Hallie's Hero. Nicole Foster

Dakota,” he said, taking her hand in a firm grip, at the same time studying her from her hat to her boots. From the look in his eyes, Hallie got the impression he disapproved of every inch of her.

      Why should she care? She’d thank him and he’d be on his way, and that would be the end of it. “I guess I owe you, Mr. Dakota. You saved my brother’s life. Thank you.”

      “I hope you didn’t hurt yourself sayin’ that, Miss Hallie.” Jack grinned when she scowled. Then, pulling out the wad of notes he’d taken from Redeye, he counted off several and handed the rest to her. “Ben’s money. Don’t bother thanking me for it, since he lost some of it fair and square to me. Most of it’s there, though.”

      “How generous,” Hallie muttered, thumbing through the notes, not about to give Dakota the satisfaction of seeing how much getting her money back meant to her.

      Jack watched her, trying to figure her out. He’d known his share of women, but Hallie Ryan stuck out like snow in the desert. Then again, it was hard to tell she was female from the way she looked and acted.

      Though tall for a woman and on the thin side, she might be pretty if she stripped off the dust and the cowboy garb, and stopped scowling. He couldn’t tell the color of her hair with it haphazardly braided and stuffed under that twisted wreck of a hat. But she did have beautiful eyes, clear and direct, an unusual shade of soft green that reminded him of wild sage and sunshine.

      Hallie shifted a little, uncomfortable with his scrutiny. “Look, Mr. Dakota—”

      “Jack.”

      “Mr. Dakota, like I said, I owe you for helping Ben. If you’re ever in Paradise again, you’re welcome to call on us if you need anything.”

      “Well, Miss Hallie, I may be calling sooner than you think. You see…” Jack leaned against the wagon, thumbs hooked in his belt. “I plan on staying in Paradise.”

      “Staying?”

      “Don’t look so surprised. I can’t leave until I collect on your neighborly offer, now can I?” Suspicion flared in her eyes and he laughed. “Don’t get your fur ruffled, Miss Hallie. I was only thinking of asking for a little advice. Ben told me you know more about ranching than any man in the territory.”

      “Ben says a lot of things when he’s had too much whiskey. Besides, why should you need advice on anything to do with running a ranch?”

      “Because I’m now the proud owner of one.”

      Hallie barely stopped herself from laughing in his face. “Pardon me, Mr. Dakota, but you don’t look anything like the kind of man who belongs on a ranch.”

      “I won’t ask you where you think I do belong—I have a good imagination. But I plan on settling down and becoming a good citizen.” Jack winked at her, laughing when she stared at him as if he was crazy. “I just bought what your friendly banker called one of the finest pieces of land in the territory. Eden’s Canyon.”

      “You…” Stunned, Hallie could only gape at him. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be.

      “The bartender at the Silver Snake heard I was looking for some land and told me it was for sale, and that it was a pretty fair piece of property. It seemed like a good gamble so now it’s mine.”

      Jack eyed her for a moment. The look on her face worried him. For the first time since he’d set foot in Paradise, he started to have second thoughts about how quickly he’d decided to try his luck at ranching rather than the dice table.

      He couldn’t blame Hallie Ryan for thinking he’d spent too much time in the desert sun. He’d surprised himself. But he had one very good reason for staying in this town, and because of that, he’d made up his mind to make this ranching business pay.

      No matter what it took.

      “Is there a problem, Miss Ryan?” he asked at last, when it looked as if she’d stand there for the rest of the day, staring at him as if he’d announced he’d come to town to turn the church into a house of wicked women and whiskey.

      “A problem?” Hallie found her voice as the truth of what he’d told her finally hit and hit hard. “Oh, yes, there’s a problem, Mr. Dakota. A big problem.”

      “Are you going to share it with me, or do I have to guess?”

      “They should never have sold you Eden’s Canyon. That land is mine.”

      All at once Jack’s easiness slid away, leaving him tense. He straightened and slapped his hat back on. “I don’t like to disagree with a lady—” the slight emphasis he put on “lady” made Hallie flinch inside “—but I’ve got the deed to prove it isn’t.”

      “Eden’s Canyon has been Ryan land for nearly forty years. I would have bought it back if Ben hadn’t taken my money to put in your pocket!”

      Hallie could have bitten her tongue off the moment the words left her mouth. She hadn’t meant to tell Jack Dakota anything about herself. But the shock and anger of losing Eden’s Canyon to him, of all people, left her too furious to think straight.

      “I’ll buy it back from you,” she said through gritted teeth. She thrust out the wad of notes he’d given her. “I have more than half the money now. I’ll get the rest soon.”

      Jack ignored the money. “I’m not selling.”

      “You don’t know the first thing about running a ranch! You’ll lose everything before a year’s over.”

      “I wouldn’t bet your last dollar on that, Miss Hallie,” he said, smiling tightly.

      “What I’d bet is that you’ve never stuck with anything longer than a week,” Hallie said. Desperation began to spark the first twinges of panic in her. She couldn’t lose Eden’s Canyon. Especially not like this. Oh, Pa, how could you have done this? “Why would you even want to try?”

      “One very good reason.” Gesturing to the porch of the saloon, he called over to one of the saloon girls. “It’s okay, Kitty, it’s over. He can come out now.”

      The girl leaned inside the door, beckoning with her hand until a fair-haired boy, about seven or eight years old, came out onto the porch. He stood by one of the posts, looking at Jack and Hallie with a mixture of curiosity and defiance.

      “He’s why I’m here,” Jack said.

      Hallie’s face puckered in confusion. “Ethan Harper? What would you have to do with Ethan?”

      “He’s my son.”

      “Your—that’s impossible. You couldn’t be—I mean, when…how?”

      “I do put the cards down once in a while, darlin’. And as to how, I’d demonstrate but I don’t think you want to give the boys at the Silver Snake another spectacle.”

      Hallie flushed and opened her mouth to snap back at him, but Jack took a step closer so she could feel the heat of him. She faltered and stepped backward, uneasy with the expression in his eyes, which made her wonder if she’d misjudged his determination to suddenly become a rancher.

      “Paradise is where Ethan’s grown up, so Paradise is where he stays,” Jack said. He looked straight at her. “And Eden’s Canyon is mine and it’s going to stay mine. Like it or not.”

      Hallie stood by the window in the front room of the ranch house, her hands fisted at her sides, and forced herself to look at the stretch of fine grazing land beyond the knobby wooden corral fences. The brilliant sunshine hurt her eyes, but at least it distracted her from thinking about Ben and what his latest escapade had cost her.

      Outside her window, grasses knee-high and thick rolled in green, gold and brown over the flat plains of the Rillito Valley. On either side of the valley, the mountains, painted in reds and browns, jutted up in crags and peaks, guarding the rich grassland. Her grandfather had left behind a dirt farm in Missouri to stake his