Chapter 11

While Olivia talked with Nakos outside the barn, Nate leaned against an ATV a few feet away and crossed his arms. Several sections of pre-cut pine were lying in a trailer attached to the vehicle, and he was supposed to be heading out to the southern pasture to replace fence posts with Olivia.

Except, just like she'd been doing a lot lately, she was hedging on working with him. For the past two weeks, while he followed her around doing this and that, getting familiar with the ranch, she'd barely spoken to him, never mind looked him in the eye. If learning a new skill required a hands-on approach, she'd delegated it to her foreman to teach Nate. It was starting to piss him off, but he'd mucked this up all on his own.

Put them alone together, and she high-tailed her perfect ass from the vicinity. Accidentally bump one another? She jumped like she'd been electrocuted and created more distance than the Grand Canyon. Try to start a conversation, and he swore she bit her tongue to force one word answers.

The damnedest part of all was, her behavior didn't appear to be nervousness or her acting skittish, but rather her countering as if that was what he wanted. She'd somehow regressed back to before they'd sat on her porch his first evening in town and formed a tentative bond. After that night in her kitchen, when he'd nearly lost his mind and succumbed to his baser needs, it was like she thought he didn't want to be around her.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

In reality, the only thing he had to look forward to when he climbed out of bed was her. The addicting smile. The lilt of her voice. Those eyes...

The separation was, no doubt, for the best. They'd been getting a little too...close and, Christ knew, he didn't deserve a shred of the happiness she brought him. And yet, all he wanted was more of her. More everything.

Every. Waking. Moment.

And damn, but she'd helped with his nightmares. Or, Bones had, based on her suggestion. Since switching the doors around and letting the dog sleep with him, Nate was able to slip into a deeper REM knowing Bones would wake him at the first stirrings of trouble.

"It's the last ATV, little red." Nakos adjusted his black cowboy hat. "We're short as it is since most of the men had to double up in order to keep half the horses back for shoe replacement. The vet's coming next week for a six-month check."

Nate glanced heavenward, attempting to stay out of it. Again, he was torn between wanting to make things right and needing to keep her at bay. Sun beat on his face and a cool breeze swept down from the mountain, bringing the scent of pine to override hay.

Nakos sighed. "Is everything okay?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Nate watched Olivia carefully. But her only answer was a duck of her head and a nod. Early morning light hit her auburn strands, which she had tied at her nape in a braid. Between that and her fair complexion, she looked like an angelic version of a cowgirl. A fitted green flannel shirt, tight as sin jeans, and knee-high brown boots added to the image.

That was the other thing. She showed very little skin, but thanks to their episode in the kitchen, he knew what lay underneath and how freakin' fantastic she felt up against him.

She shielded the sun from her eyes with her hand. "I'll stay back and shoe the horses. You'd be more productive fixing fence sections, anyway."

Nakos gave Nate a once-over and disbelievingly eyed her. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"Whatever you want." Nakos thrust his thumb in the direction of the barn. "Supplies are out. Radio me if you need anything."

Nate straightened and waited for Nakos to mount the ATV before climbing on behind him. He held the back of the seat, giving the foreman room to maneuver as Nakos drove them over the plains to the southern pasture. Which took twenty minutes. It still floored Nate how much land encompassed Cattenach Ranch.

So much...breathing room. Honestly, he couldn't remember a time in his life where he could freely breathe. It was a luxury never afforded to him.

Parking next to the first post in a very long succession of fencing, Nakos dismounted while Nate glanced around. Olivia hadn't taken him this far south yet. The Laramie Mountains were clearer, peaking over the horizon like a fortress. Yellow grass in every possible direction was turning green as several heads of steer grazed over a slight hill. A two-story log cabin dotted the landscape just west.

"Is that your place?" Nate jerked his chin toward the house.

"Yes." The foreman unloaded two pine sections from the trailer and surveyed the fence. There was roughly eight feet between posts, with two horizontal boards making up the enclosure itself. "Mae had the place built when my family came to work for the Cattenachs."

"When was that?" The way Nate figured it, he and the guy had to get along if Nate was gonna stick around. Olivia throwing them together today seemed as good an opportunity as any to get to know him better.

"We left the reservation a year after the accident that killed Olivia's parents. We were nine. My parents moved back to the reservation when Justin enlisted." Nakos went to the trailer and hauled out a toolbox, then lumbered to the fence once again. "This whole section needs replacing. We can work down the line."

"Okay." Nate followed the foreman's cues. They used a sledgehammer on the boards that were rotten or loose, then Nate held the new section while Nakos nailed them in place. They got a few done before Nate spoke again. "Where's the reservation?"

"Between here and the Thunder Basin National Grasslands." Nakos pointed due north. "Arapaho tribe."

Nate had never heard of it. He and Justin had served with a guy who was part Cherokee, but that was the extent of Nate's knowledge on Native Americans. "What's that phrase you say to Olivia every morning?"

"Hebe? It means hello." The foreman grunted as he nailed a board in place. "The elders are trying to teach new generations the tongue. Only about half speak it now."

Three hours later, Nakos tossed Nate a bottle of water from the back of the ATV and checked the satellite phone. Only two transmissions had come through the radio, but Nakos was hell-bent on watching that, too.

Removing his ball cap, Nate swiped sweat from his brow with his forearm and replaced the hat. "You're awfully protective of her."

Nakos stared at the land and sighed. "You would be, too, if you knew her better."

More than a little shocked the foreman wasn't jumping down Nate's throat at the comment, he crossed his arms. "What does that mean?" Olivia seemed more than capable. He hadn't witnessed her taking any unnecessary risks. Besides, he'd just met her and he'd take a bullet if it meant saving her gorgeous ass. He didn't need to know her any better. The situation was already amped to DEFCON One.

Nakos passed Nate a small bag of chips and dropped to the ground, leaning his back against a post. "She doesn't like to be a burden, so by the time she does ask for help, she's neck-deep in a problem. She cares. About everything and everyone. Too much, which means she rarely pays attention to her own needs."

Nate sat next to the foreman and drew his legs up, resting his elbows on his knees. "Could have worse traits than that."

"No argument there." With a nod, Nakos dug into his chips and chewed. "But add in the fact she's got no one but Mae left, who's watching out for Olivia while she takes care of everyone else?" He tossed his hat by his hip and ran his fingers through the short black ponytail at his nape. "When we were twelve, we went swimming by the creek up at Devil's Pass. She found this deer trapped in the barbed fence and rescued the thing. Once free, it got spooked and kicked her. She tumbled down the incline and broke her ankle. I was tempted to knock her unconscious just to carry her back. Nope. She had to walk herself." His gaze grew distant. "It still gives her fits sometimes, the ankle."

He hadn't really said anything Nate didn't already know about her personality, but he was getting a glimmer of their dynamic and how far back it went.

In the military, Nate had to depend on and trust his unit or men died. Sometimes it had seemed like they'd been dropped at the ends of the earth and left there. But he'd never, not once, had a person in his life that came close to what Olivia and Nakos shared. Nate had been in town for under a month, and he cared about her more than he should. Tack on twenty-one years like she and the foreman had together, and Nate would probably have her in bubble wrap in a locked room. His, the only key.

"I'm not the only one protective of her, either." Up went Nakos's brows. "Are you the pot or the kettle?"

Wiping a hand down his face, Nate huffed a laugh. "Touché. But why aren't you two married with kids? You obviously care about her."

"She never looked at me the way she does you. Yes, I've got eyes." He rose and took Nate's wrapper, shoving both into the ATV bag. "If we went that route, it would be because she thought it was the right thing, not because she wanted to, and that's not happening."

Nate stood and dusted off his jeans. "Nothing will happen with me and her." At Nakos's doubtful scowl, Nate shrugged. "It won't. But, for as long as I'm here, you've got another set of eyes on her."

For the longest time, Nakos studied Nate as if dissecting meaning and calculating odds. Finally, he grabbed his hat and set it back on his head. "The only reason we had this Kumbaya heart-to-heart is because Justin said you could be trusted and your background came back clean. Piss me off, and I wasn't kidding about them never finding your body."

Damn, but Nate wanted to smile. "I can shoot a fly off a donkey's ass from fifty kilometers away."

"Then we understand each other." Nakos bent to retrieve a sledgehammer when the walkie-talkie crackled to life.

"Nakos?" Olivia's frantic wail pierced clean through Nate's chest. "I need you up here. Now."

They both scrambled to get the radio, but Nakos got to the ATV first. Except she wouldn't answer, no matter how many times he cued, and Nate went into panic-mode.

While Nakos tried and failed to get her to respond via radio or phone, pacing all over the field, Nate detached the trailer and started the ATV. "Let's go. You can try her again on the way."