Page 5 of A Cowboy's Trust

He decided to leave the damn sentence for now and let it annoy him.

Someone knocked on the door. Jake was already on his feet even as he checked the time. New Year’s Day and they had a visitor?

Oh shit. What if it was Danielle, their contact in youth services? What if somebody needed their help?

He hurried forward and jerked the door open, staring in shock at a wildly grinning Tansy. She held a plastic container toward him, jamming it into his hands.

“What’s this?” he demanded.

“Welcome to High Water brownies,” she announced happily, slipping past him and hauling a rolling suitcase after her.

She closed the door then turned back, tugging the container from his fingers. “Thanks. Those are for me.”

“You said they were welcome brownies,” he repeated.

She nodded eagerly. “They are. You don’t know how to bake, and I wanted brownies. Since I’m living here now, they’rewelcome home, Tansybrownies.”

She twirled and headed farther into the house.

Jake shook his head, trying to get her words to settle in his brain and make sense. Nope, wasn’t working.

He stomped after her into the kitchen. “What do you mean, you’re living here?”

She put the brownies on the counter before twisting to face him. She brushed her hands together as if knocking off crumbs then thrust one forward. “Declan and Petra hired me. Hi, I’m your new live-in cook.”

2

Something was wrong with his hearing. Or his vision.

For sure something was off with his entire morning—the start of a brand-new year, and he was ready to go back to bed.

Jake stared at Tansy. She didn’t vanish, and the grin on her face grew wider if that were possible. “Working here?” He stumbled over the words. “You?”

She wiggled her fingers in the air, and he realized he’d completely ignored her offer of a handshake. The cutest nose wrinkle squished her face, probably at his lack of participation, he assumed, as she let her hand fall. “Yup. Let me put my bag away and?—”

“Don’t move. Don’t—” Jake froze.

What was he supposed to tell her? To stand there until he could track down one of his brothers and demand to know what the actual fuck was going on?

Or Petra. Petra was perfect. He might like his future sister-in-law, but she deserved to be woken up right now. He lifted a finger in Tansy’s direction even as he hauled out his phone and messaged Petra, New Year’s sleep-in be damned.

Jake: Tansy is here.

She responded so quickly she had to have been waiting with phone in hand:

Good. We’ll be there in about ten minutes. Get her settled, will you please?

Jake glanced away from his phone and met Tansy’s highly amused gaze. She’d folded her arms over her chest and now raised a single brow in one of the disturbingly easy-to-read expressions she liked to toss his direction. This one clearly saidYou are amusing, but slightly annoying.

“I am so sorry.” She waved him back toward the table. “I’ve distracted you before you had your coffee. I know where I’m going. Sit down, and I’ll make myself at home.”

The wheels of her suitcase rumbled over the floor into the bedroom section of the house before his motionless stupor registered.

“Wait.” He was helpless to stop his feet from rushing him all the way into the primary bedroom after her.

The woman was quick, he had to give her that. She didn’t saunter, and she did not loll about. In the approximately three-second lead she’d had, she’d reached the bedroom, hefted her oversized suitcase onto the bed,andopened it. Ignoring him, she undid straps and zippered sections then tucked clothing into the dresser beside the bed.

She not only ignored him but began humming. The tune was catchy and bold, and with her shoulders lifting and knees bending, she turned the short trip between the bed and dresser into an ongoing dance.