Free Love Unspoken by Delilah Hunt

father
standing at the doorway, his thick jet-black mustache twitching to reflect his
annoyance. Surprisingly, the man reached for his hand. “Sorry about that. I
told my daughter to open the door but I guess she got lost somewhere around
here.” The man chuckled to himself and gestured inside. All right, so far, Mr.
Williams seemed reasonable. However, he didn’t like the way the man alluded to
Noelle doing everything for him.
    “I’ve already told your boss, Randy, that I had some things to
do, so whatever you need Noelle will help you with it.”
    Cole nodded and the man stared at him for a second, his brows
creasing then relaxing like when someone resolved a puzzle.
    “Ahh, so you’re that cowboy who doesn’t speak. I heard about
Randy hiring a new hand a while back, didn’t realize it was you. Must be hard huh?”
    What was hard about it? And if a while back meant almost two
years and numerous other hires in between, then yes, but hard, simply because
he couldn’t talk? Cole brushed it off. He wasn’t going to bother and write out
something to the man.
    Mr. Williams nodded as if he didn’t expect more from him. No
surprise there. “Well, you sure look like you could handle the entire place by
yourself.”
    Cole kept his face a mask of coldness. Mr. Williams coughed and
clapped his hands together. “Have a seat and I’ll get Noelle on top of this.”
He looked at Cole and asked. “She’s been the one handling all of my dealings
over at the ranch. There haven’t been any issues with her has there?”
    Cole clenched his jaw. What the fuck was the man getting at? He
lifted his hand to tell the man exactly what he thought of his question then
dropped it. Pointless. This was one of those times he felt helpless and had to
wonder why he was born without a simple thing such as speech.
    Mr. Williams waved his hand in an offhand manner. “Never mind.
I’m sure everything is fine. Wait here and I’ll see where that girl is.”
    Cole stood watching as the man pivoted around a corner. From his
position he assumed Noelle had appeared because of the raised tones. Mr.
Williams wasn’t trying to disguise his irritation with her or censor her in
private.
    “What did you have to do that was so important you couldn’t open
the door for the gentleman?”
    Noelle gave him a furtive glance then averted her gaze. “I
apologize to have kept you waiting.”
    He felt embarrassed that she was forced to apologize to him in
front of her father.
    Hoping the man would take a hint and leave them alone to handle
business, Cole glanced at his watch.
    Mr. Williams gave him a wry grin as if he was embarrassed
by Noelle. “I think Noelle sometimes forget that she’s just like any other
employee, except she’s living under my roof.”
    Cole stiffened upon hearing the man’s statement. His heart ached
for the way Noelle’s eyes widened before she straightened her shoulders as if
she hadn’t heard the slight. She did that a lot and he was starting to
understand why.
    The older man placed his arm around her shoulder and gave it a
squeeze. “I’ll be in my office. Make sure you give him everything Randy
ordered.”
    “Yes, sir.” Her eyes looked straight ahead.
    Once Mr. Williams was out of the room, Cole stared at Noelle. She
lifted her gaze to his, quickly looked away as if she had been stripped bare,
more intimate than he’d seen her laid out naked on the grass beneath him.
    “The supplies are this way.” She crossed a passageway and Cole
followed determined to confront her. He wasn’t going to let her maintain the
pretense that nothing happened between them, or her father hadn’t injured her
heart and ego.
    They entered a room, barren save for the bags of the feed on the
floor and a scale mounted against the wall.
    She kept her focus on the bags while speaking to him. “I’ll help
you take these outside. We’ve added a new ingredient. I’m not sure if my father
mentioned it to you or your boss, but it should help keep