trying to manage Molly as if she was a mission, but he couldn’t be objective. He didn’t think there was a man alive who could be objective about a pair of hips and legs that looked that good. He grabbed his coffee and followed her.
He put his hand on her shoulder and she turned, her long chestnut hair brushing his skin. Her hair was soft, like the cashmere lining his leather gloves. And he wanted to grab one of the tendrils and wrap it around his finger, but he didn’t.
“I don’t want to screw up,” he said and felt better for it. “I want to make sure I don’t hurt either of us.”
“Life’s not like that,” she said at last. “I appreciate it, but you can’t do that.”
“I know. I think that’s why I’ve spent so much time up there.” He looked at the sky. “Up there I am never distracted from the mission. I always know what to do...but with you it’s never been like that.”
“For me, neither. Listen, I know the timing is wrong for this...” She gestured at the two of them and then shrugged.
He laughed. “I have no idea what to call it, either.”
“Flames,” she said. “It feels like a fire inside of me and I have no idea how to put it out.”
“Fire is dangerous for an astronaut,” he said.
“For a cowgirl, too,” she said. “So let’s be smart.”
“I want to,” he admitted, but then he touched her neck, just ran his finger along the column of her throat, and a jolt went up his arm as she shivered.
A light pink flush spread from the skin showing above the scooped top of her dress up her neck, and her lips parted as she went stock-still.
“We can’t be smart with this between us,” he said, softly. He leaned in, putting his forehead on hers and looked into those beautiful brown eyes. “Can we?”
She closed her eyes and licked her lips. “I don’t know. I can’t think when you touch me.”
“I have an idea,” he said, stepping back and dropping his hand. He had a hard time thinking of anything other than the way she’d felt in his arms the other night. The way she had tasted. Had a woman ever tasted as good as Molly? He couldn’t think of one.
“Yeah?”
“We just see what happens. Spend our days together on the ranch and see if this is more than just lust. Neither one of us are casual people. We aren’t going to just fall into bed because it feels good.”
“I’m not too sure about that,” she said in a wry tone that made him smile.
Damn.
He liked her.
That was why he needed to make sure he didn’t hurt her. He could do this. They were friends and now co-owners of a ranch—one that would require plenty of work if they wanted to get it back on solid financial footing. He couldn’t screw this up.
He had to imagine he was definitely going back to NASA, though. He couldn’t let Molly be his contingency plan, his life, if he was denied a place on the Cronus program. He knew that. He wanted to believe he wouldn’t use Molly in that way. But a part of him, the part that had been a loser before he came to the Bar T Ranch as a teenager, wasn’t too sure. That part of him wanted to just take what he needed.
* * *
“THIS ISN’T YOUR average will and you could probably contest it and get a judge to set aside Mick’s wishes. But, Molly, he was your dad and, Jason, I know you two were close. This is more about respecting his wishes than upholding the law. If you take it to court, it’ll be a long time before either of you can do anything with the ranch.”
Molly crossed her legs. She’d worn a sleeveless dress that fell loosely over her body, accentuating the strength in her arms and her long legs. Her boots were hand-tooled and had turquoise accents in the leatherwork. She’d pulled the top of her hair back but left the rest to hang around her shoulders.
Maybe that was why he’d been doing all that soul baring in the middle of town—he was thinking with his boner instead of his head.
“Okay. Do we need to do anything to move forward?” Molly asked. “Legally?”
“You both have to sign off on any move to improve the ranch or change its purpose. That includes selling off or leasing part of it. I have the paperwork all ready to go. You can fill it in and both sign it and I’ll witness it.”
“We haven’t had a chance to discuss what we want to do,” Ace said.
Running the Bar T wasn’t part of his plans for the future. He figured he’d recuperate here, do his exercise regimen, maybe stoke the flames of the fire between himself and Molly and leave after his three months’ leave. But this was...complicated.
“I figured as much. If you want to, you can use my conference room to discuss plans. If it’s going to take longer than a few hours, we can schedule another day for you to come back.”
“I’d like to get this sorted out today,” Molly said, leaning forward to take the papers Rupert held out to them. “The ranch can’t wait any longer. We need to make some decisions to ensure the financial future of the Bar T.”
“I agree. I don’t want to wait,” Jason said. “Where is the conference room?”
“Last door on the right. Just let Shirley know when you are done and I’ll get the paperwork witnessed and notarized.”
“Thanks,” Molly said.
They stood at the same time. Molly slung her leather bag over her shoulder and turned toward the door. Jason put his hand at the small of her back and reached around her to open it.
He led her down the hall. Once they were in the conference room, she stepped away from him, putting her bag down on the table.
She didn’t sit but walked over to the window at the end of the room that looked out at the street. It was a quiet business street that bordered the park. He stayed where he was, unsure what she was thinking.
“The situation is really very bleak. I’ve got a couple hundred head of cattle and we’ll make a profit but not nearly enough to pay back the money you lent us or the loan Dad took out to cover some investment losses. I don’t know if he had a plan to get out of the hole, but...I have a few thoughts,” she said, finally turning to face him.
She was serious. She looked like the same country girl he’d been talking to all morning, but in her eyes he saw a businesswoman with responsibilities. “During the dinner you missed last night, I talked to the hands to get their feelings on the ideas I have for the ranch. A part of me would rather eat dirt than accept help from Wil Abernathy, but you should know he made a very generous offer to lease part of our acreage.”
“You talked to the hands about this?”
“Well, they live on the ranch, too. It’s their livelihood on the line as much as mine. We can’t all run off and be astronauts.”
She was ticked. He could see that and he didn’t blame her. He had an out and she didn’t.
He studied her, and for a long moment all he could see was the way she’d looked in his arms that first night he’d come back here—with the moonlight on her face and her hair, wild and loose, curling around her shoulders and face. He wanted her. He needed to do right by her.
But he wasn’t sure how.
“Mick might come back and haunt us both if we make a deal with Abernathy,” Ace said slowly. He was well aware of the feud. Even if he thought taking Wil’s offer might be a good option, he didn’t want to do so at Molly’s expense. She was struggling, still grieving her dad and dealing with the will. And he knew she’d feel guilty about letting Abernathy lease the land. Ace needed to be the man Mick had expected him to be, and part of that meant protecting Mick’s daughter.
Hell,