Mrs. O’Neill was pointing to a flat of pansies as Hannah got closer.

  “Why don’t you make yourself useful and slide that tray of flowers over to us?” Mrs. O’Neill said to Tripp.

  “Why, of course, ma’am,” he said, touching the brim of his hat lightly. “Happy to help you and my favorite little gardener! Isn’t that right, Aria?” He started to kneel to catch the little girl’s eye, but Hannah pushed her way in front of him.

  “I can help you, Mrs. O’Neill,” she said, wondering if she could get away with just ignoring Tripp. She didn’t want this to turn into a big confrontation.

  Of course, he knew that about her—that she hated public scenes—and knowing him, he’d probably use it against her, forcing her to be polite and make conversation with him even when it was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “Well, well, look who it is!” Tripp said, letting his eyes wander down Hannah’s body. She was glad she was wearing old shorts and a baggy tank top. “The medal winner herself. I saw you run that race last weekend.”

  Hannah carried the flower tray to where Aria was kneeling beside Mrs. O’Neill and then walked a few steps away, like a mama antelope leading the lion away from her calf.

  Tripp followed her. “You looked good. Fit as hell, girl. But you know what? You’d look better with me.”

  She didn’t answer—just stood there silently and waited for him to be done.

  “Chad doesn’t deserve you,” he continued in a low voice, moving closer to her. His eyes burned into hers, but she refused to look away. “He’ll find someone new before you know it.”

  “That’s not how he is,” Hannah snapped back at him.

  “Hannah, dear,” Mrs. O’Neill called out. “Could you bring me the shovel leaning up against the wall by you? There’s a root I need to dig up.”

  “Of course.” She grabbed the shovel and stomped back to where she and Aria were planting.

  “Mommy, look! I’m watering!” Aria shouted. She grabbed the hose not realizing that she was squeezing down on the handle, and ended up dousing herself.

  “Aw, honey!” Hannah laughed and ran over to Aria. The little girl stood still with water dripping off her, as if she was trying to decide whether or not she was going to cry. “You’re okay! Probably felt good on such a hot day, right?” Hannah scooped her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She could still feel Tripp watching them, so she made another play to exclude him. “Mrs. O’Neill, could you take a picture of the two of us? Aria looks so cute with her muddy little hands and shirt!” She reached into her pocket for her phone, unlocked the screen then walked it over to the old woman and handed it to her.

  “Oh, sweetheart, I don’t know how to work these things,” she said, turning it over in her hands.

  “I can do it,” Tripp gently took the phone from Mrs. O’Neill before Hannah had a chance to intervene. He studied the background photo on the phone for a second then raised an eyebrow at Hannah. “Okay you two, say ‘cheese’!”

  “Cheese!” Aria shouted.

  Hannah managed a strained smile then rushed to grab the phone away from Tripp. Aria wriggled out of her arms and ran back to dig in the dirt.

  “Hey, what’s going on over here?” Chad drawled as he walked up to the group. “You working or playing, Miss Honeybee?” He draped his arm around Hannah’s shoulder possessively.

  “Chad,” Tripp said with a terse nod in his direction then turned back to Mrs. O’Neill. “Ma’am, it was lovely to see you today. I have to head over to where the heavy work is going on. I’ll leave the four of you to plant these pretty pansies.” He sneered at Chad and walked away.

  “What was that about?” Chad asked Hannah quietly.

  “Don’t worry about it. We’re fine. It’s just … he hasn’t given up on me yet, it seems.”

  Chad pulled her in a little closer and squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Sorry I didn’t pick up on it sooner; I was pitching ideas to the board.”

  Hannah liked the way she felt nestled next to Chad, but she didn’t feel right about lacing her arm behind his back even though her fingers itched to do it. Chad was so good at casual intimacy, but it was still a struggle for her to even pretend. She needed to step it up for both of their sakes. Hannah peered over her shoulder and noticed that Tripp was still watching them over by where the men were getting ready to plant a tree.

  “Speaking of winning over the board, let’s take a quick photo that we can post to your Instagram account.” She untangled herself from him and took a few steps away. Being close to Chad made it hard to concentrate.

  “Okay, but I’ll need to set up an Instagram account since I don’t have one.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Seriously? Okay, I’ll set it up and this will be your first photo. Hold the shovel.”

  “Mommy, you takin’ a picture?” Aria asked.

  “We are. Do you want to be in it too?”

  “No, I wanna take it! I do it!”

  Aria looked for any excuse to get her little fingers on Hannah’s phone so she could play games, but Hannah knew she’d be able to quickly redirect her daughter back to planting after she took the photo.

  Hannah handed the phone to Aria. “Okay, take a nice one of Chad.”

  “You too, Mommy!”

  She knew that the photo would be unusable so she agreed to it.

  Chad gave Hannah a big smile and took her hand in his. It felt so natural, his rough hand closed around hers, that she smiled back at him completely naturally—nothing staged about it at all. They’d barely been posed for a second when Aria touched the screen to take the photo … then immediately switched out of camera mode to find a game.

  “Hey, hey, young lady. I’ll take that back now, please.” She held her hand out and gave Aria a stern look.

  Aria walked the phone over and then hopped back to help Mrs. O’Neill.

  “How’d it come out?” Chad said, leaning close enough to her that Hannah caught a trace of his work-scent. She had to stop herself from leaning closer to breathe him in.

  “I think we’ll be lucky if we’re in the picture at all. She hasn’t quite mastered photography yet,” she answered as she scrolled through the photos to find the single image Aria had snapped of them.

  True to form, their heads weren’t even in the shot. But Hannah zoomed in and saw that with the right crop, the image would be the perfect start to Chad’s social media stream. She reframed the photo so that their joined hands were in the center of it, the bright blue Texas sky dotted with clouds the backdrop and a few bright pops of color from the flowers along the bottom edge.

  “Here you go,” Hannah said, showing him the photo. “I’ll caption it ‘doing our part to beautify the Kingsley Library with the Cattlemen’s Association. Hashtag ‘perfect Kingsley day.’”

  7

  “You were right,” Chad said the moment Hannah opened her front door.

  She gave him a quizzical look as she welcomed him into her small foyer.

  “Those pictures you posted from the library planting day? The Kingsley Cattlemen’s Association reposted them, and the national branch did too! I got a crapton of new followers including the national branch! They’re watching me now!”

  A grin cracked her face, and it looked so good that it made Chad realize that Hannah didn’t smile enough. He liked being the reason why.

  “I told you!” she replied, practically hopping in place with joy. “Which pictures?”

  “The one Aria took of our hands, then the self-timer series of you and me helping Aria plant marigolds. I wish you’d included at least one where your face was visible, but the rear view ain’t too bad if I may say so.” He winked at her as her cheeks turned pink.

  “I am so happy for you!” she said in an excited voice, ignoring the rest of his comment.

  “Hank and a few of the guys told me I look like a natural with you two. So, your plan is starting to work already, I guess.”

  Hannah bounded over to him before Chad realized what was going on and threw her arms around him. It was such an enthusiastic hug that he was almost knocked off balance, and he dropped the white bag he’d brought in so that he could wrap his arms around her. It was the first time they’d had a real embrace, and now that Hannah was pressed up against him, he couldn’t think of anything but the way her body felt nestled against his. She gazed into his eyes and for a moment Chad was convinced she wanted to kiss him. He debated leaning in and doing it for her but remembered that they’d agreed to keep it friendly after he’d taken the kissing initiative last time.

  But … her face was practically begging to get kissed.

  “What’s in that bag?” a little voice asked, causing Chad to let go of Hannah abruptly. She cleared her throat and backed away from him.

  “Hey, there’s my favorite photographer,” he exclaimed as he quickly leaned down to hand Aria the bag he’d brought in. “I brought something for you. For us, actually.”

  “A present!” Aria shouted, clapping her little hands.

  “Yup, something fun.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Hannah chastised softly.

  “Sure I did. This little lady’s picture went viral, I had to thank her somehow.”

  Aria’s eyes went wide as she opened the bag. “A game!” She pulled it out and examined it.

  “Oh, honey, that’s Candyland,” Hannah said in a delighted voice. “I loved that game when I was little! Thank you, Chad, that was really kind of you.”

  “It was my favorite when I was a kid. I wasn’t sure if it was still around, but Shane said he and Drew used to play it, so I figured it hadn’t totally gone out of style,” he said and shrugged.

  “Let’s play now!” Aria exclaimed. “Can we? Please?”

  “Maybe later, Aria. Chad and I need to take care of some, uh, grown-up stuff. We can play another time, okay?”

  Aria pouted and said nothing, her eyes downcast at the box in her hands. It was more than Chad could take.

  “Oh. Come on. I think we can sneak in a quick round or two,” Chad said. “I’ll beat you two so fast you won’t know what even happened.”

  Aria looked at her mom with a hopeful expression. “Please?”

  “Please?” Chad asked in a high-pitched voice, causing Aria to giggle.

  “Fine, okay,” Hannah replied in mock exasperation. “One game then it’s off to bed so the grown-ups can talk.”

  Chad caught the quick look Hannah shot at him. It was obvious she wanted to do more than just talk, but that wasn’t going to happen while Aria was around.

  They set up the board on the kitchen table and Hannah gave Aria a glass of milk and grabbed beers for the two of them.

  “Mommy, cupcake?” Aria asked, pointing at the blue Magpie bakery box on the counter.

  “No, that’s too much sugar before bed.”

  “Would it be okay if I split one with her?” Chad asked with a wide-eyed innocent expression that most women couldn’t resist.

  “You are worse than she is,” Hannah muttered under her breath as she stood up to grab the box. “Yes, you two can split one cupcake. And one game, then it’s bedtime.”

  “Yay,” Aria cheered and smiled at her new partner in crime.

  “That’s it, I made it to Candy Castle before y’all,” Chad said, throwing the final card onto the game board and raising his arms in victory. “Boom. Just call me King Kandy from now on.”

  Aria rested her head on the edge of the table and pouted. “I don’t like this game.”

  “Honey, that’s not nice. You can’t always win,” Hannah chastised gently.

  Aria shook her head so hard that her hair whipped her face. “No, it was too fast! Mr. Chad played too fast.”

  Chad took a huge swallow of beer to hide his embarrassment at getting busted by a toddler. It was true. He’d raced through the game, grabbing his cards and moving his game piece like he was on a deadline. All he could think about was the way Hannah felt pressed against him, and if it would be possible to make it happen again after Aria went to bed.

  And maybe more.

  “I’m sorry, Aria. I guess I really wanted to win,” Chad said.

  She shook her head and didn’t look at him.

  “Come on. Bedtime now.” Hannah stood up and held out her hand to Aria, and the little girl slumped off her chair onto the floor like her bones had liquified. “Aria, stop being silly.”

  She didn’t move from where she had landed.

  “Hey, Aria, I hope we can play together again soon. I had fun,” Chad said.

  “Yeah,” she said forlornly, then got up and walked out of the room dragging her feet.

  “I’ll be back in fifteen,” Hannah mouthed over Aria’s head. She didn’t smile at him as she left the room.

  Chad pulled out his phone and snapped a quick photo of the game with the cards and pieces scattered on top of it, then scrolled through his new Instagram account, checking up on what Hannah had done with it. It was a different world, but he was shocked that he enjoyed occasionally peeking in on what Hannah was up to when it came to what she’d called “building his brand.” She’d followed some of the other ranches and cowboys he’d told her about from former jobs, and it was fantastic seeing what his old buddies were up to. He was sure they were having a tough time believing the stuff going up on his account, but the truth was, he liked what Hannah was posting. More than he’d ever thought possible. He’d always assumed social media was a spit-polished version of the truth, but the way Hannah did it? Her posts told his story, one beautiful photo at a time. The guy he was online, the joiner and do-er, was him.

  “She’s already asleep,” Hannah said with a sigh as she walked back into the kitchen.

  “Too much fun, huh?” Chad kidded.

  “Not exactly,” Hannah answered, sounding a little sour. “You didn’t have to be so competitive! You raced through it so quickly she barely had a chance to understand the rules.”

  “But I thought …” Chad drifted off with his mouth hanging open. “You said one quick game then we needed to do, you know … grown-up stuff. I was rushing because of that.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  He wordlessly pointed over his shoulder at the front room where they’d shared the full body hug and the promise of more.

  “Still not sure what you mean.” She shrugged.

  Chad stared at the game board for a minute and tried to figure out a way to make it right. He shifted gears.

  “I uh, I took a picture of the game. I thought it might be good for social media.”

  “Show me,” she answered, striding to where he was sitting.

  He held out his phone and Hannah examined the photo.

  “Not bad, but you need the human element in it. To show that you’re actually playing it. Let me do it.”

  She fiddled with his phone, then propped it up against one of the beer bottles.

  “Grab one of the cards and hold it over the board, like you just picked it off the top of the deck.”

  “Bossy,” Chad muttered under his breath, but he did as he was told.

  “Okay, I’m going to hit the timer and jump in next to you. Don’t worry about your expression—the shot is focused on our hands.” She pushed the button then squeezed in next to him and grabbed her game piece. She pretended like she was moving it near Chad’s hand as the shutter snapped. Hannah scrutinized the photo then held it out for him to see. “And there you go. Artfully arranged and worthy of attention.”

  “Yeah, it looks good, but how come you never want your face in the photos? It’s definitely worthy.”

  Hannah blushed, and something flickered across her face that Chad couldn’t quite decipher. “This social media campaign isn’t about me, Chad. It’s about making you seem accessible so you can show how capable and qualified you are. And the truth is, once our arrangement is over, I won’t be around in your life anymore, so why have your feed filled with photos of me you’ll just have to delete? It’s easier this way.”

  She was still sitting close enough to him that her leg was pressed against his, and she was looking at him with those big green eyes.

  “Let’s not think about that yet. Let’s just enjoy the here and now,” he said softly, searching her face for the flicker of desire he’d caught earlier. “Are you enjoying it?”

  She licked her lips and nodded. “I am.”

  There was no doubt that she wanted to be kissed again, but it didn’t look like she was ready to make the first move. Chad started to get closer to her, slowly. He didn’t want to scare her off. It was like she was a nervous foal he had to gentle.

  But she surprised him and beat him to it, crushing her lips to his with an urgency that shocked him. They kissed awkwardly for a few seconds, side-by-side on the kitchen chairs. The position was less than ideal, but they didn’t pull apart to find a better angle, as if they didn’t trust themselves to move apart even for a second. Chad brought his hand up to caress Hannah’s cheek and before he could try to reposition himself to sample her more fully, she’d slid off her chair to straddle him.

  Damn, she felt so good.

  Chad wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. It was hard to believe that sweet-looking Hannah was pawing at him like a she-cat, but her hands were everywhere on him, as if she’d been waiting too long to touch him and now wanted to feel everything at once. She smelled like cinnamon and vanilla, and he realized that she’d worn her bakery work clothes home that day.

  This kiss was all Hannah. As much as Chad wanted to stand up and move to the couch, or better yet, the bedroom, he let Hannah set the pace for what happened next. Her mouth parted and he took advantage, teasing her tongue for an instant with his. He let his hands wander down her body, finally allowing himself to grab a handful of the ass he’d been admiring from afar. Hannah made a little noise against his lips, a cross between a moan and a sigh. It was all he could take, and Chad stood up with Hannah still in his arms, not realizing how close they were to the table.