LITMIR.BIZ

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must’ve had a better year than the Curly-Q.” Emmett Quarrels narrowed his gaze on his neighbor. “What did you have in mind?”

      “Your southernmost pastures—they adjoin the land that belonged to Gonzalez.”

      “So what’s your point?”

      “That we could both come out ahead,” Martell said magnanimously. “Me with a little more land, you with enough money so that you don’t lose the rest.”

      “I’m not losin’ nothing.”

      “That’s not the word going around. Word is that Tucker Dale is ready to foreclose—”

      “Gossip is fodder for old women with nothing better to do!” Emmett snapped, cutting him off.

      Reed could hardly believe it. Tucker Dale, Alcina’s father and Pa’s longtime former business partner, threatening Pa with ruin.

      Martell persisted. “So the rumors aren’t true?”

      “It’s none of your business. Unless…you wouldn’t know anything about the bad-luck incidents plaguing the Curly-Q lately?”

      “Are you accusing me of something?”

      Pa seemed to be mulling that over, Reed realized, after which he choked out, “All I’m saying is that I expect you should mind your own spread and keep your nose out of mine!”

      With that, Pa stomped off. Martell stared after him for a moment before turning and coming face-to-face with Reed. Their gazes locked. The other rancher was the first to look away. He waved to some invisible acquaintance and stalked off in the other direction.

      Leaving Reed uneasier than ever. He’d known the Curly-Q was in trouble from his talk with Bart. But the seriousness of the situation suddenly hit him hard.

      His gut told him that he’d walked back into a worse hornet’s nest than he’d left more than a decade ago.

      “EVERYTHING IS SET for your honeymoon night,” Alcina told Pru when they met directly outside the ranch house, where she’d gone to regroup after her cross words with Reed.

      “This is so great of you, so special.” Pru pushed the red curls from her freckled face, gave Alcina a big hug.

      “Special for a special friend,” Alcina said.

      She’d decked out the best suite at her bed-and-breakfast—the Springs—with dozens of candles, special scented bubble bath for the Jacuzzi and rose petals strewn across the spread. She’d also left a bottle of champagne set in a big bucket of ice next to the bed. Hopefully, it would still be cold when the newlyweds arrived—a lot of hours had passed, and it was already dusk.

      “The spare key is in the cactus pot to the right of the front door,” she reminded Pru. “Don’t let Chance get bit,” she joked as if she meant the cactus, “unless you do the biting, of course.”

      Laughing, Pru said, “A little privacy right now sounds like the best wedding present in the world.”

      Newlyweds living with the bride’s family until other arrangements could be made wouldn’t be easy on any of them, Alcina knew, and they were saving their honeymoon for the National Rodeo Finals to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in two weeks. She was happy to do this for Pru and Chance. She only wished she could let them have the bed-and-breakfast to themselves all night, but there was no place in town for her to bunk in, and Josie couldn’t really stay with Bart because of his kids. At least no other guests were checked in—not that Alcina couldn’t use more business.

      “You’ll have several hours alone, anyway, so you can get as wild as you want,” Alcina teased. “Josie and I will give you fair warning when we come in—we’ll make lots of noise.”

      Pru’s eyebrows arched as she said, “Maybe if you’re lucky, that’ll be really, really late.”

      “How late do you want me to be?”

      “As late as a certain Quarrels brother will keep you happily occupied.”

      Knowing what Pru was getting at, Alcina felt her grin fade. “You’re dreaming.” Thinking of the argument she’d had with Reed earlier, she said, “I’m the last woman Reed Quarrels would want to keep out late.”

      “I don’t know. He was looking pretty interested.”

      “Was being the operative word. And then I opened my big mouth.” Alcina sighed and wondered if she should have listened to his opinions and held her own, something she’d never gotten used to doing. “No man likes to hear a woman rant while he’s held captive like a pinned butterfly.”

      “Hmm, sounds pretty darn interesting if you ask me.” Coming up from behind them, Chance slipped an arm around his new wife’s waist. “Making exotic plans for the evening, are you, Miss Prudence?”

      Pru blushed and smacked him in the chest with the flat of her hand.

      “Want to play rough, huh?” He grinned and arched one eyebrow. “How about we—”

      “Enough already!” Alcina said with a laugh. “Too much information. I don’t need any more details. And I think the two of you had better get out of here so you can be alone before you embarrass everyone.”

      Chance grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

      “Not until we observe the formalities,” Pru countered.

      The formalities being the cake cutting and garter and bouquet throws, Alcina knew.

      But first Pru wanted to freshen up. And Chance followed her inside the house, meaning the formalities wouldn’t commence for some time yet.

      Alcina started off, intending on rejoining the party, when she realized that she’d be on the sidelines watching couples dance. Forget that, she chose to take herself for some solitary exercise instead.

      With dusk came a chill in the high-desert air. Alcina wrapped the scrap of material that matched her dress around her shoulders closer. Good thing she’d fetched it while in the house.

      As she strolled behind the storage building that also held the living quarters of the only permanent hand on the Curly-Q, a loud thump startled her.

      “Moon-Eye?” she called out.

      But if the hired hand was around, he must not have heard, because he didn’t answer.

      On edge, she rounded the storage building and looked for the hired hand. Deep shadows thrust across the property, so it was difficult to make out details at any distance. Still, a movement from the back of the barn caught her attention. Of course it must be Moon-Eye—who else?—though she couldn’t actually see the man well enough to be certain.

      Alcina guessed chores on a ranch didn’t wait, not even for a wedding. She thought to join the hired hand, to keep him company for a few minutes, when a voice coming from the opposite direction distracted her.

      “C’mon…I know you want it…”

      A man’s enticing voice.

      “That’s it, sweetheart…”

      Reed’s voice.

      “That’s good, isn’t it?”

      Alcina’s mouth went dry at the seductive tone.

      “I told you it would be…”

      Who in the world was out here with him? Alcina wondered, her imagination on overdrive. Like a fool, she found herself wanting the full picture.

      “More, yes…take it all…”

      Shocked by the implication and yet drawn like a moth to a flame, she came close enough to see for herself.

      And then her face flamed with her foolishness.

      For, hunkered down next to his truck, Reed was hand-feeding a wretched-looking brown and white dog with a torn ear.

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