Ain't Settling: A BBW Romance (2 page)

“You mean like proposing budgets, accounting
for expenditures?” Jensen asked, never missing a beat.

If she was beginning to wonder if he was just a
hired hand with little cerebral activity she quickly reversed the
position. He knew what he was talking about and he had to have been
highly educated.

“Eventually, I hope but I would at least settle
for writing invoices or working with the accounting firm,” Holly
squeaked out, biting her lip as she watched him. He was more
gorgeous than any playboy at her job. This intelligent, tan,
muscular man had everything she was looking for. He probably didn’t
realize that she existed. Not in that way. They never
did.

No one ever asked about her work, not all the
blind dates, not her friends, not her sister. No one. As soon as
she explained what she did and that she was currently an
administrative assistant they shut her out, not caring about her
hopes and dreams. But here she was, in her Aunt’s kitchen talking
to a ranch hand about her career. She smiled at the thought and bit
into her own leg of chicken.

“Yeah, ranches do that kind of thing too, some
on a large scale, but ours is on a smaller scale. Though recently
it has been growing,” Aunt Sheryl admitted, joining the
conversation.

The small talk continued throughout the meal
and Holly learned that the ranch had recently made a full
transition to grass fed, antibiotic-free cattle and sheep. That the
flocks were feeling better and there had been less medical issues.
Also that profits increased significantly, and that they had been
able to contract several deals with local co-ops and health
oriented grocery stores. She didn’t realize as a child that so much
went into running the ranch. It was, after all, a business. She
just enjoyed her time with the animals and didn’t think about
anything else.

She had a new appreciation of what Aunt Sheryl
and Aunt Mary did for a living. They had an entire staff of
employees, accountants, lawyers and managers. Especially as the
ranch grew.

After dinner Sheryl poured the three of them
Sangria, “Well gang, I need to relax with my wine in the bath. So I
am going to retreat, but the sunset sure is pretty this time of
day.”

Her aunt scooted upstairs, giving Holly an
infuriating wink before she scurried away. She was trying to set
her up. With someone who probably only dated country girls that
could work part-time as models or country video girls.

Holly grabbed her wine and walked outside onto
the back porch. It wrapped around the side of the house and had a
beautiful westerly view. The sun was just beginning to dip down
behind the horizon but she could already see the first stars of the
night. Stars. Something she hadn’t seen in years, between the light
pollution and the actual pollution. She sighed and sat down on the
porch swing that Aunt Sheryl had installed for Mary as a present
when she had moved in. A blanket was folded there because a
Midwestern summer night got nippy sometimes. Especially in early
June.

“Your aunt says that you used to come out here
all the time and that you have a way with the animals,” Jensen said
as he walked out, his frame looming over her as he followed her to
the porch. He had his shoes and hat back on and it shielded his
eyes, making it hard to read his expression. Country
boys.

He was just talking to her to be polite, Holly
reminded herself. She was his boss’s niece. He had to make
conversation with her, he didn’t want to.

She had forgotten about him when she saw the
skyline, or lack thereof. No buildings, just the occasional tree
that abruptly interrupted an unchanging horizon among the meadows,
the gentle slope of an Indiana landscape going on seemingly forever
in the distance.

“Yeah, I loved it here. I dreamt about it every
day until I was here and then it went too fast,” She admitted, just
whispering the words as she fell in love with the countryside all
over again.

“Why not come live here?” His question was
direct. Personal. She wasn’t expecting it but didn’t see a reason
not to answer him.

“Oh, I don’t know. My mother pressured me to
work in the city, my sister told me I was crazy to consider it.
Hell, Aunt Mary and Aunt Sheryl even paid for my education. They
said I was making a good choice. So I went along with
it.”

It was the truth. Even if she didn’t like it
and for whatever reason she felt like she needed to purge herself
of it right in that moment. Once it was out she felt a weight lift
from her shoulders. She was going to enjoy her time here. Cherish
it. Before she had to go back to her city existence.

“Well, I hope you enjoy yourself these next
couple of weeks, Miss Holly. I think the country has a lot to
offer,” Jensen set his wine glass down on the side table that was
next to the swing and set off down the porch steps. Holly couldn’t
help but watch that muscular rear sway back and forth as he made
his way to the main barn.

At least she had some eye candy to look at on
her vacation.

Chapter 2

Holly threw the saddle on top of the blanket
and went to work pulling it snug and straightening it out. It was a
beautiful morning and she couldn’t wait to get on a trail. She knew
she shouldn’t go alone, but she had her cellphone in case something
happened. Besides, she knew all the trails like the back of her
hand and it wasn’t the first time she had taken a horse out alone.
She lingered around the stable, wondering where Jensen had gone off
to. She had hoped to see his thick muscular frame before she went
her own way.

After all these years she still knew the proper
way to saddle a horse. This particular one, Lucy, seemed to be
docile and just the right temperament for a beginner. She was
anything but a beginner; however she didn’t want to get into more
than she could handle, especially after so many years. She rubbed
down Lucy’s neck and checked her handiwork one last time before she
walked the horse out of the stable and hopped on.

Holly worked Lucy at a trot then a gallop on
the packed down dirt trail. It was safe here. The horse was more
gentle and stable than she was powerful but it was exactly what
Holly was hoping for as she pushed the horse to her limits for just
a moment. She then slowed to a gentle trot, then a walk, more
content to explore the scenery than experience the wind in her
hair.

She daydreamed about her next meeting with
Jensen. What would he say to her? The way he looked at her with
those soulful eyes left her to wonder if there was something else,
something deeper that he saw in her. Most people didn’t see
anything but a bookworm. But this look, it was different,
deeper.

She must have lost track of time because she
found herself on the edge of the west field, at least 45 minutes
away in her current pace. She was just about to turn around when
she saw Jensen in the distance. He was talking to a couple of ranch
hands, a small herd of cattle standing a few hundred yards away
from them. She could place him anywhere by his build. Even in that
wide-brimmed cowboy hat, she knew it was him. Her heart quickened
as she watched him, observed him in a position of authority. She
couldn’t hear what they were saying, they were too far away, but
she could tell that he was commanding. His body language said it.
She wondered in what other aspects he could be so authoritative.
She started to imagine it, her cheeks flush with the prospect of
Jensen using his authority in the bedroom.

Holly lingered a bit too long, because one of
the ranch hands pointed over to her and then set his horse in her
direction. She knew better than to run, so she waited patiently,
fidgeting with her pony tail that was just under her own ball cap.
Her breath caught in her throat when she saw that the grizzly old
man who was approaching had a rifle sitting in lap. Perhaps Jensen
had not recognized her.

The man appraised her, his face rapidly
changing from one of anger to annoyance, “Hey, what the hell are
you doing out here on Lake Haven lands? This ain’t no park trail
girly, you need to get back to where you came from. And now,” He
pointed in, she was guessing, the direction of the nearby state
reserve.

“Excuse me?” She asked, a bit
confused.

“You heard me. Get.”

“But,”

“Look little missy, I done told you to leave,
if you don’t go and soon, I am going to have to use this,” He said
gruffly, gesturing to his gun, “I ain’t going to wait all day.
Go.”

His ire was riled and she could tell that he
was very serious. Rather than kindly explain, however, she thought
that she had better explain who she was as fast as she possibly
could. But she was irritated.

“I most certainly will not have a gun pointed
at me on my aunt’s land,” She said haughtily and as if, on cue,
Jensen came up right behind the man and looked over the
situation.

“What is going on here?” Jensen asked in a
harsh, no-nonsense tone. She jumped in her saddle but Lucy remained
steadfast. She had picked the right horse.

“This one thinks she can come onto the land,
claiming she is Sheryl’s niece. I told her the trail was back that
way, but she ain’t leaving.”

“That, Randy, is because she is Holly Sidwell,
Sheryl Sidwell’s niece. She has every right to be here, though why
she would be riding out this far alone sure beats me. Go back to
the herd, I will escort this stray back to the farm house,” Jensen
ordered.

Randy huffed and then turned his horse around,
riding back to the herd. Holly let out a sigh of relief and then
smiled, “Thanks, I think I can handle it from here.”

“Oh no you don’t, Ms. Sidwell. You aren’t going
back alone. I wasn’t kidding when I said you shouldn’t be out here
alone. It isn’t safe,” Jensen grabbed her reins before she could
protest and started the horses back down the trail towards home at
a gentle trot.

“I am more than capable of taking myself home,
I will have you know. I have been riding since I was a kid,” She
sounded a little petulant, she knew. But everyone seemed to assume
that she was incapable. She wasn’t sure if it was due to her size
or her gender, but either way it was getting old. She left her job
behind for two weeks to get away from it, not to run head on into
it.

“You may have, but are you aware that we have
had a series of thefts from the ranch, cattle gone missing, sheep
stolen? I don’t want you going anywhere out here alone,” His voice
softened a little when he said alone, like he was actually
personally worried about her.

She fell silent for a moment, not aware of all
the dangers that were lurking around the ranch. Aunt Sheryl never
said anything about such dangers in all the phone conversations
they had over the past few years. She only knew what she remembered
of the ranch. After a while, when they were closer to the stables,
she couldn’t help herself, she had to know.

“Why would they target Aunt Sheryl’s farm? I
mean, we never had those problems growing up,” She asked
aloud.

“She probably had some back then, but not like
she does now. It is the flipside of success. It attracts more of
the seedy type,” Jensen explain, his voice sticking. He seemed
upset, angry, like it was just bubbling below the
surface.

Finally, they reached the stables. He hopped
down outside, and then helped her down, his strong arms around her
waist as he pulled her down. He was a little rougher with her than
she had anticipated and she cried out as he pulled her down onto
the ground, right there, at the back entrance to the
stables.

“What is that about?” She asked, rubbing her
hips. He had gripped her hard.

Jensen pulled off his hat and ran his hand
through his hair, then put the hat back on and moved the two horses
inside, ignoring her question. She followed him, waiting for an
answer. He put them in adjacent stalls and went to work, taking off
his horse’s saddle and blanket and then grabbed a curry brush. When
he was finished with his own horse he threw down the brush and
looked at her hard. She never imagined that he was capable of that
kind of passion.

“Dammit, Holly. You could have been hurt, or
you could have been assaulted. Why didn’t you think before getting
on your horse? I don’t want you going out there alone. You don’t
know what could happen. You need to think about more than
yourself.”

“Who the hell do you think you are to yell at
me? I don’t even know you. You are my aunt’s foreman, not my
boss.”

“I do know you Holly. I know all about you. I
worked here on the farm when you used to come in your teens and I
remember you. You broke your wrist when you were twelve because you
wanted to ride Shadow, even though your aunts told you he was too
intense. You did it anyways and you were lucky you only broke your
wrist. You love to swim in the pond. You graduated cum laude. Your
just as beautiful as you are smart and brave,” He paused before he
continued in his tirade, “Your Aunt talks about you all the time,
Holly. You are like her daughter. She tells me about your job,
about how you did in school. She never stops talking about you and
your sister. You are all she has left. Could you at least be
respectful of that, even if you don’t think I know you?”

Jensen’s chest was heaving as he loomed over
her. He called her beautiful. Her. Beautiful. He remembered her
even though she never remembered seeing him. He also knew every
story her Aunt had ever told and he thought she was beautiful. And
he was worried about her.