like to drive over to Bonito Lake and do a little trout fishing.”
Resting his arm on the mare’s rump, Quint stared at the other man. “Fishing? Since when have you taken up a rod?”
Shrugging, Jake turned his gaze toward the open doorway of the barn. “I used to like it. When I was young and Dad was still around.”
“You’ve never told me that.”
“No.”
“So what made you want to go fishing today?” Quint persisted.
“Mom has been wanting some fresh trout. And she hasn’t been feeling well.” With a self-deprecating grin, he glanced at Quint. “I don’t always just think of myself.”
Quint figured most people thought of Jake as a rounder, a guy who was only out to have fun, but he knew there was another side to his old friend, one that he kept fairly hidden.
Quint smoothed his hand over the mare’s rump. “Well, I would have liked to go with you,” he said. “But I’m going on a picnic.”
Jake chuckled. “Picnic, hell.”
“Okay, let me rephrase this so you’ll understand. I’m going riding and taking food with me.”
“Man, you’d better get that redheaded nurse back over here to check your temperature. ‘Cause you’re definitely sick.”
Turning back to the mare’s side, Quint began to unnecessarily adjust the latigo. “You don’t need to worry about my health, Jake. The redheaded nurse is going with me.”
Quint could hear the other man’s footsteps drawing closer.
“Maura Donovan? You’re going riding with her?”
“That’s right.”
There was a very long pause and then Jake said, “A man only takes a woman he really likes riding.”
Quint supposed Jake was right. The few women he’d tried to get interested in since Holly, he’d taken on traditional dates like dinner and a movie. During those outings, he been bored and wondering why he’d bothered in the first place.
“If you’re asking if I like Maura, I do.”
“Hmm. You gettin’ serious about her?”
Faint unease stabbed Quint as he combed his fingers through the mare’s black mane. “Me? Get serious about a woman? You know me better than that, ol’ buddy.”
“Yeah. How could I forget that you’re a warped man? You don’t have a decent thing to offer a woman.”
Turning from the horse, Quint glared at the other man. “Don’t you think you’d better head on to the lake? You can’t catch a fish in the middle of the day.”
Jake chuckled. “Aren’t you lucky that term doesn’t apply to a woman?”
Before Quint could make a retort, the other man turned and headed toward the open doorway.
“See you in the morning,” he called out.
As Jake disappeared from view, Quint wondered if catching Maura was what he really wanted. If he did catch her, what would he do, besides the obvious? He didn’t want a wife. At least, he didn’t think he did. To be a good husband, a man had to invest a hell of a lot of himself.
At one time, when he’d been engaged to Holly, he’d thought that way of life was the way he wanted to go. His father, Lewis, had been a great husband and father. He’d been a happy man and he’d loved his wife until the last second of his life. Quint had wanted to follow his example. He’d wanted that same deep connection with a woman that his father had shared with his mother. But Quint had failed at a real love. Why the heck would he want to risk going through all that pain and humiliation over again?
Because your house is empty. Your bed is empty. Your heart is empty.
“Quint? Are you in here?”
Maura’s voice jerked him back to the present and he looked around to see she’d entered the cavernous barn. The sight of her was like a sudden ray of sunshine and at that moment he decided that today he wasn’t going to analyze or fret over his motives toward Maura. A man didn’t have to have a good reason to simply enjoy himself.
“Over here,” he called to her.
Spotting him, she walked to the middle of the wide alleyway and stood while he led the horses over to her.
As he drew near, she asked, “Have you been waiting on me?”
The smile on her face was bright and lovely and made Quint feel so unexpectedly happy that he could have waited on her for hours and not complained.
“Not really. I’ve just now finished saddling the horses. And Jake came by for a few minutes.”
“As I was driving in, I met a truck on the road,” she commented. “I thought you might have had company this morning.”
He grinned. “Jake isn’t company. He’s family.”
“Yes. We Donovans have family like that, too,” she said, then peered around his shoulder at the two horses. “Beautiful horses. Which one is mine?”
“The roan mare, Pearl. She’s very smart and very mannerly. So I think you’ll like her.”
“I’m sure I will.”
As she’d promised, she was dressed ruggedly in boots and blue jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled back against her forearms. Her long hair was tied back from her face with a pale pink scarf and earrings made from polished cedar beads hung from her earlobes. Short of his mother, she was the only woman he knew that looked strong, yet utterly feminine at the same time, and in spite of himself he was totally drawn to her.
Using his head, he motioned toward the open doorway. “Shall we go? Do you have everything you’ll need with you?”
“I brought saddlebags packed with a few things. They’re just outside the barn door,” she told him.
Once they were outside, Quint tied Maura’s saddlebags onto the back of Pearl’s saddle.
“I thought we’d ride over to Chillicothe. That’s about five miles from here. Think you can go that far before we eat?”
She chuckled. “Shouldn’t you be asking if I can make it that far? Period?”
He turned to face her and Maura was completely taken with the easy smile on his face, the fetching dimple in his cheek.
“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking that you might not be hardened to riding. Can you make it that far?” he asked.
“I think so. If not, just tie me to the saddle and swat Pearl on the rump. The two of us will end up somewhere,” she joked.
“I wouldn’t think of putting Pearl through that sort of torture,”
