My alarm pulled me from my pretense of sleep, exhausted and sore from the fall. I groaned as I turned to switch the stupid thing off. Before I got chance to swing my legs out of bed, a light knock appeared at my bedroom door. Needless to say, I woke up exhausted from lack of sleep and sore from my fall.

“No work today. We’ll be hanging around the house,” Destry said when he poked his head inside my door. His eyes roaming very slowly over my virtually naked form caused my nipples to harden almost instantly. The fire in them was almost searing my skin; it was that hot. I was about five seconds away from potentially molesting him when he shook his head and looked at the wall behind me. A wave of disappointment I probably shouldn’t have been feeling washed over me. I had been engaged not even two weeks beforehand, yet I was looking for any situation possible where I could jump a guy’s bones, who I barely knew anything about. A mini me dressed like a hooker popped up on my shoulder and pointed out “He’s the best sex you’ve ever had and then some.” My mini angel who should have been talking some sense into me was nowhere to be found. She was probably off having the amazing sex I might not be getting again. Tramp.

“I’ll have one of the boys bring up breakfast for you,” Destry told me before quickly exiting the room and closing the door behind him. Seconds later, I heard a thud followed by a string of muttered cuss words. Smiling to myself, I snuggled back down in the soft, warm bed.

Hours later and I was more than bored. I needed to do something; the sitting around staring at the walls was doing my head in. While my foot was a little tender, it wasn’t nearly as bad as we’d thought. I could walk on it with minimal pain and it wasn’t swollen any longer. I would have gone stir crazy if I was unable to move. I made my way downstairs and poked my head out into the kitchen. Seeing the coast was clear, I shuffled across the room and threw a few things in the bag I was holding. The boys would tell me off and order me back on bed rest if I got caught.

I slowly snuck out the back door, ducking and weaving around like the expert ninja I thought I was, when in reality I probably looked like a three-legged elephant dancing to my own tune.

I lifted my head from under the hood of my pick up when I heard the car come to a stop on the gravel drive behind me. Pulling the rag from my back pocket, I wiped my hands as I moved to lean against the side of my Chevy, watching the unfamiliar vehicle from my peripheral vision. Typically, we didn’t get people out this way unless they were trying to buy the property. I assumed this guy was no different especially when he stepped out of his Audi in a suit.

I lifted my head and watched as he walked toward me; I’d made no move to greet the pretentious looking ass.

“Help you with something?” I asked in a bored tone, while rubbing my grease-covered hand with the dirty rag. Previous experience proved if you weren’t real friendly, they didn’t come back a second time.

“I’m looking for a young lady by the name of Amelia Highsmith.” My body locked up tight at the mention of ‘Melia’s name; it wasn’t at all what I expected to come out of his mouth.

“What’s a guy like you doing poking around for some girl?” I feigned ignorance for the sheer fact I had no idea about her past or who this guy looking for her might be.

“Well, that’s a private matter you see.” The guy was practically pouring money and slime; I didn’t like it one damn bit. His reluctance mixed with the fitted gray suit he wore rubbed me the wrong way. I hung the rag I was holding back into my jeans pocket and walked back to the hood of my truck.

“Sorry, can’t help you.” I grabbed my wrench, leaning down into the engine and continued fastening the bolts around the starter.

“I was told I could find her here,” he pressed on; I shifted my eyes up to his, not stopping what I was doing and looked at him hard, not bothering to disguise my annoyance.

“Like I said before, I can’t help you.” ‘Melia was hiding something, but I wasn’t the kind of guy who’d feed anyone to the wolves and this guy was definitely in that category. “Best be on your way now,” I told him; the intent in my voice clear. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a silver cardholder, removing a crisp white card and holding it out to me.

I looked at his outstretched hand and shook my head; he was a bit slow this one. “If you happen to see or hear anything, all my details are on here.” He flicked the card between it fingers still holding it out. I looked from his hand to his face, and then stuck my head back under the hood of the Chevy, making sure I’d fastened the bolts properly and tossed the wrench back into the toolbox by my feet.

I closed the hood of my pickup a little harder than necessary and repeated in a hard tone that left no room for confusion, “Best be going now.” A few moments passed before the suit put the card beside the hand I had leaned on the car, and then made his way back to his overpriced dick extension, leaving in a cloud of dust. “Jack ass.” I mumbled to myself pocketing the card and jumping in my Chevy.

A few minutes later, I pulled up by the lake and turned the engine off looking around for Amelia. Firstly, I wanted to find out if she was in some kind of trouble. I wasn’t about to throw the girl out; her car wasn’t even ready, but I didn’t want to be housing a murderer or a thief. Okay, so maybe my mind had gotten away from me; she was too damn sweet to be anything of the sort, but hell if I didn’t wanna know what was going on. She thought she’d snuck off a few hours beforehand; however, I’d leaned against my truck watching her try to be as stealthy as she could, while I chuckled to myself over her less than graceful moves. The best part was the triumphant smile that was plastered across her face when she’d finally maneuvered my ATV out of the barn and rode off on it.