Are they still around here? Why aren’t you with them instead of the Blackhawks?”
“They’ve moved.”
“I see. So, what’s the deal? Are you planning on sticking around?”
“As long as there’s something for me to do and as long as Grady and Karen will have me,” she said.
His gaze narrowed. “And then what? You’ll run away again?”
Lauren wished she could be sure, because there was an intensity in Wade’s eyes that suggested her answer now was important in some way. “I didn’t run away back then. I was looking for something.”
“Which you apparently didn’t find.”
She nodded. “Which I definitely didn’t find.” She met his gaze. “What about you? How’d you end up in Winding River? I know you’re not from around here, or I’d have remembered you.”
“Oh? Why is that?” The wink of a dimple taunted her. “Am I that memorable?”
“You are, but then this is a small place. I remember everyone, especially the men who are the most annoying.”
He winced. “Ouch. A direct hit.”
He reached for the untouched half of her sandwich, but she moved it out of his reach. “Oh, no, at least not till I get an answer to my question.”
“I seem to have forgotten it.”
“How sad that a man of your tender years is losing his short-term memory,” she said. “How did you end up working for Grady?”
“I was working at a ranch a couple of hundred miles from here. I didn’t like the way things were going, and someone told me Grady was looking for a wrangler. We talked. I got the job.”
“Do you come and go a lot?”
That chill returned to his eyes, turning them as dark as a sky threatening snow. “What is it you really want to know, Lauren? Are you asking if I’m reliable? Grady’s already interviewed me. He’s satisfied with my past and my performance.”
“So he says,” she agreed. “But that doesn’t keep me from wanting to make sure you’re not going to bolt on my friends at the worst possible time.”
“As long as things are working out, I won’t bolt,” he said. “Satisfied?”
“Not really. Who gets to decide if things are working out?”
“Me and Grady.”
“I notice which one of you came first.”
“How’s that any different from you deciding to take off from whatever you were doing in California? Or did you get fired and come crawling back here with your tail tucked between your legs?”
“Hardly,” she retorted. Unwilling to elaborate, though, she forced a smile. “And you’re right. It’s no different, except that in your case my friends are involved, and nobody hurts them without taking me on in the process.”
He gave an exaggerated shudder clearly meant to mock her. “I’m trembling in my boots.”
“You should be. Believe it or not, you’ve seen me on my best behavior. Once I get riled up, a tornado seems tame by comparison. If you doubt that, I can give you a long list of testimonials.”
His lips twitched. “Is that so?”
“Yep,” she said, then rose gracefully to her feet. “If you don’t believe it, just try me.”
As she walked off to get her horse, she was almost certain she heard him put his own twist on her words from the day before.
“I just might do that, Miss Lauren,” he murmured, but then he drew his Stetson down over his eyes and leaned back against the tree as if he didn’t have another thought to spare for her.
Lauren cast one last scathing look in Wade’s direction, mounted her horse and headed back to the ranch.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before that man gets a chance to try,” she muttered as she rubbed down her horse, checked his feed and then stalked into the house.
For a few fleeting moments, she and Wade Owens had actually seemed to be on the road to a peaceful coexistence. It hadn’t taken much to shatter that illusion, though.
Oh, well, she had dealt with her share of pigheaded men over time. It was just too darn bad that this one was sexy as sin.
Chapter Four
As soon as he heard the sound of pounding hooves, Wade lifted the Stetson shading his eyes and watched Lauren race away. The woman could ride, no doubt about that. He’d deliberately set a tough pace for her earlier, but she hadn’t been the least bit fazed by it. In fact, she’d come darn close to beating him at his own game. Okay, for a few minutes there, she had beat him. If he hadn’t been so impressed, he might have found it annoying.
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