The Rancher's Sanctuary by Linda Goodnight

Author:Linda Goodnight
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-01-26T19:59:32+00:00

* * *

An hour later as they lingered over chocolate chip cookies and sweet tea, the sun had disappeared in a blaze of awe-inspiring glory and left them in the smoky twilight until stars popped out, one by one, in the sky above the creek.

Bullfrogs pulsed their foghorn songs and the steady symphony of cicadas provided background music to the water’s bubble and trickle.

The conversation between her and Nathan bounced from one topic to another, easy and friendly. Even though they spent each day together at the ranch, they still found more to talk about. Monroe found that odd but comforting. Since the burn accident, the only people she cared to talk to were family.

Nathan was different.

She did not want to examine why. Tonight she simply wanted to enjoy being with someone she genuinely liked.

“So peaceful here.”

Monroe appreciated darkness. At night, without light, the playing field was even. She could relax and let down her guard.

She caught the thought and turned it over in her head. With Nathan, she was relaxed most of the time, which scared her a little. He was becoming too dear to her.

Tonight had rattled her. No doubt about it.

She liked him more than a little.

Dressing up for their dinner and then seeing Nathan decked out like a rodeo cowboy pinged in all the romantic spaces inside her head. Spaces she’d tried to plug with fury and a big dose of I-don’t-care. Even when she did care.

She’d been burned twice. Once by the fire and then by her fiancé. Once burned, twice warned. Twice burned and the warning took deep root. Another would turn her to ash.

“When I was a kid,” she said, tilting her head back to stare upward, “Harlow and Taylor and I would lie on one of our grandma’s old quilts in the front yard and watch for falling stars.”

“You don’t see many of those in a city.”

“Certain times of the year, they’re easy to spot out here away from all the lights of town. I saw a meteorite fall once.”

“Yeah? How is a meteorite different from a shooting star?”

Shoulders and sides touching, the picnic basket on the ground in front, they both gazed toward the glittered sky. Monroe felt the rise and fall of Nathan’s breathing, the warmth of his body through the sleeve of her jacket.

Awareness. That was the only word she could think of that fit the occasion.

Her pulse bumped in pleasant little jitters against her collarbone while a corner of her mind shouted warnings.

Angling her knees toward Nathan and her shoulders away from his tempting touch, Monroe closed her eyes, tried to ignore his masculine appeal and the scent of equally masculine cologne as she visualized the fireball.

“What I saw was close to the earth, right over the treetops, and it lasted a long time. Falling stars disappear fast.” Her voice had gone soft and dreamy. She hoped he didn’t think it was because of him, even though it might be.

Holding a hand toward the sky, she imitated the meteorite’s arc.

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