stunner?” Casey asked. “I was drunk, but not too drunk to see how fine she was.”
“So you know who I’m talking about.”
“I found out her name is Desiree.”
“And?”
“She’s an acquaintance of one of my neighbors. She lives on the East Coast somewhere. She’s gone. That’s all I know, man. You missed your chance.”
Luke wasn’t going to divulge what had happened with the blonde to Casey. Luke kept his private life private. But since he’d been accepting his friend’s hospitality and living at his cabin for a few weeks, a surge of guilt washed over him for not being completely truthful with Casey. Though having a one-night stand with a stranger, no matter how beautiful, wasn’t exactly something to brag about. Not in this day and age. He wasn’t eighteen anymore. He was old enough to know better. His only excuse was that he’d been in a haze. Drugged up on pain meds.
Vague memories of that night continually plagued him.
At least now he knew who the mysterious woman was. She’d taken the reins that night, which suited him fine since his injuries prohibited much mobility, and his mind was pretty fogged up. At times he’d thought he’d dreamed the whole thing except that he did remember small details, like her fresh-flower scent, her long flowing blond hair caressing his cheek and his completely sated body and good mood when he’d woken up that morning.
“Well, the mystery is solved,” Luke said, thinking it for the best that she lived so far away. One-night stands weren’t his thing but neither were complicated affairs. Luke had yet to meet a woman who held his interest for too long. Most of his relationships lasted less than six months before one of them realized that something was missing. Luke never felt the need to explore what that something was. If it wasn’t right there, pounding in his heart and making him silly crazy, what was the point of forcing it? He’d done that once with a girl in high school, trying hard to hang on, to convince her it was working, and in the end, he’d been the one who’d gotten his heart shattered.
Usually when he entered into a relationship with a woman, if the flow wasn’t smooth and easy from the get-go, Luke was the first one to bail.
“Too bad, though,” Casey said. “She was smokin’ hot.”
Yep, she was. There was no arguing that point. From what he could remember, she’d been a hellcat in bed. But he let the comment drop and turned the conversation to a new venture Casey was thinking about going into since he’d been forced into retirement with his back injury.
After a few minutes, Casey ended the phone call with a last parting remark. “Thanks for helping my little sis out, Luke. You’re her second brother. I know you’ll look out for her.”
“You got my promise on that, Case. I won’t let you down.”
Two
Audrey grabbed her canvas overnight tote from her truck. She didn’t know what to expect when she arrived here without an invitation—certainly not to be hired on Sunset Ranch—but she’d brought a few essentials and a change of clothes with her, just in case things worked out with Luke. A girl could be optimistic, couldn’t she? At the very least, she assumed that Luke would’ve remembered making love to her. It was a given, or so she’d thought. There had been two people on that bed, sighing and groaning with pleasure, for the better part of an hour.
Now that she was staying on the ranch as an employee for a couple of months, she’d have to do some shopping in town to get a few more changes of clothes. She’d placed a call to Susanna Hart half an hour ago. Her next-door neighbor and good friend back in Reno had the key to her house—technically, Casey’s house—where she’d grown up, at least when she wasn’t traveling from town to town on the rodeo circuit. Casey hadn’t allowed her to stay home by herself much when she was in high school. Susanna’s mother would watch out for her when she had a big test at school or something; otherwise, she tagged along with her brother.
Her high school experience had been grim, and she’d struggled to get good grades and keep up with events that were important to her. Senior year had been hard, and though she’d dreamed of Luke taking her to the prom, she’d settled on going with a nice boy who’d also been somewhat of an