Page 10 of All in with the Maverick Montana

Josh Aventura.

In the flesh.

Again.

The man her sister thought she should have asked out for coffee the other day. The man who she’d been thinking about nonstop since. It had been months since a man had occupied her waking thoughts. Certainly not since the early days of seeing Tru, and now in hindsight, he’d obviously been haunting her.

She tried to bite down on the smile that stretched across her face. She couldn’t quite tell if she was thrilled to see him again, or if that was just the nausea, fluttering away in her chest. She reached onto the shelf and pulled a pallet of cans closer, facing the labels out to the front. What was Josh doing back here so soon anyway? Faith had said it would be close to a month before he’d be back for supplies. Perhaps he’d forgotten something.

Amy looked his way again.

She certainly hadn’t forgotten how effortlessly handsome he was. It really was unfair for him to look that good after likely spending all morning with his cattle on his ranch.

He brushed at his shirt, knocking away dust.

“I’m kidding,” Faith said. “I was just surprised to see you in here twice in one week. I’d say to what do we owe the pleasure? But usually when a customer returns that quickly it’s with a complaint. Something wrong with the product we sold you?”

“No,” Josh said, shaking his head. “No problem.”

“So what? This just a social call?” Faith walked around the end of the cash desk, crossing her arms as she looked up at him. Her lips puckered, and Amy knew she was trying not to grin. “You checking up on your neighbors?”

“A man needs supplies,” Josh said, so low Amy could barely hear him. His shoulders hunched up by his ears.

Faith threw her head back and laughed. “You know damn well we only see you in here once a month.”

Josh dropped his hands to his hips. “Maybe I forgot a couple of things last time.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Amy shook her head. Poor Josh. She’d been on the wrong end of one of Faith’s interrogations more times than she could count. If she wanted to know something desperately enough, Josh didn’t stand a chance.

“Do you always harass your customers?” he asked gruffly.

“I’m not harassing, I’m showing a vested interest.”

Josh reached out for one of the stands by the desk, pulling something from the display rack. He laid it on the desk.

“Wool sheep shears?” Faith said. “For a cattle ranch.”

“Maybe I’m branching out,” he said. “Or maybe I’m doing a favor for a neighbor. You want my money or not? Cause there’s another perfectly good feed store up the road.”

Amy smirked. Growing up on the rodeo circuit with a lot of sisters and cousins, Amy had quickly learned to compete with strong personalities. Josh might have been the gruff, quiet type who usually kept to himself, but Amy liked that he didn’t take any of Faith’s flak.

“Oh, I’ll take your money,” Faith said, clicking her tongue. “No need to act like you’ve got a burr in your saddle. I’m just saying… Sheep?”

“She giving you a hard time?” Caleb called, strutting across the store with Nathan and a pair of cowboy boot-clad ranchers in tow.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Josh said.

Caleb slowed by the desk, leaning over to peck Faith on the cheek. He was incredibly tall, with deep brown skin, carved cheekbones, and an abundance of muscles from dragging around heavy bags of feed all day. Amy’s heart swelled at the sight of them together. She really couldn’t be happier that Faith had ended up with someone as kind and as doting as Caleb. Faith might give her a hard time, as sisters do, but she deserved all the happiness she’d found with Caleb.

“Be nice to the customers,” Nathan called before carrying on. “I don’t need them running off to the Feed and Seed.”

Amy knew Nathan was joking. For as small as Tenacity was, with the sheer number of ranchers that lived and worked in the surrounding area, there was definitely a need for more than one feed store in town. Though each store still seemed to have their own loyal, longtime customers.

“I’m just reminding Mr. Aventura here that he runs a cattle ranch, not a sheep ranch.”

Caleb hummed. “Maybe he’s branching out.”