skin beneath her fingertips.
He took several steps away from her and raked a hand through his hair. “I haven’t told them about the offer yet. I’ve called a family meeting for tomorrow night and we’ll all discuss it then. I just figured I should let you know that, at the moment, nothing here is permanent.”
Lilly didn’t know how to reply. She was stunned that there was even a possibility that the Delaney heirs would want to sell this place that was their roots, their heritage.
How she wished she had roots like this…a place that was home, had been home for years. But Lilly also knew she had no right to fight for a home that wasn’t hers.
Again they stood in silence. Lilly tried to ignore the fact that she could smell his masculine scent, a pleasant combination of the outdoors, of leather and hay and spicy cologne.
She could feel his body heat, as if the sun had fevered him all day long and his skin still retained the warmth. Suddenly she remembered how much she’d wanted him to kiss her years ago.
There had been a time when she’d thought she might die if he kissed her, that a single kiss from him would have the power to make her expand and blow away with sheer happiness.
On those summer visits they had explored every inch of the Delaney ranch, he’d taken her into town for ice cream and to the movies. They’d even spent time dancing together at a Fourth of July celebration the town had put on.
They had indulged in the flirtatious games of teenagers just learning the power and strength of their own sexuality, but they had never kissed. Certainly she had wanted him to kiss her, and there were times she thought he’d come precariously close, but it had never happened.
She returned to her chair, finding it ludicrous that she was thirty-five years old and wondering how Matthew Delaney kissed.
“Did I mention that a moving van will be arriving first thing in the morning with the rest of Aunt Clara’s things?” she asked in an attempt to school her errant thoughts.
“No.” He released a sigh as if the very thought made him tired, and Lilly wished it weren’t dark so she could see his face, see the expression that might be there.
“There isn’t a whole lot. Mostly boxes of clothing and knickknacks, her favorite rocking chair and a few other small pieces of furniture. She sold most of her things in an estate sale last week.”
He turned to face her, his features still shadowed by the night. “I’m going to be interviewing and hiring some new hands in the morning. Just have the movers unload the things in the living room, and I’ll deal with it tomorrow afternoon. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to call it a night.” He didn’t wait for her reply, but opened the door and disappeared into the house.
“Good night, Matthew,” she said softly, oddly disappointed by his abrupt departure.
He intrigued her. When they’d both been teenagers she’d sensed there was an unusual depth to him, a sensitivity that he tried to keep hidden from everyone, and she sensed those same things now.
She shook her head ruefully. Maybe she should call it a night, too. She’d done all the driving on the long trip from Dallas, and she was tired.
And apparently that overtiredness was filling her head with silly notions about a boy she’d once spent time with…a boy who’d grown into a man she didn’t know at all.
Rising from the chair, she stretched her hands overhead to work out kinks that had tightened during the long hours in the car.
She froze with her hands over her head, a sudden, creepy feeling that she was being watched raising the hairs on the nape of her neck. Slowly she lowered her hands, the creepy feeling persisting.
Gazing around the area, she didn’t see anyone around, although the darkness of night, especially around the barn and stables was profound.
Definitely overtired, she decided, and with one last look around she went inside and headed upstairs to bed.
The moving van arrived just after ten the next morning. Matthew was in the midst of showing around a couple of new ranch hands he’d just hired. They were standing near the corral when the van pulled in.
“It takes a lot to keep an operation like this running smoothly,” Matthew said, trying to focus on the men before him instead of on Lilly, who had just appeared on the front step to meet the movers.
It would have been far easier to stay focused on the task at hand if Lilly hadn’t been wearing another pair of those damnable short shorts.
“I expect each of my workers to give 100 percent at all times,” he continued. In the bright yellow T-shirt, she looked like a ray of sunshine as she told the two men in the van where to put the items they’d begun unloading.
He focused back on the two men before him. “Any questions?”
“Yeah, is she your wife?” It was the younger of the two cowpokes that asked the question with a thumb pointed in Lilly’s direction.
“No, she isn’t my wife, but she’s a guest at the ranch, and one of the cardinal rules of working here is that there is no fraternization between the guests and the help. I expect you to be friendly and helpful to the guests, but nothing more.” Matthew looked at the two men. “Any other questions?”
“None from me,” Ned Sayville, the older of the two said.
Eddie Creighton, the younger of the two shrugged his shoulders. “Just tell us what to do from here.”
“There are a couple of stalls in the stables that need to be cleaned out and fresh hay laid down. Why don’t you start there, and when that’s done hunt me up and we’ll get you going on something else.”
He watched as the two headed for the stables. For the next couple of days they would be jacks of all trades until he could assess their strengths and see where they would best fit at the ranch.
Now the next problem he had to deal with was Lilly and Aunt Clara, and he wasn’t particularly in the mood to deal with either.
He’d had a miserable night, his sleep interrupted by intense nightmares the likes of which he hadn’t suffered for years. He knew Lilly’s presence was partially responsible for the recurrence of the old, familiar nightmares.
She had no way of knowing the enormous price he’d paid for those special, seemingly carefree days he’d spent with her so long ago. And if he had his way, she would never know.
But the night of reliving the worst of his past had left him with a cauldron of emotions deep inside and he knew that what he needed more than anything was a little distance and some time to get under control.
With this thought in mind, instead of heading for the moving van and Lilly, Matthew headed for the stables. Within minutes he’d saddled up his horse, Thunder, and took off, racing across the open pasture as if the hounds of hell were chasing him.
But it wasn’t the hounds of hell…it was memories of his father. Damn Adam Delaney! Damn him to hell for having no soul, for scarring his children with mental and physical abuse.
Matthew dug his heels into Thunder’s flanks. Thunder responded
