The Cowboy And The Debutante. Stella Bagwell

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      Miguel didn’t know why he’d asked the question, but he was irritated at himself because he had. Hell, it didn’t matter how long the woman was going to be here. If he never saw her again after this moment he would survive just fine.

      Home to stay. Miguel Chavez had no idea how wonderful those words sounded to Anna. She’d had years of extensive training in piano, and her parents and the rest of her family were proud of her accomplishments. They would surely be disappointed if she suddenly turned her back on her career.

      “No. Only for an extended vacation,” she said bluntly. Then, realizing the saddling was finished and there was no need for her to tarry here in the stables any longer, she led the mare ahead three or four steps and swung herself into the saddle.

      Miguel stepped back out of the way and gave her a little salute from the brim of his hat. “Adios, Anna. Maybe before your vacation is over you’ll have Ginger convinced to swear off the male gender, too.”

      Pausing, she looked down at him from her lofty perch and hoped he couldn’t spot the faint pink on her cheeks. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone or anything had made her blush. This man had managed to do it twice in less than five minutes. Damn him!

      “If Ginger is as smart as I think she is, I’ll have her turning her nose up at that stallion over there.”

      “Poor Ginger.”

      To Anna’s amazement, she wanted to climb down from the mare, poke her finger in the middle of Miguel Chavez’s chest and tell him exactly what she thought of his raw remark. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know he riled her. For years Anna had trained herself to be a cool, sophisticated woman. It was an image she projected to her audience and even her family. She wasn’t about to let this man know he could make her lose control.

      “Goodbye, Mr. Chavez,” she said bluntly, then touched her heels to the horse’s sides and left him and the cool, dim interior of the stables behind.

      She rode south, forging across the shallow Hondo, then up into the mountains where the pines grew thick and the carpet of needles beneath them silenced the mare’s hooves.

      At a rocky ledge halfway up, she reined Ginger to a halt and gazed back down on the valley below.

      To Anna there was no place like the Hondo Valley. Santa Fe, where she’d played her last engagement, was known for its art and culture and mysticism, but this was the New Mexico Anna loved. There was everything in the valley. Horses, cattle, fruit orchards, forest and desert and something mixed of the two. And it was home. Nothing was better than that.

      Ginger shook her head as a mosquito buzzed around her ears. Anna swatted the insect away, then patted the mare’s neck. As she did, the lean, dark image of Miguel Chavez skipped through her mind.

      The man had been a complete surprise to her. Not that having a Mexican-American working on the Bar M was anything unusual. Quite the contrary. Her parents normally hired more Hispanics than Anglos and they were as much a part of this area as the Apaches. When she’d looked into his handsome face, his ancestry had been the last thing on her mind.

      There was something about Miguel that had made her feel different in a way she’d never quite felt before. When he’d looked at her and grinned that outlandishly sexy grin at her, all she’d been able to think was that she was a woman and he was a man. It was ridiculous!

      But Anna had far more important things to think about than a tough cowboy who was at least ten years older than her and probably married, besides. She had to gather herself together, refuel her mind and her body. Otherwise, after these next six weeks passed, she didn’t know whether she could make herself go back on the road again.

      She loved playing the piano, but she was growing weary of the nomadic life and the demands of performing for an audience. The weight of her job was taking a toll on her body. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept the whole night through. Fatigue was her constant companion and her once-healthy appetite had almost vanished.

      To please her parents last week, she’d gone for a medical checkup. When the doctor had assured Anna there was nothing physically wrong, both her mother and father had quickly assumed she was still grieving over her breakup with Scott. And Anna had found it easier to let them go on thinking she was simply suffering from a broken heart.

      Truth was after she’d gotten over the initial shock of walking in and finding Scott in another woman’s arms, Anna had come to realize she had never loved him with the same wild, deep need that her mother and father felt for each other. She hadn’t been devastated when their relationship ended. She’d been relieved. And that in itself worried her. She was beginning to fear she was going to be like her birth mother, who’d flitted from one man and one bad relationship to the next.

      With a heavy sigh, Anna reined the paint away from the ledge and headed her back down the mountain. The sun was dipping lower in the west, and her father would soon be home for supper. For his sake she was going to change clothes, put on her cheeriest face and make herself eat a whole plate of food.

      Back at the stables there was no sign of Miguel Chavez. Although there were several wranglers working around the ranch yard doing last-minute evening chores, she unsaddled her mount, then brushed and fed her herself. The last thing she wanted was for word to get back to the foreman that she was a spoiled little rich girl. In her opinion the man was already far too smug. She didn’t want to give him reason to be even more so.

      Later that evening after supper, Anna helped her mother clear away the dirty dishes, then Chloe carried a pot of coffee out to the courtyard at the back of the ranch house where redwood furniture was grouped beneath a stand of piñon pines.

      Her father had taken about two sips when his pager beeped. Mumbling his annoyance, he checked the number, then rose to his feet. “Looks like I’m going to have to leave you two beautiful ladies. Sander’s Gas Exploration is calling.”

      “We’ll try to do without you for a few minutes, darling,” Chloe told him.

      Anna watched her father head back into the house, then with a little sigh, snuggled deeper into the cushioned chair.

      “Are you cold, honey? Would you rather go back in?” Chloe asked her.

      Cooler air had moved in with the night, but Anna had pulled on a sweater before she’d left the house. “No. I’m fine. It’s beautiful out tonight.”

      A few feet away an oval swimming pool was edged with huge terra-cotta pots filled with geraniums, marigolds and zinnias. Anna wished the water was warm enough to dive into. She couldn’t remember when she’d taken the time for a leisurely swim. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone at anything in a leisurely way.

      A few feet away, Anna’s mother, Chloe, studied her daughter’s quiet profile for several moments, then said, “I wish you were enjoying yourself more. You’ve been back on the ranch for three days now, and I don’t think I’ve heard you laugh yet.”

      Anna twisted her head around to face her mother. “I’m enjoying myself, Mother. You know how long I’ve wanted to come home.”

      Chloe didn’t look a bit convinced. “Yes. But now that you’re here I’m not so sure it’s what you were really needing.”

      Grimacing, Anna rose from the chair and strolled over to the swimming pool. “Mother, please don’t tell me I’d be СКАЧАТЬ