The Rancher's Family Thanksgiving. Cathy Thacker Gillen

didn’t know whether to be relieved nothing of any import had happened between Susie and Gary Hecht after all, or ticked off that Susie was goading him deliberately, trying to get a rise out of him. Or that it was working.

      “Same thing, from the looks of it,” Tyler muttered back.

      “No,” Susie countered patiently. “It wasn’t.” She paused a moment to let her words sink in. “I went tonight to pacify my parents. And because I wanted him to do a favor for me. Which, by the way, no thanks to you and your distracting presence, Gary readily agreed to do!”

      Tyler tried not to be too thrilled that he had disrupted her powers of concentration as much as she had disrupted his this evening. “What kind of favor?” he asked.

      Susie huffed, becoming difficult once again. “I’m not telling.”

      Tyler thought of all the ways he could force the information out of her. Kissing her, being the prime one.

      “Is that so?” he countered back, his temper inching ever higher.

      Amber eyes flashed. “You better believe it is.”

      Ignoring her sarcasm, he continued searching her face. “Don’t you think you are being a little bit childish?”

      She glared at him in resentment and splayed a hand across his chest. “You’re one to talk! This whole discussion is absolutely stupid and juvenile and pointless and—”

      Tyler had heard enough. Doing what he had wanted to do from the first moment he had laid eyes on her at the driving range this evening, he wrapped his arms around her, brought her close, lowered his head, and fastened his lips over hers. It had been an eternity since he had kissed her. Too long. All he knew was that in this moment she was everything he had ever wanted, everything he had never had. Not in any way that counted, since the two of them had made sure that every previous clinch they had shared in the last twenty-four hours had gone absolutely nowhere….

      Whereas this kiss…this kiss felt as if it was going somewhere. And it was more than just the softness of her lips, or the peppermint taste of her mouth, the softness of her breasts molding against his chest, or the feel of her hands clasping the back of his neck. It was the way she was kissing him back. As if there was no tomorrow. As if there had never been a yesterday. As if this moment was all that counted, or would ever matter.

      As Tyler brought Susie closer still, he knew she was right.

      Tonight was all that mattered.

      In so many ways, Susie was all that mattered.

      Which was why he knew he had to honor their previous promise to each other and stop now, before this went any further, and the two of them ended up in bed together, again.

      Calling upon every ounce of gentlemanly restraint he possessed, Tyler let the kiss come to a halt. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.

      And even more reluctantly, let her go.

      They drew apart, much more slowly than they had ever come together. Susie had that dazed look in her eyes that was at once both deeply satisfied and yearning for more. It destroyed him every time. Tonight was no exception. He wanted her more than ever, even as he knew full well all the reasons why they should never ever be more than crisis buddies.

      To do otherwise, to pretend he would always be there for her…in the way that she needed…to pretend they could ever be as emotionally close as she needed her potential soul mate to be…was pure fallacy.

      Tyler knew his shortcomings.

      He was not going to inflict them on Susie.

      He was not ever going to put her in a position where he would hurt her, the way she had once been hurt before.

      The kiss…well, the kiss had been a way to end the argument before it went too far, and either of them said or did anything they would later regret, Tyler reasoned, even as guilt washed over him, anew.

      Susie stepped back, and shoved her hands through her silky blond hair.

      Having recovered completely from the unexpected intimacy of the moment, she stomped her foot. “Now why did you go and do a darn fool thing like that?”

      Tyler shrugged.

      “Because I wanted to end the argument and that was the fastest way I knew how.”

      Susie’s eyes took on a turbulent sheen. Her lower lip slid out into a delicious pout. “I thought we agreed…”

      Tyler’s gut tightened. “We wouldn’t fall into bed again.”

      She nodded, her expression as solemn—and worried—as her mood. “It could ruin our whole crisis management system, Tyler.”

      A system, Tyler knew, Susie depended upon. The truth was, there had been times when Tyler really needed Susie, too. Times when she had come to his rescue.

      Been there. Done what needed to be done, said what needed to be said. And then left, as soon as he was on an even keel again. Had it not been for her…

      He doubted he would have survived those dark times as well as he had.

      “You know I’m right,” Susie persisted, her voice taking on a more normal sound.

      That was the hell of it. On some level, Tyler did know.

      On another…

      “We set those boundaries with each other for a reason,” Susie continued firmly.

      Boundaries Tyler now wished—as he did every time he ended up kissing Susie—that they could take down.

      “Well?” Susie prodded with a discreet lift of her brow.

      A discreet lift that said she was much more relaxed about what had just happened between the two of them than he was.

      She waited for his response.

      Before Tyler could reply the pager at his waist went off.

      He looked at the number flashing across the screen, frowned.

      Susie sighed and guessed, “Emergency?”

      “I hope not,” Tyler groused, shoving a hand through his hair. “I don’t want anything ruining our dinner plans.”

      He didn’t want their evening ending with Susie still in a mood to regret—or was it simply dismiss—their impetuous and forbidden kiss.

      Eyes locked with hers, he answered the call. Listened intently. “No problem,” Tyler said when the caller had finished. “I’ll be right there.”

      “So much for brisket, I guess,” Susie lamented as he shut off the phone and put it back on his belt.

      Tyler scoffed as he headed back to his truck. He reached into the compartment behind the seat, and pulled out a rumpled tan chambray shirt from the pile of clean laundry there.

      He stripped off the ugly green-white-and-orange striped golf shirt, then stood there a minute, naked from the waist up, as he put the shirt that was inside out to rights.

      “I was really looking forward to treating us both to some fine Texas barbecue. Another time then, I guess.”

      Tyler grinned. “Are you kidding me?” Pulse racing, he shoved his arms through the sleeves of the shirt and buttoned the soft rumpled cotton cloth from the bottom up. “You’re not getting off the hook that easily, missy.” Now that he had her full attention, he let his gaze meet and hold hers. “You’re going on this vet call with me.”

      Chapter Three

      To get more out of life, give more of yourself.

      It wasn’t the first time Susie had seen Tyler without a shirt, she ruminated as she and Tyler drove to see Tyler’s equine patient. She and Tyler’d been swimming together, for heaven’s sake. But treading water wasn’t what she thought about when she saw his broad muscular shoulders, taut pecs and strong abs.