Read Online Midnight Ride by Cat Johnson - Free Book Online

won’t hear another word about it. It’s a little oil and some grease. Maybe I’ll have to change the blades. That’s all. Nothing to it.”
    She sighed. “I don’t like that you won’t let me give you anything.”
    “Well, I didn’t say I wouldn’t let you give me something.” The tone of his voice was as suggestive as the look he shot her.
    Janie opened her mouth but wasn’t sure what to say.
    “I might be convinced to let you cook me dinner again some night.” Tyler saved her from the embarrassment she felt. He grinned and held up a spoon overflowing with chili. “This is really good.”
    “Thank you.”
    Her heart beat faster at the thought of cooking for him. Of Tyler being her dinner companion. The scene formed in her overactive imagination . . . the dining room table set with her good dishes and linens. The sunset visible through the lace curtains. Tyler, filling the dining room with his mere presence. Janie, unable to eat a bite of food as her stomach roiled with all the nerves she hadn’t felt around a man since her first date with Tom all those many years ago.
    How the hell much longer was this microwave going to take? She needed something to do with her hands and she needed to change the subject. As the timer ticked down to the final thirty seconds, she decided the chili had heated for long enough. She punched the door release with one finger and grabbed the bowl. Heated through or not, the food was done as far as she was concerned. Turning back to the table, she put the bowl down at her place and sat opposite him.
    Feeling the need to make conversation, she said, “So, you have any plans for tonight? Any visits to the lumberyard?”
    “Nope.” He raised his eyes to hers but then glanced down to concentrate on his food.
    He seemed embarrassed. Janie liked this side of him, though she liked the confident, flirty side of him, too.
    “That’s probably better, since I’m home. My truck won’t be in the parking lot for you to hide in.” She couldn’t resist teasing him.
    He rolled his eyes, but he was taking the teasing in stride, judging by the crooked smile that lifted one corner of his mouth. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
    “Well, if you keep helping me out around here, I’ll really owe you. I suppose I’ll have to stop teasing about finding you under the tarp in the back of my truck.” Out of deference to the fact that he was going to do her a huge favor by helping with the hay harvest, she left off the part about the compromising state she’d found him in, with his belt and jeans hanging wide open.
    “If that’s the case, then I’m starting work here tomorrow.”
    “Don’t you have to work at Rohn’s?”
    “I do. Don’t worry. I’m good at juggling multiple things.”
    She didn’t doubt that. She’d bet multiple women were sometimes what he was juggling.
    “Just please, don’t get fired on my account.” If that were to happen, she couldn’t afford to hire him on full-time to make up for the loss of the job.
    He let out a laugh. “If I get fired, it’ll be my own doing, not yours.”
    Somehow, she believed him.
    “But don’t worry,” Tyler continued. “I’ll tune up your equipment in my off hours.”
    Janie’s mind went to a bad place at the thought of the many things in her life that had been neglected and could use a tune-up, and the thought had nothing to do with farm machinery. She yanked her mind out of the gutter. “Okay.”
    “I can take a look at it tonight and see what I’ll need. That way I can pick up any lube or oil on my way home and get started bright and early in the morning.” Unaware of the turbulence within her, Tyler chattered on.
    Lube and oil . Her insides warmed, while Janie had to wonder when those perfectly innocent farm machinery terms had taken on such sexual connotations in her mind. Since a hot-as-hell cowboy had decided to take her on as a charity case, apparently.
    “All right. Tell me what I owe you for all