The Rancher's Unexpected Family. Myrna Mackenzie

will never fail you. Don’t let anything interfere with that. Don’t get sidetracked or weak and make foolish mistakes with a woman the way I once did, son. Wanting a woman too much can kill a man.

      Holt knew that his father had been talking about someone other than his mother—possibly his first wife—because he saw how his mother suffered for loving his father too much. Sometimes she cried; he remembered her telling him how his father had never really loved her and now he, her son, was becoming another cold, closed-off Calhoun male. She clung to him when Clay was away. He felt sorry for her, but her unhappiness only reinforced what his father had said. Giving in to emotion was a mistake.

      That wasn’t happening. He’d already made some pretty foolish mistakes. He’d already run into his own weaknesses, and he wasn’t doing it again. He’d lost too much. But he didn’t want to think about that now.

      With a growl, he headed out. Riding across the land, he breathed in the scent of new-mown hay. This was his world, where he could forget his mistakes and just be himself.

      So, he buried himself in work, and for the first time in weeks he felt good. Riding up to the house at the end of the day, he knew once again that he was where he needed to be. Just him, a few men, the animals and the land. That was all he wanted.

      But when he opened the door, Nancy was waiting. “Kathryn Ellis called three times. I finally gave up and gave her your email address. You might want to check it. She seemed to think there were things you needed to know.”

      Instantly a vision of soft gray eyes came to him. Pink lips. Luscious breasts.

      He fought that image. He reminded himself of the reasons he had to ignore those eyes and lips and breasts. Instead, he marched to his computer and downloaded her message, and the list she’d sent him. And the revised, longer list she’d sent. And two more lists: her part, his part, a timeline. Everything was color-coded. There were links to articles on communities that had built clinics, links to suggested fundraisers.

      When he was done reading, Holt had to blink, he’d been staring at the screen so long. He was tired. He was also glad. Kathryn might be pretty and soft, and he might feel the urge to touch her whenever she was near, but she was a finicky list maker.

      Good. That made her easier to ignore.

      He didn’t bother answering. He had his own way of doing things, and he’d already decided what he would and wouldn’t do. One thing he wasn’t going to do was follow his blasted instincts and kiss Kathryn’s pretty pink lips. The irritating woman was clearly emotional about all this stuff, but he wasn’t an emotional man. Never had been. Never would be.

      And that was final.

      Kathryn paced the floor of her house. She checked her email, which meant that she checked nothing. There were no messages from employers and no response from Holt.

      For an entire week, she had called. She’d sent emails. She’d even mailed him a letter, just to be safe. Nancy had been unfailingly polite, but she was clearly a “Holt woman,” loyal to her boss. She didn’t want to discuss him, and Kathryn understood that. She wouldn’t have discussed Dr. Cooper if someone had been trying to glean information on him.