Rich Rancher For Christmas. Sarah M. Anderson

she hadn’t wandered off to unearth his family secrets.

      “Thank you,” she said. “You don’t have to serve me.”

      There—the muscle in his jaw twitched just as he said, “It’s no problem. I’m happy to do it.”

      She twisted her lips to one side, trying not to smile at him. “You’re lying. But I appreciate it anyway.”

      He paused, a forkful of pie halfway to his mouth. “I’m not lying.” The twitch was harder to see this time, because he was sliding his fork into his mouth.

      But she saw it anyway.

      “You have a tell. Did you know that?”

      He avoided answering her for several long minutes, so she dug in to the pie. Sweet merciful heavens, it was even better than it smelled. Homemade and warm, the apples perfectly spiced and the crust flaky. The roast had been excellent—but this?

      Maybe she had died in the snow. She’d frozen to death and this was actually heaven. Curled up on the couch with a sexy, grouchy cowboy and the best apple pie in the world.

      “This is fabulous,” she all but moaned around her third forkful.

      “Thanks, my—” He bit off the word. “Thanks,” he said again.

      She surreptitiously glanced at his hand—no ring, no tan line, either. Aside from the clothes she was wearing—which were baggy and not exactly in the height of fashion—there were no other signs of women in this house. At least not since she’d taken her shower. She was pretty sure there had been pictures on the wall and now there weren’t. But she had been too cold to study them when she’d originally walked through the house.

      No, CJ didn’t have a wife. Which meant that this pie had probably been made by his mom. The very woman that Natalie had been stalking through court records for months.

      It was equally obvious that he was absolutely not going to acknowledge his mother’s existence.

      Natalie Baker, morning television host, would have pressed for details. But the pie was too good and the fire was too warm and she just didn’t want to. If CJ were right, she would have several days to work on him. But not right now. Her stomach was full and she was feeling warm and drowsy—well, parts of her were. Other parts of her were way too attuned to the man sitting three feet away from her.