Watch Me Fall (Ross Siblings, #5)(16)

“Ooh, electric. I like it. You work on power lines and stuff?”

“No, that’s a lineman. I’m strictly indoors. I work for my dad. He has an electrical contracting company.”

“Seems dangerous.”

“It can be. You definitely gotta respect it, not get too comfortable or too cocky.” He led the way through the living room and into the kitchen, where he hefted the bags onto the island. Starla put the cookies on the counter. The girls must have forgotten all about them and scampered off to their room.

“Ever taken some volts?”

“Oh yeah. Not fun.” He watched as she began removing items from the bags, decided she was a woman after his own heart foodwise, and relaxed a little. Besides worrying she’d only been joking about making dinner, he’d also wondered what strange concoction she might thrust upon them tonight. Pork and potatoes and cookies were just fine with him. “Pops your elbows, leaves you all jittery for the rest of the day. What about you? I figure you have some occupational hazards too. I wouldn’t like working with anything where I come into contact with blood.”

“Yeah. I’m so paranoid about it too, it’s like a phobia. If I could wrap myself in plastic, I would. I remember telling…I told Brian I wish I could get over it. He said, ‘Don’t.’ It’s like you said, I guess. Can’t get too comfortable.”

“Hmm.” He wondered how long she’d been hung up on Brian. She couldn’t say his name without faltering. Well, that was probably for the best if each of them had someone else heavy on their thoughts. It would keep things from getting confused between them.

Relieved with that epiphany, he left her in the kitchen and went to get his girls ready.





Chapter Six



Jared’s wide kitchen window afforded Starla a panoramic view of his pasture, which stretched on for acres before meeting a distant tree line. It had taken her breath the first time she’d looked out, and now that she’d been standing at the sink washing potatoes for several minutes, she was somewhat addicted to the picturesque beauty. And leaving the huge barn now was Jared hauling two buckets with Ashley and Mia at his heels.

They’d changed out of their church clothes—he’d looked damn fine in that dark blue dress shirt that further lightened his amazing eyes—and the landscape wasn’t the only thing that had caused her breath to hitch. In an old black T-shirt now and faded jeans stuffed haphazardly into work boots, he was in his true element. The weight of whatever was in the buckets rippled the muscles in his tanned forearms. She remembered the strength of those arms around her. Ashley and Mia stopped to inspect something on the ground. He turned and said something to them while Starla enjoyed the view of his strong neck and jawline. The girls scuttled obediently to his side again.

Adorable. They were wearing boots too, Ashley in pink, Mia in purple, their hair in swinging ponytails—probably the only hairstyle their daddy knew how to achieve. The three of them continued on until they moved out of Starla’s line of sight. She sighed and turned her attention back to what her hands were doing, scrubbing furiously at potatoes.

It was all so weird. Could she get used to something like this? Making dinner for a husband and kids while they took care of evening chores? She didn’t know. It was all her parents had ever wanted her to do. She’d said “f*ck that” pretty much from the start, but now…yeah, she didn’t know. It would be kind of nice if she could find someone like Jared, who probably wouldn’t be a psycho *.

Then again, Ghost had tried to warn her about Max. She hadn’t listened. Now he was trying to warn her about Jared, and yet again she was ignoring his advice, making excuses for why he would feel that way. She was here, in Jared’s house, hell, falling in love with his house.

Had she really needed warning about Max, though? Common sense had dictated not to mess around with him. She hadn’t cared. It was her own advice she hadn’t heeded, really, not anyone else’s. With Jared, there simply weren’t any warning flags yet that she could see. It was nice here. He was nice. The pictures of extended family all around his living room looked nice.

If anyone was throwing up warning flags in this house, it was her.

The thought was sobering. It put her in her place. She tossed the potatoes in a big bowl she’d found and set about peeling them with the peeler she’d located in the first drawer she checked. Everything so well organized. Probably his ex-wife’s doing, and he’d kept up her routine.

And what had the ex-wife been like? She already knew what Macy was like. A freaking rodeo queen. She and Jared had been raised together, childhood sweethearts. Everyone had expected them to get married and have their happy ending, but then Macy had gotten badly injured in a horse riding accident and pushed him away. At least that was what Ghost told Starla once. She couldn’t remember many of the details, because at the time, she hadn’t much cared.

Now she wished she’d paid attention. What a small world.

As Starla picked up a knife to start chopping, the back door opened to the trill of indistinctly complaining little-girl voices and Jared’s exasperated reply. Their voices came nearer, and finally she could make out what the girls were upset about.

“…so pretty, though. I want pink.”

“I want purple.”

Oh no. Her hair. Chuckling, Starla continued her task, straining her ears for their dad’s reply.