near the south pasture. If that was the case, it needed to be repaired as soon as possible. It wouldn’t do for a bull from another breed to get on his land and mate with his pureblood Longhorns.
A brisk breeze ruffled the treetops as Jake rode away. One part of his mind was on the business he had to take care of with the fence. The other was on Diamond. He didn’t want to think about her, but he did. And although he kept trying to convince himself that he really didn’t want to know, he couldn’t help wondering what she had been doing the last three days.
As he trotted his horse up the narrow slit of a trail that led to the south pastures, he knew that before he returned to the ranch he would stop by the cabin and find out.
A satisfied smile played at Diamond’s lips as she stood back and gazed at the tray of cookies she had just taken out of the oven. She couldn’t remember the last time she had taken the time to bake anything. But after finding that cookbook in one of the kitchen cabinets, she’d been tempted to do it. Baking had stirred up memories of how as a child, she used to work alongside her grandmother in the kitchen. Those had been happy times for her.
Diamond inhaled the aroma that filled the kitchen. She hoped the cookies tasted as good as they smelled. The recipe had been a fairly simple one to follow and upon discovering that the cabin’s kitchen was stocked with all the ingredients she would need, she had gotten busy, enjoying herself immensely. Baking the cookies had kept her from thinking about Jacob. But now that she was finished, thoughts of him began to fill her mind again.
Sighing deeply, she removed her apron and placed it over the chair before opening the door and stepping out on the deck. Other than the mere bits and pieces she had gotten out of Sterling, she knew very little about Jacob Madaris, and a part of her knew she should leave it at that. But then another part of her couldn’t. In their brief meeting, the man had stirred feelings inside of her that she had thought she would never feel again.
At thirty-one she no longer believed in love for ever after. If she had been smart, she would have stopped believing in love altogether at the age of twenty-two when her father had married for the fifth time. But somehow after meeting Samuel at a fund-raiser for AIDS Awareness, she had convinced herself that Samuel Tate, race-car driver extraordinaire, was the key to her happiness.
A year later, she had painstakingly discovered that no one was the key to her happiness. She had accepted the fact that just like her father, when it came to love, it wasn’t for her. But unlike him, she didn’t need five failed marriages to convince her of that.
Actually Jack Swain still wasn’t convinced. After recently meeting the woman he was currently involved with, Diamond had a feeling that her father of seventy-one was about to tie the knot for the sixth time, with a woman young enough to be his daughter.
Some people never learned. But she was not one of them.
She squinted her eyes against the fading bright sunlight when she heard the sound of a horse and rider coming toward the cabin from across the high prairie. Her pulse quickened as she leaned against the post and watched their approach. Horse and man seemed attuned to each other.
The grounds surrounding the cabin were covered by a huge shadow as the sun began making its slow descent beyond the mountains. The setting was beautiful. But nothing, she thought, looked more beautiful than the man approaching on horseback. His movements were fluid and in full control of the huge animal beneath him. As she watched Jacob come closer, she became painfully aware of just how much she had wanted to see him again.
Unbeknownst to Diamond, Jake was thinking that very same thing about her, and that admission wasn’t easy for him. In fact, it downright irritated him. He managed a tight smile when he reached her and sat up straighter in his saddle. His fingers gripped the reins tight as he tried to still his horse, not to mention the wild beating of his pulse.
Jake looked her over, suddenly realizing just how young she was. With him being forty-two, there had to be at least a ten-to twelve-year difference in their ages. He wondered why that fact seemed important to him now. He lifted his brow when he noticed something else about her. He couldn’t help smiling a little when he asked, “Who won the fight? You or the flour?”
At first Diamond looked confused. Then a chuckle escaped her when she realized what he was talking about. She looked down at herself and chuckled again. Flour covered most of her clothing. She then raised her head and smiled up at him. “Would you believe I actually had on an apron?”
Jake shook his head. With a smile like the one she had just given him, he could believe just about anything. “I don’t even want to think about how the kitchen looks.”
She laughed. “I have to admit it’s not the neat, clean place it was when I arrived three days ago. But I promise to get things back to normal.” A huge grin covered her face. “I had so much fun baking.”
Jake chuckled and nodded. There was even a dab of flour on her nose and cheek. “Yeah, I can tell.”
Diamond looked up at him. Even sitting on a horse, he looked tall, lean and muscular. There were some qualities about him that reached out to her: strength and capability. “I was just about to sit down and enjoy some of the fruits of my labor. Would you like to join me for cookies and milk?” she found herself asking him.
Jake looked at her thoughtfully as he shifted in his saddle. Common sense told him to decline her offer. After all, it was pretty close to dinnertime and as usual Blaylock had probably prepared a feast. But the thought of sitting down at a table, eating cookies and drinking milk with Diamond was a whole lot nicer than sitting down to dinner with Blaylock and a few of the men who lived on the ranch. He glanced at the cabin before glancing back down at her. “Cookies and milk, huh?”
Diamond smiled. “Yes. Fresh-baked cookies and a tall, cold glass of milk. You can’t go wrong with that, Jacob.”
Jake nodded as he dismounted, thinking that in truth, he could easily go wrong with just about anything involving Diamond. He followed her inside the cabin, gritting his teeth and calling himself all kinds of names for having such a weak resistance to her.
The echo of his boots sounded on the hardwood floor when he stepped inside the kitchen and glanced around. Pots, pans and dishes were piled in the sink and a dust of flour covered the floor. For once the kitchen actually looked used. When he had built the cabin, he had added additional square footage in the kitchen on the assumption that it would get plenty of use. But Jessie had had other plans.
Diamond saw Jake glance around and mistook the meaning of his silence. “I’ll clean up the mess,” she said warily as she watched his expression.
Jake gave no sign of having heard her as he continued to look around the kitchen. He even noticed the cookbook lying on the counter. His six sisters-in-law had gone to great lengths to collect all those recipes for that cookbook and put it together. It had been a labor of love and just one of the many gifts his family had lovingly given; their contribution to the home he had built for his wife.
“Jacob, I said that I’d clean up my mess,” Diamond repeated softly, slanting a glance at his rugged profile.
Jake turned and met her gaze. She was looking at him with intense concern, and he saw an apology shimmering in her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with how this place looks. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, it looks just like a kitchen should.”
He smiled down at her. “I’m dying to try out those cookies to see if they were worth the fight. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go wash up.” He held her gaze for another quick second before abruptly moving toward
