Page 15

She peered around Black Thunder, obvious curiosity furrowing her delicate brow. “What are you holding?”

Austin glanced at his thigh. “Dog.”

Dismounting, he remembered a time when he could have spoken more than one word without his throat closing off.

She’d urged him not to return, and he had been leery of the welcome she’d bestow upon him.

He wouldn’t have blamed her for leveling her rifle at him and pulling the trigger this time.

Cradling the animal in his palm, he extended it toward her. “It’s for you.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and her smile faltered before returning brighter than before. She took the puppy and rubbed it against her cheek. “He’s beautiful.”

She dropped to the porch and set the dog on her lap, running her small hands over the brown and white fur, and Austin knew a pang of envy.

She leaned close to the dog. “Do you have a name?”

His pink tongue snaked out and licked her chin, her nose. Loree laughed and Austin felt a shaft of pure joy pierce his soul. She looked up at him. “Does he have a name?”

Austin eased down to the porch, keeping a respectful distance, knowing it was ludicrous to even worry about respectability after all they’d shared. “Between town and here, I was calling him Two-bits. That’s what he cost me.”

“Two-bits,” she repeated as she scratched behind the dog’s short ears. The dog’s body visibly quivered, and it released a little sound deep in its throat that had Austin shifting his butt on the porch, wondering what it would take to get Loree to rub her hands over him.

She peered at him. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” It truly was his pleasure to see her eyes shining like gold touched by the sun, and he wished he had more to offer her.

She turned her attention back to the dog, and Austin shifted his gaze to the sunset, realizing why he’d come here.

In town, surrounded by people, the loneliness had sharpened and grown.

But here on this porch, sitting beside this woman, the loneliness eased away.

“Were you and Becky engaged?”

He snapped his head around and met her hesitant gaze. She licked her lips. “I was just curious. I always thought I’d know everything there was to know about a man before I … ”

Even in the fading light, he saw the embarrassment flaming her cheeks. He watched her swallow.

“It just seems to me that we … we got ahead of ourselves,” she said softly.

She struggled to hold his gaze, and his heart went out to her.

He owed her. More than he could ever pay.

Leaning forward, he planted his elbows on his thighs and clasped his hands tightly together.

“No, we weren’t engaged. We’d talked about getting married, but we never announced it.

Guess I thought the talking about it etched it in stone, and that wasn’t the way of it. ”

“Did you know the man she married?”

“He was my best friend.”

Sympathy filled her eyes. “That must have been so hard—to lose Becky and your best friend.”

He shrugged. “I always told Cameron that he needed to take care of Becky if I couldn’t.

Reckon he took my instructions to heart.

” He worked his jaw back and forth, knowing he should stop there, but this woman had a way about her that made him want to continue.

“They’ve got a son. That hurt, seeing him for the first time. Until then, I thought …”

She leaned toward him. “What did you think?”

His mouth grew dry, and he stared at the scuffed toes of his boots. “That maybe she wasn’t lying in Cameron’s arms at night.” He unclasped his hands, afraid the tension radiating through him would snap a bone.

“Do you think she’s happy?”

He wiped his sweating hands on his thighs. “I hope she is.” Peering over at her, he gave her a sad smile. “Truly I hope she is.”

Reaching out, she threaded her fingers through his. “I imagine she wishes the same for you.”

Strangely, he thought she was probably right. He closed his fingers gently around hers and rubbed the thumb of his free hand back and forth across her knuckles. “So tell me about Jake.”

She drew her brows together. “Jake?”

Unwarranted joy shot through him, and he had to fight like the devil to keep the smile buried deep within his chest, to keep his face serious. He’d suspected that there had been no Jake in her life. “Yeah, Jake. Remember? You were thinking about him—”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, Jake.”

She tried to pull her hand from his, but Austin tightened his grip. “So tell me about him.”

The dog tumbled out of her lap, hit the ground with a yip, and pounced after a bug. Loree stopped struggling and lowered her gaze to her bare toes. “There is no Jake.”

Austin slipped his finger beneath her chin and tilted her face back until her gaze met his. “I suspected as much.”

“Why? Because I’m so plain?”

“You’re not plain, Loree. There’s something about you—a sweetness that just bubbles up from deep inside you. It touches your eyes, your lips. Once a man had gained your affections, he’d be a fool to leave you.” He grazed his thumb over her full lower lip. “I have been known to be a fool.”

“You say that as though you had gained my affections. If you believe that, you assume too much. I don’t even know you. I was hurting and needed comfort. You offered, and as wrong as it was, I took. That’s all.”

“Was it wrong, Loree?”

In the encroaching darkness, he still saw the tears welling in her eyes as she nodded briskly.

“Why did you have to say her name?” she rasped.

“Now, I can’t even pretend you wanted me.

I know you were thinking of someone else.

” She shot off the porch like a bullet fired from a rifle.

She waved her hand dismissively in the air.

“It doesn’t matter. You used me. I used you.

” She scooped up the dog and hugged it close against her breast. “You don’t owe me anything. ”

But it did matter, and he did owe her because he didn’t think Loree Grant could use someone if her life depended on it. He came slowly to his feet, his gaze never leaving hers. “Maybe I owe me something.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“I’m not sure.” He mounted Black Thunder and touched his finger to the brim of his hat. “Take care, Miss Grant.”

He set his heels to his horse’s sides and sent him into a lope.

Austin had spent five years thinking about an auburn haired blue-eyed beauty.

He didn’t intend to spend the rest of his life thinking about a oldeneyed blond haired woman who had touched him one night and sent all his common sense to perdition.

He’d given her the damn dog. He had nothing else to offer her. And she was right. Even his heart wasn’t free.