Erin's Way. Laura Browning

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СКАЧАТЬ back in horror.

      “Think about it. She’d have her privacy. We would have ours. She’s nearly twenty-seven, Katie. I’m sure there are areas of her life I don’t want or need to know about. And quite frankly, I think we’re due for a little privacy.” He grinned at her. “Maybe a lot of privacy.”

       Chapter 2

      Sam woke up and lay still for a moment, instantly alert, darkness thick around him. The time he’d spent in the military had left a lasting effect. He assessed his surroundings, listening for what had awakened him. He heard it again. Crying. Who? Erin.

      She never cried. Even as a kid. It was one of the things he’d always remembered about her. With Stoner in her face, she’d been dry-eyed and defiant, as tough and hardheaded as any of the Richardsons.

      Sam bolted out of bed, snatched a pair of sweat pants over his boxers, which were already a concession to having a female in the house, and padded silently along the hallway. She lay on the couch, curled on her side toward the woodstove. He started to say something to her, then realized she still slept. He approached her cautiously. God, when had he ever approached Erin with anything but caution? He squatted next to her.

      “Don’t hurt them,” she mumbled. “Not Matty!”

      “Erin,” he coaxed. “Come on, baby, wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

      Suddenly he was pinned by her dark, blue-gray gaze. With awareness of where she was and who stared at her, her expression changed. She wiped away the emotion and her look became unreadable.

      “You okay?” he asked, knowing any additional sympathy would put her on the attack.

      “Yeah.” She laughed cynically. “It was a stupid dream. Sorry if I woke you up. Was I yelling?”

      Sam half smiled. “Yeah.” No way would he tell her she had cried. He had never, ever seen Erin cry, not when she broke her arm, not when Stoner put her pony down because it jumped the fence and was hit by a car, and not even when he had dragged her out of Sam’s bed. Erin never cried. To hear she did so in her sleep? It ripped his guts right out. Even if she believed him, he couldn’t imagine how mortified she would be. “Uh. I was up anyway. You want a cup of tea?”

      Erin snorted. “Only if you can lace it with some bourbon.”

      He looked over his shoulder at her. “Sorry, I got enough of alcohol when my father was alive.” Sure he took a drink now and then, but he wasn’t about to tell her he had booze in the house.

      She rolled away from him. Once again, he stared at her stiff back. Obviously their conversation was over as far as she was concerned. Sam forced himself to walk away. He shouldn’t think about her. He didn’t want or need a complication like Erin. The problem was that every time he started dating other women, he compared them to her. Somehow, they ended up too boring, too stupid, or too weak-spirited. And boy would that be embarrassing if anyone knew, the bachelor lawman and the wild child of Richardson Homestead. Too much history stretched between them. He thought of the birth control pills again. She had moved on, and so should he.

      Sam heated water in the microwave, dumped a teabag in, and waited for it to steep. He remembered when Erin had crashed the party at the country club last fall. She had been stoned out of her head, maybe drunk as well, but underneath, the feisty defiance that had always called to him was still there. It had been enough to make him step between her and Stoner when her father would have slapped her.

      “Sam?”

      He turned so abruptly he nearly spilled his tea. Erin stood there leaning against the doorjamb. She had changed into some kind of baggy cotton pants and a long sleeved, high-necked shirt that hung nearly to her knees. Such modest attire for sleeping made for a contrast that was hard to reconcile with what she wore in public.

      “What is it?” he asked, rubbing the ache in the back of his neck. He didn’t want to play any more games.

      “I—tea would be okay.” The defensiveness was gone from her voice. It actually sounded like she was making an effort to be friendly, even if she didn’t quite meet his gaze. Sam wanted her to look at him with the same intensity; he was relieved she didn’t. It didn’t make sense, but then whatever it was between the two of them never had.

      While he grabbed another mug, filled, and nuked it, she wandered restlessly around the room, her delicate fingers touching things here and there until finally she stood next to him. Next to, but not touching him. He’d encountered wild animals less wary than Erin.

      She was still no bigger than a mosquito, he thought, smiling inwardly. The top of her head was no higher than his chest. He thought of Stoner…taller still than him, and Catherine…herself a tall, slender woman. Evan was also tall. Erin must have felt like a misfit from the very beginning in that family. Meeting Tabby wouldn’t have changed her mind. Her half sister was somewhere around five-ten.

      “Why did you come back?” Sam asked. He hadn’t meant to. God only knew it was none of his business, and he didn’t want it to be his business. He needed to be smart, remain aloof, but sometime what he knew logically, his heart wouldn’t obey.

      “Would you believe me if I said I discovered a desire for hearth and home?”

      Sam chuckled. “No.”

      She grinned at him, but the shadows still lingered on her elfin face. “I came back because I have the hots for you. Would you believe that?”

      His heart pounded, and other parts too, at just the thought of it.

      “No.” But he wanted to. Man, did he want to. “I hardly think we would be a perfect fit, Erin.”

      She flashed a smile. “The druggy and the lawman. Probably not.” She prowled the room again, stopping and striking a dramatic pose and tone. “What if I said I ran away from a member of a notorious crime family, and I believe he might still try to find me and kill me?”

      Sam stared at the way she had her hand clutched to her chest, and he laughed.

      Erin tilted her head and grinned. “No one would believe that, would they? Silly of me. I’ll simply have to think of something more plausible.”

      “Do you want something to eat?”

      She shook her head. As she took the tea, he noticed the faint tremor in her hands and wondered if it was leftover from her nightmare, or a function of all the substance abuse. He pulled a chair out and sat, but Erin continued to prowl. If it wasn’t so much a part of who she was, it would have made him uneasy, but she had been constantly on the move as a child too, always searching, always looking for the next diversion.

      “I’m sorry about your fence.” She paused, but almost immediately her gaze shifted restlessly around, looking anywhere but at him, as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. Once upon a time, she’d worshiped him, now her avoidance was as painful as a slap. “I—I saw a deer, a cow, or something in the road and swerved. Let me know what I can do to fix it.”

      Sam studied her, sizing her up. He wanted her to stick around. Somewhere deep inside, he knew she was looking for an excuse as well. Gut feeling told him this might be the last chance they had to find out what, if anything, there was between them. As much as logic and reason told him to stay away, his heart had always carried another message. His heart won.

      “I СКАЧАТЬ