Honeymoon with the Rancher / Nanny Next Door: Honeymoon with the Rancher / Nanny Next Door. Michelle Celmer
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he wasn’t just a sexy, enigmatic gaucho anymore. She knew what it was like to see him smile. Her heart still caught when she remembered the look in his eyes as he’d cradled her head in his hand yesterday, asking if she was all right.
And her body practically sang at the memory of feeling his lips on hers. She couldn’t deny the possibility of a brief romance held a certain allure. But as soon as she thought it, she dismissed it. What if she flirted? Tried to get him to kiss her again? Then what? What would he expect? Maybe nothing. But maybe a whole lot more than she was comfortable with. In some ways, she’d already bitten off more than she could chew with this trip. Tempting Tomas might definitely turn into more than she could handle, and if she were honest with herself, she just wasn’t ready.
“Is there something you want to say?” She gave his fingers a gentle squeeze.
For a long moment his gaze plumbed hers, but then he released her hands. “Just … it seems strange to be saying this, but seeing your view of the town, the pampas.” He paused, then offered a small smile, just a faint curving of his lips that reached out and held her in its grasp. “I had forgotten how to appreciate it,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Me? I’ve done nothing. I know I came across as a bit of a princess, Tomas …”
His warm chuckle sent tingles down her arms.
“I’m really not. Not deep down.”
He looked as if he wanted to say something, but instead merely inclined his head towards the path. “Let’s walk.”
And there he went again, poking his head out of his shell just a little bit before turtling in again. It frustrated her even though she knew it was probably for the best.
They resumed walking along the path. “I’m afraid I haven’t been very good company. I hope Carlos and Maria don’t plan on using me as a tour guide very often.”
“Don’t be silly. I arrived unexpectedly and threw a monkey wrench into your week.”
“You’re our guest, Sophia.”
He’d said our and not my and Sophia felt the difference. She watched the boys kick the ball around, one rushing in to score a victorious goal. Another boy, smaller, scuffed his toe on the ground in frustration. Sophia knew how that felt. It was like trying to gain Tomas’s approval. It was a rare commodity, and somehow she felt it was worth striving for. A romance was out of the question. There was so much potential for things to go wrong. But she somehow wanted to think that they were friends of a sort. Someone who was a friend to the new and improved Sophia.
“I … I’d like to think maybe we’re friends,” she said quietly.
“Friends?” he asked, and she heard the surprise in his voice. Didn’t he have friends? Was it so incomprehensible?
“Sure,” she smiled as their steps slowed even further. “Amigos. I mean, you know more about me than you normally would about a guest, right? Far more than ‘where are you from, what do you do?’”
“I suppose.”
But did friends get that twirling of anticipation from simply knowing they were going to be together? She knew they didn’t. There was more between them. The question was, were they going to ignore it or explore it? Which did she really want? This was supposed to be a simple trip, uncomplicated. And Tomas was one big sexy complication.
They kept on until they reached the Puente Viejo, a gorgeous salmon-pink bridge spanning the river. They stood at the crest of it and rested their arms on the ledge, looking down at the smooth water.
“Sophia,” Tomas began, and she looked up at him, surprised to see his brows pulled together in a pensive frown when they were in one of the most beautiful, relaxing places she could remember.
“What is it?”
“As friends, I feel I should apologize for kissing you yesterday.”
“It has bothered you,” she acknowledged. Was this why he’d spent hours in the barn rather than coming to the house? Was it why he’d brought her to town today? Guilt?
“I was very out of line yesterday, Sophia. You gave me such a scare. I fear my actions made you uncomfortable.”
Oh yes. In the most heart-stopping, glorious way, but there was no way she was going to tell him that. Especially when he clearly didn’t feel the same. With Tomas it was always duty first. She could resent him for that if it weren’t so darned admirable.
“It’s okay, Tomas.” Sophia forced a smile when she felt none. “I know it was just a reaction. The fall scared us both. I know it wasn’t real.”
Tomas didn’t respond and the silence was more awkward than any words might have been. Was there any clearer confirmation? She needed to say something, something to dispel the tense atmosphere. Was Tomas thinking about it as she was? Clearly he regretted it. He was not interested in her. She, on the other hand, was remembering the kiss quite differently. She was feeling quite giddy about it, which wouldn’t do at all.
“I’m afraid I’m not a great host,” Tomas said, relaxing just a little. Sophia supposed clearing the air about the kiss was a relief to him. Tomas linked his fingers together over the railing. “Maria is much better at this sort of thing. She knows how to make people at home.”
What would Maria say if she knew Tomas had held Sophia in his arms? Or that Sophia had kissed him back as though she was dying of thirst and he was cool, reviving water?
“She’d flay me alive,” Tomas continued, almost as if he’d heard Sophia’s question. “For letting you take a fall like that.”
“It sounds like she cares about you. As a mother would.”
He laughed then, quietly, but it was warm and heartfelt, and Sophia loved how it changed his face.
“Maria is the heart and soul that keeps this family together,” he said easily. “I’m afraid of what she’d say if she saw you. She’d be meddling in the first five minutes.”
“Why?”
This time when Tomas met her gaze, he said nothing, but then he didn’t have to. The memory of their kiss was suddenly front and centre again, the diversion shattered. “Do you have experience with meddling mothers?” Tomas said it quietly, his magnetic gaze never leaving hers, with tacit acknowledgement that they were attempting to change the subject.
Which made the attraction they were trying to ignore simmer all the stronger.
Sophia forced a laugh. “Are you kidding? My mother is the biggest meddler of them all. She was the one that introduced me to Antoine. And she pushed me into a country club wedding.”
“Don’t all girls want a fancy wedding?” Tomas stood tall and turned to face her, resting against the bridge.
She shook her head. “Not all girls. I didn’t. Not a big production with two hundred guests, a photographer and a champagne fountain. I would have chosen something far simpler.”
“I still find it hard to believe this Antoine let you get away.”
“Oh, he didn’t. He just thought he could have everything,” she replied. And he had. Antoine had never considered that he would get caught. And even if he had, the expectation was that she’d fall in line just as she always did.
“It’s made me think about my gram a lot,” Sophia admitted. “Gram hated her life on the farm. She’d had a very different childhood in England. But I don’t think she ever got over leaving her husband. He was the right man in the wrong place, you know? She always sort of regretted leaving him, I think.” Sophia touched her finger to one of the amethyst earrings she’d always loved and sighed. “She gave me these when I was a girl. They’d been a gift from him. I think having them caused her more pain that she’d admit. Gram always said she didn’t know what was worse—a love that was impossible or one that was practical and suitable.