Home To Copper Mountain. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ to him yet his presence in her bedroom made her feel violated, though she knew he’d meant her no harm. “You’re the son with the death wish. The Hill Country’s a little far out of your way for a pit stop, isn’t it?”

      Avoiding his eyes, she waited until he’d disappeared out the door before reaching for her crutches.

      That’s when she saw her spiral notebook still open and lying on the bed next to her hip. The pencil had fallen to the floor.

      “Racetrack Lover!”

      Oh no! Had he read what she’d written?

      Audra closed the book and put it on the bedstand. In a few clumsy moves she eased herself off the mattress and was able to grab fresh underwear from the drawer.

      No way was she going to wear another pair of shorts in front of him. Snug jeans were impossible to put on. A blouse and skirt would be easier to manage than a dress with a zipper up the back.

      She pulled a light-blue blouse and denim skirt from the hangers in the closet, then moved to the bathroom across the hall as fast as she could.

      Since she was unable to shower with the cast on, a quick sponge bath would have to do for today. The small bathroom left little space for her cast and the crutches, too.

      She applied a dusky pomegranate shade of lipstick and flicked a brush through her curls. There wasn’t anything she could do about the shadows under her eyes.

      “Did you close and lock your window?” he asked as she entered the living room a few minutes later.

      “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think? Until a few minutes ago we’ve never had a break-in.”

      She hadn’t meant to sound sarcastic, but it must have come out sounding that way, because he grimaced.

      “Then you’re damn lucky.”

      “According to your father, so are you,” she drawled.

      The room was charged with tension, which broke as he moved toward the hallway. Audra made a half turn with her crutches.

      Over her shoulder she said, “If you’re determined to be a Boy Scout instead of an intruder, you might as well put the screen back on while you’re at it.”

      After that reminder she opened the front door and started down the porch steps. There were only two of them. She managed without difficulty.

      It didn’t surprise her to find a new, gleaming black BMW parked in front of the bungalow. The kind of car she was seeing more and more of these days on the back roads…

      Rich trespassers were raping the land with their easy money and didn’t know a gelding from a stallion. Did the racetrack lover know the difference? It would be interesting to find out.

      RICK STARTED UP the car without saying anything to her. He backed out of the driveway, past the mailbox, to the road leading to the main ranch house. When he’d offered to pick up Pam’s cousin as a way to help, all he’d known about her was that she was recovering from an automobile accident in which the driver had been killed. Apparently, the man had worked at the same radio station she did.

      Though he was armed with that much knowledge, he couldn’t have imagined what awaited him at the bungalow. The screams he’d heard coming from inside were so bloodcurdling, he still hadn’t recovered.

      Ms. Audra Jarrett had come as a big surprise to him in more ways than one.

      She was in her early to mid-twenties. For some reason he’d had the erroneous impression she was much closer to Pam’s forty. He’d never been partial to red hair, but then he’d never seen a shining mass of dark-mahogany curls before. They danced above a pair of blue-gray eyes so close in color to his mother’s, he was taken by surprise.

      While he’d tried to wake the writhing woman on top of the bed, his gaze had been drawn to the curves of her slender body, making it impossible for him to look anywhere else.

      Right now she didn’t appear to be in the mood to talk. Who could blame her for her silence?

      No doubt she’d been plagued by horrific dreams since the crash. They had to be disorienting and probably stayed with her even after she awakened from them.

      He’d known several racers who’d had to be cut from a wreckage. While he’d watched and listened to Audra fight her way out of her nightmare, it was evident she’d been trapped in the car accident that had broken her leg.

      Neither his father nor Pam had shared those details with him. His breaking into her bedroom couldn’t have helped the situation any.

      “I’m sorry a total stranger had to be the cause of more distress,” he apologized again. “You were in such a highly agitated state, my only thought was to get to you and wake you up so you wouldn’t have to suffer any longer.”

      “I realize I sounded like a soldier back from Vietnam, so you’re forgiven,” she said without looking at him. “Last night Pam told me your father had gone out looking for you, so I can’t say you came as a complete surprise. Otherwise I’d have cracked your head open with the end of my crutch.”

      “Ouch,” he teased.

      “Obviously he found you,” she replied without a hint of warmth. “How far off the beaten track were you?”

      His hands tightened on the steering wheel.

      Audra Jarrett didn’t like him.

      Rick wasn’t such a vain man he had to conquer every woman in sight. Still, her hostility had gotten beneath his skin.

      Intrigued, he intended to learn the reason for her demeanor. He suspected today’s events had little to do with the fact that she wished herself anywhere but in his car.

      “We discovered each other on the ranch road about two miles from the house.”

      Her only response was to turn her head and stare out the passenger window. The gesture caused him to wonder if she resented his father for taking Pam away from her and couldn’t help disliking Rick for being his son.

      Rick’s thoughts harkened back to a conversation with his brother. Nate had found out that the men in Pam’s family were laying bets on how long the marriage to their father would last. That was why she hadn’t invited any of them to the wedding.

      It was possible that no one in Pam’s family, male or female, was happy about her recent marriage.

      Then again, maybe Audra’s antipathy toward Rick had nothing to do with his father. Perhaps after such a terrible nightmare, she was just lashing out. The accident had killed a man she loved, and Rick happened to be a handy target.

      “I heard you calling for Pete over and over again,” he said quietly. “He was your fiancé?”

      That brought her head around. She studied him as if he were a species she’d never come across before.

      “Your father may have married my cousin, but that doesn’t make us related or entitle you to information that’s none of your business.”

      He СКАЧАТЬ