Cowgirl Makes Three / Her Secret Rival. Myrna Mackenzie

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      It also made her think of Noah’s muscles and his strong hands.

      She ordered herself to behave. A woman had to be on her toes when she spent her days around animals that could crush a person without even realizing it. “So no more Noah stuff,” she ordered.

      “Hmm, wonder what she means by that, Brody,” Darrell said. Ivy hadn’t realized the men were right inside the barn.

      “It means I’m in the mood to crack some heads together if you two insist on teasing me and listening in on my mutterings,” she said with a wicked grin.

      “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brody answered, pretending ignorance. “I didn’t hear any muttering. Did you say something, Ivy?”

      “If I did, I didn’t say anything important,” she said. That much was true. She couldn’t let Noah become important. Her heart couldn’t handle any more breaks.

      Noah was beginning to wonder what he was doing. A couple of weeks ago he’d been minding his own business, with no thoughts of anything but the ranch and Lily.

      Now he was thinking of how warm Ivy’s skin had been against his palms through the cotton of her shirt. He was remembering a pair of tortured blue-violet eyes wondering if she’d missed a chance to save her child. He was going to the feed and seed, acting totally out of character and doing really stupid things all because he wanted some justice for her.

      Careful, buddy, he told himself. Don’t do anything you’ll end up regretting. He really should just stick to Lily and the ranch. Period. Especially since being a father was such a seat-of-the-pants thing with him. Was he wrong keeping Lily here instead of sending her out into the world…or at least into Tallula? He didn’t know. All he knew was that Lily was his. That first step into the world of Tallula and other people would be her first step away from him. Was it wrong to want to stave that off a little longer?

      Maybe, but a stubborn part of him didn’t want to even be wondering these things. These questions about how he should handle Lily hadn’t come from inside him. They had come via Ivy, the same woman he’d just been warning himself about.

      Warnings about Ivy didn’t seem to work. There was something beyond physical beauty that drew him. So when Diane drove up, Noah’s antennae went on alert. He was fully aware when Ivy, dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans, walked out to her car to greet her guest. Diane was squealing and practically dancing around with excitement. Ivy looked a bit nervous, but she smiled at Diane.

      The women retired to Ivy’s cottage, and when they emerged a couple of hours later, Diane looked radiant. Her hair was in a sleek new style, and Ivy had done something to her face that made her look slightly exotic. Polished. Pretty, Noah supposed, although he was already starting to judge pretty by Ivy standards.

      “I look so good. Jimmie is going to eat me up,” Diane said. Then she shrieked with laughter and gave Ivy a hug before she rushed home to her Jimmie.

      Noah started to turn toward the house. He was a bit embarrassed to admit that he’d been spending far more time than necessary making certain all was in order in the barn just so he could ensure everything had turned out all right with Diane and Ivy. He was, after all, responsible for the two women meeting. He would have hated it if things had backfired.

      But they seemed good. He smiled to himself with satisfaction and took a few steps toward the house.

      “Noah?”

      “Ivy?” he answered, turning toward her.

      “Thank you once again,” she said. “That was fun.”

      “You did a good job. Jimmie’s going to love your handiwork. Not that he’ll hesitate for a moment to mess up what you spent two hours fixing.”

      Ivy laughed. “That’s okay. Diane would be disappointed if he didn’t get so involved he forgot to be careful. Diane is a sweetie, but I think she might also be a bit of a wild woman.”

      Noah agreed. “What kind of woman are you?” he asked, wondering what he was doing asking something like that…besides running toward the flames.

      Ivy studied him. She took two steps toward him. Then she stopped. “I’m a woman who’s going to retreat before she does something that might not be smart.” Then she turned, walked up the path to her cottage and went inside.

      Noah swore beneath his breath—for asking the question and because he knew that he would lie awake half the night wondering what it was Ivy would have done that wouldn’t have been smart. And even though he knew she’d been right to retreat, he also wished she hadn’t. Because right now he was burning to do all kinds of things with Ivy that they would both regret once morning came.

      But when morning came, Noah found that he had a whole different kind of problem.

      Chapter Six

      WORK STARTED EARLY on a ranch, and Ivy was checking the irrigation lines on an alfalfa field when her cell phone rang.

      “We have a situation here. You need to come to the house,” Noah said in that deep gravelly voice that—blast it!—made Ivy want to purr.

      “A situation?” Immediately all sorts of terrible things started going through her head, though Noah didn’t sound panicked. Not that he would. A panicky man wasn’t a good rancher. Noah was a good rancher.

      “Nothing bad,” he said quickly. “God, no. I should have led into that better. Let’s just say that Jimmie devoured Diane like a chocolate sundae with extra sprinkles, and now you have a restless group of potential customers waiting for you to transform them into swans.”

      “I’m working the alfalfa field,” she said.

      “And I’m grateful. It’s what I pay you for. But Ivy, today…I just don’t have a way with an eyelash curler or fingernail polish. Seriously, you have to come save me.”

      She could hear the humor in his voice. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked.

      “I might be thinking that there’s some poetic justice in the women who scorned you having to backpedal a little, yes.”

      “Well, I don’t know how I can help them, anyway. Diane was different. I had some free time last night, but sometimes it’s late when I finish work. There might not be time to do a full cocoon-to-butterfly transformation. Besides…”

      “What?”

      “What if even one of them hates it? I might never hear the end of it.”

      “I hadn’t thought of that. So…we’ll limit the time to one day. Maybe you’ll give a workshop. Charge a fee, give them a few tips, supervise them putting on their own makeup. No one can be upset with you when they’ll be the ones doing the grunt work.”

      Ivy gave a low whistle. “Noah, I have to tell you, if this ranching thing goes bust, you could get some serious work as a talent agent.”

      He laughed. “Think about the workshop, but in the meantime, come see your adoring public for a few minutes.”

      He hung up.

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