Commitment

Part 8

He kept his glare in place. He focused on her. "A few months from now, the sheep will need to be sheared." He spoke to her as if she was a two year old, "You need to hire a team, and house them to do the job. Unless you intend to deal with it yourself!" He shook his head and couldn't stop the following question, "Have you done that, at anytime in your life?"

She would have laughed, hysterically if he had been staring at her as if she was some specimen in a lab. Instead she said quietly. "No. I have not, at anytime in my life." She glanced over her shoulder and added, "You know I have no experience."

He narrowed his eyes, and kept his voice calm, " As I said, a few months from now, the sheep will need to be sheared."

"Oh." The tiredness she was trying to hold at bay all but swamped her as the ramifications of his statement hit home. More money? They needed more money? Did he think it grew on trees?

He watched her reaction, miser, he thought as we watched the emotions flit through her eyes. "So, either you learn or you employ a team."

"A team." She said automatically. No point worrying about this. She could not employ anyone else let alone a team.

"And you have to house them to do the job properly."

Suddenly everything just seemed that little bit too much. Insurmountable. She was tired of holding it all together, alone. Tired emotionally and physically. She wished she'd just gone to her room and gone to bed, then at least she would have been spared this conversation about the need for more money. "No, I don't have the time to learn so I can't help you with shearing."

"Good to hear that you know that!" He growled, and his eyes glared at her.

She looked over at him, with a question in her eyes, "So?" She knew what to expect, but still, she shook her shoulders as if she was asking about a riddle.

"Where?" He asked in that amazing, rich deep voice that was spoilt by the brusqueness and the scorn. She looked as if she didn't care. In fact for a second there he thought she was going to burst out laughing. But then she'd caught him looking at her and the laugh had been squashed.

"Where?" She tipped her head as she considered his question and worried about the implications that she knew were about to be voiced. She stalled for time, trying to figure out what options she had, "Where do I plan on housing them?" If only she wasn't so tired she might be able to think faster! But she could tell from his narrow eyed stare that her prevarication was not going down well.

"Yes." She could hear the rude undertones in that one word response of his. Gray was close to yelling. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that farms had routines and requirements. All the perks for no effort, is what she wanted, he thought with some measure of anger. How could he possibly find a shallow vapid woman attractive? He'd always prided himself of his choice of women, they were usually strong, independent, smart women. Women of substance. Not self-centred or hollow. Yet he had kissed the one standing in front of him, and she was anything but the type of woman he wanted in his life. Clearly he was tired when he kissed her. Either that, or he was taking some drug that he didn't know about.

Regan blew out a loud breath, shrugged and muttered beneath her breath, with a small giggle, as stress and panic vied for precedence, "Tents." She proposed and knew even as she said the word in jest that it was bound to result in more trouble. She wasn't wrong. His eyes grew stormy. She felt stupid.

"Take this seriously!" He told her, his tone verging on icy and clearly hostile. There was absolutely no way he could fancy this woman, no way, she was just superficial. "For one bloody minute, would you take this farm seriously, even if it is for one fucking minute!" She was bleeding the place dry, if her clothes were anything to go by. None of it looked cheap. She had cash. And yet she hadn't invested in the farm. Even now she wasn't taking it seriously. Why was he putting his back into dragging her farm back into working order if she couldn't be bothered?