The Sheriff With The Wyoming-Size Heart. Kara Larkin

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СКАЧАТЬ the first time I’ve had to hunt her down.”

      To keep the edge of anxiety from his voice as much as to relieve the sudden dryness in his mouth, he drank deeply. In the pause, he realized Margo Haynes was staring past him, at something more in her mind than in the room.

      The lull only lasted a second before she blinked it away. “I can only guess how much you must worry.”

      “Yeah.” But it didn’t seem like a guess. Somewhere in her tone or in her expressions, he sensed she knew the same concern. “I’d never forgive myself if anything ever happened to her.”

      “No parent would.” She met his eyes over the rim of her goblet.

      Something in her eyes rippled across the room and spread warmth across his skin. Not humor. Not invitation. Not even empathy. Unable to identify it, he let it slide over him like a breeze. He’d come for his daughter’s sake, and he’d expected his daughter to be their only common ground. “Ariel really liked visiting you today.”

      “So did I. Very much.”

      “You gave. her something I didn’t know she needed.”

      A brief hesitation played across Margo’s features and lengthened into a pause before she spoke. “Maybe it was a fair trade.”

      “Her mother died two years ago. It hasn’t been easy for either of us.”

      “No.”

      In the murmur of that single word Riley recognized the landscape of longing. The dark, empty paths he’d traveled since Kendra’s death had taken him to places he never wanted to visit again. Reminded of them by this woman’s tone, he searched her face.

      She spoke before he could think of the right thing to say. “I wanted to read you the riot act for letting her wander around alone.”

      He remembered. “I’d say you had a pretty good start on one. What slowed you down?”

      With a debut of a smile that shimmered too briefly, she lifted her glass and met his eyes over the rim. “A strong self-preservation instinct.”

      With a self-conscious laugh, he settled back and propped one ankle on the opposite knee. “Sorry about that.”

      “Actually, your worry reassured me. I didn’t like to think of her straying around like that because nobody cared enough to be sure she didn’t.”

      True concern for his daughter radiated from Margo Haynes, although Riley couldn’t say how. But she had an intensity—interest, warmth, something--that he hadn’t gotten from even those friends who’d helped him fill in the gaps after Kendra died. Or more recently, since Mrs. Whittaker left.

      Far stronger than the brief impact of her smile, it resonated through him with an almost sensuous cadence, in an undertone like the low thrum of a city heard from a distance. Determined to ignore whatever it was, he stretched out his legs and polished off his juice. “So, what brought you to Laramie? Work?”

      She shook her head and shifted her eyes to the fire. “The university library.” Her smile stayed fixed, but the vibration between them changed, not in speed but in timbre. No longer smooth, it took on a raspy, discordant quality.

      In a lifetime of meeting people, confronting them, interrogating them, rescuing them and soothing them, Riley had never experienced anything like the rhythm pulsing between them. He wanted to know its cause, understand it, maybe explore it.

      “Librarian?”

      She shook her head. “Writer.”

      “I guess writers need access to a good library.”

      “It helps us keep our facts straight.”

      As an outdoor type guy, he couldn’t imagine a job that could only be done while sitting down. The amount of desk work he had to do pushed the limits of his tolerance. “And where did you move from?”

      “Texas.” The way she kept her eyes fixed on the fire made him wonder what she saw—how far away and how long ago. “I came here from Texas.”

      “Just in time to enjoy winter in Wyoming.”

      She shrugged. “I was tired of the heat.”

      In the firelight, her eyes glinted, but he couldn’t tell if the sparkle was a trick of the blaze or came from within. It disconcerted him not to be able to read her. Interpreting people was a big part of his job, and he was good at it. He had a sixth sense that worked about ninety-five percent of the time. He could usually tell if someone was lying, or planning to pull a fast one, or sucking up, or scared, or willing to cooperate. He got none of those impressions from her.

      The lack of tension in her expression made him wonder what the hell caused that unfamiliar vibration that continued between them. It had to be coming from her, yet it beat through him like his pulse.

      As if oblivious to it, she sipped from her goblet. “Are you from here?”

      “Upstate. My folks live in Powell.”

      She stood and crossed to the fireplace. Orange light danced across half her face, throwing the other half into soft shadow. “I hear it’s beautiful country up there.”

      Almost as beautiful as the view from where he sat.

      He quelled the emotion behind the thought. Margo Haynes was a stranger. Twenty minutes ago he hadn’t even known her name. Ten hours ago he hadn’t known she existed. He had to concentrate on why he’d come. For Ariel. This had nothing to do with Margo’s beauty, her loneliness, her vulnerability, or her damn radiance. But hell, she was exquisite.

      “Ariel and I go up as often as we can. You’d like it in early summer, when the wildflowers are at their peak.”

      “Probably.”

      Another tremor warped the rhythm, again without an outward sign that what either of them said affected her in any way. Riley backtracked through the conversation, but he couldn’t find a pattern.

      Margo finished her juice. Serenely. Wasn’t the pulse vibrating through her as strong and baffling as it throbbed through him?

      “Are your parents both still alive?” she asked.

      “Yeah. They own a store, and are going as strong as ever. Yours?”

      “I lost them both a long time ago. I’ll bet yours dote on Ariel.”

      “Every chance they get.”

      “She’s a lucky girl.”

      “She has a knack for winning hearts. She’s got everyone in my department wrapped around her little finger. My parents think she walks on water.”

      “I can see why. She’s delightful.”

      Drawn before he realized it, Riley joined her at the fireplace. “She’d like to visit you again.”

      Excitement played across Margo’s face as if she were a kid at a carnival, and her eyes grew brighter. “I’d like СКАЧАТЬ