Reunited With The Rancher. Sara Orwig

They rode together in silence. She knew he was bound in his own thoughts as much as she was in hers, and they had little to say to each other. While they didn’t talk, she was acutely conscious of him. She hadn’t been around him this much in a long time. And their time together was just starting. How could she live under the same roof with him again without being in his arms and in his bed and back on an emotional roller coaster?

      She glanced at his hand on the steering wheel. He had a scar across the back of it that had healed long ago. He had scars all over his body from his time in the military.

      His hands were well shaped, nails clipped very short, veins showing slightly. Too easily she could remember his hands drifting over her when they had made love—strong hands that could send her to paradise.

      She realized her thoughts were carrying her into a place she didn’t want to go. “I think you’re right about the divorce. We’ll get it—that’s inevitable—but I don’t like getting a divorce because of Maverick, either.”

      “Let’s table the divorce for now. I’ll try to find out how much effort Nathan is devoting to catching this troll. The meeting Monday at the club may shed more light. If we don’t divorce and we both stay at the house in Royal—”

      “Maverick will know you’ve become my bodyguard,” she said, shaking her head.

      “Not necessarily. If I help you restore the old house, it’ll look as if we’re back together. For all anyone knows, we’re fixing it up for you to sell. For a few weeks, maybe we should keep quiet that I’m worried about your protection and that we’re not really together anymore.”

      “That’s fine with me. Anything to defeat Maverick. Frankly, I’m still amazed I’m a victim. I’m not the sweetest person, but I usually get along with people I know and work with, neighbors, church friends.”

      “I’ll ask you the question that Nathan is going to ask—do you have any enemies? Anyone who doesn’t like you or you’ve angered?”

      She laughed softly. “Tom, I may have people who don’t like me, but if so, I don’t know anything about it. I don’t have enemies. I can’t think of anyone.”

      “The whole world loves you,” he remarked. “That’s what you’ll hear from Nathan, I’ll bet.”

      “The one person I’ve made the most unhappy is you,” she answered quietly, and he glanced quickly at her and back at the road. When she looked again, she saw his knuckles had tightened on the wheel.

      “Hell, Emily, I loved you with all my being, but we’ve just had so much happen between us there is no way we can go back to that life we had. When I ask if you have angered anyone, I’m talking real enemies.”

      “I know you are,” she said, hurting inside because she’d answered with the truth. There was no one who had been as hurt by her or more at odds with her or more disappointed by her than Tom. “We’re not real enemies and you’re a good guy.”

      “Thanks for that much, Em. Think about it. Think if there is anyone you’ve crossed who might hold a grudge.”

      She gave a small laugh. “Darla from our class in high school. Oh, did she have a crush on you. Now if this had happened when we were sixteen instead of now when we’re thirty-two, I’d give out her name in a flash, but the last I heard she’s married and has three kids.”

      “I hate to say this, but I don’t even remember the person you’re talking about.”

      “One of your groupies.”

      “I didn’t have groupies.”

      “Every cute football captain has groupies.”

      “May have seemed so to you, but I didn’t. And I haven’t been called cute since I was five.”

      “You were cute. That was the general consensus with all the girls. Ooh, long eyelashes, broad shoulders, cute butt, sexy, to-die-for—”

      “Stop it.” He laughed. “If I had only known then—you didn’t tell me all that when we were in school.”

      “Of course not. It would have just gone to your head—or elsewhere.”

      “Oh, damn, we should have had this conversation long ago,” he said, grinning at her. And once again, for just an instant, she was reminded of old times with him.

      “Kidding aside, Emily, keep thinking. It’s important. Could it have to do with your business?”

      “I take pictures of kids and families—there’s nothing in my work that should anger anyone. I’ve never had an irate customer.”

      “I’m sure you haven’t—you’re a damn good photographer.”

      “The result wasn’t what Maverick intended, so let’s not worry too much about it right now,” she said, placing her hand on Tom’s knee in a gesture that at one time would have been casual. It wasn’t now. He turned to stare at her, and she saw his chest expand as he took a deep breath.

      She removed her hand and looked out the window, turning from him and trying to make light of the moment. She was thankful he couldn’t hear or feel her racing heart.

      “I’ll try to think, but I’m blank. I know I’m overlooking something or I wouldn’t have received that email.”

      “That’s right, so work on it,” he said, and they lapsed into silence as they drove toward Royal.

      She thought over what Tom had said. What enemies did she have? “Tom, maybe Maverick was getting at you through me.”

      “That occurred to me, and I’ve been trying to think of anyone in these parts I could have really annoyed. Frankly, Emily, I can think of some. I’ve fired cowboys who didn’t want to work. I was in the military—there are people in the area who don’t like that or what I did. Politically, they don’t agree with me. There are guys I competed with in college and high school sports. There are guys I’ve competed with in rodeos. I’ll talk to Nathan about it. He’s got to catch this troll. It has to be someone really low-down mean to hurt you after what you’ve been through.”

      “I haven’t been through any more than you have,” she said, and he was silent. His jaw was set and she suspected he was frustrated and angry.

      “You have been through more than I have,” he said quietly. “You lost Ryan, you lost your uncle, your dad split when you were two, your mom died when you were nine, the man who raised you and the last close member of your family died this past year and you haven’t had another child. You don’t need more anguish, much less to get hassled by a rotten coward.”

      It hurt to hear Tom say that she couldn’t have more children, but everything he said was the truth. As their conversation trailed off, she was acutely aware of him so nearby. She had been doing fairly well when she didn’t see him or talk to him on a regular basis, but now to be with him, to joke around with him, even just this tiny bit, drew her to him. And the memories were tormenting her. They had been so wildly in love when they were dating and first married. Her world had crashed and would never again be the same. She had been slowly adjusting to life without Tom, and now he was coming right back into it. Would she be able to cope with living in the same house again? Could she resist the intense, scalding attraction she always felt for him? What would happen if he tried to seduce her?

      The questions came at her constantly, and there were no answers.