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“You fainted.” Again, his voice sounded harsh.
“You scared me.”
“Do you always faint when you’re frightened?”
She never had before. She wiggled to get down, but his arms only tightened.
“I’ve been working hard, maybe too hard. I think I picked up a touch of the flu.”
The flu in July? Sky couldn’t think of a soul who had it this time of year. He couldn’t think, period. Her scent was in his nostrils, her eyes dangerously close to his, her lips parted, her breath moist on his face. He wanted her to raise her face a little more, angle her chin slightly, so he could kiss her.
“Sky?”
“Hm?”
“What are you doing here?” she asked again.
Sky was trying to remember, really he was. It just wasn’t easy to think. His adrenaline had kicked in, making him strong, and her weightless in his arms. It hadn’t done a thing for his mental state.
“I saw the light on in the store, and I thought maybe we should talk. I knocked, but you didn’t answer. My imagination conjured up several scenarios, and you were in trouble in every one. So I decided to try the back door.”
“What did you want to talk about?” She’d spoken softly, her face inching closer.
Of everything he’d said, she’d picked up on that? “I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
He loosened his hold, slowly lowering her feet to the floor. By the time she was standing, her entire body was indelibly imprinted on his. Both were breathing shallowly. Another second, another millimeter, and he would know if he’d been imagining the taste of her lips, the touch of her mouth, the passion of her kisses. Just a second, and a millimeter…
“Hold it right there!”
They jerked apart, and swung around. Sheriff Nick Colter burst into the room, one hand on his flashlight, the other on his gun.
“Nick!” Sky exclaimed. “For crying out loud, don’t shoot. What are you doing here?”
Nick lowered his gun and his flashlight, but not his guard. He took a few steps closer, stopping between an antique trunk and a floor lamp. His gaze was assessing, his voice steady. “A 9-1-1 call came in from this number.”
“You were fast!” Meredith exclaimed, still breathless.
“You called 9-1-1?” Sky asked.
She wet her dry lips, and pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I thought you were an intruder, or perhaps a thief.”
“You two know each other?” the dark-haired sheriff of Jones County asked, watching them closely.
“No,” Meredith said.
“Yes,” Sky said at the same time. She looked at Sky.
Sky looked at her.
They both shrugged.
“We’ve met,” she said.
“Briefly,” Sky amended. “But we don’t really know one another, I guess.”
Meredith averted her face because sometimes the truth hurt. “I fell asleep, and was awakened by a noise,” she said to Sheriff Colter. “I thought somebody was trying to break in. It turned out to be a false alarm. I’m sorry, Sheriff.”
Nick Colter and Sky were nearly the same height. They both had dark hair and muscular bodies. The similarities stopped there. Nick had never been, nor would he ever be a cowboy. Until two years ago, he’d been a decorated police officer in Chicago. He’d come to Jasper Gulch because his then estranged wife and young daughter had moved here. He and Brittany had reconciled, and he’d stayed, taking over as sheriff of Jones County when Wyatt McCully had accepted a position on the police force in Pierre. Nick was more than qualified for the job. Meredith had a feeling his intuition was telling him more than either she or Sky had. He glanced around the store. “Looks like you’re almost ready to open for business.”
She could have kissed him for his tact. Instead, she walked with him toward the back door, which, until now, she hadn’t realized was still wide open. “I’m planning to have a grand opening sale in a week or so. I hope you and your wife can join me.”
“I’ll tell Brittany.” With a tug at the brim of his police hat, he left as quietly as he’d arrived.
Suddenly, the only sounds in the room were the resonant tones of the wind chimes high in the rafters. Meredith couldn’t think of anything to say. Worse, she couldn’t believe how close she’d come to kissing Sky. If Sheriff Colter hadn’t arrived when he did, they could very well have been doing more than kissing right now. Whatever was between them was explosive. For a moment, when she’d discovered that she was in his arms, yearning had swelled inside her like it had that night a month ago. Now, something he’d said just before Sheriff Colter had interrupted them nagged at the back of her mind.
“What did you mean?” she asked. “When you said you don’t want me to get the wrong idea. The wrong idea about what?”
She watched as he strode toward the door and scooped his cowboy hat off the floor. His movements were fluid, graceful in a way that was uniquely masculine, uniquely Sky.
Worrying the brim of his Stetson with his callused fingers, he said, “I don’t take women to bed often.”
Something dangerously close to hope found its way inside her. A semblance of self-preservation kept her from letting it show.
“There’s a good reason for that,” he said. “Most women want a commitment, a relationship. And I can’t offer either.”
She glanced at his left hand.
“No. I’m not married. I intend to keep it that way. That’s my point.” His gaze was as direct as his next words. “You wouldn’t be the first woman to see signs where there are only chicken scratches in the dirt. I meant what I said that night last month. I’m not the marrying kind. If you came back because I’m here, you’re wasting your time.”
Her back straightened and her chin came up a notch at a time. What an ego. Skyler Buchanan was a serious, smoldering man any woman in her right mind should avoid. He’d seemed so different that night over a month ago. For a few, brief hours, she’d believed she’d found a kindred spirit. She’d been wrong, of course, just like she’d been wrong about so many things in her life.
“Look,” she said. “That night, I was reeling from the news that Kate and Dusty were forever lost to me. My defenses were down, my emotions were a mess, my heart was heavy. Don’t worry. I’m not looking for a husband. Even if I were, I’d have to be an idiot to think you’re husband material. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to lock up.”
Before Sky knew how it had happened, he found himself staring at the peeling paint on the outside of her back door. He heard the lock turn. He was pretty sure the clunk that followed was a heavy piece of furniture being propped against the door. For some reason, that rankled.
She could take care of herself. That much was clear. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so quick to put an end to what could have been another night of unforgettable passion.
Forget it, he told himself, cramming his hat on his head. Meredith Warner was putting down roots. No matter what she said, pretty soon she would want a man, a ring and a family. That made her off-limits to him. Now, if only someone would explain that to the part of him still reacting to the sight, scent and feel of her in his arms.
Meredith listened to the sound of Sky’s retreating footsteps. Scrubbing a hand across her weary eyes, she turned very slowly, and finished closing the windows and turning out the lights.
She waited until she was in her apartment upstairs to commend herself for holding her head high, biting her tongue, swallowing her true feelings and keeping her pride intact. For a woman who was feeling under the weather, she’d handled that pretty well.
Her stomach pitched. Oh, she felt wretched. Lowering to the edge of her bed, she swallowed with difficulty.
Too exhausted to do more than swipe a warm washcloth across her face and brush her teeth, she slipped out of her shoes, peeled off her clothes, and slid between the sheets. Hopefully, whatever strain of flu she’d caught would be out of her system by morning.
Chapter Three
“Ohhh.” Meredith closed her eyes and moaned softly, her hands braced on either side of the toilet rim. The only thing she’d gotten out of her system yesterday morning had been breakfast. It happened again today.
She wasn’t well.
Cautiously testing the condition of her poor stomach, she rose to her feet in the little powder room near the front of her store. Evidently, South Dakota had more than the Badlands and winds that never ceased to blow. It had a strain of flu unlike anything she’d ever had before. It seemed to play hide-and-seek with her appetite and energy level. At times, she felt fine. She could be humming one second, and making a run for the bathroom the next.
She stared at her reflection in the antique mirror, then took a deep breath. Although she wasn’t officially open for business, her first potential clients were due to arrive any second, and she so wanted to show them that she was quick-witted, knowledgeable and welcoming. She looked ghastly. Her skin was normally pale. Today, it was unnaturally so, her eyes red rimmed, her lips dry. She looked as if she’d been up all night, when in reality, she’d slept like a log for a solid nine hours two nights in a row. That was understandable. She’d been working hard. Why, she would have been worn out even without this unusual case of the flu. Her paint and wallpaper supplies had arrived yesterday. She’d unloaded boxes and boxes filled with gallons of paint, and cartons of wallpaper paste and wood stain, and cases of brushes and stencils and rollers.
Those sweet Anderson brothers had organized several of the other Jasper Gents to help her haul everything off the truck and into the store where she’d arranged the items on shelves. Sky hadn’t been among them. She hadn’t expected to see him. And she hadn’t, unless she counted the moss-green eyes and legendary, one-of-a-kind swagger that had filtered through her dreams the past two nights.
She definitely wasn’t well.
She splashed her face with cool water, then rinsed her mouth with mouthwash. She was dusting a little blush on her cheeks when the bell jingled over the door in the front of the store. Taking a calming, fortifying breath, she hurried from the powder room to greet her first clients.
“You would like your entire house redecorated?” Meredith asked the couple seated on the other side of the polished antique oak table.
“Not redecorated,” Jake McKenna said matter-offactly. “Decorated. It belonged to my father. It’s no secret that he was a cold man. Maybe he cared about me in his own way, maybe he didn’t. It’s hard to say. If he did, he didn’t show it. The house reflects his personality, and Josie and I want to turn it into not only a home, but our home.”
Josie McKenna tucked a lock of long, wavy red hair behind her ear. “I’d like to do it myself, but…”
Jake covered his wife’s small hand with his large, work-roughened fingers. “Josie’s already added so much. Now that there’s a baby on the way, there’s just too much for her to do.”
They looked at each other, seeming to get lost in each other’s eyes. Reluctant to intrude on their moment, Meredith made a few notes on her sketch pad. Josie McKenna exuded warmth and friendliness. Jake, who owned the second largest spread in the entire area, was more reserved. He was a foot taller than his wife, and wore his hair a little too long to look civilized. On the surface, he appeared intense and intimidating. Anybody who took the time to look deeper saw a good, kind-hearted man completely besotted with his wife and her young daughter.
Meredith wondered how it would feel to be loved like that. The local bachelors had filled her in on the circumstances surrounding Jake and Josie’s union. No matter what reasons they’d had for marrying last spring, they were deeply in love now.
“Jake’s right,” Josie said quietly. “It is a big house, and I don’t want to overdo. But I’d really like to help.”
“Of course,” Meredith said, smiling. “You can be as involved as you’d like to be. Let’s start by setting up a time when you can show me through the house, room by room. Then, you can tell me what you envision, what you’d like, what you don’t want, that sort of thing.”
“How about this afternoon?” Josie asked.
The redhead’s enthusiasm was contagious. With her pen poised over her notepad, Meredith grinned. “I’d love to drive out this afternoon, but I promised Wes and Jayne that I’d watch Logan and Olivia.” Not that Meredith bought that story. But if Jayne wanted to pretend that Meredith didn’t believe with her whole heart that Jayne was simply helping Meredith form a loving bond with the children, who was she to argue?
“Bring them along,” Josie insisted. “Kelsey loves to play with other children.”
Meredith considered it for a few seconds before nodding. “I’ll clear it with Jayne and Wes. If it’s okay with them, we’ll be there this afternoon. I’ll need directions.”
Jake took over. “The Lone M is fifteen miles southwest of town.”
The Lone M?
Meredith hoped no one heard her sharp breath. Although she jotted down names of roads and landmarks, it was only for the sake of appearance. She’d spent part of a night there in the bunkhouse where Sky lived.
Oh, she knew the way.
Two nights ago, he’d made his views regarding relationships crystal clear. Even if his touch had indicated that he was fighting a strong attraction to her, his words, his expression, even his stance had let her know exactly where he stood. No matter how much he wanted her physically, he wasn’t planning a repeat performance. Evidently, to him, that was all it had been: The first act in a one-curtain play. She was the only one who had to know how much it had meant to her.
According to the Jasper Gents, Sky Buchanan was Jake’s right-hand man. It stood to reason that if she worked with Josie to redecorate the main house at the Lone M, her path would cross Sky’s. He wouldn’t like that.
Meredith flattened her hands on the table’s smooth surface. Whether sparks flew between her and Sky or not, she needed this project. She needed the work, the money, the sense of purpose and accomplishment it would bring.
Seeing Jake and Josie McKenna to the door, she decided that all she could do was stand back as far as possible, where those sparks couldn’t reach her.
Five minutes into her visit to the Lone M, Meredith had relaxed. She needn’t have worried about running into Sky. Jake had introduced her to two young ranch hands when she’d first arrived, but she’d been lucky. She hadn’t seen so much as a glimpse of Sky. It was the middle of the afternoon, and he was probably out on the range. It was turning out to be her lucky day.
Her luck held throughout the tour of the McKenna house. What a place. They started in the kitchen. By the time they’d gone through the entire house, Meredith was giddy with excitement. Josie had already done a lot toward making it homey, but there was so much more Meredith wanted to do. The open staircase could use a new runner, the stone fireplace a colorful screen. All the heavy draperies would go, new fabrics, patterns, colors added to every room. Jake liked leather; Josie preferred floral prints. Meredith planned to incorporate both tastes in the decorating scheme. Her mind whirled at the possibilities.
“Well?” Jake said from the front porch when the tour had ended. “When can you start?”
Meredith laughed out loud. “I’ll begin putting together ideas and working up some sketches as soon as I get back to the store.”
Jake kissed his wife and shook Meredith’s hand before sauntering down the porch steps and on out to a large shed beyond the corral. Meredith said goodbye to Josie, then called, “Olivia, Logan. Time to go.”
The kids appeared from around the corner just as the telephone began to ring inside. Josie excused herself to answer it, and the two little girls sashayed to Meredith’s side and each reached for her hand. “Come see my new filly,” Kelsey exclaimed. “My new daddy says I can ride her when we’re both bigger.”
Meredith glanced toward the barn. The coast was clear. There was no sign of Sky. Apparently, her luck was still holding. “All right. Show me your new pony.”
“It’s not a pony.” There was exasperation in Logan’s voice. “A pony is a small, full-grown horse. A filly is a baby horse. A pony is always going to be a pony, but a filly is only a filly until she’s four.”
Exasperated or not, her ten-year-old nephew was as smart as a whip. His father had been a rodeo champion, so it stood to reason that Logan would have a vast knowledge of horses. But it was more than that. The boy seemed to have an innate connection to the large creatures. He ran up ahead, climbing the fence and perching at the top. A big black horse came over to him immediately, a baby at her side. The mother horse nuzzled his neck, trying to get into his pockets. Logan’s giggle brought a smile to Meredith’s face.
He’s happy, she thought. Despite tragically losing his parents, and then having to move to a new town, start over in a new school, with everything he’d been through, he was happy.
He jumped down the moment the girls arrived at the fence, and promptly dug several sugar cubes out of the front pocket of his faded jeans. “Here,” he told the little girls. “Remember. Keep your hands flat and your fingers together.”
The girls nodded solemnly, and did as he instructed. They were adorable—Kelsey with her red hair fluttering down the back of her yellow shirt, and Olivia, whose hair was dark like her mother’s had been, her little hand held out so trustingly.
“Let your Aunt Meredith try.”
Even if Meredith hadn’t recognized Sky’s voice, the way her heart fluttered would have made the glance she cast over her shoulder unnecessary. Sky stood just outside the shade of the barn, twenty feet away. Particles of dust and hay glittered, floating on a slanted ray of sunshine behind him.
“Go ahead,” he said.
She wasn’t thrilled at the idea of placing her hand anywhere near that big creature’s teeth. That, however, wasn’t the cause of her sudden case of nerves. She considered admitting that she was afraid of horses, but those animals were an integral part of Logan’s life. He loved them, and she loved him. Taking a deep breath, she accepted the sugar cube, and followed Olivia and Kelsey’s lead.
To her amazement, the horse was gentle, her soft muzzle tickled Meredith’s palm. She laughed. It felt good, almost as good as the answering grin on Logan’s face.
“Uncle Sky!” Kelsey exclaimed, vying for his attention the second he sauntered closer.
“Hey, Red.” He settled the child in one arm as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“When are you gonna let me ride Bommer?” Logan asked.
“When your Uncle Wes says you’re ready, I reckon.”
“Rats,” Logan answered.
As long as Meredith didn’t allow herself to look at Sky, she could pretend that she wasn’t aware of his every move.
“Meredith’s gonna help Mama fix up the house,” Kelsey told Sky.
“That so?”
Meredith felt his gaze. “Well, kids” she said. “We should…”
“Let’s play a game,” Olivia interrupted. “Come on Kelsey, Logan.” The child was bright.
“Olivia, I don’t think…”
“Hide-and-seek.” Logan was no dummy, either. Spinning around, he said, “’Livia, you’re it. Come on, Kelsey, let’s hide.”
Sky lowered Kelsey to the ground. Just like that, the kids ran off to play in the side yard. Without them to act as a buffer, the bottom drained out of Meredith’s stomach like sand in an hourglass.
In the background, she could hear Olivia as she began counting into a tree. “One, two, three, four, ten, eleven, nineteen, twentyteen.”
Meredith shook her head. “They’re very good at that.”
“They’re urchins.”
Surprised, she peered up at him.
He shrugged. “All three of those kids have survivor instincts. They’re going to be okay.”
There was something about his straight nose, strong chin, and the squint lines beside his eyes that made her think it takes one to know one. He hitched one boot onto the lowest board, absently stroking the horse’s neck. “What do you think of Jasper Gulch so far?”
It was an innocent question. Therefore, it couldn’t have been the question that confused her.
In the distance, Olivia was still counting. “Twenty-five, twenty-six, thirty-one…”
“It’s very quiet.”
He seemed to be waiting for her to continue. When she didn’t, he said, “That’s it? It’s very quiet?”
The man was far too appealing for her peace of mind. He’d hurt her. And she wasn’t going to encourage him or give him an opportunity to do it again. It would have been nice if her brain had alerted her lips, because she grinned despite her resolve not to.
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