Reunited…With Baby. Sara Orwig

too many ways. The worst part was the realization that she had never really gotten over him, something she had struggled desperately to do.

      She had never felt this way for Tanner, and she had been engaged to him. Was it because Luke had been the first love in her life? Or did it go deeper than that?

      They rode together in silence, only a couple of feet of space separating them in the pickup, but there was still a permanent, deep chasm dividing them.

      He hadn’t loved her and he never would, so why couldn’t she forget him? She clearly meant nothing to him—that alone should stop the volatile reaction she had to him and the desire that still steadily simmered through her veins.

      They bounced over the rough ground, and she looked around carefully, trying to see any sign of livestock. In another twenty minutes she spotted horses to the east. “Luke, over there.”

      “Yeah, I see. They’re in a fenced pasture, so let’s keep looking and see if we can find some more and get them back with these. They may be in bad shape, but hopefully we can get them to the barn.” He continued to drive, and she gazed around, looking for any more signs of life.

      “Luke, I see horses through the trees,” she said a few minutes later, and he swung the pickup in the direction she pointed.

      For the next six hours they worked—rounding up horses, finding a few cattle, getting them back to the barn—trying to do it all while it was still daylight. When the horses were finally in the corral by the barn, the cattle in a pasture, Luke closed the corral gate and turned to her.

      “You start checking the horses while I get feed to them. They’ve got water now in that tank. Shortly, it’ll be dark, so I’ll get lanterns out now and have them ready, and we can keep working if you can stay. If not, I’ll take you home. I’d appreciate your help if you can.”

      “I can stay.”

      He looked at her and reached out to hug her. “Thanks, Scarlett,” he said.

      As his arms wrapped around her and pulled her against his solid, hard body, her heart thudded. His strong embrace made her tremble and want to wrap her arms around him and hold him tightly against her heart. How was she going to work with him into the night without stirring all those old feelings she had for him?