He gave her a reassuring look as he opened the ledger. “Relax, okay? Accounting is part art and part dog work. If you don’t know the rules, you’re bound to make errors, and that’s to be expected.” He saw her move her fingers nervously through her hair, which fell around her shoulders.
Reese wanted to tell Shay how beautiful the soft pink blouse looked on her. The jeans she wore were loose but didn’t hide her curvy figure. She’d been outside working with Noah at the horse training facility until lunchtime. Reese could look from the roof of the indoor arena being built and see in every direction. She was cleaning out the horse stalls while Noah worked with each of the horses he had in training at the nearby oval arena. He admired her work ethic. Shay was humble, and any woman who could shovel horse shit was all right in his world. Just another thing to like about her: She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, because ranch work required it.
“Okay . . .” she said, chewing on her lower lip. “I’m so nervous about this. I have horrors of having made terrible errors, and we owe the bank thousands of dollars I didn’t know about.”
He laughed a little. “I doubt you’ve done that.”
“Oh,” she muttered, hesitating at the open door, “you don’t know Marston Conroy.”
“Who is he?”
“Our banker.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “He’s an evil person. He makes me feel like two cents when I have to go crawling into his bank to ask for a loan or to stretch out a due date for a loan payment.”
Rankled, Reese held her anxious blue gaze. “Well, from now on,” he growled, “if there’s any meetings to be had between us and Conroy, I’ll be at your side. I won’t let him take a chunk out of you next time. All right?” Reese saw utter relief flood her expression and he wanted to get up, walk around the desk, and slide his arms around her. Shay was terribly vulnerable. More than he’d initially realized. Or maybe accounting was her weakness, and that’s where her vulnerability raised its head. It would take a lot of time for him to understand her better.
“Conroy is an arrogant bastard,” she breathed in warning. “I hate having to see him. When the ranch went into foreclosure shortly after I got my father to the nursing home, he gloated over it. He told me I would lose it, that I was stupid. He said no woman could run the ranch by herself.”
Reese saw the damage from the banker’s cruel remarks in her expression. “I’m going to look forward to locking horns with him, then. You’ve made this ranch solvent. That says everything good about you, Shay.”
She folded her arms against her chest. “Now, I have you. You’re my big, bad accounting guard dog, Reese.”
He smiled a little. “Is that how you see me?” It made him feel good. Did he want to protect Shay? Damn straight. Did he want her in his bed? Hell yes. Reese cautioned himself because he had just arrived at the ranch. Wanting her and getting her were two very different things. But he didn’t lie to himself. This woman turned him inside out, and his dreams last night were torrid. For the first time in two years, he’d had a helluva good dream. No nightmares. Shay was magic to him, Reese decided. Hot, beautiful magic. His hands itched, wanting to touch her, explore her, and kiss her until she melted like hot honey into his embrace.
Giving a nervous laugh, Shay said before leaving, “I guess that’s how I see you. There’s just something very protective about you, Reese. Maybe it’s because you were an officer and you took care of your company.” She gave a shy shrug. “I don’t know. I just feel that way around you.”
Nodding, he picked up a piece of paper and a pencil from a cup on the desk. “Hold that thought, okay? I’ll make sure the Conroys of the world stop taking chunks out of you.” Holding her gaze, he said, “In a symbolic sense you can bet that I’m like a combat assault dog at heart when it comes to protecting children and women from men like that. And I’ll protect you.” He saw Shay’s eyes grow moist and then she swallowed convulsively, resting her hand on the doorjamb. Her cheeks flushed red and on her, it looked becoming.
“I—just never have been protected like that before. I’m going to have to get used to it, and you.”
Reese held her gaze. “Do. Because, like my manners, that’s just a natural part of who I am. It’s not something that’s going to change in me . . .”
*
Shay felt shaky in the best of ways as she hurried down the hall. She had to drive into town, pick up the mail, and buy the food on the grocery list Garret had given her.