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“Are you seriously giving me grief when I gave you a job? How do you sleep at night?”

“With the windows open and in my birthday suit.”

Bennett couldn’t help the laugh that sprung up.

“But seriously, you know Maggie could have this thing fixed in like a millisecond?”

“She told me we should keep things business.” God, was he really whining?

A strong urge to kick the tractor again welled up but his good sense ignored it this time. She’d said something about friendship, too, but that got lost under the more his body craved from her.

“And what, you were going to have a dinner date on the seat of the tractor? I think this would qualify as work. Especially if you, you know, paid her for her time.”

“Will you stop being a jerk and tell me what she’s doing with the cattle board today?”

“Oh, yeah, that. Seems she’s got an improvement to the fire safety of the valley she’s proposing. Her design for a canyon irrigation system since you proposed using the canyon as a way to irrigate the herd in dry seasons. Seems she liked the location but wanted a failsafe put in.”

So that was what she meant by a safety system. “Huh. It’s not a bad idea, but I’d be interested to see what her plans are for implementing it.”

“That’s what I thought. I’ll take care of the grunt work today—which will not include the tractor, by the way. I’m getting the expert here for that.”

“Yeah. Thanks. I think I’ll swing by.”

Jax thankfully let the happy lilt in Bennett’s voice go unnoticed. The excitement that surged in his chest at the idea of seeing Maggie again went against any self-preservation he’d built up.

“How’d you hear about this? I’m on the board and I don’t know what’s on the agenda.”

Jax’s smile had two modes—playful and mischievous. The one he wore was definitely the latter.

“I went for drinks with Hal last night. Guy gets wordy when he’s had one drink. After two, he told me the plans for the next year with cattle laws and all that. I’ll let you buy me dinner and I’ll fill you in.”

Bennett chuckled again. “You know, for all the grief you give me about not wanting to run the business side of BTM or MBE, you’ve got the knack for it.”

Jax shrugged and started mucking the stalls in the back of the barn. “Nah. I’d prefer to be the guy behind the scenes who gets all the dirt but doesn’t have any of the responsibility, thank you very much.”

“Can we talk about that? I’m still not sure what that’ll mean for the business, but I’d like to try and figure something out, so you aren’t miserable.”

Jax shook his head. “Not right now. Like I said, I’ll let you buy me dinner and we can talk about it then. Right now, you’ve got plans. And”—he checked his watch—“I’ve got a buckle bunny rolling through town that I’d like to make breakfast for tomorrow. If you catch my drift.”

Bennett laughed. Jax was nothing if not consistent.

“Yeah, I got it. Thanks for the heads-up on this, by the way.”

“No problem. Now, get out of here. You have a date in an hour at the town hall.”

Bennett washed his hands in the barn sink, then strolled out of the barn as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Only when he got out of Jax’s line of sight did he break into a run to the main house. An hour wasn’t a lot of time to clean up and look presentable. Even though his head knew better, his heart pulsed out a steady beat to Maggie’s name.

He might not be able to take Maggie on a real date, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t put his best foot forward when he knew he’d run into her. You know, just in case.

*

Bennett got to the town hall with six minutes to spare. He ran a hand through his still-damp hair and straightened wrinkles from his button-down shirt. It was the last clean shirt in his closet and looked a little worse for the wear. Darn it.

He needed to do laundry at some point. And shop for some veggies to get him by till the farmer’s market that weekend. The list went on from there, but as soon as he walked through the doors of the meeting space, it vanished.

Maggie was at the podium testing the mic and looking comfortable on stage. She’d gone back to letting her hair run wild and curly and wore just enough makeup to look put together. Maybe he didn’t mind the polish so much. Her ankle brace was still on, and probably would be for a couple more weeks.

She’d certainly done some growing up, from the timid but sassy girl he’d known to the confident, take-charge woman in front of him. She orchestrated the sound team when the volume broke, then pointed out where accessible seating was for Tim O’Malley and his wife, who was in a wheelchair.