Read A Broken Cowboy (BWWM Interracial Romance) for Free Online Page B

after all.
    “Okay then. Does that mean you want to stand right here and talk about it?”
    “Sure.”
    Mimi turned away slightly and rolled her eyes, balling her fists and releasing them several times. It was a coping mechanism she’d taught herself during her years working as an IRS agent, one that she had to rely on several times a day when working for the bureaucracy. But she hadn’t needed the small gesture once out here, not even while chasing bats, rats, and snakes literally out of her bedroom. Somehow, just trying to talk to Gabriel made her involuntarily revert to her old ways of dealing with extreme stress.
    “Fine. Why don’t you tell me your fee?”
    “I don’t know how much it will cost. Won’t know until I get finished.”
    “But how am I supposed to pay you if I don’t know how much it will cost?” Fist flex.
    “I don’t know.”
    Deep breath, fist flex, then try to speak . “I have an idea. What if I just pick a number, and that’s what I decide to pay you?”
    “How much is that?”
    “I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet.” Mimi smiled, turning Gabriel’s own logic back on him. Her buoyancy was short lived when she saw that his expression hadn’t turned even the slightest bit amused through the entire agonizing conversation.
    “That won’t work,” he finally said.
    “Well, it’s what you’re expecting me to agree to. You want me to agree to pay you whatever you decide to charge me after the fact, but you’re not willing to agree to just let me decide how much to pay you. That’s hardly fair, is it?” she demanded.
    “Nope. But I’m not the one who needs a roof.”
    Fist flex. Fist flex. Fist flex. Deep breath. Fist…oh, never mind. Mimi was about to tell Gabriel to forget the whole thing and hitch a ride back into town with the digging crew, hoping to find a roofer who wasn’t a complete whack-job, when he instead turned and stared at her with his intense green eyes.
    “Let’s eat dinner.”
    “What?”
    “After the crew leaves. Let’s eat dinner.”
    Mimi shot him a sarcastic smirk. “Well, I fully intended to eat dinner sometime after the crew leaves. Or were you suggesting that we both eat dinner at the same time, in the same place?”
    “Yes.”
    “Fine. Come back after they leave and I’ll cook for us.”
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    Mimi sighed, already more tired of his antics than she cared to think about. “Okay. What is your suggestion?”
    “I’ll make dinner. And I’ll bring it here.”
    “Oh. Okay then. I would say I’ll bring the drinks, but if this crew doesn’t hurry, I won’t be bringing any liquids in the near future.”
    Gabriel turned and walked away, not even cracking a smile at her joke. He spoke to the foreman in charge of the dig for just a few minutes, then started running back to somewhere in the woods, wherever it was he goes. Mimi watched the crew work for a little while longer, then went into the house to do some cleaning up. It took her a moment to realize what had just happened, but when the reality of it hit her, she dropped her cleaning rag and stood frozen in place.
    Holy shit, I have a date tonight, she thought numbly. Her mouth fell open in surprise as she realized this hadn’t happened in the longest time. If she’d been back in DC—a thought that was occurring to her more and more often as one surprise after another kept popping up—she would have called on Krystal and maybe a few other girlfriends for advice. They would probably have come over and brought outfit ideas, helped her fix her hair, do something about her makeup, definitely had a few laughs over wine…the works.
    But out here, she was on her own. Mimi could probably have called Sarah, but the girl was busy working on a large ranch herself. On top of that, she was practically a kid herself, and besides, Mimi wasn’t ready to go announcing that she was having dinner with the crazy caretaker, no matter how gorgeous and ripped he might be.
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