Rich Rancher's Redemption. Maureen Child

This one warmer than the last. “Thank you. And you’re right. We do. But I’m the one who’s going to get it for us.”

      Hard to argue with pride since he had plenty of that himself. “Can’t talk you out of this?”

      She spun around again, taking another all-too-brief look. When she met his gaze, she said, “Nope. But you could drive us to the motel and help me move our things over here.”

      “Yeah,” he said tightly. “Guess I could do that.”

      “Jesse! Horsies?” Mac asked, cupping her little hands on his cheeks to turn his eyes to her.

      “Not right now, sweet girl,” he said and frowned at the disappointment in the tiny girl’s eyes.

      Over the last couple of weeks, Mac and her mother had been at the ranch several times, and each time they were, the little girl had demanded time with the horses. He’d taken her up for her first ride himself and she hadn’t been able to get enough. He knew what that felt like. He’d been about six the first time Roy Sanders had set him on a horse, and Jesse had known in that moment that he’d found where he belonged. Now little Mac had fallen for the same animals that had stolen Jesse’s heart so many years ago.

      So he tugged a lock of her hair gently and said, “We’ll see the horses later, okay?”

      “You shouldn’t promise her something you might not be able to deliver on,” Jillian warned. “She doesn’t forget a thing.”

      He slanted his gaze to hers and locked on like a targeting system. “I always keep my promises.”

      Her eyes said she didn’t believe him, and Jesse wondered what had made her so distrustful. Of course, the minute that thought entered his mind, he remembered why she was in Royal in the first place. A man had lied to her, used her and left her pregnant and alone. The kind of man who did that was no man at all to Jesse’s way of thinking. And if he ever found the bastard, he’d make sure the son of a bitch paid for the pain he’d put so many people through.

      But was it just the impostor who’d put that wary look in Jillian’s eyes? Or was it more? And why did he give a flying damn?

      He didn’t.

      “Come on,” he said abruptly. “I’ll take you back to the motel. We’ll get your stuff.”

      “Stuff!” Mac laughed at the new word, and Jillian smiled.

      Jesse met her eyes and he watched as her smile faded. Probably best, he told himself. If that mouth of hers kept curving so temptingly, he wouldn’t be able to resist tasting it.

      And then where would they be?