Linda Goodnight - Rancher's Refuge

Her smile was tentative—pretty, though, in the way it lifted beneath her cheekbones and pushed up the corners of her long, mysterious eyes. She’d carefully draped her hair around the edge of her face, but he still saw the shadow of a bruise from temple to cheek. Saw it and tensed.

“I noticed the bacon on the counter and thought...” The blue eyes skittered from him to the frying pan. “I don’t know. Maybe Cassie put it there.”

“Cassie doesn’t cook.” He’d laid the meat out to thaw, expecting to fry his own breakfast.

Her gaze snapped back to his. “I figured out that much for myself. Are you hungry? This is almost done.”

Austin shifted on his boots. The situation was awkward to say the least. He wasn’t accustomed to seeing anyone all day and that’s the way he liked it. Conversation at nine in the morning was not welcome, and he was lousy at it anyway.

More than that, Annalisa made him uncomfortable, made him fight some irrational inner desire to go out on a limb. To do something stupid.

He considered denying his hunger and going back to the barn, but his belly wouldn’t let him. The smell of bacon was a siren song he never refused. Tootsie, the little beggar, agreed. He always fried an extra slice or two for her, although he’d never admit such weakness to Cassie.

“I’ll make fresh coffee.”

“Already did.” She hitched her chin toward the pot, dark with fresh brew.

Shucking his coat and hat, Austin poured a cup and sipped. “Good coffee.”

You would have thought he’d given her a ribbon at the state fair. She beamed at him over the popping bacon. “I wasn’t sure...”

She didn’t seem sure of anything much. Just like him, he thought wryly.

He set his cup aside to pull a carton from the fridge. Tootsie trotted over for a look.

“Eggs?”

She nodded. “How do you like yours?”

“Cooked. However you take yours is fine.” He popped four pieces of bread into the toaster.

They moved around the kitchen in tandem, a surprise to Austin because he was accustomed to being alone and doing everything for himself. The poodle frittered around their feet, staying out of the way but making sure they didn’t forget her.

In minutes, Annalisa set two filled plates on the table.

“Milk or juice?” she asked, sounding like a waitress. Her eagerness provoked a sympathetic response he didn’t want.

“Sit down and eat.” He dragged a lattice-backed chair away from the table and pointed. Annalisa sat. So did he. Tootsie plopped at their guest’s feet. Not his as usual, hers. Like Cassie, the dog had already turned traitor on him.

Fork in hand, he stared at Annalisa across the round table. “You look...better.”

She looked more than better. She looked good. Too good. Other than the shadowy bruise and the arm cast. The swelling was gone from her lip and only a small dark spot remained where her lip had bled. In a set of Cassie’s yellow salon scrubs, she looked like a flower in a sunny field, and her golden hair curved this way and that around her face just begging a man to touch.

“I slept pretty well all things considered.”

He certainly hadn’t. “How’s the arm?”

“Heavy, but not hurting.”

“You didn’t have to do this.” He waved his fork around the table. “Cook, I mean. I fend for myself.”

He leaned down with a piece of bacon to lure Tootsie to his side. She trotted over, plopped on her curly bottom and took the bacon with dainty teeth. Cassie had stuck a red bow next to the dog’s ear, a ridiculous thing that made Tootsie look sillier than usual.

“Breakfast was the least I could do to repay you. You and your sister... I don’t know what I would have done...” She clammed up, focused on her filled plate.

Austin plowed into his breakfast, watching her, thinking. Why didn’t she just come clean?

Finally, she lifted her fork and ate, too.

After a long silence, she put her toast aside and did the trifold napkin trick before dabbing her lips. He tried not to notice those lips, shiny with bacon grease and just the right shade of pink.

“I’ve been thinking about my dilemma,” she started.

He was thinking about the same thing. Only problem, he didn’t know exactly what her dilemma was.

“I looked for your purse.”

She blinked in surprise. “Oh.”

“I didn’t find anything. But you know that, don’t you? I didn’t find the bag because it’s not out there.”

A pink flush crested her cheeks. Her gaze dropped to her plate, but she didn’t respond.

“Look, lady, I don’t know you. I don’t know what your problem is, but lying isn’t the answer.” Tempted to demand she shoot straight or hit the road, he poked a strip of bacon in his mouth. Cassie would have his head if he kicked Annalisa out today. He’d promised three days, and even though he chafed with that knowledge, he’d stick by his word. Three days and no more.

“I could have looked for a month, and I wouldn’t have found your purse, would I?”

When she just sat there, eyes down and silent like a condemned prisoner, Austin got mad. Jaw tight, he raised his voice and growled, “Would I?”

She jerked and pulled her arms in tight against her body. Oversize eyes stood out against a pale face. Tootsie abandoned Austin and rose up to rub her nose against Annalisa’s thigh.

Even a dog was better with women than he was.

In a whisper, Annalisa admitted. “No. I’m sorry.”

Her reaction made Austin angrier. She acted like a kicked dog. She was here on his ranch, eating his breakfast. The least she could do was talk to him.

“Just spit it out. Why were you hiding under Whisper Falls? Why are you alone in a strange place without a car or money or a phone number to call?”

Annalisa sucked in her bottom lip. Her chest rose and fell and Austin had the awful feeling she might tear up. He tightened his grip on the fork. Give him a bucking horse and a kicking cow any day over a crying woman. He shouldn’t have yelled. She was already scared of something.

Reining in his frustration, he lifted a hand in a plea of peace. “I had no right to yell at you. Your business is yours. You don’t have to tell me anything.”

But that awful nagging voice in his head said he couldn’t keep her safe if he didn’t know the enemy. Visions of Blair circled in his brain like vultures waiting to pick at his wounds. Enemies come in all shapes and sizes, some of them within.

A pulse of tension throbbed in the space between Austin and his houseguest. He watched a dozen emotions move over her face and didn’t understand any of them.

As if she needed the contact, Annalisa absently stroked Tootsie’s fuzzy head.

Austin’s arms itched with the need to hold her, to send her demons fleeing. The thought shocked him to the core. He’d vowed never to get that close to a woman again. In less than a day, Annalisa had him thinking insane thoughts.

Yet, the yearning did not subside.

In a voice so low, Austin had to lean in to hear her over the hum of the fridge, she said, “I’ll find another place to stay. Don’t worry about me.”

Too late.

“I said you could stay here for a day or two.”

“But you don’t want me.”

Oh, yes, he did. The notion came out of nowhere, a notion so bizarre and undesirable that Austin was tempted to run out the door, mount Cisco and ride as far and fast as he could. Right behind the idea came another. Give her money. Send her away.

Yes, that’s exactly what he’d do.

“There are a few bed-and-breakfast places in town. I’ll give you the money. You can pay me later.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Do you have a choice?”

Blue eyes flashed up to meet his. He saw defiance and defeat in the same glance. “Not at the moment.”