“You’re pregnant.”

Sky couldn’t help it if it sounded like an accusation.

“You heard,” Meredith calmly replied.

That was it? That was all she had to say? “Are you going to tell me who the father is?”

“In the past four years I’ve only been with one man.” While the implication was still soaking in, she moved backward, stepping inside the shop. “But don’t worry, I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth.”

Then the door slammed. And Sky blinked. The lock clicked into place.

She wouldn’t marry him if he were the last man on earth? Who’d said anything about marriage? Besides, if he set his mind on marrying a woman, she darn well would be his wife!

Dear Reader,

This holiday season, as our anniversary year draws to a close, we have much to celebrate. The talented authors who have published—and continue to publish—unforgettable love stories. You, the readers, who have made our twenty-year milestone possible. And this month’s very special offerings.

First stop: BACHELOR GULCH, Sandra Steffen’s popular ongoing miniseries. They’d shared an amazing night together; now a beguiling stranger was back in his life carrying Sky’s Pride and Joy. She’d dreamed Hunter’s Vow would be the marrying kind…until he learned about their child he’d never known existed—don’t miss this keeper by Susan Meier! Carolyn Zane’s BRUBAKER BRIDES are back! Montana’s Feisty Cowgirl thought she could pass as just another male ranch hand, but Montana wouldn’t rest till he knew her secrets…and made this 100% woman completely his!

Donna Clayton’s SINGLE DOCTOR DADS return…STAT. Rachel and the M.D. were office assistant and employer…so why was she imagining herself this widower’s bride and his triplets’ mother? Diana Whitney brings her adorable STORK EXPRESS series from Special Edition into Romance with the delightful story of what happens when Mixing Business…with Baby. And debut author Belinda Barnes tells the charming tale of a jilted groom who finds himself all dressed up…to deliver a pregnant beauty’s baby—don’t miss His Special Delivery!

Thank you for celebrating our 20th anniversary. In 2001 we’ll have even more excitement—the return of ROYALLY WED and Marie Ferrarella’s 100th book, to name a couple!

Happy reading!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor

Sky’s Pride and Joy
Sandra Steffen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Books by Sandra Steffen

Silhouette Romance

Child of Her Dreams #1005

*Bachelor Daddy #1028

*Bachelor at the Wedding #1045

*Expectant Bachelor #1056

Lullaby and Goodnight #1074

A Father for Always #1138

For Better, For Baby #1163

†Luke’s Would-Be Bride #1230

†Wyatt’s Most Wanted Wife #1241

†Clayton’s Made-Over Mrs. #1253

†Nick’s Long-Awaited Honeymoon #1290

The Bounty Hunter’s Bride #1306

†Burke’s Christmas Surprise #1337

†Wes Stryker’s Wrangled Wife #1362

†McKenna’s Bartered Bride #1398

†Sky’s Pride and Joy #1486

Silhouette Desire

Gift Wrapped Dad #972

Silhouette Special Edition

Not Before Marriage! #1061

Silhouette Books

36 Hours

Marriage by Contract

The Fortunes of Texas

Lone Star Wedding

SANDRA STEFFEN

Growing up the fourth child of ten, Sandra developed a keen appreciation for laughter and argument. Sandra lives in Michigan with her husband, three of their sons and a blue-eyed mutt who thinks her name is No-Molly-No. Sandra’s book Child of Her Dreams won the 1994 National Readers’ Choice Award. Several of her titles have appeared on the national bestseller lists.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter One

Skyler Buchanan hoisted the last fifty-pound sack of feed onto his shoulder and headed for his truck. Neil Anderson, manager of the J.P. Feed and Ranch Supply Store, wrestled the sack from Sky’s shoulder, adding it to the top of the stack on the bed of the truck before climbing morosely to the ground. “Gonna be another scorcher, that’s for sure.”

Sky cast a cursory glance at the horizon. The sky was clear, the midmorning sun hot, the day promising to be hotter. Sky didn’t mind the heat.

“Jake expectin’ you back right away?” Norbert, the oldest Anderson brother, asked from the shade of the old building. The J.P. Feed & Ranch Supply Store sat around the corner from the village main street. The old-timers said it had been painted once, but nobody could agree on the year, or the color. Whatever color it had once been, time had dulled it to the same faded, weathered gray of all three of the Anderson brothers’ cowboy hats.

At Sky’s shrug, Norbert grimaced. “Oh, yeah. You come and go as you please. I knew that. Must be this heat.”

“Either that,” Ned, the middle brother added, “or boredom.”

“God, yes,” Neil declared. “Boredom. Not a dang thing ever changes in this dusty corner of South Dakota.”

Sky swiped his brown Stetson off his head, but again, he only shrugged. Unlike the other bachelors in the area, he wasn’t looking for things to change around here. What was wrong with life just the way it was? Besides, no matter what the local boys said, not everything stayed the same in Jasper Gulch. Babies were born, kids grew up, girls left town, old folks died. There’d been other changes, too. New stores had opened, a couple of businesses had changed hands. In fact, one of those changes involved Neil, who’d left the family ranch to manage the feed store a couple of months back. Neil did a good job, but he still wasn’t happy. None of the Anderson brothers were. According to the Jasper Gulch grapevine, Ned and Norbert spent so much time here that folks had taken to wondering who was minding the ranch.

“Grab yourself a root beer out of the cooler in the office and sit a spell with us in the shade,” Neil insisted.

Sky glanced at the other two men who were already popping the tops of their soda cans. He could have taken the time to join them, but he just wasn’t in the mood to listen to complaints about the weather and taxes and the sorry price of beef and how nothing ever happened in Jasper Gulch. Cramming his hat back on his head, he said, “Maybe next time, boys.”

Without a backward glance, he climbed into his truck and turned the key. The air streaming in his open window was hot and dry. He considered stopping at the diner, settling at a quiet table, and ordering up a tall glass of lemonade or iced tea. He had plenty of time to make up his mind, because when he turned onto Main Street, he had to crawl to a stop in order to let the clucking hens otherwise known as the staunchest members of the Ladies Aid Society cross the street in front of him. He’d gotten on their good side a couple of years back when he’d sided with them instead of with the local boys who’d decided to advertise for women to come to their fair town. The leaders of the Society had insisted that such an ad would draw riffraff and worse, women of ill repute. Sky’s reasons had been a lot less political.

As far as Sky was concerned, new women meant new problems. After all, the local gals knew better than to try to cage him in. He hadn’t been so sure new women would be as easy to dissuade. As it turned out, only a handful of women had answered the ad. Much to the Society’s relief, none of them had been ladies of the night. Much to his relief, it hadn’t been all that difficult to convince most of the new gals that he wasn’t the marrying kind. Once, he’d overheard DoraLee Brown talking to the Southern gal who hadn’t figured it out on her own.

“Sugar,” DoraLee had said, “Sky Buchanan is one of those men who can be civilized, but never tamed. He’s easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart.”

Keeping a safe distance from one of the local women and her young daughter who were crossing the street in front of him, Sky couldn’t argue with DoraLee’s logic. He didn’t take credit for his looks or blame for his attitude. According to his mother, both had come straight from his old man, along with every shortcoming and flaw he possessed. Not that his mother had been any better. Which was why Skyler Buchanan was footloose and fancy-free, and planned to stay that way.

He lifted his hand to the old men shooting the breeze in front of the barbershop, and at Cletus McCully who was sitting on the bench in his usual spot in front of the post office. They all waved in return in their usual way, Cletus without unhooking his thumb from his suspenders, Karl Hanson with his customary salute, Roy Everts with his arthritic hands that resembled hams. Unlike most folks in and around Jasper Gulch, Sky hadn’t been born and raised here, but he’d been here so long that people had either forgotten or didn’t care.

Sky never forgot where he’d spent the first seventeen years of his life. Oh, he’d had a roof over his head, and sometimes there had been food on the table. His upbringing pretty much ended there. He’d learned the difference between right and wrong on his own. He didn’t kill, maim, swindle, lie or cheat. He put in an honest day’s work in return for an honest day’s pay, and he came and went as he pleased. He’d learned to deal with loneliness before he could talk. He’d learned to deal with desire years later. Except for a chance encounter with a leggy blonde a month ago, he’s been as celibate as old Cletus McCully.

The image of hair the color of spun gold and a smile warm and soft enough to slice clear through a man’s defenses wafted across Sky’s mind. Damn, he’d been trying not to think about that leggy blonde or her soft smiles and gentle touch and…Clamping his mouth shut, he swore to himself.

He’d had no intention of sleeping with a woman he’d only just met, but something had been in the air that night. He didn’t know what it was, but the same thing had been in Meredith Warner’s gaze, as in his. Later, it had scared the spit right out of him, because it was damned close to need. At the time, he hadn’t taken the time to analyze. Hell, he hadn’t taken the trouble to think. Oh, but he’d taken the time to touch, and whisper, and feel and…

The sudden catch in his breathing, and the telltale hitch elsewhere reminded him of things he preferred not to think about, and made him hotter than the dusty air streaming through his open window. That had been happening a lot lately.

That did it. Forget iced tea. He was going to the Crazy Horse for a beer even if it was a little early in the day. He gave the street a sweeping glance in preparation to make a U-turn in front of the Saloon. A serious mistake. Not the U-turn. He never got around to making that. The serious mistake involved a glance at the women talking in front of an old building across the street from the Five & Dime. One of those women had long legs and shimmering blond hair. She turned her head, her gaze meeting his. A zing went through him, and he couldn’t look away.

A horn blared. Sky swerved, missing Hal Everts’ truck by less than a foot. The close call didn’t alleviate the awareness that was buzzing through him. All because Meredith Warner was back in town.

A month ago, Sky had thought her stay here was temporary. That had made her safe. He’d heard she was coming back for good. Nothing like that could escape the Jasper Gulch grapevine. There she was, standing in front of a building that had been vacant for years, her hair hanging long and straight down her back, skin the color of peaches-and-cream, arms and ankles bare, every movement fluid. He couldn’t see the color of her eyes from here, but he knew they were a deep, dark brown. It was unusual to come across a woman with hair so blond and eyes so dark, but she’d been a natural blonde, all right. He couldn’t seem to forget the moment he’d discovered that particular fact.

Sky swore under his breath again, tore his gaze away from hers, and yelled an apology to Hal. Keeping his foot steady on the gas pedal and his eyes straight ahead, he drove out of town.

Now there’s a man I’d steer clear of if I were you…”

Meredith had to give herself a mental shake in order to drag her gaze away from the dusty pickup truck rounding the corner at the end of Main Street. Bringing her attention back to Jayne Stryker, who had turned out to be a godsend, not to mention a genius when it came to advertising, Meredith wondered why someone couldn’t have warned her a month ago.

It was too late for that. Besides, she’d promised herself there would be no more self-recriminations, no more looking back, no more wishing things could be different. She was still reeling from the reality that her only sister and brother-in-law had died as a result of a horrible car accident. Except for her young niece and nephew, she was completely alone in the world, but in many ways, she had been for years. The opening of the antiques and home furnishings store would mark a new beginning for Meredith. She was getting on with her life, and getting her life in order. It was too late to reconcile with Kate, but it wasn’t too late to have a loving relationship with Kate’s children, Logan and Olivia. Meredith was nearly thirty years old. From now on, she was going to make the right choices, do the right things. She was putting down roots. She would be a true friend to her new friends, and she would be the best aunt her niece and nephew could ask for.

“His name is Skyler Buchanan,” Jayne Stryker added. “Rumor has it he’s broken the hearts of nearly every girl in town. He’s a complicated man. But then, aren’t they all?”

Meredith eyed her newest and most interesting friend. She’d heard other women claim that men were simple. As far as Meredith was concerned, nothing was simple, least of all men. Evidently, Jayne felt the same way. Jayne Kincaid had come to Jasper Gulch last Christmas to visit her brother, Burke, who’d set up his medical practice here. She’d had no intention of staying. An ex-rodeo champion named Wes Stryker, who had happened to be Kate’s and Dusty’s best friend, had changed her mind, along with her plans for the future. Now, Jayne and Wes were raising Logan and Olivia. From what Meredith could see, they were doing an admirable job, too. Not that Logan and Olivia always made things easy. Which brought her back to the fact that nothing was easy.

“Meredith?”

Ah, yes, Meredith and Jayne were in total agreement when it came to their philosophies on life. Life had a way of getting complicated.

“Meredith?”

Throw in a man, and it usually spiraled out of control. That’s what had happened that night a month ago. She’d been rocked clear to her soul from the news that Kate and Dusty had died. In had walked Skyler Buchanan. Their eyes had met, and a tornado might as well have swept everybody and everything else away, leaving the two of them in its center to ride out the storm. That storm had turned out to be an idyllic interlude unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She’d been foolish enough to believe, for those few brief hours, that it had been the same for him. She’d been wrong, of course. But she’d tried to put it out of her mind.

She’d known she would see Skyler Buchanan again. Which made forgetting the night she’d spent in his arms even more impossible to do.

“Earth to Meredith.”

What? Oh. “Yes, Jayne?”

“Are you sure you want to keep Logan and Olivia with you while I attend this business lunch this afternoon?”

The area surrounding Meredith’s heart swelled with gratitude. Jayne knew how much Meredith loved her only niece and nephew, and this was her way of giving Meredith an opportunity to spend time with the children. “Of course I’m sure. You said yourself it’ll only be for an hour. Besides, I’m looking forward to it.”

Jayne’s careful perusal made Meredith feel like a fly under a microscope. It was a relief when Jayne turned her attention to the lanky cowboy sauntering toward them, a ten-year-old boy on one side, a five-year-old girl on the other. The first time Meredith had seen the children with Wes and Jayne Stryker, instead of with their parents, Kate and Dusty, she’d felt as if a knife had twisted in her heart. But the ache lessened each time she saw them. The kids were happy, and well adjusted. Meredith knew that Wes and Jayne had been worried that she, the children’s closest living relative, might want to take them away. Meredith had put their minds at ease, for she didn’t want to disrupt Logan’s and Olivia’s lives further. She only wanted to be near them, to get to know them, and to love them.

“Hi, Aunt Meredith,” Logan called.

“Aunt Meredith, look!” Olivia held up a bedraggled stuffed goose. “Jaynie asked Kelsey’s mama to give Snuggles new eyes, and she did. Now Snuggles is as good as new.”

“Snuggles isn’t either as good as new,” Logan grumbled.

“Is so.”

“Is not.”

“Is so.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Uh-huh.”

Jayne tucked a strand of short, dark hair behind her ear and glanced from her husband to Meredith. With a wink, she said, “Unless you keep them busy, this could still be going on when I return. Burke and I used to be like that.”

“Kate and I did, too.”

“Then you’ll know exactly how to deal with them,” Jayne said.

“Forget child labor laws,” Wes Stryker said, a twinkle in his blue eyes. “Put them to work. There’s nothing like manual labor to work out a kid’s frustrations.” He turned to the children. “We’ll be back in an hour, so try to be good. And you,” he said, easing closer to his wife.

Meredith thought she heard Jayne whisper, “I’ll be good later.”

And she was pretty sure Wes said, “I’m counting on it,” the moment before his lips brushed his wife’s.

The underlying sensuality went right over the children’s heads. Tucking the stuffed goose under one arm, Olivia skipped into the store ahead of her brother. Knowing what could happen when those two were left unsupervised, Meredith hurried after them.

“Logan,” she said, handing the boy the keys while she flipped on lights. “Unlock the back door, would you? Maybe we can get a breeze blowing through here.”

Logan ran to the back of the store, keys jangling, shoes thudding, anything not anchored down rattling as if during an earthquake. Within seconds, the netting hanging from the rafters ruffled, a dozen sets of wind chimes purled, and Meredith sighed. Turning in a circle, she took it all in. She’d put everything she had into this store, all her energy and her life savings. She’d looked at several buildings, but had decided on the store that sat by itself between the Jasper Gulch Clothing Store and Bonnie’s Clip & Curl. It had been nothing but a deserted building then, so full of cobwebs that she’d had the place fumigated before she’d done anything else. Some of the other structures she’d looked at had more history, but none of them had as much personality or potential.

The front portion of the store had a tin ceiling. The rest had an open ceiling, high rafters, and wood floors. A long time ago, it had been a furniture store, which made it the perfect place to house the antiques and fine furnishings Meredith planned to sell here. The work was nearly completed. Track lighting had been installed below the rafters, the entire place scrubbed and painted. She’d made the curtains at the windows herself, and with the help of several local teenagers, the antiques were arranged at one end, the few pieces of new furniture she could afford to stock at the other. The paint she would sell was due to arrive later in the week. Every day she worked from dawn until late into the night down here before retiring to the tiny apartment upstairs. It was all coming together, the kids, her store, her life.

She spread her arms wide and tipped her head back. Whoa. Woozy, she closed her eyes.

“Aunt Meredith, ’Livia,” Logan called. “That alley cat’s gone and had kittens in an old barrel that tipped over back here.”

Olivia ran to see. Meredith blinked, focused, then followed. Logan was on his knees just inside the back door. Olivia was bent at the waist a foot away.

“She must’a just had ’em,” he said. “They’re still ugly and their eyes aren’t open yet.”

“They’re not either ugly,” Olivia exclaimed. “They’re beautiful.”

Meredith braced herself for the argument that was sure to break out, but Logan shrugged good-naturedly and simply said, “You know what I mean.”

“How many are there?” Olivia asked her big brother.

“Six.”

“Six?” Meredith exclaimed. What on earth was she going to do with an alley cat and six kittens?

“Wait. I was wrong.”

Oh, good.

“There are seven,” Logan amended.

“Seven?” Meredith asked. “Are you sure?” The scraggly orange-and-white mother cat stared up at her, blinking tiredly, as if sharing Meredith’s dismay.

“Yup. There are seven all right. Uncle Wes says seven’s lucky.”

“We’re lucky!” Olivia exclaimed. “Aren’t we Aunt Meredith?”

Meredith took a closer look at that cat and her seven kittens, and then at the brown-haired children whose blue eyes, so like their mother’s, were wide with wonder. A lump came and went in her throat, but she managed a small nod and a genuine smile.

“Seven kitties,” Olivia declared. “Plus the mama. We’re gonna need a lot of names.”

Since Meredith knew that a named cat was a claimed cat, she had to think fast. “Those kittens need to take a nap right now. If you two want to think of names, why don’t you help me decide what to call the store?”

“You want us to name a building?” Logan asked in that preadolescent, know-it-all attitude universal to males.

Meredith swiped a finger along his nose and said, “Not the building, silly. It’s going to be my business, a way of life, an entity with its own unique personality.”

The kids looked up at her blankly for a full five seconds before turning their gazes on each other. “I think we should name the white-and-yellow one Fluffy,” Olivia said.

“And the one with the two white paws is…”

“Paws?” Olivia asked.

“No, silly. Boots.”

Meredith knew when she’d been beaten. Retracing her footsteps to the front of the store, she began arranging throw pillows and lamps and candles on shelves lining one wall. The kids spent the next hour pondering names for kittens Meredith couldn’t possibly keep. Logan made a bed for them in an old drawer he found in the back alley, and he and Olivia coaxed the mother to let him help her move the kittens to what they considered a better lodging place. As far as Meredith was concerned, those two voices were more musical than the resonant purl of the wind chimes swaying overhead in the gentle breeze.

By the time Jayne was due back to pick up the children an hour later, all the kittens had been duly petted and examined for any unusual, interesting or identifying markings, three of them had names, and Logan and Olivia were arguing over a fourth. Mercy, those kids could argue over nothing.

“You can’t name the mother cat Haley!” Logan exclaimed.

“I can name her Haley if I want to!” Olivia declared with equal exuberance.

“Can not.”

“Can so.”

“You can’t either name her Haley. That’s a real person’s name. Tell her Aunt Meredith.”

Before Meredith could open her mouth, Olivia said, “We named the barn cats Carolyn, Sherilyn and Tom, and those are real people names. You just don’t wanna name this one Haley on accounta you kissed Haley Carson and she gave you a black eye.”

All at once, the store was absolutely quiet. Logan was the quietest of all. Wanting to help but not sure how, Meredith said, “Olivia, you don’t know that’s the reason Logan doesn’t want to name this cat Haley. I don’t really think she looks like a Haley, do you? Besides, kissing is private.”

“Kissing’s icky,” Olivia said. “Do you think kissing’s icky, Aunt Meredith?”

Two pairs of trusting blue eyes turned to her. Kissing? “Well, er, um. That is…”

The bell over the front door jangled, signaling Jayne’s return. Meredith was saved from having to try to come up with an answer that wasn’t mostly a sigh. Icky? Oh, that depended upon who a woman kissed. And the last man, the only man she’d kissed in a long, long time, hadn’t been icky at all.

Jayne dashed in long enough to pay due respect to the mother cat and her kittens, recount the high points of the meeting she’d attended, and say, “I’ll see you at the town council meeting tonight!” before bustling the kids away.

Ugh, Meredith thought when she was alone again in the store. Tonight, at the town council meeting, she would have to stand in front of the women of the Ladies Aid Society and several of the bachelors in town. She prayed she passed everyone’s scrutiny so that she might be accepted in this small town.

That was what she wanted. To be accepted, to be near Logan and Olivia, and for her store to be a success. In order for her store to be a success, she couldn’t afford to make any enemies or hurt any feelings, which meant she had to let the overeager bachelors down gently, which wasn’t easy to do when she received requests for dates every day. She could hardly blame them. There simply weren’t enough women to go around out here. An old copy of the advertisement the local boys had put in the local papers to lure women to Jasper Gulch still hung in the post office and in the diner. Not a lot had changed since then. As far as Meredith could tell, in the three years since the ad had appeared, there wasn’t a single man in town who wasn’t still shy but willing. She paused for a moment.

That wasn’t true. There was one. Oh, Skyler Buchanan had been more than willing a month ago, and she doubted he’d ever been shy.

Giving herself a mental shake, Meredith got back to work. It was amazing how many times her thoughts strayed to Sky, and a kiss, that had led to a touch, that had led to a frenzy of hands reaching, and buttons popping and clothes being peeled away like layers until so much more than two bodies were bared. For those few brief hours, Meredith had believed she’d been able to see into Sky’s soul, and he into hers. Of course, when it was all over, they’d both known it had been a mistake. Skyler Buchanan was a free spirit, and Meredith Warner had an old soul. They’d both been lonely, that was all. Loneliness could be a powerful motivation, but not a basis for anything deep and abiding. Sky had been the first to put it into words, saying it would be best to end it then and there.

She’d nodded, mumbling her agreement, her clothes clutched in her arms, covering her nakedness as she’d assured him that there was nothing to end. In order for something to have an ending, it had to have a beginning. And all she and Sky had had were a few brief hours in each other’s arms, a few brief hours during which two people had taken a respite from their real lives and had lived a fantasy.

She hadn’t seen Sky since that night. Until today. She’d thought about him a thousand times. Which was just about how often she’d told herself to forget him, because surely, he hadn’t given her another thought.

She’d been sure of that, until earlier, when their gazes had locked from a distance. Something powerful had passed between them. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she found herself wondering if perhaps he was having a difficult time forgetting her, too.

She straightened fast, and got light-headed and woozy again. She eyed the sofas waiting for someone to buy them, wishing she could curl up on one of them, and close her eyes if only for a few minutes. Shaking her head slightly to clear it, she reminded herself that she didn’t have time for the luxury of a nap. She had a business to launch, and a life to turn around. Placing a hand to the flat of her stomach, she hoped she wasn’t coming down with the flu.

Chapter Two

“Hey, Sky.” Neil Anderson slipped into one of the last vacant chairs in the room. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you at one of these meetings.”

What could Sky say? He didn’t attend town meetings often. Folks assumed he didn’t like schedules or agendas, especially other people’s. Nobody had ever thought to ask if he had some other reason. Tonight, he was here because his boss, Jake McKenna, who also happened to be his best friend as well as an exasperating man, had roped Sky into attending in his place.

Neil said, “You must have heard that Jayne Stryker’s gonna introduce the new gal at the meeting, too, eh?”

Sky’s eyebrows rose. Meredith was going to be here tonight? It certainly explained why the back room of Mel’s Diner was busting at the seams, and a good share of Jasper Gulch’s single men and a few married ones, as well, were balancing their cowboy hats on one knee.

Jake was going to owe him, big time.

Sky settled his shoulders more comfortably along the back of the old folding chair, and left his Stetson on his head where it belonged. For the sake of idle curiosity and the general heck of it, he glanced around. He recognized every face present, but he didn’t see Meredith.

Luke Carson banged his gavel on the table, calling the meeting to order. He, his brother, Clayt, and their friend, Wyatt McCully, had been instrumental in placing the original ad in the local papers luring women to Jasper Gulch. All three of them were married now, Luke and Wyatt to the first two women who’d moved here, and Clayt, to Jasper Gulch’s own Melody McCully. The remaining sixty-some bachelors had done a lot of bellyaching about that, but then, a lot of those local boys did a lot of bellyaching about just about everything.

The meeting went surprisingly fast. It wasn’t because the fine folks of Jasper Gulch were especially agreeable tonight. Sky had seen more than one man’s face turn red beneath the tan line where a dusty Stetson normally sat. They were on their best behavior. Sky suspected it had to do with their readiness to bring on the main attraction.

He wondered what they would do if the rumor that Meredith was going to be here tonight turned out to be false. Sky happened to glance over his shoulder. The meeting went on around him, but he didn’t participate. The Jasper Gulch grapevine was batting a thousand, as usual. Meredith stood near the door, looking straight ahead, her throat convulsing as if she were nervous. It was strange, because his first impression of her hadn’t been of a shy woman. His first impression had been of an enchantress who knew her own mind, what she liked and what she wanted. She’d wanted him. Being wanted by a woman like her had been a heady sensation. A dangerous, heady sensation.

Luke pounded the table with his gavel again. “Before we adjourn, Jayne Stryker has somebody she’d like you all to meet.”

“Finally.”

“It’s about time.”

“I’ll say.”

Chairs creaked as the majority of the men sat up straighter. A few hardy paunches were sucked in, belts were adjusted, and everyone generally tried hard to look casual. As far as Sky was concerned, they tried a little too hard.

Jayne strolled to the front of the room. The woman had a walk that could stop traffic and a mouth that could, and had, singed the hairs of a good many of the local boys’ ears. “Folks,” she said, smiling wryly, fully aware that her quick wit and business savvy were exactly what this town needed. “It’s nice to see so many people who care about their community.” And then she launched into a lengthy update on the progress she was making setting up a mail-order catalog business in the old five-and-dime building. The members of the Ladies Aid Society listened with rapt attention. The boys fidgeted like the congregation on Palm Sunday.

Sky glanced at Meredith, and saw that she was shaking her head and smiling at Jayne as if they shared a private joke. With a wink and a slight movement of her head that prompted Meredith to stroll toward the front of the room, Jayne said, “Everybody, this is Meredith Warner, Logan and Olivia’s aunt. I’m sure all of you have heard she’s opening an antique slash furniture store in town. I invited her to stop by tonight to tell you a little about it. I hope you don’t mind staying a few minutes longer.”

Mind? It was what the men were here for.

Meredith turned to face the crowd. She wet her lips, a serious mistake, unless it had been her intention to jump-start the men’s fantasies.

“As Jayne said, I’m nearly ready to open my furniture, antiques and home furnishings store two doors down. I’m excited about that, but to tell you the truth, standing up here talking about it makes me nervous.”

“Imagine us naked,” one of the younger bachelors murmured just loud enough for her to hear.

“Oh, no,” she said, staring Ben Jacobs down. “I’m not going there. Nobody is going to imagine anybody naked.”

She glanced around the room sternly, as if to make her point. Sky wondered if he’d imagined that her gaze had settled on him for an instant longer than on anybody else. He wasn’t imagining the change in the beating rhythm of his heart.

“As I was saying. I’ve worked in several different fields in order to make ends meet over the years. That’s the funny thing about not knowing what you want to be when you grow up. You learn a lot about life and hone a lot of different skills in your quest to find your niche. Until moving here, I spent four years working as an interior designer for a large store in Minneapolis. Before that I was a seam-stress, an upholsterer and a painter—of houses, not art—although to me, every house is its own work of art.”

So, Sky thought, she was a midwesterner. That explained her accent. He wondered where she’d acquired her class, because that kind of poise didn’t come from any one place or from doing odd jobs like sewing or painting.

The fan in the corner stirred her hair. There wasn’t a man in the room who wasn’t mesmerized by the movement of those silky tresses, the style of her trim, ankle-length skirt, and the fit of her sleeveless blouse. And no matter what she said, Sky doubted there was a man in the place who wasn’t imagining what she would look like out of it. She wasn’t buxom, but she had curves in all the right places, curves he’d memorized with his hands, and lips and…

“…and I’m hoping to hire an apprentice or two to help me with the reupholstering and sewing.”

Chairs creaked as a dozen hands shot into the air. The sudden hubbub drew Sky from his daydream.

Meredith had relaxed, as if enjoying the easy camaraderie with the people of Jasper Gulch. “Sorry,” she said. “I’d prefer to interview women.”

“Now ain’t that a little prejudiced?” Ben Jacobs asked playfully.

“Mertyl?” Jayne Stryker sputtered, stepping closer to Meredith. “Raise two fingers like this.” When the little gray-haired lady had done so, Jayne said, “Now whack Ben upside the head with them for me, would you, please?”

There was a distinctive slap, followed by a pitifully unconvincing “Ow,” followed by a roomful of grins.

“The purpose of Meredith’s and my endeavors,” Jayne said, brown eyes flashing, “is to create new jobs for our local girls, so that they might have options other than becoming a rancher’s wife right out of high school or moving to the city where there are better job prospects. Now, does anybody have a question for Meredith?”

“Are you married?”

“I mean concerning her store,” Jayne insisted. “You’re living in the apartment over the store, aren’t you?”

“What’s your phone number?”

Jayne threw up her hands.

“Care to see a show with me?”

“How about dinner?”

The questions rang out from every corner of the room with dizzying speed, making it difficult for Meredith to know which one to address first. The ad had said the bachelors of Jasper Gulch were shy but willing. An updated version would have to say they were more willing than shy. Still, they were delightful.

Before she’d opened her mouth to let them down easy, an old man whose thumbs were hooked in his suspenders exclaimed, “You boys can be a little more original than that. Why, you asked Jillian and Lisa those same dang questions at a meeting just like this one three years ago.”

“I’ve got one,” Ben Jacobs exclaimed as he scooted as far away from Mertyl Gentry as he could get. “Forget dating and marry me.”

“A public marriage proposal has been done, too,” Luke Carson said, tapping his palm with the gavel.

“You all remember what happened the night Wes Stryker went down on one knee and asked Louetta Graham to be his wife,” old Doc Masey declared. “Wes didn’t fare so well.”

They all shook their heads forlornly, all except Wes and Louetta, who were now both happily married, only not to each other.

“Listen,” Meredith said, holding up one hand. “I didn’t come to Jasper Gulch in answer to your advertisement.”

“You didn’t?”

She shook her head. “I came here because this is where my niece and nephew are.”

“But as long as you’re here,” somebody called.

She shook her head again.

“You mean you aren’t planning to date?”

“Ever?”

She lifted one shoulder. “At least not for a while.”

“How long’s a while?”

Meredith hadn’t planned to get into this tonight, but now that the issue had been raised, she felt she should address it. “Well, not until I’m settled,” she said, her smile genuine, her voice warm and sincere and just soft enough to be soothing. “To tell you the truth, I’ve promised myself one year free of making any sudden moves or rash decisions.”

She found herself staring into a pair of moss-green eyes shaded by a brown Stetson. Sky’s gaze was so direct and unsettling the pit of her stomach took a nosedive toward her toes.

Clearing her throat, she said, “I plan to make my home here, and I don’t want to have any regrets.” That said, she forced herself to look at the other people in the room. It seemed she’d scored some brownie points with the Ladies Aid Society, but not with the local men. Since the success of her business depended upon being liked, she hurried to say, “In the meantime, you’re all welcome to stop by the store, to browse, and talk. I give great advice about patterns and color schemes and painting techniques, and my interior design rates are extremely affordable.”

With a smile, she bid everyone goodbye. Keeping her eyes straight ahead, she strode to the back of the room through a crescendo of “aw shucks” and “rats” and “just our luck.”

She glanced over her shoulder just before closing the door behind her. She could hear Luke Carson banging his gavel on the podium, but her gaze never made it that far. A lot of the men had crammed their hats back on their heads. She found herself staring into the eyes of the man who’d never taken his off. Her nerves fluttered. Lucky for her, the door closed before she got thoroughly lost in the depths of green eyes that were hooded by thoughts she couldn’t begin to decipher.

“Somethin’ wrong with that beer, sugar?”

Sky eyed his untouched bottle of beer, shaking his head at DoraLee Brown. “Just not thirsty, I guess.”

Moseying on over to the Crazy Horse along with several of the other men had seemed like a good idea when the town meeting had adjourned an hour ago. Sky usually enjoyed talking and laughing and playing a game or two of cards. He’d told a joke he’d tried out on the hired hands at the Lone M that very afternoon. They’d laughed their heads off. Of course they had. It had the best dang punch line he’d heard in years. The Crazy Horse crowd had listened. And nothing. Nobody so much as cracked a grin. The only thing any of them seemed interested in doing tonight was talking about Meredith Warner.

“She wants to sell us paint and sofas and lamp shades,” Neil Anderson said.

“Worse, she doesn’t want to date anybody for a whole year,” his brother, Norbert added.

“Why move to a town that advertised for women if you don’t want to get to know the men?” Ben Jacobs asked, rubbing the spot where Mertyl had clipped him with two surprisingly strong arthritic fingers.

“To start a business, I guess,” one of the other boys answered.

Sky pushed his beer a little farther away. He might as well leave.

“Who in Sam Hill would want to open a business here?”

Sky didn’t quite make it to his feet. Droll or not, Norbert had a point. Why had Meredith decided to open her store here?

“Jasper Gulch ain’t exactly a bustling metropolis.”

That was true. Why open a store here and not in some other small, but not-quite-so-dead town? Jasper Gulch suited Sky perfectly. But he wasn’t trying to open a business.

Somebody dropped some quarters into the jukebox. Seconds later, a tune was being belt out about short skirts and men’s shirts. Sky’s mind wandered. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing sexier in the world than a woman wearing a man’s shirt and nothing else. He’d seen Meredith that way once. She hadn’t worn his shirt for long, because he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her. She’d reciprocated, touch for touch, coming to him so willingly, so womanly, so wantonly, he couldn’t seem to forget it.

Something bothered the back of his mind. He was pretty sure he’d hurt her when it was all over, but he was nothing if not honest. So he’d told her the truth, and the truth was, he wasn’t a forever kind of man. He’d been very clear about that. And yet she was back. Why? Sure, she wanted to be close to her niece and nephew. But she could have opened a business in Pierre, and commuted to work. Why was she really here?

He thought about the way her eyes had rested on him during that meeting. Twice. Both times she’d looked away before he’d figured out what it had meant. She hadn’t looked at anybody else that way. He knew, because he hadn’t taken his eyes off her.

Whoa.

What if she’d read more into those few hours they’d spent together than had actually been there? She was a woman, after all, and women tended to romanticize everything. What if she’d moved here because she’d convinced herself that passion was love, no matter what he’d said? What if she was saving her wiles to use on him? What if…

Sky dropped a few bills on the bar and rose blithely to his feet. He’d reached his truck when he noticed the lights on in the store across the street. Looking both ways, he strode on over, one last question, the most important question of all, running through his mind: What if he paid her a little visit and found out?

Pounding.

Meredith’s eyelashes flickered, her eyes moving back and forth beneath her closed lids. The sound came again, a distant pounding, like a fist on wood. She must have been dreaming. Yes, that was it. She was dreaming, floating in a weightless, beautiful place filled with rainbows and the purl of wind chimes and a breeze more gentle and soft on her face than anything she’d ever felt. There were no doors in this place, so the pounding must have been coming from outside her dream.

Glass rattled. Meredith jerked in her sleep. She groaned softly and whispered, “So tired.”

The rainbows dimmed slightly, but the wind chimes purled on and on. She floated close enough to the surface of her dream to realize that the other, disruptive sound had gone away. She sighed, snuggling deeper into the sofa cushions.

And then, suddenly, her eyes popped open. It took several blinks to bring the store into focus. She sat up groggily. She’d been unloading merchandise from boxes when exhaustion had overtaken her. She remembered leaning her head against the back of the sofa and closing her eyes for a moment. She glanced at her watch. Mercy, that had been an hour ago. She’d been sleeping so deeply she’d been dreaming.

Something must have awakened her.

She took a few steps toward the front of the store, peering at the door and then out the window. Other than a handful of trucks parked in front of the Crazy Horse Saloon across the street, all was quiet out on Main Street. Hugging her arms close to her body, she turned in a half-circle, thinking that she might as well call it a night and go upstairs to her apartment. She switched off one lamp. Picking up the cordless phone she’d left on a low table, she headed for the first open window.

A sound at the back of the store stopped her in her tracks.

At first she thought it might have been the mother cat, scratching at the door to go out. She glanced at the old drawer Logan had padded for the stray and her seven kittens. The babies were sleeping; the mother stood, back arched, poised for action, as if something had awakened her, too.

The doorknob rattled. Somebody was trying to get in.

The blood drained out of Meredith’s face, down her neck, seeming to pool in the pit of her stomach. Pressing her lips shut so no sound would escape, she forced herself to settle down. She’d been robbed when she’d first moved to Minneapolis. The thief had gotten everything, leaving her penniless, destitute. She was almost thirty now. She was older, wiser, and lately, too tired to start over again. Everything she had was invested in this store, all her life savings, her toil and sweat and dreams for the future were tied up in the meager furnishings on this floor.

The doorknob jiggled again. Next, she heard a scrape, as if someone was jimmying the lock. Panic rose in her throat. There was no time to run upstairs. She wished she had something to use as a weapon. She looked at the cordless phone in her hand. Wide awake now, she punched in 9-1-1, creeping stealthily toward the shadows in the back of the room where she could hide.

The door burst open before she reached her destination. It was too dark to see who the intruder was, but she could make out the shape of a man. The cat sprang straight up, streaking between the intruder’s legs. While the man was off balance, Meredith shoved an antique umbrella stand in his path. He tripped. “What the hell?”

She recognized that voice. As he fell toward her, out of the shadows and into the light, she recognized the face that went with it.

Sky’s arms flailed, but he managed to keep from falling flat on his face. “Why did you do that?”

She backed up, straightening so fast she saw stars. “I’m trying to—” her voice seemed to be coming from far away “—defend my store.” Sky’s face blurred before her eyes, and all the world with it.

She swayed. Sky swore. He scaled a low table, catching her before she could hit the floor. “Easy,” he whispered, but her eyes were closed, and she didn’t hear.

He wrapped his arms around her, trying to hold her upright. It wasn’t easy. He was the best roper in a hundred mile radius. He could rope a calf, hop off his horse, tie it up and hoist it onto his shoulder with ease. Meredith was slight, but right now, she was as limp as a rag doll, and a helluva lot harder to hold on to than a squirming, bawling, roped calf.

He swung her into his arms, staggering slightly. Keeping his feet squarely beneath them, he supported her head with his shoulder, then tried to decide what to do next.

Meredith’s eyes fluttered. What happ…? Where am…? For the second time in a matter of minutes, she opened her eyes and tried to focus. This time, she found herself staring at the harsh lines of Sky’s jaw. “What are you doing?”

“You’re ill.”

It sounded to Meredith like an accusation. She glanced down, appalled to discover that she was in his arms. “Put me down.”

“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.

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