Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Do we have to go over this again?

Ashley's POV

I never have been a self-conscious person, and I mean never, but the moment we started for the truck I felt a blanket of insecurity throw and wrap itself over me. Yeah, I know they have already ridden in Kristy (yes I named my truck so get over it), but it's different when this beautiful woman knows whose truck it really belongs to. I mean come on; there is trash on the floorboards, tools on the dash, and tons of dirty, grimy, and or greasy overalls and other work clothes scattered all along the seats. I have no sense of organization what so ever. Just ask my dresser drawers and closet; if you went into that black hole of a closet you may never come out because you could get eaten by a rabid sock or something. I'm terrible, I know.

I make my way over to the passenger side, yanking it open with a rusty grating clang in the door's protest. "Um, I'm sorry 'bout the mess, Miss." I say sheepishly as I grab an arm full a muddy coveralls so I could throw them in the tool box back on the flat bed.

She laughs lightly causing her face to light up. The sound sending shivers down my spine just like it did when I first heard the angelic chime in the bar…though it was just a bit nippy in there, so it may have been just that. Yeah, that was it...just the chill.

"It's no problem at all. We are the ones invading your personal space." She told me quietly, keeping her eyes on anything that wasn't me. She really is sorta a shy gal isn't she? She barely kept eye contact with anyone earlier, but that's normal, I guess, with being in a new town and not knowing anybody. The way she was acting was actually a bit cute if I say so myself.

"Invadin'?" I question, raising an inquisitive eyebrow, "No, ya'll ain't invadin' nothing. Anybody is welcome to ride in this ol' bucket of bolts…well as long as they don't mind givin' up the window seat that is."

Rocco is a completely awful brat; he doesn't care who is in my truck, that passenger seat is his and no one can wrestle that position from him. Not even for a package bacon, trust me, I have tried. A lot.

"What do you mean by that?" She asks me as I'm throwing another bundle of old Carrharts jackets in the back.

I chuckle and kick a foot out in Rocco's general direction that is too busy being wallowed by Spencer's sons to notice. "You will see."

She gives me a curious look before shrugging and letting it go. "Do you want me to help you, Ashley?"

I shake my head and slam the box closed. "No, that's everythin' that I can stuff back there. The rest of it will have to stay for now. Thank ya anyway."

After flinging the back doors open (more like kneeing and smacking the side of the door until it succumbed) and helping the boys in, Spencer quickly understands the window seat problem. "Do I just slide him over or…?" She trails off helplessly and watches Rocco as he stretches out across the front seat throwing a smug-like look at the blonde. My dog is such a gentleman, don't you think?

I internally laugh and shake my head. "Rocco, get out for a sec." After my dog unhappily bounces out of the cab with a loud huff and into a mud puddle, I help Spencer into the truck then jog around the front to climb into the driver's seat.

Getting my seatbelt on, I grin and say, "You might wanna scoot over a smidgen because Rocco isn't the sharin' type no matter how much I get on to 'im." The sentence barely makes it out of my mouth before the Lab is bounding back up into the cab covered in mud up to his chest.

I reacted without thinking and grabbed Spencer around the waist to pull her all the way into my side, forcing her arm to go around my waist and her face to rest itself in the crook of my neck. She is relaxed for almost a short three seconds before shock of my sudden movement wears off. The previous warm puffs of air on my neck stops and her body seems freezes at the sudden contact and almost immediately she fights her way out of my grip, jumping away from me and into Rocco with a frightened expression.

When she actually turns her head up to look at me with fearful blue eyes I promptly wanted to punch myself in the face. I don't really understand why or how I scared her that bad but I did and frankly… I don't want this woman to be afraid of me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset ya." I apologize with raised hands in a type of surrender while trying to convey part of the apology with my eyes.

Her face quickly morphs from fearful to apologetic as well. "It wasn't you." She pauses as she thinks of what to say, "It's just I don't do well with people touching me and I didn't get the chance to see what you were going to do before you did it. It's not your fault."

"I shouldn't have touched ya anyway. I wasn't really thinkin'." She slowly scoots back over until she is sitting in the middle seat only a few inches away from me.

She brushes some honey gold hair out of her face to a place behind her ear. "You were just trying to keep your dog from jumping on me with his muddy paws; I shouldn't have reacted that way."

Is she really trying to blame herself for me scaring her? "Why are you doing that? Blaming yourself, I mean."

She looks at me with a surprised look in her eyes. "Well I… guess it's a habit."

That's some habit to have. "Well if we're going to be around each other, ya gonna to have to kick that habit to the curb because while I'm around everything that goes wrong or could go wrong is on my side." I tell with a grin. I swear I'm accident prone or something of that effect.

My smile seems to relax her and she smiles a small smile back. "I'll try but no promises."

"That's all I ask for." I laugh as I start up Kristy.

The drive up the mountain was mostly quiet besides the occasional babble of the little boys from the back. It wasn't an awkward silence but a comfortable one which is not very common for me anymore, so it's a pretty nice change. The only time I said anything was when she asked me a few simple questions about the house or when I was giving her warnings about when I was about to shift gears since the gear stick was right in between her knees. I didn't want her jumping up and away from me again.

The Vickers' place is about as far out of town as the Davies Ranch. Come to think of it Eagle's Nest is only ten minutes away from my house. This will make driving to work a whole lot easier for me. Normally I have to drive around thirty to forty minutes to go do my projects because of how far we live out here. There isn't another resident in sight for miles. That is the way I like; serene, quiet, and no nosey neighbors snooping into places you don't want them.

"It's a ways out here isn't?" Spencer commented quietly while watching the lush, green trees pass by.

I adjust the bill of my baseball cap to the side and nod. "Yep, the house is way out 'ere. Away from all the craziness that is the people of Oak Valley. It's worth it though."

It is silent for a moment before she speaks again. "I bet it is."

I lick my lips and pull on the hem of my tank top uncertainly. "There are a lot of fun things to do out 'ere. Lots of sights to see, places to go, and a whole bunch of other things."

"Yeah?" I think I sparked her interest.

"Yep, like we have our very own natural water slides, sunsets out on the cliffs, awesome parks…really anything you could possible want to do outdoors wise."

"I haven't been camping since I was five. I barely remember what it was like." She says sadly, picking at the crimson polish on her nails.

"Maybe you can go sometime…I'll be happy to show ya the best sites…if you like." My palms start to sweat urging me to swipe my hands up and down my pant legs. What the hell is up with me today?

She smiles shyly at me and nods causing hair to tumble in her eyes. "It sounds like it could be fun."

I clear my throat nervously and repeat her actions. "Yeah? Cool."

The end of that conversation comes in the form of two little hands popping up from behind us to grab their mom's over shirt, yanking to get her attention which she immediately gives them.

While Spencer is preoccupied I allow my mind to drift to Kyla. I worry about that little girl a great deal more than I think I should, but you wouldn't blame me if you knew her new asswipe boyfriend Rex. This dude is a complete meathead and moronic jerk who needs nothing more than a few kicks to his special place. Hey, don't judge me just yet because I know I've seen the kid with at least four different girls within the same week at one point. That was before he was dating my sister, that is. He knows if he ever does anything remotely harmful to my baby sister that I will remove his family jewels and put them in a jar and use them as a hood ornament. He knows all of this because I told the little fucker myself the first time he picked up Kyla for their date but not in as nice of words. I think I almost made him pee himself while I spoke to him while whittling a piece of a 2x4 with my Marine additionKA-BAR. The look on his face was priceless; the cold shoulder Kyla gave me when she found out about our chat not so much.

Suddenly, Spencer spins around as much as she can with the gear in the way and looks at me with big sapphire eyes. "…Did Gran really…y'know…to her husband?"

I can't help to the howl of laughter that makes its way out of the depths of my belly. "N-n-no." I'm laughing so hard I can barely talk, "She, she um…no, no she didn't." I had to wipe tears from my eyes I was laughing so hard. I wonder where she got that random question from.

"Oh." She mumbles red-faced. I don't blame her for ask, I know I would have.

"She jokes about that all the time. I think it's a coping thing." Rose lost her husband in the Invasion of Grenada in 1983.

"How sad." She whispered and continued to gaze out the grime covered windshield.

I just silently nod and refocus on the narrowing dirt road. The only thing you can see right now is a small weakly flowing creak and lots and lots of green. I instantly get excited when a particular curve pops up. Spencer, noticing my change in mood, straightened up too and watched eagerly out the window.

When the trees open up in to a lone verdant rolling field and the house comes into sight I hear a soft gasp from the cute blonde sitting next to me.

"It's beautiful." She whispers in awe.

"I'm thinkin' the exact same." I whisper just as softly so I don't ruin the moment she her but not once taking my eyes off of the blonde beauty for more than two seconds at a time.

The house really is beautiful. It has two stories with two bedrooms on each floor along with three bathrooms and a sorta gallery type room behind the garage on the west side. The place is an old fashion Victorian style house with a complete wrap around porch, two balconies that hold age-old windowsill gardens made of bronze. The house itself is painted that old faded white color that you could tell was once a soft cream. What completes the look and feel of the house, I think, is the mini maze and garden feature on the east side of the house that lies four yards behind a two hundred year old Weeping Willow. It's a gorgeous piece of property.

I pull almost right up to the porch's steps before killing the engine and swiveling to face the still overwhelmed but smiling woman. She finally breaks out of her trance to turn and look at me with shinning, happy eyes.

I can't stop the grin sneaking its way on my lips. "Welcome to your new home, Ms. Carlin."

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