The Bachelor's Baby (Bachelor Auction Book 3)(11)

“And you think there aren’t regulations governing ranching? Gone are the days when you just had to keep the wolves off the herd and drive them to market, you know.”

“I know. I was on a ranch until I was twenty and saw a lot of changes in those last few years. It’s changed even more since.” He wouldn’t tell her that her remark the other day about going organic had put a bee in his bonnet. He was looking into it.

“It’s a business,” she reinforced.

“I happen to have a degree in business.” He wasn’t bragging. It was a fact.

“There’s also a lot of backbreaking labor,” she cautioned, but a winsome grin and a scan across his shoulders told him that her questioning his strength and willingness to work was a tease.

“I’ve always been the hands-on type,” he assured her, pleased that she heard the innuendo and blushed.

“Do you have family in Marietta?” she asked.

“Other side of the state. Some cousins and an aunt. We get in touch a couple times a year, but I don’t see a lot of them. We all have lives.” He shrugged.

She nodded.

The latest bachelor winner caused a huge cheer to go up, making them both look.

“Oh!” She waved as she saw her companion was shrugging into her coat and looking for her. “I think Liz wants to go. Thanks for the drink.” She gave him a crooked smile. “I mean that. I’m glad we’re okay.” He thought he heard more than a chipper goodbye. She looked like she wished they weren’t cutting this short.

He wished they weren’t, too. Damn it, why wouldn’t she just come back to his place and let them get where attraction wanted to take them?

Her friend wound her way through the tables to arrive next to them. She was the poster-child for California Girls with dark blond hair, white teeth, and looks that were glamorous and wholesome at the same time.

“Sorry to interrupt, but—hi,” she said with a friendly smile.

“Linc Brady, Liz Flowers. Soon to be Canon,” Meg introduced. “I finally got that sister I asked Santa for when I was five.”

“And a clumsy niece,” Liz said with an exasperated chuckle. “I just got a text. The girls were using a box cutter to make some backdrops for the play. Nothing life threatening, but Petra needs a couple of stitches. I’m going to run her to the emergency room, but I’ll come back for you. Do you mind?”

“Oh, um…” Meg had thought Liz wanted to leave for the night. They had dropped Petra at her cousin’s on the way to the auction, so it would only take a minute to collect her and cut across town to the hospital. Meg was done with the auction, but wouldn’t mind finishing her drink with Linc. She glanced at him.

“I can take you home,” he offered. “I’ll be driving right by.”





Chapter Four




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Meg hadn’t expected that. Or the way her blood expanded in a big pump of excitement through her veins as she absorbed how close he stood. Glancing up, she found him looking at her mouth. The sizzle in her nerve endings grew sharper.

“Would you mind?” she asked, not sure if she was talking to him or Liz.

“Not at all,” Liz assured her with a smile that was a teensy bit sly. “I’ll have to fill out forms anyway, which will take some time. I’d rather not make you wait for us.”

The shift in plans felt wicked, but in a good way. Minutes later, Meg was bundled into her coat, sitting in Linc’s leather-scented pick up truck, bottom warmed by the seat element. The interior of the truck was dark and intimate with the local station playing the latest country tune on low volume. Snow was starting to fall in earnest, flakes flying into the beam of the headlights.

“Meg, I hope you’re taking this situation at your work seriously. Because I happen to know that chasing environmental regulations is nothing compared to enforcing the safety ones. Too many people think it’s a sign of weakness to take basic precautions. Or a waste of time. It’s not. It’s smart.”

She smiled across at him in the dark, both irritated and touched by his concern. “I’m being very careful. Honestly.” Overly, really, but she appreciated the station’s abundance of caution. “And I will talk to Blake about it if it will keep you from playing Big Brother.”

A pause, then, “This one hits close to home for me. There was a guy that went after my mom when I was a kid.”

“Seriously? What happened? Is that why you asked me if it was sexual harassment?”

“Yeah. He was really aggressive about it, pressing her with unwanted attention. Don’t be foolish and think that ignoring it will make it go away.”

“I won’t. I swear. But what happened? How did she make him stop?” She was listening carefully, eager to put an end to her own situation.

“She didn’t. I did. And got my ass kicked in the process.”

Meg delivered news on a daily basis. She knew what a beating looked like. Terrible things happened to good people all the time. It was her job to hold herself at a distance, but certain things still had the power to leave a mark if she saw a personal connection. Those were times when her emotions refused to be shoved into neutral and this was one of them.

“How old were you?” she asked with a kind of morbid dread, wanting to know but not. Her heart felt clutched in a vise.