Rancher Wants a Wife by Kate Bridges Page B

fought that morning.
    “Thornley’s the one I told you about who was seeing Elise the same time I was. Except that he’s still seeing her. Apparently he heard about the words between us in church yesterday, and didn’t like the way I treated her. Neither did she.”
    “She’s the one who interrupted our ceremony, and s he was offended by us ?”
    “Apparently.”
    “Listen, Jack...please tell me the truth about something.” Cassandra watched two men trying to saddle a wild mustang. Jack knew from experience it would take days of practice before the horse would allow anyone near her.
    He squinted into the sunshine. “Go ahead. Whatever you want to know.”
    “Have you ever...did you ever...sleep with this woman?”
    Jack swallowed hard at the question. Normally, he’d never let anyone ask him something so personal. Hell, they could ask, but he’d never say. In this case, though, he wanted to ease Cassandra’s concern.
    “No, I never did.”
    The tense muscles in her shoulders eased. She blinked, didn’t say anything more, but seemed satisfied by his answer. Even so, as they finished the tour and he pointed out the bunkhouse, he wasn’t so sure they were back on solid footing.
    Jack introduced her to his foreman, Russell Crawford, a short bulky man in a plaid shirt with a wide black mustache and solid handshake.
    “We stood next to each other,” Cassandra reminded him, “earlier today. I—I borrowed your gun.”
    “I don’t know how you managed that,” said Jack with a chuckle. Hell, if she wasn’t impressive. Surviving the Great Fire had made her more resourceful and self-reliant than he’d originally considered. A pretty woman with a pistol was intriguing. As long as she was using it for self-defense and nothing more. He frowned, wondering why that thought had popped into his head.
    “Don’t let Jack’s easygoing nature fool you,” Russell said with a chuckle. “He and I actually met in a boxing ring when he first got here.”
    “Boxing?” Cassandra glanced at Jack in fresh alarm.
    “Something I used to do. I don’t anymore.” He shot Russell a pointed glance, and the man seemed to get the meaning.
    He tipped his hat. “Got lots to do, ma’am. Nice to have met you.”
    It was awkward again between them, so as a means of distraction, Jack walked her through his veterinary office in the stables. “This is where I keep some of my supplies. I’ve got another office inside the house.”
    She strolled past the medicine cabinets, peered through the slatted windows above the wide pine desk into the corral, then back to some of his veterinary books. Unexpectedly, Jack was called away on an urgent matter about a wagon delivery, apologizing again to Cassandra for leaving her.
    “It’s all right. I’ll help Mrs. Dunleigh in the kitchen.”
    He didn’t get back to her till dinnertime, but it was not a private event. Mrs. Dunleigh served them, chatting about her grandchildren and what shops Cassandra should and shouldn’t visit when she got the opportunity, while Jack wished... Ah, hell, he wasn’t sure what he wished.
    Dinner was over and he withdrew to his office to finish some paperwork. When he retired to bed he was hoping to spend some time with Cassandra, but she was already asleep. With a mumble, he punched his pillow and turned over in the darkness.
    It was another night of cold shoulders. He went to sleep wondering where she kept her derringer, precisely, and what else there was about her that he didn’t know. He had a gut feeling she was hiding something. Maybe a lunch date in town tomorrow was just the thing that would help him pry the information out of her.

Chapter Seven
    S haded by redwoods and Douglas fir, Cassandra stood at the edge of the narrow river in Sundial the next day and worried how to make things right with Jack. Neither of them were sleeping properly or could seem to drop their guard around the other, and both were avoiding even the simplest touch.
    “Watch your