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She sat down on the barn floor, glad for Grant’s penchant for cleanliness and his ranch hands’ follow-through Snoopy nuzzled her neck before settling down beside her and laying his head in her lap She scratched behind his ears again while she contemplated both her own and Grant’s reaction to the kiss

The one relationship in her life she knew she could count on was her friendship with Grant, and she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize it She didn’t want to get hurt again either

It had been a whole lot easier when she’d been living in Portland and going to college, and then doing her teaching practice Maybe co home had been a mistake in more ways than one She’d wanted to mend her relationship with her father, but that hadn’t worked out He’d sold the ranch and , like she’d thought it would be, her constant proxi her libido out of control While out of sight hadn’t exactly been out of mind, without his constant physical presence she’d been able to convince herself that this passionate encounter in the barn had been an aberration and she didn’t want hi froot even half of their clothes off, like they had that fateful night? And, ive hi him her heart, and if she did would it help her to dish her once and for all?

She didn’t know the answer to those questions, but she did know it irritated her that Grant had a rule against kissing her It brought out a primitive, competitive side to her nature, and a speculative look settled on her face It was a look that Grant kneell and one he’d learned to be very wary of

The se control mode on more than one occasion too, but he wasn’t there to see it now Poor guy

Grant could not believe that he had kissed Zoe Talk about sheer ht hard to suppress rose to the surface, re him of how it felt to hold his best friend’s delectable body in his arms A nuclear meltdoould have been cooler

After filling a pot ater, he placed it on the gas range to heat, and then redients for the cheese sauce He wasn’t a fool, so why had he behaved like one? Zoe was his best friend She was younger than him and needed to be protected, not seduced He’d almost done that once when she was nineteen He wouldn’t have stopped, and he’d had her half-naked before she’d coo had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done It was right up there with trying to live with hi the look of horror on her face when she’d run from the barn after he’d all but taken her innocence At twenty-four, he’d had a lot more experience than her, and she hadn’t knohat to do with the feelings their kisses had inspired but he had And he’d tried to do it

It was not a ood about hiet their friendship back on track, and to do it had gone so far as to flirt with a woman from New York a few days later at the town dance It had worked Until now He wasn’t about to repeat hisZoe’s friendship, but, da how good she tasted was not going to help hi He didn’t need to reed to another part of his life The permanent part

Any physical relationship between them would have to be transitory He didn’t do permanent He didn’t even try to anymore Besides, she would be no happier as a rancher’s wife than she had as a rancher’s daughter And he’d learned that leaving the ranch was not an option for hied here But she didn’t That left her place in Grant’s life pretty well defined: friend

And friendship was good, especially with Zoe She didn’t care about his s, or his mother’s connections on the east coast Zoe only cared about Grant, and that kind of friendship wasn’t so sex

He pulled out a block of Tilla it into a bowl

“It’s freezing out there”

He swung around to face her, still holding the cheese in one hand and the grater in the other Snow stuck to her hair and jacket Her hands were red frorab her and take up where they had left off on the couch