Read Online Hard As Rock by Olivia Thorne - Free Book Online Page A

something else, or he’ll want to.”
    I turned around, my face scalding red, and fairly ran back to my bedroom.

19
    By the time I reappeared in a black skirt, blouse, and black leather boots, Ryan was in the kitchen with Mrs. MacCruder. He wore a pair of jeans, work boots, and a dark green shirt rolled up to expose his forearms. Oddly enough, he didn’t look out of place at all. Not like a rock dude trying to pose as a country boy. More just like a really tall, really cute ranch hand… with a badass haircut and a necklace he might have gotten surfing somewhere in South America.
    “Hey, good morning,” he said cheerily. “Did you sleep well?”
    “Very well, thank you,” I said, giving Mrs. MacCruder a tentative glance.
    “Did you meet Mrs. MacCruder?” Ryan said, gesturing to the silver-haired lady. “This place wouldn’t survive without her.”
    “Oh, well aren’t you sweet,” she smiled at Ryan.
    “We met,” I nodded, waiting for her to make a comment about my pink t-shirt.
    That wasn’t the clothing she mentioned, though.
    “Hello again, dear,” she smiled, then looked me up and down from head to toe. “Oh, Ryan, you can’t let her traipse around in those fancy clothes, she’ll ruin them. You should take her into town and get her something she can get dirty.”
    While her back was turned, Ryan grinned at me and silently mouthed Nice fancy clothes .
    I had to stifle a laugh, then gave him a Behave! look.
    “That’s a good idea,” he said. “We’ll go after breakfast.”
    Mrs. MacCruder finished spooning the eggs onto a platter, and carried them to the table. “Alright, well, I’ll let you young people get on with your day. Dinner’s at seven if you want to join us.”
    “We’ll be there. Thanks, Mrs. MacCruder,” Ryan said, bending over and giving her a kiss on the cheek.
    “Careful now, my husband’ll get jealous,” she laughed, then waved to us as she walked out the back door.
    “Ready to eat?” Ryan said as he sat down at the table. I followed suit. There were platters filled with bacon and eggs, another with toast, and a stick of butter and jars of different jellies.
    “She seems nice,” I said neutrally as I took a piece of toast and buttered it. I was wondering if she’d made any comments to Ryan about my sleepwear.
    Her line But you might want to change into something else, or he’ll want to kept echoing in my head.
    It made me feel weird.
    Not uncomfortable or wary, exactly.
    Just… odd.
    Especially since he’d seen me wearing that pink t-shirt yesterday morning in New York.
    “She’s great,” Ryan said as he dished out eggs onto both his plate and mine. “Seriously, if I didn’t have her and her husband to run the place, it would be a wreck by the next time I got back.”
    “What do they do?”
    “Well, they take care of the horses. Exercise them every day, muck out the stalls, feed them… that’s a big job. Mr. MacCruder goes out and rides the ranch, makes sure there’s no problems. They keep up the main house, stuff like making sure the pipes don’t freeze and burst during the winter, and they take care of any repairs along the way. Mrs. MacCruder has her garden, and she gives me food from it whenever I’m here. Plus, I can basically call them on a moment’s notice and they’ll have the heat or air conditioning turned on for me, the refrigerator stocked, and the place ready to go.”
    “Sounds nice.”
    “It is. I never have to worry, I can just show up and the place is perfect.”
    “Why do you keep horses?”
    He shrugged. “My grandparents always had them when I was growing up. My sisters and I used to ride all the time when we came here. When my grandparents died a few years ago, I couldn’t bear to sell the horses… so I just decided to keep them.”
    “That’s cool.”
    “I’m very lucky.”
    “You worked hard for it.”
    He laughed. “Compared to the MacCruders, I’ve never worked hard a day in my life.”
    “That’s not what I