else, but our house would have been so much worse. I’ve been working to turn our home into a bed-and-breakfast. I’d hate to see all my efforts plus our belongings go up in flames like the barn did.”
“Aren’t you a little far out from any town for a bed-and-breakfast?”
As she shrugged, he shifted slightly in the seat, turning to study her, looking at flawless skin that he knew would be soft.
“I think some city people will enjoy a ranch experience and I can run the bed-and-breakfast while my dad runs the ranch. I’m going to give it a try. We have a big house, and I think I’ll succeed.”
“Have you always lived here?”
“Except for the two years while I was married. When I went to college, I lived at home and commuted. Where do you live?”
“First one place and then another,” he answered. When she glanced at him, he suspected she didn’t approve of his vagabond lifestyle.
“Dad said he’s seen you in rodeos.”
“I’m a saddle bronc rider.”
“Dad used to do calf roping, but that was a long time ago. His health isn’t as good as it used to be.”
“Too bad. This fire is another burden.”
“Thanks for stopping to warn us. It would have been worse if you hadn’t.”
“I don’t know. No one could contain it until the wind changed.” Jake continued to study her, wondering about her and her life. She was a beautiful woman, and he couldn’t imagine her living like she did. “Don’t you feel buried out here on your ranch?”
“Buried?”
“Seems like a quiet life.”
She flashed him a smile, the first he had received, and it made his pulse jump. She had a dimple in her right cheek and the smile showed in her eyes, animating her face in a quick, enticing flash like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.
“It’s a quiet life, and I love it that way. Where’s your home now?”
“On my bike.”
He received a startled glance and grinned at her. “I don’t like a quiet life. I travel.”
“Do you work or am I prying?”
“Pry away. I do bronc riding and I train horses. I just quit a job working with horses for a friend of mine near Fort Worth. After a while I get restless and I move on.”
“Where’s your family?”
“I don’t have any.”
“You had to have parents.”
“They were killed in a fire,” he answered, looking out the window and clenching his fists. He had told few people in his adult life about his family and he wondered why he had just told her.
She gave him a searching glance and then returned her attention to the road. “That’s why you fought our fire so hard,” she said quietly. “Dad and I wondered.”
“Why would you wonder? Everyone out there fought hard.”
“Not the way you did. You went after it like you wanted to put it out single-handedly.” She gave him another searching glance.
“Is your little girl in school?” he asked, not caring about her answer, but wanting to get the conversation away from him and his family and fires.
“Not yet. Katy was just five last week. She’ll be in kindergarten when the fall term starts.
“Where did you meet your husband?”
“Bart grew up here and we’d known each other forever. I think we married too young—too young for him, at least, and he didn’t like being tied down. Particularly when Katy was born. He was here only a short time after her birth and then he was gone. Just like that, and Katy was without a father. Bart asked for the divorce.”
“You can marry again,” Jake said, thinking she could if she got off the ranch and met people. “You’re young.”
“I’m twenty-nine.”
“That’s young. I’m thirty-five.”
“I won’t marry again anytime soon,” she replied after a moment’s thought as if she hadn’t considered the possibility before. He looked at her golden hair that looked soft as silk and wondered about her.
“So what are you really like, Maggie Langford? Is it Margaret?”
“It’s Margaret and I’m really like the person I am right now. I love home and family.”
He had already guessed that from watching her during the day. He became silent, glancing at her occasionally, amazed someone else hadn’t come along and married her and surprised she sounded so happy about her life on the farm.
Taking the highway, they drove into Stillwater, and uneasiness stirred in Jake. He should have hit the road instead of going into town with her. He didn’t particularly want to go to the hospital. A shower and a pitcher of ice cold water would make him feel one hundred percent better. He caught a whiff of her perfume, a flower scent that went with her fresh ranch manner, and the enticing, feminine smell drove away all thoughts of leaving. He turned to watch her and found it a very pleasant pastime that made him forget his aches and his hurry to be on his way. What was it about her that drew him? And that first moment they had touched—in her clear, blue eyes he had seen that she had felt something, too.
When they reached the hospital, she told Jake to join her when he was released and then she went to see her father. Jake went to the emergency where a vivacious black-haired nurse treated his cuts and burns.
“You’re new around here,” she said and for the first time he really noticed her. Her big brown eyes gazed steadily at him while she cleaned a cut.
“Yep. I was driving past and saw the fire and stopped to tell the Aldens.”
“Are you staying awhile?”
He glanced at her name tag and saw it was Laurie. “I haven’t decided, Laurie. Anything worth staying for?” he asked, unable to resist flirting with her. She gave him a smile.
“We have all sorts of places: bars, honky-tonks, my apartment.”
He laughed and looked at her fingers. No wedding or engagement ring. Evidently he could have a date if he wanted one. He thought of Maggie Langford and the thought of asking Laurie out vanished. He shifted restlessly, wishing again that he had his bike with him.
“Sounds interesting,” he said, looking at her full lips and still thinking about Maggie. “Do you know if there is anyone around here now who might be going back by Ben Alden’s place? I rode in with Maggie, but if I can find a ride, I won’t trouble her for a ride home. My bike is at her place.”
Laurie moved close against his knees and tilted his chin up to work on a cut on his temple.
