To Tempt a Cowgirl. Jeannie Watt

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СКАЧАТЬ well,” she said noncommittally. Now that he was here, she couldn’t help but flash on the standpipes. The horse escape.

      “Good.” He attempted a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Hear from Allie lately?”

      “I have,” she said, the same noncommittal note in her voice.

      “Is she doing okay?”

      “Starting school is an adjustment, but yes. I’d say she’s doing okay.” She and Kyle had gotten along just fine until Allie had become so unhappy with her marriage. After that, things had gotten awkward. And now that she was wondering if he’d been vandalizing the ranch out of spite, she wanted him off her property. Now.

      “She did say that you were bringing the tractor back soon,” Dani said, pushing back a few strands of windblown hair as she tipped her chin up at him.

      His face started to go pink as it always did when he was confronted on an issue. “I’ll bring it back this weekend. I’ve been on vacation at the Washington coast.” He spoke with an edge of challenge in his voice, making her wonder if he expected her to question his whereabouts. It also made her wonder if she was in for more retribution via property vandalism if she crossed him. “I heard you made a call to Dispatch while I was off.”

      “A week ago.”

      “Today was my first day back and when I heard, I thought I’d stop by and check out the situation.”

      The fact that he was doing that made her wonder when exactly he’d left and if he’d stopped by the Lighting Creek on his way out of town to stomp a few standpipes, let a few animals go. It’d be a passive-aggressive way to give Allie grief...or maybe to take out his frustrations on the ranch he wasn’t going to get a piece of.

      “Nothing to check out,” Dani said. “A neighbor helped me with the problem and he was the one who suggested that I make a report.”

      “A neighbor?”

      “Yeah.” She turned to point across the field. “A guy who designs parks is renting the Staley house for a vacation.” As if Kyle wouldn’t already know this. Sheriff’s office personnel knew everything in this county. “Long story, but we’d met a couple of times and when I found the standpipes broken off, I called to see if he could help me find the water main.”

      Kyle frowned in the direction of the house for a few thoughtful seconds before turning his gaze back to Dani. “You don’t think that’s a little suspicious?”

      “What?”

      “He moves into the place next door, then strange things start happening here?”

      Dani frowned back. “No. I don’t find it suspicious because I don’t think he had anything to do with it.” Yes, he could have let out Lacy, because she didn’t know his whereabouts when that happened, but she knew exactly where Gabe was when the standpipes were snapped—with her.

      Kyle didn’t look convinced and Dani had to bite her lip to keep from saying, “Nice try, Kyle, but I think I know who’s responsible for doing those things...and so do you.” He’d only deny it and right now her objective was to get him off the property.

      “I heard Jolie is moving back,” he said as if she hadn’t spoken.

      Dani smiled, wondering when her ex-brother-in-law was going to get the hint that he wasn’t going to get a lot of family information from her. She didn’t want to burn any bridges, but she wasn’t going to open up to him, either.

      Kyle glanced down at his dusty boots, his eyebrows drawn together in a thoughtful frown, then back across the field at the Staley house. “I might just see what this guy’s about,” he said.

      “He’s not about anything,” Dani said, earning herself a sharp cop look.

      “You don’t know that.”

      She let out a barely audible sigh. “No, I don’t. But I haven’t seen him in a week.”

      “And nothing’s happened in a week.”

      “Are you trying to make me nervous?” she asked.

      “I’m trying to keep you safe. Allie and I might have split the sheets, but that doesn’t mean I can shut off feeling protective just like that.”

      Dani had never noticed a lot of protectiveness before the divorce, but she wasn’t fool enough to say that when all she wanted was to get rid of him. “Look. I just want to be a good neighbor. I don’t feel threatened. Would you mind holding off on seeing what the guy is about until something else happens?” Which she was pretty damned certain wouldn’t.

      Kyle studied her for a moment and Dani did her best to look unconcerned. “If you have anything strange happen, you call me,” he said, pointing his index finger at her.

      “I will.”

      He nodded. “All right.” Another awkward face-off and then he headed to his SUV.

      Dani walked toward the house, even though she still had outside chores. She needed a drink. Or maybe just to splash cold water on her warm face. What she didn’t need was for Kyle to harass her next-door neighbor. She’d just as soon stay off the guy’s radar, because frankly, she didn’t like how easily she could conjure up that mental picture of him standing on his porch when she’d gone to collect her truck, looking all rumpled and sexy. Or the way she’d found herself leaning across the table toward him when they went to lunch. Oh, yeah, she was attracted. Like a magnet. She knew nothing about the guy, had been recently burned in the worst way, yet her primal instincts were saying, “Oh, yes. We must have some of this.”

      Not. Going. To. Happen.

      Of course it wasn’t. She hadn’t seen Gabe in a week. He’d made a duty call after the standpipe incident and after that, nothing. For all she knew, Gina, who’d made no secret about finding him supersexy, was having her way with him and he’d never given her another thought... No, she would know that, because Gina wasn’t quiet about her conquests. But that didn’t change the fact that he was keeping his distance and that was exactly the way she wanted things.

      She glanced over her shoulder at the Staley house before pulling open the door. Off the radar. That was where she wanted to be.

      * * *

      “SHE’S A REAL nice little horse,” the older man leaning against the fence said as they watched the dark brown mare with the white legs trot around the round pen. “What exactly are you looking for?”

      Gabe shot him a look and the man said, “A trail horse? Arena horse? Cutting? Roping?”

      “Ah. Well, to tell you the truth, I’m looking for a horse with no bad habits and I figure if I get one that hasn’t been used and have it trained, then I might just get that.”

      The old guy smiled broadly. “You’re on the right track there.” He gestured to the round pen, where a woman with golden-brown hair that fell almost to her waist was putting a horse through its paces. She looked a lot like Dani, only smaller, her hair a shade darker. “Marti is one of the best trainers in the area. If she wasn’t, then she wouldn’t work here...even if she is my daughter.”

      Gabe СКАЧАТЬ