Jennifer Greene - One Tiny Miracle - Branded with his Baby / The Baby Bump / An Accidental Family

Jake chuckled. “Picnic, hell.”

“Okay, let me rephrase this so you’ll understand. I’m going riding and taking food with me.”

“Man, you’d better get that redheaded nurse back over here to check your temperature. ‘Cause you’re definitely sick.”

Turning back to the mare’s side, Quint began to unnecessarily adjust the latigo. “You don’t need to worry about my health, Jake. The redheaded nurse is going with me.”

Quint could hear the other man’s footsteps drawing closer.

“Maura Donovan? You’re going riding with her?”

“That’s right.”

There was a very long pause and then Jake said, “A man only takes a woman he really likes riding.”

Quint supposed Jake was right. The few women he’d tried to get interested in since Holly, he’d taken on traditional dates like dinner and a movie. During those outings, he been bored and wondering why he’d bothered in the first place.

“If you’re asking if I like Maura, I do.”

“Hmm. You gettin’ serious about her?”

Faint unease stabbed Quint as he combed his fingers through the mare’s black mane. “Me? Get serious about a woman? You know me better than that, ol’ buddy.”

“Yeah. How could I forget that you’re a warped man? You don’t have a decent thing to offer a woman.”

Turning from the horse, Quint glared at the other man. “Don’t you think you’d better head on to the lake? You can’t catch a fish in the middle of the day.”

Jake chuckled. “Aren’t you lucky that term doesn’t apply to a woman?”

Before Quint could make a retort, the other man turned and headed toward the open doorway.

“See you in the morning,” he called out.

As Jake disappeared from view, Quint wondered if catching Maura was what he really wanted. If he did catch her, what would he do, besides the obvious? He didn’t want a wife. At least, he didn’t think he did. To be a good husband, a man had to invest a hell of a lot of himself.

At one time, when he’d been engaged to Holly, he’d thought that way of life was the way he wanted to go. His father, Lewis, had been a great husband and father. He’d been a happy man and he’d loved his wife until the last second of his life. Quint had wanted to follow his example. He’d wanted that same deep connection with a woman that his father had shared with his mother. But Quint had failed at a real love. Why the heck would he want to risk going through all that pain and humiliation over again?

Because your house is empty. Your bed is empty. Your heart is empty.

“Quint? Are you in here?”

Maura’s voice jerked him back to the present and he looked around to see she’d entered the cavernous barn. The sight of her was like a sudden ray of sunshine and at that moment he decided that today he wasn’t going to analyze or fret over his motives toward Maura. A man didn’t have to have a good reason to simply enjoy himself.

“Over here,” he called to her.

Spotting him, she walked to the middle of the wide alleyway and stood while he led the horses over to her.

As he drew near, she asked, “Have you been waiting on me?”

The smile on her face was bright and lovely and made Quint feel so unexpectedly happy that he could have waited on her for hours and not complained.

“Not really. I’ve just now finished saddling the horses. And Jake came by for a few minutes.”

“As I was driving in, I met a truck on the road,” she commented. “I thought you might have had company this morning.”

He grinned. “Jake isn’t company. He’s family.”

“Yes. We Donovans have family like that, too,” she said, then peered around his shoulder at the two horses. “Beautiful horses. Which one is mine?”

“The roan mare, Pearl. She’s very smart and very mannerly. So I think you’ll like her.”

“I’m sure I will.”

As she’d promised, she was dressed ruggedly in boots and blue jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled back against her forearms. Her long hair was tied back from her face with a pale pink scarf and earrings made from polished cedar beads hung from her earlobes. Short of his mother, she was the only woman he knew that looked strong, yet utterly feminine at the same time, and in spite of himself he was totally drawn to her.

Using his head, he motioned toward the open doorway. “Shall we go? Do you have everything you’ll need with you?”

“I brought saddlebags packed with a few things. They’re just outside the barn door,” she told him.

Once they were outside, Quint tied Maura’s saddlebags onto the back of Pearl’s saddle.

“I thought we’d ride over to Chillicothe. That’s about five miles from here. Think you can go that far before we eat?”

She chuckled. “Shouldn’t you be asking if I can make it that far? Period?”

He turned to face her and Maura was completely taken with the easy smile on his face, the fetching dimple in his cheek.

“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking that you might not be hardened to riding. Can you make it that far?” he asked.

“I think so. If not, just tie me to the saddle and swat Pearl on the rump. The two of us will end up somewhere,” she joked.

“I wouldn’t think of putting Pearl through that sort of torture,” he teased back, then added in a serious tone, “Don’t worry. We’ll take a break or two before we get there.”

He handed her the mare’s reins and she took a few moments to let the horse get accustomed to her smell.

“So where or what is Chillicothe?”

“A ghost town. It was built back in the mid-eighteen hundreds, when the Golden Spur was thriving. The old mine is just a short distance away from the town. I thought you might enjoy looking it all over.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it.”

She led Pearl up a few steps, then lifted the reins over her head. As she put her foot in the stirrup, she felt Quint’s hands wrap around the sides of her waist. She wasn’t expecting him to help her into the saddle and she glanced around with surprise.

“Pearl isn’t that tall. I can manage,” she assured him.

“My father always helped a lady into the saddle. So just in case he’s watching I don’t want to disappoint him.”

With her toe still in the stirrup and her weight balanced on one boot, she paused long enough to allow her gaze to slide warmly over his face. “I’m very glad you invited me out today, Quint,” she said softly.

“I’m very glad you’re here,” he replied, his gaze locking onto hers.

Feeling suddenly quite breathless, she cleared her throat and turned back to the horse. Taking her cue, he helped her into the saddle. Once he was confident that she was in control, he moved away and mounted his horse, a big brown gelding with a stripe down his nose.

“Chillicothe is to the northwest. This way,” he said, motioning slightly to their left. “Not far from here, we’ll hit the old road that led to the town. It’s just a dim path now, but it makes for easy riding.”

“Sounds great.”

As they moved away from the barn, Maura swung Pearl alongside the big brown and the horses set out in an easy trot toward a pasture full of jumping choya. It was the time of summer for the plants to be in full bloom and the pink and yellow blossoms made for a pretty sight as they maneuvered their way through the prickly cacti.

“All of this area needs to be cleared away for pasture,” Quint told her. “That’s one of the things I’ll be doing now that most of the barn and outbuildings are nearly finished.”

“Oh, what a shame. The flowers are so beautiful.”

“Yes, but there would be triple the amount of grass without them.”

Maura cast him an impish look. “You’re a practical man, aren’t you? And not very much like Abe.”