“From what I saw on your website, your ranch is riding out the drought well,” Jesse said.
All Tucker’s plans to keep Annie engaged, to keep himself separate from the group, vanished in a discussion about cattle and the weather, which then segued into ranching innovations. By the time the eating and drinking had come to its natural conclusion, he felt every hour he’d been awake, and every ache he’d earned from his goat wrestling.
None of them would let him help pack up the impromptu picnic, but he was allowed back into the stable to check out the newborn. Already standing on wobbly legs, the stilldamp foal was a sight to see.
Next to him, Annie sighed softly as they stood in the neighboring stall, keeping as quiet as possible. She had to lean into him so he could hear, and the contact against his arm wasn’t helping things. “We should go,” she whispered. Her warm breath skimming the side of his neck sent a jolt of awareness straight to his groin.
He nodded, made his tread as light as possible on his way out, Annie walking alongside him. For some reason the others were still there, all standing near the pickup. His knee-jerk reaction was disappointment. Dammit. Wanting to be alone with her was fine, even wise if he wanted to get information, but not when it was personal.
“What’s wrong?” Annie asked, as soon as they’d reached the others.
“That,” Rachel said, nodding at Tucker.
Caught in the middle of a yawn, he snapped his mouth closed. “I’m fine.”
“You might be right, but we don’t want to take any chances. Safe Haven needs your money.” Rachel grinned, but she wasn’t lying. “Our place is close by. We have a spare room you can bunk in for the night. Then you can go back to the hotel first thing to change and whatever.”
“I assure you, I’ve lived in isolated places my entire life, and I purposely had only one beer. I can drive.”
Jesse shook his head. “You’ll pass more deer, cattle and coyotes than cars on the way, but that’s not the problem. You’re tired from flying and driving. Why take the chance when we’ve got room?”
“Besides,” Rachel said, “you should get a look at the Sundance before you leave. You’ll be surprised.”
“At?”
“All the beautiful women who are staying with us,” Jesse said, and grunted when Shea elbowed him.
“Excuse me?” Tucker looked to Annie, who smiled, at least for a few seconds.
“They’ve turned it into a dude ranch,” Annie said, and then he recalled the website where he’d seen her photo. She’d been at the Sundance ranch when it was taken.
“Wait a minute.” Jesse was obviously annoyed. “That’s not true. Our main concern is raising cattle.”
Shea and Rachel exchanged glances, then stared at their feet to hide smiles. Clearly the dude ranch operation was a touchy issue, and as a cattleman himself, he understood. But that didn’t concern him. What did interest him was the opportunity to find out more about Annie from these people. And Shea…perhaps he should know more about her.
“Sorry,” Annie said. “It’s a working spread, but the dude ranch part is helping to transform the area. More guests, more tourists, more cash flow. And more opportunities to spread the word about Safe Haven. It’s all good.”
Rachel laughed. “Trust Annie to squeeze in Safe Haven.”
He didn’t think about it for too long. He would have preferred having his things with him, but the chance to gather information, and frankly, to get to bed sooner, was too strong an incentive to say no. “All right. Thank you, I’ll take you up on that.”
“Thank God,” Annie said, sincerity softening her voice. Her lips lifted in a tired but sweet smile. “I’d never have gotten to sleep if I was worrying about you driving all that way.”
That he instantly thought of staying right where he was, bunking down on the blanket in the empty stall, made him shake his head. He needed a good night’s rest. Desperately.
IT WAS ONLY WITH TREMENDOUS will that Annie brushed her teeth before heading upstairs to bed. She’d watched as Tucker had followed Jesse’s truck down the road to the Sundance, then she’d done a final check on the horses.
The short walk to the cabin had felt more like a mile, and she’d made herself prepare the morning’s coffee before she hit the bathroom. Now she had to climb stairs, but then she’d be horizontal and nothing would come between her and sleep.
An hour later, she was seriously contemplating bashing her head against the wall because her brain would not stop.
At first, it had been okay thinking about Tucker and wondering yet again if he’d flirted with her. She’d debated taking care of her suddenly awakened body, which was something she hadn’t done in so long, she wondered if she remembered how.
It was only after those thoughts that she was reminded why she’d stopped. Being in exile, being a fugitive, eliminated all possibility of having any kind of anything with any man. For an indeterminate period of time, up to and including forever.
It had taken her a solid six months of denial to get to the stage where she didn’t think about sex anymore. No, okay, longer than that, but she hadn’t caved since. Though she’d had close enough calls that she’d become very judicious with her reading material, and careful with her time around other people.
Some thought she was shy. No problem, shy worked, because most everyone kept their distance. At first, she’d thought the McAllister men were going to be a problem, but her fear was so great, it overwhelmed her sex drive by quite a bit.
She’d become celibate in every sense of the word, and then Tucker Brennan.
It wasn’t fair. He was only going to be in town a couple of days. She’d never see him again, but if she kept thinking about him, remembering the touch on her bare back, the quickening of her pulse every time she saw him staring…
Bodies weren’t meant to be turned off like empty refrigerators. She was only twenty-nine, but she knew without a doubt that somewhere inside her there was a clock ticking away. Exhaustion had always been her best defense, but here she was after a brutally tiring day, and he’d broken through over a year’s worth of defenses with a few touches and a good smile.
Her life, her entire life, was dedicated elsewhere. She’d done her best to never think about what she’d left behind, what she was missing. She worked until her body couldn’t take it anymore. Then she did it again.
Tonight was an object lesson. Letting herself get caught up in the real world would do her no good. Tucker Brennan was a potential check. Financing. That’s all. She’d better drum that into her foolish mind, because there’d be hell to pay if she didn’t.
The sad thing was that she’d have to pull back from Shea, as well. It had been an experiment, a test to see if she could open her life up a little.
The answer was a resounding no.
THE STRANGE ALARM JERKED Tucker out of sleep so hard he felt as if he had whiplash. And damn, he didn’t even have a razor or a change of clothes with him. It seemed foolish to shower when he had to put on the same shirt to go to Kalispell before he could return to Safe Haven, but yesterday clung to him with the scent of straw and stubborn goat.
So he showered and dressed. He would have killed for a cup of coffee, but he wanted to check in with George first.
Luckily, the private investigator