Nicole Foster - Hallie's Hero

Somehow the simple task brought her upside-down world aright, and things didn’t seem so terrible. She would get through this, just as she’d gotten through every other trouble the ranch had thrown at her over the years. She’d survived problems much worse than Jack Dakota.

The crunch of straw underfoot broke Hallie’s peace. She turned to find Jack behind her, his long, lithe figure leaning lazily against the slats of a nearby stall, a piece of straw dangling from his lips.

With a sigh, Hallie went back to brushing the colt. “You’ve got this habit of sneaking up on me. I don’t like it.”

Though her words were short, Jack noticed the lack of heat in them. She sounded more as if she’d resigned herself to having him appear where and when she least wanted him. “That’s too bad,” he said lightly. “If you gave it half a chance, you might find the unexpected can be exciting.”

Hallie didn’t know what to say to him. She didn’t have any experience of men with silver tongues and teasing smiles, who did their best to make a person feel all twisted up inside. It seemed better to say nothing than to risk making herself look foolish.

Jack watched as she finished currying the colt, then gave the animal a final pat before getting up off her knees and unlatching the stall door.

She seemed different, somehow. As usual, his banter had made her ill at ease. But in the wavering lamplight, with the darkness wrapped around them, she looked gentler, softer around the edges. Though her hair was hastily braided, and she still wore a shapeless, mannish shirt and baggy pants, he’d seen a tenderness in the way she stroked the colt and the quiet way she spoke to it, a grace in the way she moved.

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