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Rafe stayed where he hich took a whole lot more effort than it should have He felt as if she had cut hied to reduce the suuessed? He’d always been told he was tough to read Was he showing his cards, or did she have souess all of that
“You don’t approve”
“I don’t have an opinion,” she told hi to spend your life with someone you’re not in love with”
“Love is an illusion”
“You’re wrong about that Love is very real and it’s dangerous People do crazy things in the nas Love is powerful and shouldn’t be played with So, when do you get to meet the first of your candidates?”
“In a couple of days”
Heidi glanced at hi to Fool’s Gold? For a date?”
He shrugged “I tried to put Nina off, but she said it wasn’t a problem”
“That’s because you’re quite the catch, Rafe”
She wasn’t exactly laughing, but he saw the humor in her eyes When they’d firston around hi on floating logs, and in danger of slipping and falling It wasn’t a sensation he enjoyed
“Will we get to meet her?” she asked
“No”
With that he stalked out of the goat house and headed back for the kitchen He had a fence line to finish and a co to think he’d offended her by kissing her She was a lot less fragile than he’d thought In fact, she was a for nice After all, he was in Fool’s Gold for only one reason, and that was to win
HEIDI CARRIED THE MILK into the kitchen She’d already seen Rafe heading out to work, so she knew she was safe Thank goodness She wasn’t sure she could stomach another encounter with him today The last one had nearly done her in
Everything about their relationship was unfair How tall he was, how sexy, the way his smile made her feel weak in the knees And that had been with her sitting down I
It was the kiss, she thought, as she poured the erator in the mudroom The way he’d touched her and made her feel Now she knew the possibilities, and she couldn’tfor his perfect wife, she was left wanting hts in his bed
She had a feeling she’d guessed right about the kind of wo up with the list had been easy She’d si she wasn’t
She told herself it didn’t matter That when she and Glen won their case, May and Rafe would return to San Francisco She would forget all about this interruption of her regularly scheduled life, and all would be well
She poured herself a cup of coffee and walked through to the living rooht to a halt by the sound of soft laughter Soft, inti from his room Seconds later, May answered Also in his room
No, no, no, she thought, freezing in place, like a ht out in the open Not already They couldn’t be… She’d warned May, had talked to her grandfather They were old enough to know better
She backed into the kitchen and sank into a chair by the table Nohat? If Glen broke May’s heart, then they were in serious trouble An angry May could have a fair a to have to have a serious talk with hio look for so to deal with the one person she most wanted to avoid
IT TOOK HEIDI TWENTY-FOUR hours to find the courage to speak with Rafe He hadn’t co about hi friends in town Heidi wasn’t sure if she believed that
Regardless, he’d been gone, so she’d been unable to force herself to talk to hiot hoer Glen was the kind ofshe wanted to think about, protecting May was paramount
She’d heard a couple of big trucks arrive and had assu more supplies for the fence line or barn But when she stepped outside, what she found instead was a handful ofherded into corrals and Rafe on a horse
The sun was high in the bright, clear sky, the temperature still in the fifties Despite the coolness, she found herself oddly war Mason
He had a cowboy hat on his head and a rope in his hands Worn jeans hugged powerful thighs His jaas chiseled, his eyes narrowed She stuht up in theshe couldn’t hear Rafe’sabout, curved into a sht then she was in more trouble than she’d realized
As she watched, he urged Mason forward, then swung the rope in a lazy circle and dropped it around the neck of a cow Mason sat back on his heels, bringing the cow to a quick stop
Heidi wasn’t sure who had surprised her ood as he did in a suit, he seemed to know his way around the ranch She supposed the lessons learned as a child weren’t easily forgotten
She returned to the house, where she er Rafe presented to her personally, he’d estions about her business She’d already contacted several s her cheese, and was asking around to see if she could hire a sales rep, at least part-ti, she could afford to take the risk and still put the majority of the funds aside in her Pay Back May account
Glen strolled into her s cattle,” he said
“I’ht we had a deal”
Her grandfather, the person she loved rined “Now, Heidi, I’et to dictate my love life”
“Isn’t it enough you stole two hundred and fifty thousand dollars fro to break her heart?”
“Don’t say that She’s a fine woman Maybe she’s the one”
“There’s never been a ‘one’ with you, Glen I thought
you ot older, but you haven’t at all You slept with your attorney”
“That e first arrived She wasn’t my attorney then” He walked over and patted her on the shoulder “Don’t worry about me It’ll all work out”
“I’m not worried about you,” Heidi said, exasperated “I’ to work out If you hurt her, she’ll go to the judge, and we’ll lose everything Have you thought about that?”
Glen’s hu I’ve taught you, it’s that matters of the heart are unpredictable May is unexpected And ”
“I agree, but whatever pretty words you put on it, you don’t fall in love You don’t believe in love You’ve said it a thousand times You have fun and then you move on May’s been afor years She’s not the type to understand You’re risking our home”
“I’ets to o I don’t want to lose her, Heidi And I won’t Trust irl”
With that, he left
She watched hi for too much She loved him, but she didn’t trust him
She worked a couple ed off her computer and went into the kitchen Rafe stood by the sink, drinking water He’d dropped his hat onto a chair by the table and rolled up his sleeves Sweat darkened his shirt and dust stained his jeans He looked like an ad for souely sexy
He finished the glass, then refilled it froerator As he poured, he glanced at her
“They’re gone You can roa attacked by feral cattle”
“Thanks for arranging that”
“No problelass of water, then turned to her “What?”