Erin's Way. Laura Browning

finally she stood next to him. Next to, but not touching him. He’d encountered wild animals less wary than Erin.

      She was still no bigger than a mosquito, he thought, smiling inwardly. The top of her head was no higher than his chest. He thought of Stoner…taller still than him, and Catherine…herself a tall, slender woman. Evan was also tall. Erin must have felt like a misfit from the very beginning in that family. Meeting Tabby wouldn’t have changed her mind. Her half sister was somewhere around five-ten.

      “Why did you come back?” Sam asked. He hadn’t meant to. God only knew it was none of his business, and he didn’t want it to be his business. He needed to be smart, remain aloof, but sometime what he knew logically, his heart wouldn’t obey.

      “Would you believe me if I said I discovered a desire for hearth and home?”

      Sam chuckled. “No.”

      She grinned at him, but the shadows still lingered on her elfin face. “I came back because I have the hots for you. Would you believe that?”

      His heart pounded, and other parts too, at just the thought of it.

      “No.” But he wanted to. Man, did he want to. “I hardly think we would be a perfect fit, Erin.”

      She flashed a smile. “The druggy and the lawman. Probably not.” She prowled the room again, stopping and striking a dramatic pose and tone. “What if I said I ran away from a member of a notorious crime family, and I believe he might still try to find me and kill me?”

      Sam stared at the way she had her hand clutched to her chest, and he laughed.

      Erin tilted her head and grinned. “No one would believe that, would they? Silly of me. I’ll simply have to think of something more plausible.”

      “Do you want something to eat?”

      She shook her head. As she took the tea, he noticed the faint tremor in her hands and wondered if it was leftover from her nightmare, or a function of all the substance abuse. He pulled a chair out and sat, but Erin continued to prowl. If it wasn’t so much a part of who she was, it would have made him uneasy, but she had been constantly on the move as a child too, always searching, always looking for the next diversion.

      “I’m sorry about your fence.” She paused, but almost immediately her gaze shifted restlessly around, looking anywhere but at him, as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. Once upon a time, she’d worshiped him, now her avoidance was as painful as a slap. “I—I saw a deer, a cow, or something in the road and swerved. Let me know what I can do to fix it.”

      Sam studied her, sizing her up. He wanted her to stick around. Somewhere deep inside, he knew she was looking for an excuse as well. Gut feeling told him this might be the last chance they had to find out what, if anything, there was between them. As much as logic and reason told him to stay away, his heart had always carried another message. His heart won.

      “I could use some help around the farm. My hired hand has pneumonia and calving season just started. I’d pay you, minus the cost of the fence of course.” Before he’d even finished speaking, his subconscious was screaming at him. What was he thinking?

      Erin stared at him. “Of course. What exactly did you want me to do? Cook? Clean?”

      Sam blinked. Have her in the house? That would be too close for comfort. “I need help with the livestock. You’d have to check fences, water troughs. Ride out during the day when I have to be at work. Help feed and muck out.”

      Erin wrinkled her aristocratic, little nose. “You want me to shovel cow shit?” Her voice rose on a note of incredulity as she finished.

      Sam grinned. “And horse manure too. How long do you plan to stay?”

      Erin shrugged. “A few hours, a few weeks. I don’t know, Sam. I guess until I’ve worn out my welcome. Last time that didn’t take long. In fact, I think it was worn out before I even arrived.”

      “Are you on vacation from that job on the ship?” She never had given him a straight answer about why she’d returned.

      “You could say that.” She avoided his eyes, continued her prowling.

      Sam clenched his teeth in frustration. She was as forthcoming with information as usual. “Isn’t this your busy time?”

      Erin set her cup in the sink with a distinct click of ceramic against porcelain. “I’m tired. If you want help, I’ll help, but let’s leave examining my life out of it, okay? It’s not part of the deal.”

      “Right.” Sam stood and came up behind her to put his cup in the sink next to hers. For a moment their bodies touched, and it was like the completion of an electrical circuit; sparks shot between them. Sam jerked away. “I’ll show you what to do over the next couple days. Then I’m back to work on Monday.”

      She nodded warily, shifting away from him. So she felt it too, and it made her nervous.

      * * * *

      Erin caught the coveralls and baseball cap Sam tossed at her the next morning. “I’m going to ride out and check fences. While I’m doing that, you can muck out stalls.”

      Erin wrinkled her nose at the heavy, insulated coveralls. She preferred softer materials, but she knew this would keep her warm.

      “Try some of the boots near the back door. You might find a pair that fits.” Sam ducked out the door so fast Erin had to believe he was trying to get away from her. Her mouth twisted. Nothing new there.

      After finding a pair of boots that would actually stay on her feet, Erin slogged across the barnyard. She paused inside the door and inhaled the familiar scents. She’d spent a lot of time in the barn at Richardson Homestead as a kid…until Daddy had put her pony down. Her gaze skittered around the storage area just inside the door. Erin grabbed a manure fork and the wheelbarrow and began shoveling the soiled bedding.

      About mid-morning, she heard a vehicle pull into the farmyard. The nervous flutter in her stomach was beyond her control. The wheelbarrow was full, so Erin pulled the cap low over her eyes and pushed it outside, partly to empty it, partly to see who was there. With the cap on, chances were excellent no one would recognize her immediately. That might be the advantage she needed if… No, she wasn’t going there. She was safe here.

      “Hey, kid!” a voice she hadn’t heard in years called. “You seen Sam? I brought his truck back. I need to pick my sister up and get him to drive us back to my parents’ house.”

      Erin let the wheelbarrow drop to the ground and pushed her cap back. Evan’s gray eyes, so like Daddy’s, widened.

      “Erin? What… What the hell are you doing?”

      His tone, as much as his words, put her on the defensive. She stuck her chin out pugnaciously. “You’re the freaking brain, Evan. What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m shoveling horse shit.”

      “Why?” Evan’s brows pulled together. “Did Sam force you to do this?”

      She shrugged nonchalantly. “I wanted a job. Sam gave me one. It will pay him back for busting his fence.”

      Evan arched one thick brow. “Wouldn’t it be easier to write a check?”

      “He needed help. I’m helping.” Not even a full day home, and both Evan and her father were questioning her every move.

      Evan followed her into the barn where she picked out the next stall. As she worked, he watched her curiously, as if she were some kind of strange experiment. Hell, maybe she was. He didn’t know her. Probably didn’t know her as well as he knew the new darling of the family, their half sister, Tabby.

      Since they had reached their teens, Erin’s encounters with him and the rest of her family could only be described as brief and painful. Most of the time she had been in one scrape or another, or out of her head on booze or drugs.

      “I’m supposed to bring you home. Mother and Daddy have