Lean, Mean and Lonesome. Annette Broadrick

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СКАЧАТЬ something like panic, Mandy peered through the glass of the back door as she turned on the kitchen light.

      A tall, lean man stepped away from the side of the house when he saw her at the door. The illumination from the kitchen revealed him to her slowly, as though her senses would go into overload if she were presented with his entire presence at once.

      “Rafe,” she whispered to herself, trying to come to grips with his unexpected presence. She cleared her throat. “Ranger, that’s enough!” she said firmly. The dog stopped barking, but continued to growl. She opened the door and motioned for Rafe to come inside. Her heart felt as though it was going to jump out of her chest.

      As he moved into the light she saw his boots first—work—ing boots that should have been retired years before. The light moved up his frame, slowly revealing him to her. Faded denim jeans lovingly clung to his long, muscular legs and emphasized his masculinity. A faded denim shirt that looked strained across his broad chest was open at the neck to reveal a strong column of dark skin at the throat. She saw a well-defined jawline bristling with a couple of days’ growth of beard.

      He definitely needed a haircut, she thought, noticing how his dark hair fell across his forehead to his brows. The last to be revealed as he stepped past her into the house was the expression in his black eyes.

      She shivered. “What are you doing here?”

      A glint of white showed when his lips turned up in a half smile. “I didn’t intend to frighten you. I’m looking for Dan.”

      “Dan?”

      “Yeah. He asked me to come back.”

      She placed her hand on Ranger’s head. “Enough,” she said to the rumbling dog. “You’ve made your point.” She spoke without taking her eyes off Rafe.

      The light mercilessly showed her that the man before her was no longer the boy she remembered. There were creases in his cheeks that bracketed his mouth. More creases covered his forehead. Deep lines were around his eyes. Whatever he’d been doing since she’d last seen him, Rafe’s life hadn’t been easy.

      The shock of being awakened from a sound sleep to find Rafe McClain had suddenly leaped back into her life had her reeling. “How did you get here?” she asked. What she really wanted to know was if this was some stress-induced dream she was having. Could she find a way to wake up and discover she was still tucked in bed with only Ranger for company?

      He leaned back against the door and allowed Ranger to check him out. When the dog appeared to be satisfied, he said, “The usual way. Plane and car—until I got to the ranch. Then I had to hoof it the rest of the way. Why does Dan have the gate padlocked? Does that have something to do with why he sent for me?”

      She shook her head, trying to clear it None of this was making any sense.

      Rafe McClain was back in Texas. He was here because of Dan.

      Dan. She shivered. “When did you talk to him?” she asked.

      “I haven’t. He wrote me a letter a while back. It took some time to catch up with me. Said he needed my help.” He shrugged his shoulders. “So I’m here.”

      She spun away from him, needing some space from the roiling emotions he provoked within her. Peering out the window, she said, “I don’t understand how you reached the house without someone seeing you.”

      “I didn’t figure getting myself shot was part of the deal. So I was careful.” He stretched and smothered a yawn.

      She forced herself to face him She leaned against the kitchen cabinet and asked, “Where have you been? I mean, where were you when Dan’s letter caught up with you?”

      “The Ukraine.”

      That surprised her, although she wasn’t sure why. “What were you doing there?”

      He lifted one of his eyebrows into a quirk. “You writing a book or something?”

      Some things never changed. Rafe had always had a sarcastic comeback when he didn’t want to answer personal questions. As far as he was concerned, every question was personal.

      Why hadn’t Dan ever mentioned to her that he was in touch with Rafe? The man’s name had never come up in all of these years. Now she finds out Dan had contacted Rafe. Why would he have thought Rafe could help him? So many unanswered questions. They continued to race around her head.

      She had to make a decision. Did she call the foreman and have Rafe evicted from the place? Surely she wasn’t expected to welcome him, despite the fact that the ranch belonged to Dan, who appeared to have invited him.

      Rafe drew up one of the kitchen chairs and sat down with a sigh. Mandy knew she was being rude. She could feel the hated color creep across her throat and cheeks.

      She’d often envied Rafe his beautifully tanned skin tha darkened into a burnished copper in the summer. In the su she turned an angry red and peeled. She’d long since decided she needed to stay in the shade. There was nothing she could do about her thin skin that reflected her embarrassment at the most inopportune times.

      This was one of them.

      He must have recognized her discomfort because he decided to answer one of her questions. “I’m a consultant.”

      A consultant. Somehow she had trouble seeing him in a suit and tie working for a corporation.

      “What kind?”

      His white smile flashed across his dark face. “Believe me, you don’t want to know.” He looked around the room “I like the way this place has been updated.”

      “So do I. Dan had it redone a couple of years ago.”

      “Do you live here now?”

      She paused. “No. I live in Dallas. I’ve taken some time off.”

      He glanced at her hands and she realized that she wa clenching them tightly. She deliberately placed them behind her and leaned against them and the cabinet.

      “You’re not married?” he asked, sounding surprised.

      She shook her head without quite meeting his gaze “No.”

      “Why not?”

      It was all right for him to ask personal questions, she noticed. “Why aren’t you married?” she replied, carrying the inquisition into his corner.

      “I never stayed in one place long enough, I guess. Mos women I’ve met tend to want their husband at home with them.”

      She couldn’t imagine Rafe in the role of husband. He was too untamed. “I suppose,” she murmured, wishing she knew what to do with him now that he was there.

      “So what’s your excuse?”

      Her gaze darted to his. She raised her chin. “Maybe no one has asked me,” she replied evenly.

      He grinned and her stomach did a somersault. “I don’t buy that one,” he said, his gaze sliding over her in an intimate perusal that made her shiver in response.

      She СКАЧАТЬ