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Maggie thrust a bucket of water into Jake’s hands and he poured it over himself, cold water drenching him, a momentary relief from the smoke and heat. “Thank you,” she said, earnest blue eyes gazing at him. Her face was smudged with soot and her blond hair had come loose from the braid so that long strands fell freely around her face.
“Sure,” he said and then she was gone, back kneeling beside her father while the firemen hovered over him.
With a rumble and a crack, the entire roof of the barn fell, sending flames and sparks shooting high overhead. Firefighters yelled as they worked frantically to keep the flames away from the house. Jake walked to a truck and poured a cup of water, gulping it, aware of hurting and stinging in a dozen different places. His hands felt like raw meat. Wind swirled against him and he lifted his head, realizing that it had shifted slightly.
When he went back to join the firefighters, he heard men talking about the wind, but conversation wasn’t needed to tell him the wind was shifting. So far the flames had not crossed the road or flown over the swath of plowed dirt.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw an ambulance with flashing lights. Jake guessed they were getting Maggie’s father into the ambulance. He hoped Ben Alden recovered.
The wind shifted, giving renewed energy to Jake to battle the blaze that was now turning back on itself.
In another hour they had the blaze under control and the professionals took over to finish the work. On blackened ground lay the smoldering ruins of the barn, the garage and the other outbuildings. Everything was destroyed except the house.
“I think you should let a doctor look at your burns.”
When he turned, Maggie stood only a few feet away. She had cleaned up and changed clothes. Now in jeans and a blue shirt, she looked cool and as sexy as ever. She had combed her hair and it hung in a thick braid over her shoulder.
“I’m all right.”
“You don’t look all right. I’m going to the hospital to see about my dad. Come with me to the emergency and someone will treat your burns.”
Half of him wanted to get on his bike and go. The other half was drawn to her soft voice and big blue eyes and the sense that she really cared.
“Sure,” he answered, feeling he was making a mistake, yet unable to resist hanging around her a little longer. “I need to move my bike from the road.”
“I’ll take you to get it.” When she jerked her head, he saw she had brought her pickup back to the house. It was still loaded with her belongings.
“If you’d like, I can help you unload first.”
She shook her head. “I want to get to town to see my dad.”
They walked in silence to the pickup, and he climbed into the passenger side. Sliding behind the wheel, Maggie started the motor. In a few minutes she dropped him off at his bike, turned around and drove back to the house with him trailing behind.
Jake parked his bike, yanked on his black T-shirt and climbed into the pickup. “Want me to drive?”
“No,” Maggie answered with amusement. “I’m accustomed to doing things for myself. And your hands look as if it would be painful to drive.”
“I don’t mind.” As they drove away, he glanced out the window. “At least your house is saved.”
“Thank heavens! It’s bad enough to lose everything 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. She paused and looked into his eyes. “If you can wait until I get off, I can take you to the Circle A ranch to get your bike,” she said in a sultry voice.
“Thanks. Maybe I’ll return later and take you up on that offer, but I need to get going. The fire delayed me today.”
She smiled and nodded, and he didn’t know if he had softened his refusal enough to keep from hurting her feelings, but he didn’t want to take her out. He didn’t want to think about why because it had been a long time since he’d had a date with a woman who was fun and pretty. He was ready for a night out, but this wasn’t the night.
“I don’t know who can take you back. You might ask if Jeff Peterson is still here. He lives out past the Alden place.”
“Thanks.”
Ten minutes later, Jake asked at the front desk if anyone named Peterson was still around and was told that Jeff Peterson had left the hospital about five minutes earlier. Jake’s only choices were to hitch a ride, wait for Maggie to go home or have a date with Laurie.
He asked for Ben Alden’s room and rode the elevator upstairs. When he rapped lightly on the partially closed door and thrust his head into the room, Ben motioned to him. “Come in. I want to thank you. You saved my life.” Ben was bandaged and propped up in bed.
Jake shrugged. “Sorry you got hurt and sorry so much of your place burned.” Maggie stood across the room from him on the opposite side of her father’s bed.
As Jake entered the room, Maggie watched him. He was broad-shouldered, muscular and his presence seemed to electrify the air. There was an earthy sensuality to him, yet she wondered if she thought that because he was in a tight T-shirt, covered with soot, cut and burned instead of dressed in freshly laundered clothes, looking like most other people. She suspected in freshly laundered clothes, he would never look like most other people. His height, rugged features and wild black hair would keep him from blending into a crowd. It was his riveting brown eyes that disturbed her the most. Her gaze slid down over his slim hips. His jeans rode low. She looked up, caught him watching her and blushed at the manner in which she had been studying him.
She was too conscious of his hot-blooded looks, his blunt questions. She tried to shift her thoughts, telling herself he would be out of her life as soon as she took him home tonight. He was going to set off on his bike and she wouldn’t ever see him again.
“We’ll build back,” her father answered Jake. “Thank you for your help.”
“You’re welcome. How are you feeling?” Jake asked.
“Pretty good, considering,” Ben answered, smiling ruefully and raising bandaged hands.
“Pretty good with burns and a broken leg,” Maggie remarked dryly. “But you really did save him from being hurt much worse.”
“That’s good. I’m sorry about your injuries.”
“I’ll mend. I’ve mended before. Maggie tells me you’ve been working with horses.”
“Yes, sir. I’ve been in Texas, working for Jeb Stuart. I’ll be in a rodeo in Oklahoma City Labor Day weekend, so I wound my work up with Jeb and hit the road. I was just driving past your place when I saw the fire.”
“I thought Jeb Stuart was your biggest rival in saddle bronc riding.”
“He is, but he’s also my best friend,” Jake replied.
“Where are you going from here—except for the rodeo?”
“Dad, maybe that’s private,” Maggie said, glancing at Jake.
He smiled at her, holding her gaze while he answered. “No, not private at all. I don’t have any plans. Just whatever comes along.”
“Good. I’m laid up here and will be when I get home. How about coming to work for us until I get on my feet? I need someone badly.”
Shocked, Maggie’s head whipped around as she stared at her father. They hadn’t discussed hiring Jake Reiner or anyone else. When Jake frowned, she guessed that he didn’t want to work for them and relief washed over her. Astounded her father would ask him without consulting her, she wondered if her father was thinking clearly or if the pain pills had muddled his thought processes. Their small bunkhouse for hired help had burned so they had no place for a hired hand to live—not even in the barn. Jake Reiner would have to stay in the house with them. Actually he would be alone in the house with her because Katy was at Patsy’s and her father wouldn’t be coming home for another day.
“I know you’ve been more than a help to us so far. A life saver, really, but I can’t take care of things for a little while. If you could just stay at the Circle A and work until I’m able to get back to it, I’d make it worth your while. You’ve got to eat, sleep and work somewhere,” he added.
Jake Reiner took a deep breath.
“Dad, Jake probably already had plans.”
Her father turned his head to look at her. “Honey, I worry about you and I know I should be home taking care of things. Jake just left a job and he said he’s free. We need him sort of on the desperate side.” He looked at Jake. “We usually have four or five men working for us, but for one reason or another, we don’t have any now. I promise to make working for us worthwhile for you,” he repeated.
She looked into Jake’s eyes and knew he didn’t want to stay. Why didn’t he just say so and go!
“Dad—”
He waved his hand. “Let the man get a word in, Maggie. I’ll only be laid up for a short time and if it gets too long for you, Jake,” he said, turning his attention back to Jake, “we’ll find a replacement for you. In the meantime, I could sure use your help.”
Jake was still gazing into Maggie’s eyes. Looking into his dark, inscrutable gaze, she held her breath.
“Yes, sir,” he said quietly.
She closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. What had her father done? She was sure he wasn’t thinking clearly. They would need help, but they could find someone who lived in the area and had a house or room they could go back to every night. What was she going to do with Jake Reiner?
“Thanks, Jake,” Ben said, closing his eyes. “I can’t tell you how relieved that makes me feel. Now I can just worry about rebuilding.”
“Dad, just think about getting well,” Maggie said. “I’m staying tonight at the hospital so—”
“No, you’re not. I want a quiet night’s sleep,” her father interjected, “and Imogene is the night nurse. You know she’ll take good care of me,” he added and chuckled.
Maggie knew she wouldn’t be needed at the hospital. For the past two years, Imogene Randle had wanted to marry her father. Now, here at the hospital, Imogene had him in her clutches, and Maggie was sure Imogene would be in his room constantly. The past twenty minutes were the longest she had been out of his room since Maggie arrived. Maggie looked at Jake again and met another curious stare. She was going to have to take him home with her and let him stay there.
Her stomach fluttered at the thought. He disturbed her and he was a stranger even though her father knew him from rodeos. Just because the guy won big belt buckles and had lots of money didn’t make him safe to take into their house.
She rubbed her earlobe nervously and tried to think what she could do to change the situation. She looked at her father who was breathing deeply with his eyes closed.
“He’s asleep. And he’s right about Imogene. She’ll check on him constantly so I guess we might as well go.” Dazed by the swift turn of events, Maggie picked up her purse. “Are you ready to go home?”
The words had a strange ring to them. She knew this wasn’t an ordinary man and taking him home with her was not like taking the next half dozen strangers home.
Was she really scared of him or was she scared of her own reactions to him? she wondered.
He nodded and turned to hold the door for her. Neither of them said a word as they rode down in the elevator and headed for her pickup. All the time in her mind, she kept running through the names of every hired hand they’d had or anyone else she could think of she could hire in place of Jake. Surely there was someone, and Jake had looked as if he would jump at the chance to go. Why had he let her father talk him into this?
“I know you don’t want to do this. I’m sure I can find someone else,” she said as she drove out of the hospital lot.
He twisted in the seat to look at her. They were still in the glow of town lights and she could see him well enough to see the flare of amusement in his eyes.
“You don’t want me to work for you, do you?”
“I don’t know you.”
“Look, if you don’t want me there, I’ll go.”
She shot him a look and then thought about her father. “Let me see if I can hire someone else. You really don’t want to work for us, do you?”
“No. It’s nothing personal. I had planned to take off work for a short time and travel, but your father needs help. More than you can give him if you’re doing the cooking and taking care of your little girl. You see who you can hire. In the meantime, don’t worry. I’m a safe, trustworthy person. If you’d like, you can call Jeb Stuart and get references. When we get to your house, I’ll give you his number.”
“Thanks. It just makes me nervous for you to move into our house when I don’t know you,” she admitted.
He shrugged. “It’s summer. I saw a hammock in your yard—I can sleep there.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Nope.”
She nodded and was silent and wondered what was running through his mind and if he thought that she was the silliest female he had ever encountered. He hadn’t wanted to stay and work for them, yet why was he so reluctant to stay? She would call Jeb Stuart when they got home.
“When will your daughter come home?”
“I’ll pick her up in the morning. I have two married sisters who live in town. They have kids, too, and all the little cousins are close.”
“Nice big family,” he said glancing around. “Are there any restaurants between here and your house? It just dawned on me and my stomach that I haven’t eaten since last night.”
“Sorry. There isn’t anything unless we turn around and go back to town, but I have leftovers at home.”
“That’s good enough. I’d like to take a shower.”
“Of course. I’m sorry about your staying in our house—”
“Forget it,” he said.
They lapsed into silence again with the rumble of the pickup’s engine the only noise. Jake stared into the dark night and felt caught in a trap. The father wanted him to stay, the daughter wanted him to go. And he wanted to go, dammit! Yet when he looked into the old man’s eyes and then into hers, out had come an acceptance. He was getting himself tied down when he didn’t want to be, in a place he didn’t want to be. He was drawn to Maggie Langford and that alone made him uneasy. Most women he met were like the nurse in the emergency—flirtatious, fun and someone he could take or leave. And he always left them.
A broken leg took weeks to mend. Jake had had enough breaks to know. He didn’t want to work at Maggie’s ranch for weeks. And she sure as hell didn’t want him to. If looks could send him flying to Mars, he would be on his way now.
He didn’t mind sleeping out in the yard in the hammock. It would probably be cool and comfortable, but it was ridiculous. If he intended to harm her, staying in the yard wouldn’t stop him. He was going home to eat with her and shower in her house. He glanced at her again. She was definitely easy to look at. He liked her better in shorts and a T-shirt.
They drove up to the darkened house, and she cut the engine. When he started to get out, he saw her staring at their burned field and the ruins of the garage and the barn.
“Sorry,” he said, understanding too well her sense of loss and sobered by the sight of the blackened land that brought back ugly memories for him.
“It happened so fast and took so much. It’ll take a long time to get things back to the way they were. Dad was after a trunk of old things that had been his father’s.”
“That’s not as important as his life.”
“I know, but he was upset and wanted to save it. I should have had you help me get those trunks out before I ever left the house the first time.”
“You did the best you could.”
She turned to look at him. “It’s been a long day. Sorry if I’m less than hospitable. You’ve been good to us.”
He shrugged. “Forget it.” He stepped out and came around to open her door as she opened it. He held it for her and closed it. Getting some fresh clothes from his bike, he caught up with her and walked with her through the gate where she stopped abruptly.
“Oh, my!” Following her gaze, he looked at her family belongings that he had helped her move out of the house earlier. “Our friends must have moved everything back up here in front of the house.”
“Where’d you put all this when you left here?”
“Across the road from the fire and friends saw me and helped unload the pickup each time. I thought I’d go back and get it tomorrow.”
“I’ll move it inside for you.”
“Thanks, but not now. I’m exhausted and no rain is predicted for the rest of the week. We’ll do that tomorrow.”
“Sure,” he said easily as they went inside. She switched on lights in a kitchen that had high ceilings and glass-fronted cabinets. Some appliances were new, and the place looked comfortable with plants, a large walnut table and yellow chintz-covered cushions.
“Do you mind giving me Jeb Stuart’s phone number?” she asked. His gaze drifted down to her full lips and he wondered what it would be like to kiss her. Forget it, he told himself. The lady is definitely off-limits. Yet what was it about her that made him think of long, wet kisses and hot nights? She was Mom and apple pie, wholesome, uninterested in men at this point in her life. He shouldn’t give her a second glance or thought. But something happened every time he was around her or she looked at him, something that started his pulse racing. He wondered if the smoke and fire had done something to his senses. If it had, it would be a far less disturbing discovery than to know she could have that effect on him by doing nothing more than looking up at him with those big blue eyes.
When she handed him a pen and a tablet, his fingers brushed hers. He was instantly aware of their fingers touching. Fingers. Nothing except the most casual contact. Except there was nothing casual about the effect on his system. What was it about her?
At the hospital the nurse had blatantly rubbed against him, hip against leg, her body against his shoulder, her soft breast pressing against his back and none of her contacts had done to him what the slightest brush of his fingers against Maggie’s did. Amazement warred with fear in him. No woman had ever caused such an intense reaction. He didn’t want this one to.