Heartland. Sara Walter Ellwood

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      Lacy ate the last of the carrots, then she and Jack moved aside to let Tinkerbell get closer to her mistress. The thoroughbred had been trained to barrel race, and Emily had taken to the sport not long after Mike had given the mare to her. After his trial for shooting Seth, attempted kidnapping of her, and the rest of his grocery list of crimes, she’d wondered if he’d given her the horse to distract her from her dream of becoming a singer. He’d been paranoid someone would recognize either her as Seth’s daughter due to her talent, or by her resemblance to him, which singing made more pronounced.

      Tinkerbell whinnied bringing her back to the present. “Okay, I brought you a snack, too. Hold your horses.” She grinned at the old phrasing she’d used as a kid and tucked the empty plastic bag into her pocket, then held out the apple she’d snagged.

      The mare nickered and sniffed at the offering before taking a bite. Emily stepped in beside the horse and stroked her sleek neck. “God, I’ve missed you, Tink. Life was much simpler back then.”

      Tinkerbell finished her snack and nodded her head as if she agreed with Emily, and she laughed as she hugged the mare. “You’re in here with the old folks, eh? When was the last time anyone rode you?”

      Emily considered saddling her up and taking her out, but almost as soon as the thought entered her mind she rejected it. She hadn’t been on a horse for over three years. Not that she’d forgotten how to ride, nor did she distrust Tinkerbell, but she didn’t have any riding clothes or boots. She stepped in front of the horse and stroked over the long white blaze down Tink’s face.

      “I’m sorry, but I can’t ride you right now.” She kissed the horse above her nose, and Tink nuzzled her cheek. “We’ll go out tomorrow. How about that?”

      “I remember when you rode that horse everywhere you went.”

      Startled by the deep voice, she turned. EJ Cowley leaned on the top rail of the fence, and from the look of it, he’d been there for a while. He’d changed out of the brown uniform of the McAllister County sheriff’s department. She couldn’t help looking him over. Dressed in worn boots, faded jeans, a blue western shirt, and a brown Stetson, he epitomized every sexy cliché existing about how a cowboy should look.

      Her heart sped up at the way those clothes fit him. Which irritated the hell out of her. She turned back to her horse and stroked her long face. “What are you doing here?”

      “My sister-in-law watches my son while I’m at work.”

      She stilled. Had she been quasi-lusting after a married man? Hadn’t he married Raquel Marshall? She glanced over her shoulder at his left hand. No ring. But then a lot of cowboys didn’t wear their wedding bands when they were working. The risk of getting it caught on something was too great.

      Despite his clothes, he must have come off duty as the county’s ticket-happy sheriff not too long ago. She patted Tink’s shoulder. “See you in the morning, girl.” As she headed toward the man, who was not hiding the fact he appreciated what he saw, she guessed he wasn’t still married, but she’d been around the world a few times and knew not to take a man’s blatant interest as proof of anything. “You have a son. How is Raquel these days?”

      She was close enough to notice his gray eyes had turned as haunted as a gravestone when she asked about his wife. He looked to the left, toward his brother’s house, and from the way a muscle twitched in his jaw, he must have gritted his teeth. “She committed suicide two years ago today.”

      “Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She stammered. What else had happened to the people she’d once considered friends she was unaware of? “How old is your little boy?”

      He took a deep breath and met her gaze again. She studied his eyes as they moved over her face. God, he had the most fascinating eyes. They weren’t truly blue, but the gray was an odd shade. Too light to be slate, but too dark to be silver. They reminded her of her great-grandmother’s pewter candleholders.

      “Two.”

      As silence engulfed them, she turned to head for the gate. She had no idea what was up with the sheriff, and she didn’t like her desire to ask. EJ Cowley may have filled her schoolgirl fantasies, but she wasn’t the wide-eyed kid who crushed after the local cowboy-turned-soldier.

      “Emwee?”

      At the sound of her name, she glanced past EJ to the porch. Johnny stood there with his toy lightsaber and x-wing. She promised to play a video game with her brother. “Well, it was good seeing you again, EJ.”

      She was halfway across the drive when his voice stopped her. “By the way”--He cleared his throat--“I lost your ticket...”

      Stopping in the middle of the driveway, she looked over her shoulder at him. His face puckered as if he’d eaten a lemon soaked in vinegar. He took his hat off and ran a hand through his short hair. The setting sun turned the tresses a gleaming gold.

      “You lost it?” Damned if she’d make it easy on him. “After going through all the trouble of stopping me a mile away from home?”

      Setting his hat back on his head, he cleared his throat again and stood with his feet apart. He gave a quick jerk with his head in the affirmative. “Can’t find it anywhere. No ticket. No proof. You’re off the hook.”

      Holy crap, he was gorgeous, and heat flooded her to pool in her belly. She turned, not wanting him to see the way he affected her, and headed for the porch, then lied through her teeth. “Good, because I’ve already tossed it.” She had every intention of paying the fine, but she was glad he lost the ticket. No decent cop would lose a ticket. Maybe he did it out of remembrance of their childhood friendship. Or was he as attracted to her as she was to him?

      With an inward shake of herself, she didn’t let a possible answer formulate in her muddled brain. She couldn’t be anything to him. You’re pregnant with another man’s child and don’t need the added stress! At the door into the kitchen, she ruffled Johnny’s hair and turned, ignoring her self-admonishment. “See you around, EJ.”

      “Yeah… See you around.” He tipped his hat and turned on his heel to amble toward his extended cab Silverado.

      From inside the screen door, she watched the way he filled out the backside of his Wrangler’s and muttered, “Hell yeah, I hope so.”

      Chapter 5

      What the hell happened?

      EJ hadn’t acted that damned tongue tied around a girl since he asked Raquel to the eighth grade dance. The screen door slapped closed after Emily entered the kitchen. With the vision of her long bare legs replaying in his mind, he turned on his heel and headed for his truck. He’d always thought she had a great pair of legs when he’d seen her splashed across the magazines or on TV, but seeing them up close and personal was enough to remind him how long it had been since he’d been with a woman.

      When Raquel and he were married for a month, he’d been called up for a special mission with his Army Ranger unit. She was three months pregnant. By the time he’d come back from the mission that ended his military career two months later, she refused to sleep with him, claiming she was too uncomfortable from the pregnancy and he was too moody all the time to have sex. After the birth, they barely looked at each other and he suffered from horrible nightmares. He remained sleeping on the futon in the living room of their two-bedroom apartment.

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