From Here to There by Rain Trueax Page B

woman."
     Nancy gaped, then shook her head with a giggle. "You're right. I am rich, beautiful and smart. How come it takes you to point it out to me?"
     "Sure it took me," Helene scoffed. "You go around your kitchen, humming and rubbing your tummy, looking out the window to see if your man's walking up the house ready for lunch, with a smile on your face that would put the Mona Lisa to shame. You don't need me to tell you anything."
     Nancy grinned at her and sipped her tea. "Okay, I agree. I do have it all, but you could too. It just takes falling in love with the right man."
     "I'm not sure I even know what love is. I certainly didn't love Phillip when I agreed to marry him, and I think all he wanted was the proper hostess to grace his table." The kisses of fire, the feeling of Phillip's hard, muscular body against hers popped into her mind. But that had all been too late, and it didn't change the basic type of man Phillip was, the things he wanted out of life. Mentally, she shook herself as a reminder that passion wasn't love.  
    "What you need now is another man." Nancy's eyes narrowed a little with speculation. "How about Wes Carlson? He's quite the hunk, and he's always had a thing for you."
     "Wesley?" Helene repeated with amazement. "Wes Carlson has never said a word to me that would have indicated any interest. Besides, hasn't he been through just about every woman in the valley, one after another." She giggled. "Or sometimes several at the same time."
     Nancy chuckled. "Well, there is that, but he's said plenty to Emile, especially after he found out you were getting married. Emile thinks, and so do I, that where you're concerned, Wes has regrets."
     "I can't believe if he was interested he wouldn't have made it clear. He's certainly not the shy kind."
     "Maybe your brains and career intimidated him," Nancy suggested.
     Helene raised her eyebrows skeptically.
     "All right, maybe not, but you do have to admit he's tall, dark and handsome." Nancy levered herself from her chair and began sliding cookies from the cooling rack onto a plate.
     "I'll give him that."
     "Well, if it's not going to be Wes, how about Len Gibson? He's a nice guy."
     "Is he living around here again? I thought he'd moved to the West Coast."
     "He had, but you know how it is. People move away but when it comes time to settle down, they don't want to do it a thousand miles from Montana. He's taken over running his dad's hardware store in town. Now nobody could accuse him of being a womanizer."
     Helene laughed. "That's true. At least not if Len's anything like he was as a teen-ager. Maybe a bookworm or a geek or a nerd, but definitely not a womanizer."
     "I could invite him to dinner and..."
     Helene made a T with her hands. "Time out. I don't want another man just yet. This thing with Phillip was hard on me and him. I don't want to do that to someone else. And I still have to get the annulment before anything new can be on the table."
     Nancy set the plate of warm cookies before Helene, carefully settling herself back on the chair. "I say keep it simple. Find a hunk who appeals to you, snag him, haul him in and marry him, then have lot of babies." She grabbed a cookie and began to munch on it.
     "Is that what you did?” Helene asked. “You really think Wes Carlson is interested in me?"
     Nancy grinned. "Yeah, I do. He's a great looking guy."
     "I remember. Hmmm. No, I'm not ready to think about this! And don't you dare tempt me... and not with a warm, oatmeal cookie either." Helene gave a mock glare at Nancy before she reached for a warm cookie.
     
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     Driving in the ranch yard at dusk, Helene noted the truck parked by the bunkhouse. She'd never seen it before, but she had no idea how many men her uncle employed now and then. Hobo was sitting watchfully but quietly on the porch; so obviously there were no unwelcome strangers on the land.
     "I'm back," she yelled as she slid her coat onto a hook beside the kitchen