Chapter 2

It didn’t look any better in the daylight. Ellie stood beside her truck and stared in dismay at her so-called inheritance. She wished she had someone with her because she was a little loathe to even step foot in the place. It was probably infested with rats and snakes.

That thought had her turning to fish her shotgun from behind the seat of the truck. She dug around for the box of shells, loaded two into the shotgun, and stuck a few extras into the back pocket of her jeans.

“Man up, Ellie.” She grumbled to herself as she stared at the front door of the house. “It’s all you’ve got.”

Sucking in a breath, she started for the door. Two feet away from the front door, she stopped and whirled around. A shiny black Dodge truck pulled up behind her old Ford F150 and stopped.

Ellie’s eyes bugged out when the man stepped out of the truck. Holy shit. He was something. Tall, really tall, maybe six-three or six-four, with coal black hair, eyes the color of storm clouds and a body that would have any women with a pulse suffering a hormone spike.

Slim hips and strong legs encased in black denim. A starched white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to display well-developed forearms made for one pleasing picture. The gun clipped to his belt along with a badge, however, gave her pause. What was the law doing here? And why was there something familiar about Mr. Sex in Jeans?

“Morning.” His voice was deep, tinged with an accent that had a definite Southern twang.

“Morning.”

He walked over to her. “Cam Marsh. Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Whitehorse, the owner, passed a little while back.”

Ellie nearly fainted dead away. What were the odds that she would run into Cameron Marsh in Florida?

“Cameron?”

“Yeah, Cam. Marsh.”

“You have two brothers, Clint and Clayton? And a sister Carly?”

“Yeah. Uh, do we know each other Miss…?”

“Ellie Whitehorse.”

“Ellie?”

She could see the surprise on his face. “It’s been a long time, Cam. It’s good to see you.” Ellie transferred the shotgun to her left hand and extended her right hand to Cam.

His hand engulfed hers; making her keenly aware of his size, along with being more keenly aware of what a powerful affect his touch had on her. Damn if he wasn’t about the finest man she’d ever laid eyes on. The boy she had known and loved as a child had grown into one hell of a man.

“Ellie Whitehorse,” he said and smiled. “Damn. I haven’t seen you since…”

“Since your mother caught us in the backseat of her car.” Ellie filled in the blank.

“Yeah.” He grinned. “Damn, I can’t believe this. What’re you doing here?”

“My dad left the place to me.”

“You’re Mike’s daughter?”

“Yep.”

“But I thought…never mind. It’s really good to see you.” He released her hand and indicated the shotgun. “You expecting trouble?”

Ellie shrugged and glanced over her shoulder at the house. “Wasn’t quite sure what I might find in there.”

“Want some company? Just in case?”

Ellie wouldn’t have admitted for the world how relieved she was at his offer. She wasn’t a total chicken, but she sure as heck didn’t want to go in that house by herself.

“Thank you.”

Cam started toward the house. “You got keys, right?”

Ellie fished her key ring out of the pocket of her jeans and hurried to catch up. She gave the key to Cam and waited as he located the right key and unlocked the door. He pushed it open, stepped inside, and flipped a light switch. After a moment, she followed.

“What the…?”

She had imagined a lot of things—most of them awful, but she’d never imagined this. The front room had little furniture—an old recliner with one of those ancient wooden table-lamp combos sitting beside it, and a very old console television set that had a smaller television sitting on top of it.

But that was not the surprise. It was what made it almost impossible to walk through the room. Stacks of paintings, three and four deep lined the perimeter of the room. The walls were just as packed with paintings.

And every painting was of the same subject—a magnificent white horse with a long flowing mane and tail.

Ellie was agog as she looked around. Where did all of this come from? Did her father do this?

“Wow.” Cam said as he looked around.

“Yeah,” Ellie agreed. “Do you know if he was an artist? Did he do these?”

Cam shook his head. “To be honest, I didn’t really know him. He wasn’t what you call sociable and…well…”

“I understand.” Ellie could tell Cam felt uncomfortable. “I didn’t know him either.”

“Yeah, I remember. So, you want to check out the rest of the house?”

“Yeah.”

Aside from every room having more of the same, the place was tidy. There was a layer of dust on everything, probably from being vacant for a while, but aside from that, it was not bad.

Well, bad in terms of being full of rats and snakes. There was not much in it. Of the three small bedrooms, only one had furniture and that was an old-fashioned double bed with a sagging frame and an equally old bureau.

The bathroom boasted of a horrible peach colored tile and a shower curtain that was hanging only by three hooks.

She walked back down the hall to the kitchen. It pretty much matched the rest of the house with appliances that belonged in the seventies and a small two-seat table with salt and pepper shakers on it.

A door led outside. She opened it and walked out onto a small concrete patio that had a tin roof covering it.

The inside of the house and even the front yard might have been depressing but the back yard was even worse. Bare, with patches of scraggly grass, trees overladen with moss and an old rusted out lawnmower with no wheels.

“Oh man.” Cam’s voice came from behind her.

“Yeah, really.” She couldn’t stop looking or wondering. She’d never given much thought to who her father was. She just accepted what she had been told by her grandmother and tried to dismiss him from her mind like he had dismissed her from his life.

But now curiosity rose. What kind of man created art like she’d seen and lived in a place that looked like no one cared about it? She turned to face Cam. “Do you know anyone who knew him?”

Cam’s mouth twitched to one side. “Let me ask my brother, Clint. He deals more with the ranch business than I do, and he might know someone.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“You wanna give me your phone number so I can let you know if I find out anything?”

“Oh sure.” She hoped she didn’t sound as unsure as she felt. Seeing Cam was a shock. She’d thought a lot about him over the years but never thought she’d see him again. Now that she had, she was fighting residual feelings from long ago that were trying to rise.

Cam pulled out his cell phone and entered the number she recited then tucked it back in his pocket. “You know, maybe I should give you my number and the number at the ranch. Just in case.”

“Let me grab my phone out of the truck.”

They fell in step and wandered around the side of the house to the driveway. Ellie got her phone from the truck and added Cam’s cell phone number and the number for his ranch.

“That’s the house number, so if you call, chances are you’ll get Clint or his wife, Lily. But you can always reach me on my cell.”

“So, Clint’s married? Any kids?”

“Yes and no. He got married last year. Hell of a woman, Lily. She’s a breeder and trainer.”

“Breeder?”

“Horses. Our spread adjoins yours.”

“So, you’re a—what—rancher?”

“Yeah, and detective with the Sheriff’s department.”

“Funny, I never would have guessed that was in your future. Oh, well, thanks Cam. I really appreciate this. I think…I think I’ll be fine. I mean, at least it isn’t full of rats and snakes.”

Cam laughed. “Well, it’s really pretty clean. A bit spare in furnishings but I guess it suited your father. And by the way, sorry about your loss.”

Ellie looked down at her feet, a habit she’d had most of her life when speaking of her father. “Thanks.”

“Hey, you know you should stop by sometime and see Clint. Meet Lily.”

She looked up and made eye contact with Cam. God, what a mistake. She damn near forgot how to talk. Up until now, she’d done okay. She’d kept her eyes on anything but him. In part, it was due to the discovery of what was inside her father’s house and the curiosity that raised, but she’d been keenly aware of him the entire time and had done her level best not to look at him any more than she had to.

If she did, he just might see something in her eyes she didn’t want him to see. Like the fact that she was pretty damn sure she’d never seen a man so fine. And that despite the time that had passed there was still something of that young girl inside who had loved him when he was a boy. Combine old emotions with a man that was hot enough to start a fire with just a look and you only came up with one thing. Trouble.

Since he wasn’t wearing a ring—and yes, she’d looked—that meant either he was divorced because he was too damn fine and got hit on all the time so couldn’t be faithful, or he was single because he had a dang string of women panting after him and wasn’t the kind of man who was into more than a quick roll in the hay, so to speak.

And regardless of which category he fit in, he was out of her league. Way too fine. Not to mention the fact that the last thing she needed in her life right now was a man. She was going to be doing good to get this place cleaned up and hopefully get a job before her meager funds ran out.

“Ellie?”

Ellie wanted to be sucked into a sudden sinkhole as she realized she’d been standing there staring at him like a fool. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I was…I was just thinking.”

“About your father.”

“Uh, yeah. Well, you know. When my mom died, he left me with my grandmother. My mom’s mother. I never heard from or saw him again.”

“I remember your grandmother, and your dad not being around. I guess I figured the two of you would have reconnected at some point. Sorry that you didn’t, and that I don’t know any more about him than I do. From what we saw in there he was a pretty talented man.”

“So, it seems.”

“Okay, well, if you’re sure you’ll be okay; I’ll get on out of here and get to work. Just stopped when I saw you pull in because I knew no one was living here.”

“I appreciate you staying while I checked out the house. I’m in your debt.”

“Well, when you get settled in invite me over for a beer and we’ll call it even.”

Is he flirting with me? Ellie felt a thrill rocket through her. “You’re on,” she said with what she hoped was not a nervous smile.

“Great. See you soon Ellie.”

“Okay. Thanks again, Cam.”

The smile he flashed before he turned away almost turned her knees to jelly. She watched him get in his truck, back up, and then pull down the driveway. When she was alone again, she turned and looked at the house. Okay, so it was not a mansion. It was barely furnished and could use some fixing up, but it was paid for. If she was lucky, what she had in the bank would hold her over until she could find a job or maybe some freelance work.

That reminded her. She needed to find out about internet service. If she was going to try to work freelance, she’d need internet access. But how did she find out who the service provider was?

The answer flashed in her mind. Cam had given her the number to his ranch and said his sister-in-law was there most of the time. What was her name? Lily. Yes. That was it. Ellie would call her.

She pulled out her phone and placed the call. The call rang half a dozen times before going to voice mail.

“Hey. You’ve reached the Marsh Ranch. Leave a message and we’ll get back to you as quick as we can.”

Ellie started speaking as soon as the beep sounded. “Hi. My name’s Ellie Whitehorse. I’m moving into my father’s place next to you. Cam stopped by and gave me this number and I was wondering if you could help me by giving me the number for the internet service provider in this area and the local power company? Thanks for your time.”

She recited her phone number, ended the call, and shoved the phone into the pocket of her jeans. So, what now? Did she start unpacking her truck?

No. Before she did that, she needed to go through the house and try to make some order out of things. Get all of the paintings that were stacked around moved into one location and give the place a good cleaning.

With a plan of action set, she headed back inside.