LITMIR.BIZ

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to wistfulness. Was she thinking of their wedding? She’d once said it was the happiest day of her life.

      “Please give Jordan my best,” she said, and then hurried away.

      She left him standing there, feeling as if one small moment from the past had somehow brought them closer. But then he could just as easily be misreading things. He did that a lot with Jules. Whenever he’d been sure he knew what she thought or wanted, she’d been on another wavelength altogether.

      But there was no denying that something had passed between them. He just didn’t know what the hell it was.

      He headed out the back door, glanced around for Abe, who was nowhere to be seen. The old reprobate had probably taken off without him. Luke strode to the barn. As he went inside, the familiar scents of hay and manure took him back to a time when he couldn’t have imagined ever leaving the ranch.

      The mare was gone, but Balboa stood in his stall and nickered softly at Luke. When Abe had downsized, he’d kept two horses and five head of cattle, just enough to stay busy, but not too much to handle.

      Luke talked softly to Balboa before saddling him up. “Hey, big guy. It’s been a while.” The golden palomino nuzzled him, apparently remembering they’d been inseparable once upon a time. He wished other parts of his life were that easy to resurrect.

      He mounted the stallion and headed for the line, not having a clue where the fence was broken. He figured it was at Stella Hancock’s property line, otherwise Abe would have no reason to complain about her long-dead husband.

      He sat straight in the saddle and took a quick breath of fresh mountain air, a nice change from the smog and gasoline fumes of downtown L.A. Even the salty ocean breezes at his home in Venice were a respite from the pollution that hung like an ochre cloud over the rest of the city.

      Out here, he could breathe. The scent of piñon pine teased his senses, reminding him of a time when life was simple and uncomplicated, a time when the only thing he’d cared about was what he was going to do that day.

      His mother’s sudden death when he was thirteen changed all that. She’d been the peacemaker, she’d held the family together. Clearly something he and his father had no desire to do once she was gone.

      Back then his father always blamed Luke’s bad behavior on adolescence, but it was more than that. Something he’d long since put out of his mind. He’d never approached his father about it, but he’d always thought Abe knew that Luke knew—and neither wanted to open that door.

      One thing was certain, his mother’s death had changed his life forever.

      He nudged Balboa to a canter. He hadn’t thought about that in years. He preferred physical activity over thinking. But being here, seeing Jules again, had him thinking more than ever. Love complicated everything—and losing everything you loved made life intolerable.

      When they’d lost Michael he’d soldiered on for Julianna’s sake. But when she left…there wasn’t any point to anything. He’d hit bottom.

      The anger he thought he’d buried a long time ago burned in his veins. Bitterness rose like bile in his throat. Never again would he let himself feel so much. If he didn’t feel, he couldn’t hurt.

      JULIANNA WENT INTO the den to do some research for her next story. If she could concentrate. Luke had said he’d be there only a day or two. God, she hoped so. He was too intense. Too probing. She was on tenterhooks every time he entered the room.

      One day she could handle. Couldn’t she? All she had to do was maintain her distance, keep her mind in the present and stay focused on the end result. Luke going back to L.A.

      She’d made a quick decision not to tell Luke about the story because she knew the subject would upset him. She knew that as well as she knew her deadlines. It would simply make the time he was here even more strained. He already suspected she hadn’t just come simply because Abe asked her to. As intuitive as Luke was, if she told him about the story, he might connect the two. And if he knew she was being threatened, the cop in him wouldn’t let it go. He’d have to take action.

      There was no way she could tell Luke. But she had to tell Abe about the phone calls.

      CHAPTER THREE

      BY THE TIME Luke reached his father, Abe had already taken out the new roll of barbed wire and was trying to fasten it to the fence by himself. “Couldn’t wait a few more minutes?” Luke dismounted and strode over.

      “Can’t wait forever. I’m not getting any younger.”

      “Not getting any easier to get along with either.”

      “One of the few good things about getting old. You can say what you want and the hell with what anyone thinks.”

      Luke couldn’t remember a time when his father didn’t say what he wanted or ever cared what anyone thought. But he wasn’t going to stay that long and he needed his father’s cooperation if he was going to hire someone to help out. Getting Abe to accept that help was going to be the tough part.

      “We need to shore up the posts first,” Luke said and walked over to one that was tilted at forty-five degrees.

      “It’ll straighten out with the wire on it,” Abe countered.

      Luke let out an exasperated breath. He knew he should just agree with his dad and then get out of there. “C’mon, let’s do it together.”

      That seemed to agree with Abe and they both started working on getting the post upright. And while they were somewhat sympatico, Luke said, “I know Jules isn’t here just because you asked her to come.”

      His father turned and looked at him. “Is it such a hard thing to believe, that someone would actually want to be here with me?”

      “No, Dad. Of course not. You have company all the time, don’t you.” No matter how hard he tried to be nice, his father made it impossible and Luke couldn’t seem to hold back his sarcasm. But then it wasn’t likely he’d hurt the old man’s feelings anyway. Nothing fazed his father. And he usually gave out more than he got.

      “People never did take to me, like they did your mother,” Abe said. “And when she died, it was hard to be nice to anyone.”

      Including me. But this time, Luke bit back the words. He’d come here to make amends with his father and dammit, he was going to. “I know you missed her. I did, too.”

      “I still do.”

      The softness in his dad’s voice might’ve made Luke think he actually meant it. “So why are you here?” Abe said. “I know you didn’t come to keep an old man company.”

      Luke smiled, hoping to ease the tension. “But you’re wrong. That’s exactly why I came. I had two weeks vacation and I thought it a good opportunity for us to…to reconnect.”

      Abe snorted, then as if he hadn’t heard a word, walked to the next post and started righting it.

      Yeah. Luke sighed. Had he hoped for a different reaction? What Luke wanted didn’t mean squat when it came to his father. Never had. “So, getting back to Jules. I know she likes you and all that, but what’s the other reason she’s here?”

      “Ask her, not me.”

      “I did. She won’t tell me.”

      “Shoot. If you’d kept in touch with her, you’d know why she was here.”

      Keep in touch? Where had his father been all this time? Julianna didn’t want anything to do with him. It was her decision and he’d respected it.

      “And if you hadn’t bailed on the marriage, she probably wouldn’t be here at all.”

      Picking up the roll of wire, Luke gritted his teeth. Tension crackled in the air between them. Luke started attaching the end of the wire to the first post. “Dad, that was five years ago. Long enough for

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