A Ranch to Call Home by Carol Arens

Author:Carol Arens [Arens, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-03-12T19:13:42+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Laura Lee sat on the fireplace hearth, watching the land beyond the window blanch with lightning. The storm had blown in during dinner with great gusts of wind and rain pelting the house.

It was a good, solid structure. There were no leaks in the roof, and cold air did not seep through the window frames. Whomever this home belonged to was a lucky person.

With a sigh, she reached for a curling rag and slowly wrapped a hank of hair.

She wasn’t sure why she did it. Out of habit, maybe. Or some misguided hope that Johnny was not so guilty that he could not be redeemed.

Not that it mattered. The truth was, she would not marry him now. Even if he hadn’t committed that crime, even if the deed he gave her turned out to be real, she could not marry him because...because she couldn’t see him sitting in Jesse’s chair.

Why then, did she continue to wrap and roll?

She’d always been a loyal person. Even as a child, she had remained with her father far longer than she ought to have. Perhaps she was doing the same thing with Johnny. Holding on for no other reason than that it was in her nature to do so.

How terribly foolish. There was every reason to believe he had never wanted a future with her. Or if he had, had he lost interest when she would not surrender to his blatant lust? Looking at it now, she wondered how she could have mistaken his desire to have his way as affection for her.

She also wondered if he was a weak and impressionable man who had fallen in with her dream of marriage and a home. When the Underwoods came along offering a life of adventure, he’d followed that.

In any case, Johnny Ruiz was not the man she believed him to be. The man named Hell Dog was very far removed from the hero who had saved her from a mad coyote.

Strange how she could hurt with the loss of someone whose true character only existed in her heart.

Stranger still, she no longer felt like crying over him. That was odd. She ought to have a dozen hankies wet by now.

“Why are you doing that, darlin’?” Jesse rounded the corner of the kitchen with a pastry left over from this morning in his hand. Crumbs dotted his lip.

Why did that look so appealing? She was grieving over a loss and shouldn’t notice Jesse’s mouth.

“I wish I knew.”

He sat down beside her. The warm glint of the flames shimmered in his hair.

“You had a dream, one you cherished.” He caught her hand when she lifted a rag. “They aren’t so easily let go of.”

He cupped the back of her head, gazed at her with something that was not quite a smile but not a frown either. It most certainly was not pity, even though he was doing his best to comfort her.

He untied one of the rags binding her hair. When the corkscrew curl bounced free, he did the same to another.

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