his face before sticking to his lips. Her hair smelled good. Like sunshine. And softness. Like anything but horses and the ranch. So he liked her in his arms. So what? He wasn’t dead. He was a healthy male and when she was pressed into his crotch, with her breasts near the inside of his arms, how could he not respond? So what? It meant nothing. He would have had the same reaction to any female in that position.

Jack sighed when he saw how woebegone his brother looked when he stared after Erin. Then at how interested his young son was in her ass when she walked away. He swore under his breath. Hadn’t he predicted she would be nothing but trouble for this ranch? For his son? For his brother? And therefore, for him?

But… she honestly thought that once out of danger, he’d leave her up there, all alone in the mountains, in what, to her, was godforsaken country. That didn’t sit well with him. She really didn’t think she deserved much from anyone. She really didn’t expect much from Joey, because it seemed no one ever gave her much. He wasn’t sure what to do with the woman Erin Poletti was turning out to be, compared to the woman he pegged her to be initially.





Chapter Eleven


Erin hadn’t spent much time in the main house other than the few occasions when she’d gone into Joey’s room late at night. He didn’t invite her to dinner, and she never asked to come. They had sex, and she went back to Jack’s trailer. She had little interaction with Jack’s brothers or his younger son. She knew Ben because he was friendly to her every afternoon, coming to see if she wanted to hang out with the horses. He was a nice kid. Nicer than anyone else was to her at this point in her life.

One afternoon, she was crossing along the yard when she noticed Charlie Rydell, Jack’s eight-year-old son, sitting on the porch. He was crying. She stopped dead and looked around. There wasn’t another man in sight. Charlie held his head down and no one else was close by. She hesitated. She didn’t feel right even going up to the front door. That was for guests and she wasn’t even the hired help. So… she would what? See what was wrong with Charlie? But… how could she ignore the kid sitting there, heaving his guts out in tears? What if something was seriously wrong? What if he needed medical attention?

She jogged across the yard, went up the steps and sat down next to Charlie. He scooted away, and deliberately angled his body unnaturally just to stay away from her. He pushed a hand at his eyes and dirt mingled with the wet streaks.

“Are you okay, Charlie?”

He sniffled and turned closer to the porch railing. Where Ben was outgoing and talkative, Charlie seemed shy and reticent with both his emotions and thoughts. He was more like Jack.

“Something happen at school?” He had gotten off the bus just minutes before and his backpack was still behind him.

She waited awhile before stretching out her legs. “I went to fifteen schools in thirteen years. I know all about bad days.”

He glanced towards her and she took that as a sign to continue. “My mom moved a lot. She didn’t manage to stay in the same school boundaries very long. I even went back to the same school twice.”

Charlie looked at his feet. “I don’t have a mom.”

“I know you don’t. I didn’t have a dad. It really sucks, huh? At least, you have your uncles too. I had only my mom, and she was often distracted.”

“My dad’s busy too.”

“But not distracted. When he’s with you, he isn’t distracted, is he?”

Charlie shook his head no and rubbed his eyes again, seeming to size her up. Finally, he sighed and said, “My school has a Tea each year for Mother’s Day. If your mom can’t come, you’re supposed to bring your grandma or aunt or some other lady. There’s no one for me to bring.”

Erin paused. The kid was right, there seemed to not be one woman in his life. As Jack told her that night he walked her home: there was far too little female influence in the Rydell sphere.