Chapter 2

2

This was the dumbest damned thing he had ever done in his life. Fletcher knew it the instant he felt her pressed against him. The instant the scent of berry lotion and Dylan surrounded him. This woman was insane. Or…he was. For even considering this for a moment.

He didn’t even really know how it had happened—one minute, they’d been arguing about her and her family, and the next, she’d challenged him to hire her as the housekeeper everyone knew he had been looking for recently.

At less than he’d been intending to pay.

She’d said she’d be a real bargain and no need to check her references. And it wasn’t like she would try to seduce him, since she wasn’t a real woman or anything.

Now, here they were.

He had no business bringing Dusty’s sister into his house like this. Being alone with her like this. Wicked green eyes were watching him—laughing. She was laughing at him—again.

If nothing else, he was going to go mad just listening to her constant chatter. Fletcher wasn’t one who chattered. Far from it.

Dylan never seemed to stop talking.

And he had signed on for six months of this? She smirked at him again. It got under his skin every time she looked at him like that.

Hell, he was going to do it.

He was going to prove a point to the little green-eyed devil woman.

He wasn’t about to give in. Give up. But damn it, September couldn’t come fast enough for him now. He just had to get through to September, and then he’d win. And then he’d march her little ass to the inn and give her back to her damned family.

They could keep her with the rest of the Talleys forever then.

“So, if I can’t stay out all night while I work here, what’s my curfew? I mean, my dad always tried that whole curfew thing with me, but after I was eighteen, I just sort of stopped listening, you know? And, well, I am young enough to want some sort of nightlife. Somehow, when I have time, I mean. I already have sixteen hours per week at the inn to cover and sixteen to cover at the diner. But don’t worry, I can still do the twenty hours we agreed on. So, since I get two days off, that’s four hours a day here. And eight hours at the diner two times a week and eight hours at the inn two times a week. But I might have to fill in there some. Especially with Charlotte in and out all the time. You good with that? I kind of think I have to do it, whether I really want to or not. If I am going to keep on being a real Talley and everything.”

That was four twelve-hour days and one four-hour day. Fifty-plus hour weeks. Hell. That was going to be exhausting for her. But if she was busy for most of the waking hours, he wouldn’t have to deal with her directly. Fletcher could handle that. “When are you going to do your classes?”

A look passed over her face. She was a cross between Dusty and her older cousin Marin through the face. That had thrown him a bit at first. Seeing so many parts of those incredible women in this annoying little package.

Hell, he still had his hand covering her back. The heat of her practically scorched his palm.

“Class?” She batted her eyelashes at him. She had ridiculously long, blond eyelashes. “What’s that?”

“You were supposed to be doing online classes, right? To finish your degree?” He’d heard Dylan and her father arguing about that very thing. Fletcher hadn’t been mistaken. Her father’s twin brother had gotten involved too. The argument had finally ended when the two men had finally realized Dylan had snuck out the back door.

“I am going to finish my degree—when I can pay for it. And no one else. Not those two identical buttheads named Arthur and Gerald, that’s for sure. I won’t be the weapon they use against each other. I don’t play that game.” A look of pure, stubborn obstinance crossed her face. “No matter what.”

“Don’t you only have like a year to go?” She should let her father pay for it. The old bastard at least owed her a decent education. Fletcher hadn’t even considered college—the money just hadn’t been there, nor the desire. But hell, if he’d been more forward-thinking, he’d have managed to take a few business classes or ranch management or something. To help himself now.

“Eight classes, but so what? It’s business administration. Not like it’ll change that much before I get there. I am an adult. I am now working three jobs, right? Who has time for school during all that? I can take care of myself.”

“Sure you can. That’s why you are living in my house now. You are a Talley. You belong at the inn.”

Her face tightened.

“Well, living right here works just fine for me. Maybe I don’t want to just fall in line with the Talley script. Maybe people should consider that for once?” She wiggled in his hold. Some perverse part of Fletcher made him tighten his hold on her. “I made it twenty-three whole years without being a real Talley. So why should my father care if I am one now or not anyway?”

She wiggled again. His blood pressure skyrocketed. Just like that.

Hell, he just liked the way she wiggled against him right now. She might annoy him more than any woman on the planet ever had before, but he wasn’t damned immune.

That’s when it hit him.

It was a woman he held right now. In his house. All alone.

Just him. Just her.

Things could go wrong in an instant.

Hell, he didn’t care about some damned bet. He had to get her out of there. Fast.

He started to say something. But…the lights flickered above them. And went straight out.

Dylan squealed and reached for him.

Somehow, Fletcher found her right in his arms. Pressed against him. Clinging. He wrapped one arm around her back and just held her close as he carried her back down the hallway toward the living room. She could have walked, but, well, it was simpler just to carry her. Not like she weighed much at all. “Relax, brat. The power just went out. From the storm. It’ll be back on within a few hours, I’m sure. It usually is. I’ll need to light the kerosene heater. And crank the lamps.”

“I just don’t do so well in the dark, you know? Never really have. Gotten a little worse since coming to Wyoming.”

He heard the nerves in her voice, but he suspected she was trying to come off as all big and bad and tough. Damn it, she was going to be a real pain in the ass. Six months. He was never going to make it through.

Best to just end it. Save himself the trouble. He could not have her here, alone with him, every day and night. He just couldn’t.

He would make it through tonight and send her home in the morning. That was the smartest option. Before he did something he’d probably regret with the sister of one of the women he loved most in the world. “Hold on to me. I’ll get you to the couch. Then I’ll light the lamps. I keep flashlights in the side table drawers.”

He hooked his arm around her waist and lifted a little more. Until he had her close again. Damn, she was so small. She was the smallest Talley of the bunch. Even Charlotte was bigger.

It was so easy to lift Dylan. To move her where he wanted. There were a lot of ways he could, would, move a woman like her if he had the chance.

Fletcher’s body tightened in the sharpest way.

Enough that he almost stopped right where he was. As he imagined just carrying her down the hall to his bed and tucking her in. Right next to him. Where he’d keep her close and warm all night long.

Holy hell, what was he thinking?

He did not find this pain-in-the-ass attractive. And he wasn’t going to. He grunted and sat her down next to the couch. He had to get his hands off her—fast. “Stay here. It’ll just take a moment or two.”

“You know, this is a really bad omen. For at least one of us. In the movies, this is where someone gets chopped and everything. Since I am the utterly adorable heroine, your future is not looking too good, Fletchie.”

It surprised a laugh out of him. No doubt about that. The woman was quick. And maddening. “Just stay here. We’ll be fine. But…we’ll have to camp on the couches for a few hours. The kerosene doesn’t reach the bedrooms. I had two heaters once, but one broke. Since it’s usually just me here, I didn’t bother to replace it. I can put a few logs in the stove, but that’ll take a while to heat up.”

“I’m good. As long as the boogeyman isn’t watching or anything.” She pressed a button, and a light glowed on her watch. Big eyes stared at him from the shadows. “Scraggle-Popps watch has a glow-in-the-dark feature—and I can text from it too. Or…send a distress signal to phones I’ve preprogrammed in and everything. It’s technically a toy, but it still works. As long as my cell phone is nearby. If I get lost here in your living room. My sisters gave it to me so I could always find my way. My sisters have my back. I should call them when I can. Make sure they are okay, too.”

“The inn has backup generators. They are fine.” The Talley Inn had been in Dylan’s family for a century now—it had stood the test of time and would continue to. He knew all about the inn and how it ran—his sister had spent most of her waking hours there as a teenager with Dusty. And he’d spent hours there with Dusty’s cousin Charlotte. The Talleys were just a part of his life and always would be. It stood in the middle of town, and their property butted up against the far western edge of Fletcher’s own ranch in a stretch of about fifty feet. He was almost as home there as he was here.

“Yeah, I’m sure they are. It’s the inn. Everyone’s perfect place. But still, I always tell my little sisters good night. Dahlia will expect it. That girl loves her routine more than anything, you know.”