Renegade Father by RaeAnne Thayne

something so disastrous as marry his brother.
    It was the past, he reminded himself, picking up his book with determination. It was over and done with. Dredging it all up again was pointless—not to mention masochistic.
    Despite his best efforts to concentrate on the mystery, he still hadn’t turned a single page twenty minutes later when a knock sounded through the cottage.
    He sighed and balanced the book on the padded arm of the chair. So much for his quiet night in front of the fire. Trouble was the only thing to come knocking on the foreman’s door this late at night.
    It was probably Mitchell. At dinner the rest of the men said they were going into Lulu’s in town to waste the bonus he’d ended up having to give all of them.
    Just his luck that his brainy idea for a vaccination contest would end in a dead tie between both teams—they’d all ridden back to the barn at exactly the same moment. He’d been obligated to fork over eighty bucks, twenty each to the four hands.
    He had planned to pay out of his own pocket—it was his idea, after all—but Annie wouldn’t let him. She’d insisted on using ranch reserves. The men deserved it, she said, and she only wished she’d thought of it first.
    She was a good boss, even though she still didn’t have much confidence in herself.
    And how could he blame her for that? When she was a child she’d had to deal with her father’s harsh expectations and vocal disappointment that she hadn’t been a son. Then as an adult she’d had to deal with Charlie.
    He put the thought away and swung open the door.
    To his surprise, it wasn’t Luke standing on his step but Annie, hands shoved into the pockets of a thin jacket and her shoulders bowed against the cold night.

Chapter 6
    â€œW hat’s wrong?” he asked instantly, taking in the worry in her eyes and the lines bracketing her mouth.
    â€œI’m being stupid. Probably nothing. It’s just…” She chewed on her lip. “I saw your light on and thought I’d ask. Did you see Dolly by any chance when you were doing the evening feeding?”
    He frowned, trying to remember. “No. I think the last time I saw her was this afternoon when we all came back after finishing up the shots. Why? What’s the matter?”
    â€œProbably nothing.” She blew out a breath. “I just can’t find her anywhere. I’ve looked in all her usual hideouts but she’s not in any of them. I don’t know where else to look.”
    As the surprise at finding her knocking on his door this late at night began to wear off, he started to notice other details about her appearance. Huge white flakes of snow stood out in stark relief against the auburn ofher hair, her face was pale and set, and her lips had an ominous blue tinge to them.
    Didn’t the woman have more sense than to wander outside in the middle of the night during a Montana February wearing only a thin jacket? She colored at his scrutiny and reached a hand—a bare hand, he noted with aggravation—and swiped at the snow in her hair.
    â€œWhere are your gloves?” he snapped. “What were you thinking to go outside in the middle of the night without a good coat on? Do you want to freeze to death?”
    She shoved her hands back into her pockets. “I didn’t expect to be out this long. I thought I’d only be going to the barn for a moment, just long enough to find Dolly and take her back to the house for the night.”
    He wasn’t helping the situation at all by forcing her to stand in the open doorway while he yelled at her, he realized. He opened the door wider. “Come inside by the fire. We’ll get you warmed up first and then you can tell me why you’re so worried about her.”
    He urged her toward the easy chair by the fireplace, then sat at the ottoman at her feet and enfolded her hands in his much larger ones to warm them