She shook her head. “What dating website? I didn’t advertise on a website. I talked to some friends about the position for ranch foreman.” She straightened. “Are you saying you came all the way here from Montana because you think I’m looking for a man?”
Mackenzie planned to give Ty a piece of her mind at the first opportunity. A phone call to express her dismay at his ham-handed matchmaking was tops on her list.
The cowboy who’d clearly been sent on a mercy mission seemed supremely uncomfortable at the outraged question.
“I thought you were looking for help around here,” Justin said. “So, yes, I was under the impression you were looking for a man. Though not in the manner in which you may have mistaken.”
“Ty put me in a dating website, and you show up here. How would you feel if you were me?”
Mrs. Harper drifted from the room with a baby in her arms. Mackenzie was too upset to cool her temper.
“Probably grateful that one of my friends cared enough to reach out to try to get me some help. Incidentally, I haven’t seen the ad. Didn’t look.” He shrugged, dismissing it.
That was a man for you. It was all about the practicalities, when the mousetrap was perfectly clear to her. You didn’t live in Bridesmaids Creek and not know that people plotted to get you married. Always done lovingly in your best interests, of course.
Which was how she’d ended up married the first time—not that Tommy hadn’t been a sinfully gorgeous, totally lazy man more interested in pleasure than anything resembling work.
There was a lot of work to be done around the Hanging H, so named when one of the Hawthorne H’s had partially fallen off the sign. The name had stuck—though she knew very well that Daisy Donovan—one of the town’s most notorious bad girls—liked to say the ranch was called the Hanging H because the Hawthornes were barely hanging on. Mackenzie did need help, which would have been quite obvious to the handsome cowboy meeting her gaze without hesitation. Tommy might have been handsome in a hedonistic sort of way, but this cowboy had him beat for raw sex appeal.
“You’re right. If you’re here just for work, and not because of a matchmaking website, I’d like to talk to you more about the position.” She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hazel eyes stared at her, unblinking. Justin didn’t look like he had romance on the mind. Broad shoulders complemented a trim waist, the sinewy body of a man who spent his time actively. He had a square jaw that hadn’t been shaved today—or maybe even yesterday—and shaggy dark hair that hadn’t seen a barber in many months.
All in all, the kind of man who would turn women’s heads.
“I’d be interested in hearing more about the kind of help you’re looking for,” he said.
She looked at her babies, tried to turn off the zip of sex appeal that was overruling her ability to think clearly. “Why would you want to work here? There must be a lot of ranches hiring.”
He nodded. “I’m sure I can find a job if this doesn’t work out. But Ty seemed to think you could use a foreman.”
“A foreman position would be a long-term proposition.” She looked at him, curious. “Somehow you don’t strike me as a long-term kind of man.”
“Things change.”
Okay. She’d noticed he had a bit of a limp, and there was probably a story to that. In fact, there was no doubt a story to Justin in general, but she wasn’t looking for a colorful background. She needed help here, and the fact was Ty’s reference counted for a lot. There was no doubting that Justin didn’t want to answer a lot of questions about himself, which was fine because she could ask Ty whatever she wanted to know. She could simply negotiate an open-ended employment offer with Justin.
“Yes, things do change. Thanks for helping out with the babies. If you give me ten minutes to get them settled and grab the books, I’ll go over the job requirements with you.”
He nodded. “Thanks.”
She gazed into his hazel eyes, seeing nothing there but appreciation for a chance of employment. No attraction, no flirtation; just level honesty.
Whatever it was she’d felt from the moment he’d walked into the room, he didn’t seem to be affected by it.
Which was fine.
She went to find Mrs. Harper to watch the babies while she talked to Justin. If she hired him, she was going to call Ty.
Whether Mackenzie thanked him or yelled at him about the cowboy in the other room remained to be seen.
* * *
TWO WEEKS HAD gone by, and Mackenzie hadn’t seen much of Justin since he’d moved into the foreman’s house. But evidence of his presence was obvious: the gutters no longer hung sad and neglected, the paint on the house gleamed, the paddocks were mown and hay was bundled into round bales that studded the landscape outside her window.
It was beginning to look like the Hanging H of old, which brought back a lot of happy memories.
Jade came into the kitchen, peering over her shoulder at the paddocks. “Looks like a postcard, doesn’t it?”
Mackenzie nodded. “Maybe I should have thanked Ty for sending Justin my way.”
Jade laughed. “You didn’t thank him?”
“I was too annoyed when I found out he’d put my name in a dating registry.”
“To be fair, that was a tiny fib on his part. He didn’t really do that. It was just a little intrigue he threw in for Justin’s sake.”
Mackenzie shook her head and returned to the babies, who sat in carriers, all four of them, on top of the wide kitchen island. They gazed at different things around the room or their toes, content for the moment. “Ty can get a little crazy at times. But, yes, I should thank him now. The ranch looks like it’s in recovery mode.”
“And then there’s other kinds of recovery,” Jade said, still staring out the window. “Is this your daily view?”
Mackenzie turned to see what Jade was goggling at.
Justin. Hot, dark skin gleaming with sweat, bare to his blue-jeaned waist. Muscles for miles. Mackenzie stared at the man wearing a straw Resistol, amazed to feel her heart beating like mad. “Actually, no. That’s never been the view.”
“Too bad.” Jade laughed. “If it was, I’d be eating lunch over here every day with you.”
“You do eat lunch with me almost every day. You make the lunch.” Mackenzie tore her gaze away from Justin and sat at the island. “I’ve been meaning to tell you that I feel like things are much more under control. You and your mom don’t have to come over here every day anymore to help me out. I’m going to be okay.” She smiled at Jade. “You’ve been amazing friends. You and everybody who’s sent food over.”
“Pooh,” Jade said. “Don’t think you’re going to run me off now that you’ve got a bona fide beefcake on the ranch. I’m single, you know.”
Mackenzie held Heather’s tiny foot in her hand. “By all means, come by if you want to. I just hate to keep taking up your life.”
“Believe me—this is a joy and pleasure. And it would kill Mom if you cut off her visiting privileges.” Jade stood beside her. “She dotes on these babies. Says they may be the only grandchildren she has because I’m so slow about finding a husband.”
“You could try Ty’s matchmaking registry.”
Jade laughed. “I’ll meet my handsome prince when it’s meant to be.”