Just Friends?

Evan, who happened to glance their way as Northern Light gave another thwarted lunge. The gleaming black tail spiked and they could all hear the horse’s breath streaming from his nostrils.

Janet drew in a hissing breath. “Ee-uu-ww. Is he going to, uh—?”

Leandra frowned, putting her finger to her lips, silently hushing her. The answer to her production assistant’s half-formed question was clear in the satisfied actions of the men as Northern Light’s interest subsided in the mare still standing safely some distance away.

Howard, her father’s oldest ranch hand, took away the collection tube carrying Northern Light’s soon-to-be-pricey contribution to the breeding process. Leandra knew this particular specimen would only be used for analyzing. Leandra’s father led Northern Light back into the shadowy interior of the barn, where he’d be closed in his stall with fresh feed and water until his next encounter with the A.V.

Evan’s presence wasn’t ordinarily required at such proceedings, but since he and Axel were co-owners of the stallion, he had a vested interest. As he headed toward them, his gait was loose-hipped and easy and in Leandra’s mind, she envisioned the slo-mo and music that could accompany the movement once they put the piece together.

Eye candy, exactly as Marian had said. Oh, yes. Definitely eye candy.

“You realize that Northern Light was distracted by all of you over here.” Evan directed his irritation straight at Leandra. “What took most of the day should have been accomplished in a third of the time. It’s a wonder that Jefferson allowed you to even tape here today.”

“I guess that’s one of the perks about being the boss’s only daughter.” Her voice was as cool as his. She didn’t appreciate the lecture, particularly when she was very much aware of the delay they’d caused.

Evan’s lips thinned. He glanced at the camera. “I suppose you’re still filming.”

“That was the agreement, remember?” Despite that very fact, Leandra stepped closer to Evan. “Our crew follows your daily activities for a month and a half. How else can our viewers expect to walk in your shoes?”

“With boots,” he drawled. “And I remember the agreement. Doesn’t mean I have to love it. Definitely doesn’t mean I appreciate extending that inconvenience to my clients. And daddy of yours or not, Jefferson Clay is one of my best clients. We’re planning to breed one of his mares to Northern Light, and I’d still like him to stay one of my best clients even after you’ve taken your sweet tush off onto your next escapade.”

“Cut,” Leandra told Ted, barely managing to get the word through her clenched teeth. “Janet, you and Ted go over to the lab where Howard’s working and catch what you can. There’s quite a bit of science involved in this. You never know what might come in useful.” She could feel her phone vibrating silently at her hip, where it was clipped to her pocket, but ignored it. She didn’t have to guess hard to figure it was Marian. “Then we’ll take a stroll through the horse barn and call it a day.”

The idea of ending shooting even an hour early clearly appealed to Janet. Leandra knew she and Paul Haas, the other crew member, were planning to drive down to Cheyenne for the weekend. Both in their midtwenties, they figured their free time would be a little more lively there than it would be if they remained in town. Ted, however, was staying put. He had a wife and a toddler back home in L.A. and, though he hadn’t said anything specific, Leandra had the impression that things weren’t entirely smooth between the couple. They’d all be back in Weaver on Sunday, though, in time to watch the show on television.

When Ted and the camera were no longer there as silent witnesses, Evan leaned his elbows on the metal rail between them. “You showing off that you’re the boss, Leandra?”

“When it comes to this, that’s exactly what I am.”

“As long as Marian lets you be.”

She stiffened, ignoring the jab. “Regardless, I don’t need you taking me to task in front of my people just because you occasionally find this situation a little less than comfortable.”

“Occasionally?” His eyebrows lifted. “Have you ever had a camera following you around all damn day? You don’t know what it’s like. You only know what it’s like from behind the lens.”

The fact that he was right didn’t help her beleaguered conscience any. Nor did the phone cease vibrating. She snatched it off her belt, flipping it open. “Yes?”

There was a brief pause, then a short, masculine laugh. “Judging by your voice, I can tell you’re happy to hear from me.”

It wasn’t Marian at all. “Jake.” Leandra greeted her ex-husband. Evan’s shadowy jaw cocked and he turned, stepping away from the rail. “I thought you were Marian calling. What’s wrong?”

“Who said anything had to be wrong?”

“You don’t usually call me when I’m on location.” Her ex-husband called about once a month, insisting on checking up on her. He’d been doing it for as long as they’d been apart. At first, it had been simply painful. Then, it had been…simply simple. That was Jake.

They might not have made it as a couple—particularly after Emi—but that didn’t mean that they didn’t care about each other.

“As it happens, I was calling to see how Ev was doing.”

Ev was twenty feet away from her now, joined by her father, who’d ambled out of the barn a few moments earlier. “Why? He’s a big boy.”

“Yeah, but he hates attention. You know that.”

“Then he shouldn’t have agreed to the shoot. I still don’t know why he did. I know he regrets it. It would have been a heck of a lot easier if you’d agreed to do this, Jake. I would never have had to come to Weaver. You didn’t even tell me your good excuse,” she reminded him. “Just that you had a reason.”

“I did. Do. So, put the man on the phone, would you? I need to talk to him.”

“Oh, so that’s why you called my phone,” she teased wryly as she crouched down and slipped through the horizontal space between the wide-set metal rails. “Not to talk to me after all, but to your good buddy.”

“At least from him I might get the straight scoop on how you’re really doing.” There was no joking in Jake’s voice.

Leandra stopped next to Evan and extended the tiny phone. “Here, spy man. Your accomplice wants to talk to you.” She jiggled the phone. “Jake.”

Evan took the phone. “Yo.”

Leandra grimaced and turned away.

Her father caught her gaze, his dark blue eyes unreadable. “You still talk to Jake?”

She shrugged and he fell into step with her as she walked away from Evan, heading toward the big, state-of-the-art barn. She didn’t really want to hear whatever report he might be giving Jake.

The fact that there might be any reporting at all annoyed her right down to her bones. She was having lustful thoughts about Evan and he was merely keeping tabs on her for Jake.

“Don’t worry, Dad. We’re not getting back together or anything.” There was too much water under that bridge. And Leandra wasn’t up to emotional entanglements, anyway.

“Jake was—is a good enough guy.” Jefferson’s low voice was wry. “Maybe not good enough for my girl, but—”

She tucked her hand under her father’s arm. At six-plus feet, he still towered over her. And though his blond hair had a good portion of silver now, it was still thick and often longer than his wife’s shoulder-length hair.

“Nobody would be good enough to suit you, Dad.”

“Me?” His lips quirked. “It’s your mother who’s the hard one to please.” He nodded his head toward the slender, dark-haired woman who was striding toward them. “Tell her, Em,” he said when she reached them.

“Tell her what?”

Leandra suffered a head-to-toe examination from her mother’s all-seeing brown eyes. She was ten years younger than Jefferson, and more than once had been mistaken for Leandra’s sister, rather than her mother. “He’s claiming that instead of him, it’s you who thinks no man is good enough for me.”

Emily smiled. “Well, we both know what a tale your father can spin. So, how much longer are you going to be following poor Evan around? You know we’re all going into town tonight to meet at Colbys, right?”

“Sarah told me.”

“I really wish you could stay out here with us.” Emily closed her arm around Leandra’s shoulder. “I know it’s not too practical during the week because of the drive, but what about the weekends?”

A part of Leandra wanted nothing more than to escape to the sanctuary of her childhood home. To sink into the comfort and care of parents whose love was a constant in her life. A bigger part of her resisted those very same things for fear that she’d never make her own way. “I’ll still be working on the weekends,” she told them truthfully. “We just won’t be actively following Evan.”

“Working on the weekends.” Emily sniffed wryly. “Why does that sound familiar?”

“Because you grew up on Squire’s ranch,” Jefferson drawled. “And there ain’t no time off on a ranch.”