LITMIR.BIZ

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necessarily. Sometimes Gramps just expects too much out of people. And when they fall short he gets disappointed.”

      She leveled her green gaze on him and Quint felt his heart pause, then jerk into a rapid thud.

      “Have you ever disappointed anyone, Quint?”

      What was the matter with him? Why did just watching her speak feel like an erotic adventure? Sexual starvation, he thought. And that was a fixable problem.

      “Hell, yeah,” he answered. “Haven’t you?”

      Something flickered in the depths of her eyes before they dropped away from his.

      “Oh, yes. More than I’d like to think.”

      She drew in a deep breath, then looked up at him one more time. “Whatever you’re thinking, Quint, I’m here to help your grandfather. Not hurt him. As long as you understand that, I think you and I can be friends.”

      He wanted to be more than Maura’s friend. When he’d come to that realization, he wasn’t sure. Maybe just a few seconds ago when he’d looked at her moist lips. Or had it been minutes ago when he’d first looked up and saw her standing in the doorway, that dress hugging her breasts like the hands of a lover? Yes, he wanted to be more than Maura Donovan’s friend and the idea was shaking the fire right out of him. She wasn’t a casual sort of woman. But his body didn’t seem to care one whit about that fact.

      “I believe you’re here to help Gramps. So let’s not rehash the issue, okay?”

      A slow smile spread across her face and Quint stifled a groan. If he could just kiss those luscious lips once, maybe twice, then he could hopefully put these crazy urges behind him.

      “I’m perfectly agreeable to that,” she said, then picked up the tray and offered it to him. “We’d better get back to Abe before he thinks we’ve deserted him.”

      Smiling to himself, Quint took the tray and followed her out of the room.

      Much later, as the three of them finished coffee around the dinner table, Maura quietly listened while Quint and his grandfather discussed the pros and cons of allowing Red Bluff Mining Company to reopen the Golden Spur. Maura’s knowledge about mining or taking gold from raw ore was practically nil, but from listening to their debate she could see that each man had good, solid reasons to back up his stand on the subject.

      Throughout the meal, Maura had been a bit surprised to see that Quint wasn’t a yes-man to Abe on any subject, even though the elder Cantrell was the patriarch of the family and held the strings to a fortune in land and money. Clearly Quint respected his grandfather, but he wasn’t shy about speaking up when he didn’t agree with the old man.

      Maura admired Quint’s spunk, but she was touched even more by the closeness and love she felt flowing between the two men. Gilbert had never shown much respect for his parents or tried to be a part of her family. She’d often voiced her disapproval about his lack of family connection and tried to make him see the joys he was missing, but her pleas had gone unheeded. One thing she knew for certain about Quint, he’d always be around for anyone he cared about.

      “All right, Gramps, I’ll call them. Maybe not in the next few days. But soon. And I’ll get a rough estimate as to the initial cost to start things up. But that’s all I’m going to promise. I’m not interested in gold,” Quint was saying toAbe.

      Maura smiled to herself as she saw Abe’s eyes begin to twinkle. Clearly he believed he was the winner tonight.

      “Maybe not. But the gold will make it easier for you to be a rancher. And it sure as heck might be nice to leave to your young’ns.”

      The muscles around Quint’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t make any sort of reply to his grandfather’s suggestion. Maura wasn’t surprised. When she’d brought up the idea of him raising children, he’d turned as cool as a frosty morning. Which could only mean he wasn’t interested in acquiring a wife, much less kids.

      Putting down his coffee cup, Abe stretched his arms over his head, then pushed back his chair. “Well, I’m gonna go watch a little news,” he said. “Quint, why don’t you take Maura down to the stables and show her the new stud. She’s not seen him yet.”

      Fully expecting Quint to come up with an excuse to leave, Maura got to her feet and began gathering the dirty dishes. “That’s all right, Abe,” she said, not bothering to glance Quint’s way. “I can walk down to the stables another time. It’s almost dark anyway.”

      “It’s at least another half hour until dark,” Quint spoke up. “We have plenty of time.”

      Maura’s gaze jerked to the end of the table just in time to see him rising from his seat. Instead of a look of boredom, she was surprised to see a smile on his face.

      “Are you game?” he asked.

      “Uh—sure.” She glanced down at the plates she was holding. “Just let me put these away.”

      “I’ll help you clear the table.”

      Flustered by this turn of events, Maura hardly noticed Abe quietly leaving the kitchen.

      “There’s no need,” she told him. “I’ll gather everything up later. We’d better not waste daylight.”

      She put the plates in the sink, then turned to see he was waiting for her by the door. As she joined him, her heart began to pitter-patter like a rain shower threatening to turn into an all-out storm.

      “The evening might get cool before we get back,” he suggested, his eyes sliding slowly over her bare shoulders. “Do you think you might need something to cover your arms?”

      “You’re probably right. Hold on,” she told him, then hurried out of the room. By the time she fetched a shawl from her bedroom closet, she was breathless and silently berating herself for behaving like some besotted teenager. Quint Cantrell was merely being polite and friendly, she told herself. This was only a walk. Not a date.

      Once the two of them were off the back porch and walking down the middle of the dirt road that led to the ranch yard, Maura breathed deeply and tried to relax.

      “I really didn’t expect you to go through with this,” she said honestly. “I mean—Abe can be so obvious sometimes. And he doesn’t stop to think that you might have more important things to do than show me a horse.”

      Except for the crunch of gravel beneath their feet, the night was quiet. When Quint chuckled softly, the sound wrapped around her like the warm night air.

      “I think showing you a horse is far more important than talking about that damned old mine. I was glad for an excuse to get away.”

      Smiling, she glanced at him. “Well, I understand you’re not keen on inviting that sort of mining hubbub onto your ranch, but I think you’re wonderful for listening to your grandfather’s dreams and taking them seriously.”

      He shrugged as though he didn’t warrant her compliment. “He’s always listened to mine. And in spite of him being so cantankerous, he’s a very wise man. I’d be a fool not to listen to him.”

      Too bad Gilbert had been so full of himself that he’d not looked to his family or anyone for advice, Maura thought. He’d believed himself to be smarter, slicker and savvier than anyone around him. And to a point, he had been, she thought grimly. He’d certainly fooled her for years. Was that what love did to a woman? Blinded her ability to see the truth, twisted her judgment? Until her love for him had begun to crumble, she’d not seen the real man.

      “So how is your arm doing?” she asked after a moment. “I don’t suppose you went to the doctor and got stitches.”

      “No. But it’s healing.”

      It seemed the farther they walked, the closer he was drawing to her side. Maura tried not to notice, but that was fairly impossible to do when her heart was hammering in her chest.

      “One

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