to spin on her boot heels when the front door opened.
“Tara?”
Tara peered around J.D. “Are you all right, Noelle? Mom and I heard about the crash.”
“I’m okay.” Noelle, still in her bathrobe, her hair even more tousled than before, took a tentative step onto the porch.
“Careful!” J.D. sprang onto a slab of solid wood. “I ripped out the rotting wood, and there’s not a whole heckuva lot left to the porch. You shouldn’t be out in the cold anyway with just a robe on.”
He curled an arm around Noelle’s waist and nudged her back into the house. When he glanced back at Tara, her dark eyes had gotten even frostier as her gaze bounced between him and Noelle.
“Is it okay if I come in for a visit, Noelle, or are you still...resting?”
“Come on in. I’ll make us some tea.” She glanced at the sky. “Or something stronger if it’s not too early for you.”
“Tea is fine. Even though it’s five o’clock somewhere, in Buck Ridge it’s still only two.”
“Is that all? It felt like I’d been asleep for hours.”
“How’s your head?” J.D.’s fingers itched to smooth the hair back from her bandage and lay a kiss on its edge. But he needed to back off now that he realized he’d been all wrong in reading Noelle’s signals. Not to mention the penetrating stare emanating from Tara.
How had he ever characterized those as doe eyes? Tara had wolf eyes, and she was sizing him up as prey.
She planted a boot against the first step. “Is this safe?”
J.D. hopped back down the porch to help Tara across, and then handed her into the house next to Noelle. “Let Tara make the tea, Noelle. You still need to take it easy.”
Tara turned, her arms spanning the doorway as she wedged her hands against the doorframe. “I’ve got this, cowboy.”
He saluted. No wonder Ted had hightailed it out of here.
* * *
“WHERE DID YOU find him?” Tara grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around, her fingers kneading the terry cloth. “And are you naked under here? Why are you running around naked under your bathrobe with that—” she waved her hand at the front door “—hunk working outside?”
“Take a breath.” Noelle crossed index finger over index finger and held them up in Tara’s face. “He’s out there. I’m in here. I think I have a right to wear anything I damn well please under my robe—including nothing.”
“You slept with him.” Tara skipped around the room. “I can’t believe it. You slept with him—a stranger. When you go, you go big—and hot!”
“Calm down.” Noelle wandered into the kitchen and filled the kettle. “I did not sleep with J.D.”
Came damn near close to it before her ridiculous OCD tendencies got the better of her. Now she’d lost her chance. She could tell by the way he’d awkwardly patted her back before he’d sent her to the bedroom alone to take a nap. And the way he backed up when she faced him when before the electricity sizzling between them had drawn them close.
Tara bustled into the kitchen, shooing with her hands. “You heard the man. I’ll take care of the tea. You sit down.”
With the kettle on the stove, Tara returned to the living room and hung over the back of the love seat. “So where did you meet him?”
Noelle curled her toes into the carpet before the fireplace, where she and J.D. had been in each other’s arms just a few hours ago.
“He helped me out with the truck and one thing led to another.” She crossed her legs beneath her. “Why are you so giddy, anyway? The way you were looking at him outside, I thought you were going to grab the shotgun out of your truck and run him off my property.”
“Just wanted to warn him that someone around here has your back. But as long as he’s a good guy, I say go for it.”
“Go for what? He’s helping me out around the ranch.” Noelle folded her hands in her lap. And helping me ward off an international arms dealer who thinks I have something I don’t.
“If you say so.”
The kettle whistled, and Tara turned and made for the kitchen. She called over her shoulder, “It’s been two years since Alex died, and I don’t think you’ve had a date since, have you?”
“Not exactly.” Did rolling around on the floor naked with J.D. count as a date?
Tara floated from the kitchen, balancing two cups on two saucers. She set them