hoping they wouldn’t have to revisit this topic again. The men her brothers had introduced her to had been good men, but she’d never met a man who didn’t try to run her life. She suspected she never would.
She didn’t mind her solitary life. It was what she’d chosen, and the idea of getting married or anything close to it was out of the question. She liked being single and had no reason to change.
“Fifteen minutes, Erin,” Dylan called to her as she started for the door. “No more.”
She swallowed her sigh. They weren’t going to let her off the hook.
The mere thought of the word hook caused her to nearly trip on the threshold. That word reminded her of fishing and ponds and a naked man. A shower was exactly what she needed.
* * *
WITHOUT LOOKING, JAKE CANFIELD knew Erin had walked into Lou’s Place, Desperation’s local tavern. All he’d needed was to hear her voice.
He’d been surprised—no, make that shocked—when he’d spied her lying in the grass near the pond. If he’d known she’d come home, he never would have gone there. Two things had drawn him back. He’d inherited his uncle’s ranch, and he’d thought Erin was still on the rodeo circuit. At least he knew now that she wasn’t riding. And he was curious to know why. Becoming a barrel racer had always been her dream, much like his own dream of being a rancher. Hers had come true early, and from what he’d heard, she’d done well. Very well. He’d had to wait a while for his, but it had been worth it.
He shouldn’t have been surprised to see her at Lou’s. After all, she was a grown woman now, not the girl he’d known since he was eight and who’d stolen his heart when he was fifteen.
Had she known it was him at the pond? He hadn’t gotten a reply to his question, so he couldn’t be sure. He would solve that, though, soon enough.
Turning around, he saw her with her brothers and another man, who at that moment had her hand in his. A pang of jealousy shot through him, and he immediately shook it off. He had no claim on her. All they shared was their childhoods and a night he’d never forgotten. It still hurt to think about it.
He knew the minute she spotted him. Her eyes grew wide, and she took a small, stuttering step back, then quickly regained her composure and nodded in his direction. In reply, he touched the brim of his Stetson. She eased away from her brothers and the man with them, and walked toward him.
She stopped in front of him, and he couldn’t hide his smile when she had to tip back her head to look up at him. “I suppose I should have known,” she said.
“Good to see you again, too, Erin,” he replied. Her hello wasn’t as bad as he’d expected.
“Erin?” a woman said from the table behind him.
Erin raised her hand in a wave, but didn’t break the gaze that held her to him. “Apparently you’ve forgotten that Lake Walker is private property. Walker property.”
“So you did know it was me.”
“Not until a minute ago—”
“And you didn’t answer my question.”
She hesitated for a split second. “What question is that?”
“Did you enjoy the view?”
Her chest rose with a deep breath before she answered, “What little I saw wasn’t bad.”
He had to grit his teeth to keep from laughing. Same old Erin. “I wouldn’t use that word, if I were you.”
Her eyes narrowed, but the twinkle in them made a lie of it. “What word? Little?”
“That would be it. Have you even grown an inch since the last time I saw you?”
She opened her mouth, only to close it. Looking past him, she jerked her thumb in his direction. “You all may have met Jake Canfield, ne’er-do-well, years ago but completely forgot him. It happens a lot.”
She’d made her point, and he wished he hadn’t mentioned the past. She obviously didn’t want to revisit it. Had he hurt her that much?
She flashed him a triumphant smile, and he thought he saw a wink as she walked past him. With a shake of his head and a chuckle, he turned around to see a table where several women were sitting and instantly recognized them from his summers in Desperation.
“That name sounds familiar,” one of them said with a grin, as she offered Jake her hand. “I’m Kate—”
“Mrs. Dusty McPherson,” Erin finished for her, and looked pointedly at Jake. “You might remember Dusty.”
He responded with a smile and took Kate’s hand in his. He would play along, if that’s what Erin wanted. “I do remember your husband, Mrs. McPherson. Quite a bull rider, not long ago. I was sorry to hear he’d retired.”
“It’s Kate,” the woman said, frowning at Erin.
One of the other women from the table leaned in front of Erin, a confused look on her face. “I’m Trish, Kate’s sister. Trish Rule.”
He released Kate’s hand to take Trish’s outstretched one. “Sisters, huh?”
“Better behave, Jake. Her husband is the sheriff,” Erin announced.
“Is that so? He didn’t mention that he had such a pretty wife when I stopped in at his office the other day.”
Erin closed her eyes and shook her head, then moved away. Score one for him. They’d battled on a daily basis, all summer long, every summer he spent at his uncle’s ranch. Verbal sparring, he’d called it, and she’d been an expert at it. He learned from her and had gotten pretty good at him himself—until he’d realized she wasn’t a little girl anymore and lost his heart to her.
He felt a hand on his back and heard, “Good to see you again, Jake.”
Jake turned his head to see Erin’s youngest brother. “Luke, it’s been a long time. Thanks for returning my dog the other day.”
They shook hands as Dylan, the older of the Walker brothers, joined them. “We thought it might be yours, and sorry we missed seeing you. We’d been watching all the building going on at your uncle’s place and hoped you had something to do with it.”
Jake released Luke’s hand to shake his brother’s. “Everything to do with it, you could say.”
“We were sorry to hear about your uncle,” Luke said. “What’s it been? Two years?”
Jake nodded. “Close to it. Probate took longer than expected. Seems Uncle Carl owned more than we knew about, most of it on the other side of town. Some in the next county.”
“Yeah? I didn’t know.”
“Neither did I.” Jake’s mind flashed back to the day he’d received the news that his uncle had died and left the ranch to him, the only nephew. He’d inherited more than he’d ever thought possible and was excited to own his own spread. After turning his back on what his father had
