Her Rugged Rancher. Stella Bagwell

to excuse himself and run for the hills.

      After a long stretch of awkward silence, he finally said, “Let’s go.”

      With the mare following close behind her, Bella started toward the barn. The evening sun was beginning to wane and the air had cooled somewhat. The breeze whistling through the branches of the pines felt good against her face, but it couldn’t do anything about the heat that Noah’s presence was stirring up inside her.

      Bella, you’re a fool for having erotic thoughts about Noah Crawford. He’s a loner. For all these years he’s been content to live in a line-shack. He doesn’t want a conventional life. And he especially isn’t looking for a woman who wants a family of her own.

      Disgusted at the nagging voice sounding off in her head, she mentally swatted it away and glanced over at the object of her thoughts.

      “I imagine Jett told you that he tried to talk me out of building the barn.”

      “He mentioned it.”

      “Hmm. I’ll bet he’s done more than mention it,” she said with a short laugh. “But as you can see, I don’t always take my brother’s advice. I wanted a place to keep my horses or whatever animals I might take a notion to get.”

      “What other kind of animals would you want?”

      The doubtful tone of his voice didn’t surprise her. People had all sorts of strange ideas about lawyers. He was probably thinking she considered herself above doing barnyard chores. Or maybe he thought the only things she knew about were depositions and plea deals.

      “Oh, I think I’d like to have a few goats. I love the milk Sassy gets from her little herd. And I want to keep a few yearling colts around. Just for the fun of teaching them about being haltered and saddled—you know, basic training stuff.”

      “You know about dealing with yearlings?”

      There was more disbelief in his voice and Bella refrained from shooting him an exasperated look. Except for what he probably heard through Jett, this man couldn’t know much about her.

      “Noah, I’m thirty-two years old. I know a little more than filing my nails and curling my hair. I’ve been around horses all my life. One of my best childhood friends lived on a horse ranch. We spent hours watching her father train and sometimes he allowed us to help. It was always fun. Now Sassy has the mustangs and I help her with them whenever my job allows me the free time.”

      She glanced over to see a stoic expression on his face. Which wasn’t surprising. The few times Bella had been in his presence he’d not just kept his words to himself, he’d also hidden his emotions behind a set of stony features.

      He said, “You might know the fundamentals, but exposing a yearling to a saddle and bridle is not for the faint of heart. It’s dangerous.”

      “Dear Lord, Noah. The way you talk, simply living is a dangerous task.”

      “Maybe it is,” he muttered.

      She wondered what he meant by that, but knew better than to ask. Instead, she remained quiet and thoughtful as they walked the last few yards to the barn. Along the way, she listened to the jingle of his spurs and the faint flap of the leather chinks against his jeans. The sounds were those of a hardworking man and they comforted her in a way she’d never expected. She had no doubt that if he ever had a woman in his life, he’d certainly be able to take care of her, to protect her in all the ways a man could protect a woman.

      When they reached the big red barn, Bella opened the double doors, then gestured for Noah to lead Mary Mae inside.

      Once they were standing in the middle of a wide alleyway, Noah looked around him with interest. “You must’ve had the barn built of cinderblock for fire purposes.”

      “That’s right. I’m sure that you know as well as I do that up here on the mesa, water is a scarce commodity. And we probably live at least twenty miles from town and the nearest fire department,” she reasoned.

      “I didn’t realize the barn was this big,” he remarked. “From the road it looks smaller.”

      “Jett says I went overboard. But I wanted plenty of room.” She pointed to a hitching rail made of cedar posts. Beyond it was a room with a closed door. “There’s the tack room. Let’s take Mary Mae to the hitching post to unsaddle her.”

      At the hitching rail, he gave the mare’s reins a wrap around the post and proceeded to loosen the back girth on the saddle. While he worked, Bella decided to talk more about the barn. Hopefully, the subject would distract her from the sight of Noah and the way his broad shoulders flexed beneath the blue chambray shirt.

      “Besides the tack room, there’s six horse stalls and a feed room,” she said, while thinking she sounded more like a real estate agent than a woman trying to make conversation with a sullen man. “The loft has plenty of space for several tons of hay, too.”

      “Very nice,” he said.

      Did he really think so? Or did he think she was just a girl with too much money to spend on things she knew nothing about?

      The answers to those questions hardly mattered, she thought. She might have erotic fantasies about Noah, but he’d never be anything more than a ranch employee to her. After six years of ignoring her, he’d made it fairly clear he wasn’t interested.

      “Thanks. I’m proud of it.”

      It took only a few moments for him to finish unsaddling the mare. While he stored the tack and saddle away, Bella grabbed a lead rope and looped it around Mary Mae’s neck.

      “There’s no need to put a halter on her. She’ll lead like this,” Bella explained. “Come along and after we put her out to pasture you can join me for coffee.”

      Even though she didn’t glance his way, she could feel his eyes boring a hole in her back. As though she’d invited him into her bedroom instead of her kitchen.

      “Uh, thanks, Ms. Sundell, but I’d better be getting on home.”

      Impatient now, she said, “My name isn’t Ms. Sundell to you. It’s Bella and furthermore, you know it. As for you getting home, you live not more than five minutes away. And there’s still an hour or more before sundown. What’s your hurry?”

      Not waiting to see if he was going to follow, Bella headed down the alleyway until she reached the opposite end of the barn. There, she opened a smaller side door and urged the mare through it.

      Once the three of them were outside, walking beneath the shade of the pines, he answered her question, “I have a busy day scheduled tomorrow. I need to rest.”

      A loud laugh burst out of her and from the corner of her eye, she could see the sound had put a tight grimace on his face.

      “Rest? Right now I imagine you could wrestle a steer to the ground and not even lose your breath. You need to come up with a more believable excuse than that.”

      He moved forward so that he was on the right side of the mare’s neck and a few steps away from Bella. “Okay,” he said, “here’s another reason for you. I’m nasty and sweaty. I don’t need to be sitting on your furniture.”

      She laughed again. “It’s all washable. Besides, I made a rhubarb pie before I went riding. I’ll give you a piece.”

      “I’ve never eaten rhubarb.”

      “Good. You’re in for a treat.”

      “I don’t think—”

      She interrupted, “It would be impolite for you to refuse my invitation. Besides, the pie and coffee will be my payment for the shoe job. Fair enough?”

      “I wasn’t expecting payment.”

      No. He seemed like the type of man who didn’t expect anything from anybody and it was that cool sort of acceptance that completely frustrated her.

      Holding