Rocky Mountain Cowboy by S.A. Monk Page B

stupid, but her mind wasn’t working well at the moment— just her senses.
    “Well, I’ll leave you to your shower.” Grabbing his clothes off the hook on the back of the door that led to the hallway, he turned and handed her a clean towel from the rack. “Soak well. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow again.”
    Her eyes followed him out the door, lingering as long as they could on the way his tight butt muscles moved beneath the towel he wore. It took a moment to recover after he left. She took a deep breath and decided her father’s partner might end up being a very big distraction.
    ∞∞∞
     
    In the next four days, she made some progress with the monster truck so that they finally finished clearing the two remaining hay fields. Hawk had been right about hard work being a better cure for her heartache than Irish coffee. She was so bone tired by the end of each day that after a hot soak in the shower each night, she fell into an exhausted sleep that wasn’t interrupted by dreams of any kind until the alarm went off in the morning or someone woke her.
    By the end of the week, they were ready to repair fence line, and Jenny nearly cried for joy that they would not be using the flatbed truck. She had a wide grin on her face when she met Hawk outside and discovered he was driving his own truck. Besides the usual thermos of coffee and jug of water, he was loading a roll of barbed wire and a wire stretcher, plus a few wood posts and a post hole digger into the bed of his pickup.
    The moment he saw her, he gave her a wickedly irresistible grin, one that revealed deep grooves on either side of his chiseled lips. “I see you’re wearing your hat today, not just carrying it. Looks good on you.”
    She tipped her head in acknowledgment and opened the door of his silver pick-up. “I’ve decided I don’t need any more sunburned cheeks.”
    “Amen to that.” He joined her in the cab of his Dodge. “You’re in a good mood today. Get a good night’s sleep?”
    “I did, but the reason for my good mood is the fact that I don’t have to drive that monster truck today.”
    His response was a deep rich laugh that rolled over her skin like warm oil. “Better wait to see what I have in store for you.”
    For nearly half an hour they followed a rutted firebreak road into the foothills west of the house. It was a sunny morning, and the sky was a deep endless azure blue that was so typical in the Colorado Rockies. In all her travels, the only other place she’d ever seen skies so crystal clear and remarkably blue was in the Alps. A sweetly-scented, warm breeze blew through the open windows of the truck. Because the weather promised such warmth, Jenny wore her flannel shirt unbuttoned over a lace-edged camisole. With her face tilted toward the open window, she drew in a deep lung full of the clean air. No L.A. smog. Just sweet pine and damp earth.
    “What a different landscape from L.A.,” she noted wistfully. “I’ve gotten so used to palm trees. You know some of them are as tall as some of these lodge pole and ponderosa pine.”
    From beneath the brim of his cowboy hat, Hawk stared at her speculatively. “Do you miss it already?”
    “No, not at all.”
    She looked surprised by that discovery. He was enormously pleased. She was wearing her long hair loose today, and while she looked cute with it braided, he liked it best tumbling down past her shoulders. With her brown felt hat tipped low onto her forehead, she looked sexy as hell. A dark red lock curled over her collarbone, brushing the lacy edge of her scooped-necked t-shirt. Damn, but it was a pretty t-shirt!
    She’d been here for over a week, and they’d been working together for five days, sun-up to sun-down. Except for nearly being run over by the flatbed the first day out, he had thoroughly enjoyed being with her each day. She was a hard worker, and she took his mind off Tom’s death. He hoped he took her mind off her grief and loss, too. He knew