A Hero To Count On. Linda Turner

you wouldn’t call me back for hours.”

      “We just walked out of the church and are on our way to the reception. Are you home yet? Did Hunter have any trouble recognizing you? I loaned him a picture—”

      “Oh, he had a much easier time than I did. I was expecting you. Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t make it?”

      “You were in the air,” her sister reminded her, “so I couldn’t reach you on your cell. You caught me off guard when you called—John and I had a wedding to go to, but after everything you’ve been through, I didn’t want you to think we didn’t want you here. So when Hunter volunteered to pick you up, it seemed like the perfect solution.” Struck by a sudden thought, she said sharply, “Everything’s all right, isn’t it? He promised to behave himself.”

      Aware of Hunter’s eyes on her as he waited for her to finish her conversation, she stiffened. Behave himself? Had Elizabeth asked him to behave himself with her? Why? Had the two of them discussed her?

      Dozens of questions—and answers she didn’t like—bombarded her, but all she said was, “Everything’s fine, now that I know he’s who he claimed to be. I didn’t know John had a brother.”

      “I just found out myself last week when he showed up at the ranch,” Elizabeth said. “But he’s a great guy. He may tease you until you want to shoot him, but John trusts him completely, and you can, too.”

      “If you say so,” she said, studying Hunter doubtfully. “I’ll let you know.”

      “Be nice,” Elizabeth laughed. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

      When Katherine hung up, she wasn’t surprised to find Hunter grinning at her. “You don’t have to look so smug,” she sniffed, refusing to be embarrassed for distrusting him. “She said you were a tease but I could trust you. I’m reserving judgment.”

      “On what? Whether I’m a tease or that you can trust me?”

      Looking down her pert nose at him, she lifted a delicately arched brow. “What do you think?”

      Far from offended, he only laughed. “And here I thought I was doing so well. What is it with you cute ones? None of you will give me the time of day.”

      Fighting a grin, she pointedly looked at her watch. “It’s four-twenty.”

      “Smart-ass,” he chuckled as he opened the door to his Toyota 4Runner for her and helped her into the vehicle. “I knew you were going to be trouble the second I laid eyes on you.”

      “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      “Yeah, right.” Shutting her door for her, he walked around the vehicle and climbed into the driver’s seat, his grin maddening as he reminded her to buckle up. The second her seat belt was safely in place, he glanced behind him, threw the transmission into Reverse and hit the gas.

      “What the—?” Grabbing the handhold on the doorframe, she gasped, “Are you mad?”

      “You mean crazy?” he laughed as he put the SUV in Drive and head for the highway. “Sometimes. I don’t let any grass grow under my feet.”

      “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me,” she retorted dryly. “So what’s a man like you doing in Colorado?”

      “Taking a break between jobs. I don’t start my new job in L.A. until next month, so it seemed like a good time to visit John.”

      Her gaze on the road that stretched out before them as he headed for the ranch, she said, “I thought it was a good time for a visit, too.”

      “Because you wanted to put some space between you and that amoral jackass you were involved with?” At her sharp look of surprise, he added, “Oh, yeah, I know about it. And just for the record, you should have known better than to trust the bastard.”

      “Oh, really?” Indignant, she said, “And how would you know that? You don’t know anything about Nigel.”

      “I know he’s a man,” he retorted. “That’s all I need to know. Even a woman with a pea brain should know better than to trust a man.”

      “I beg your pardon! I know a lot of good men.”

      “Really? Name two.”

      She held up her index finger. “My brother.” Then a second finger. “Your brother.”

      “Most men aren’t like your brother or mine,” he returned. “Or haven’t you figured that out yet?”

      “Are you including yourself in that group?”

      “Guilty as charged,” he said promptly. “We’re after only one thing. You should know that. The jerk you were in love with didn’t just lie to you—he lied to his wife, too, and cheated on both of you. Talk about a scumbag. If you were smart, you’d never have anything to do with a man again.”

      “Trust me,” she said stiffly, “I learned my lesson. That’s exactly what I intend to do.”

      “Yeah, yeah,” he mocked. “That’s what all you women say. Then some good-looking loser flirts with you, you get all hot and bothered and think you’ve found Prince Charming. Why does everything have to be a fairy tale? What’s wrong with good old-fashioned sex for sex’s sake?”

      “You’re a cynic.”

      He didn’t deny it. “Yeah. So?”

      “You don’t believe in love?”

      “Not hardly,” he said with a short laugh. “It’s all just hormones.”

      Deep down inside, Katherine’s bruised heart was tempted to agree with him. If she didn’t believe in love, she reasoned, she couldn’t get hurt. It made perfect sense. There was only one small problem. If she didn’t believe in love, why did she feel as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest by Nigel?

      “I don’t think so,” she said quietly. “Hormones don’t hurt like this.”

      Cringing at the sound of the pain thickening her voice, she knew she was going to cry if they didn’t change the subject. “Enough doom and gloom,” she said briskly, straightening her shoulders. “So you’re the half brother. What’s your story? It has to be more entertaining than mine.”

      “I don’t know about that,” he said wryly. “I can always make something up. My mother always said I could tell a better story than all the other kids put together.”

      “And how many kids were there in your family?”

      “Eight.”

      “Eight! Are you serious?”

      Grinning, he shrugged. “Doesn’t everybody have eight brothers and sisters? Of course, some are step, others half, a few full blood. Between them, my parents were married five times.” At her look of horror, he chuckled. “It’s pretty damn awful, isn’t it? My mom married twice, my dad three times, and they’re probably not done. They’re both currently divorced and looking. Talk about optimists. They’re both crazy.”

      “So that’s why you’re such a cynic. No wonder you don’t believe in happily ever after.”

      “You’re damn straight,” he retorted. “There’s no such thing.”

      Katherine had always considered herself a die-hard romantic, but that was before…before Nigel lied to her, before he made a fool of her, before he charmed her into falling in love with him without even hinting that he was married. “If you’re hoping for an argument, you’re out of luck,” she said flatly. “I just got my heart stomped on by a man who claimed to love me. If that’s love, I want no part of it.”

      She meant every word, but later, after they arrived at the ranch and Hunter carried her luggage upstairs, and she’d gone down to the kitchen to make a pot of tea, the silent emptiness of the house