LITMIR.BIZ

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a shotgun blast. A large beam fell.

      The beam struck Ben Alden, knocking him down only a few feet from the door.

      Two

      Running toward the burning barn, Maggie screamed.

      “I’ll get him,” Jake shouted. “You stay out.”

      Crouching to avoid smoke as much as possible, Jake raced inside. He groped his way until he spotted the figure lying in front of him, a burning beam across his legs. Without hesitation Jake grabbed the beam and shoved it away. He hoisted Maggie’s father over his shoulder, moving blindly and praying he was headed toward the door and not deeper into the barn.

      As he burst through smoke and into fresh air, he staggered and lowered her father carefully to the ground. While Jake yanked away the bandanna and gulped fresh air, Maggie knelt beside her dad.

      “This man needs help,” Jake yelled to one of the firefighters who ran toward them.

      “Dad! I’ve called an ambulance.”

      “Are you all right?” a fireman asked Jake.

      “Yeah,” he nodded, coughing and still trying to get fresh air into his lungs. He moved back to allow two firemen to help her father.

      Maggie thrust a bucket of water into Jake’s hands and he poured it over himself, cold water drenching him, a momentary relief from the smoke and heat. “Thank you,” she said, earnest blue eyes gazing at him. Her face was smudged with soot and her blond hair had come loose from the braid so that long strands fell freely around her face.

      “Sure,” he said and then she was gone, back kneeling beside her father while the firemen hovered over him.

      With a rumble and a crack, the entire roof of the barn fell, sending flames and sparks shooting high overhead. Firefighters yelled as they worked frantically to keep the flames away from the house. Jake walked to a truck and poured a cup of water, gulping it, aware of hurting and stinging in a dozen different places. His hands felt like raw meat. Wind swirled against him and he lifted his head, realizing that it had shifted slightly.

      When he went back to join the firefighters, he heard men talking about the wind, but conversation wasn’t needed to tell him the wind was shifting. So far the flames had not crossed the road or flown over the swath of plowed dirt.

      He glanced over his shoulder and saw an ambulance with flashing lights. Jake guessed they were getting Maggie’s father into the ambulance. He hoped Ben Alden recovered.

      The wind shifted, giving renewed energy to Jake to battle the blaze that was now turning back on itself.

      In another hour they had the blaze under control and the professionals took over to finish the work. On blackened ground lay the smoldering ruins of the barn, the garage and the other outbuildings. Everything was destroyed except the house.

      “I think you should let a doctor look at your burns.”

      When he turned, Maggie stood only a few feet away. She had cleaned up and changed clothes. Now in jeans and a blue shirt, she looked cool and as sexy as ever. She had combed her hair and it hung in a thick braid over her shoulder.

      “I’m all right.”

      “You don’t look all right. I’m going to the hospital to see about my dad. Come with me to the emergency and someone will treat your burns.”

      Half of him wanted to get on his bike and go. The other half was drawn to her soft voice and big blue eyes and the sense that she really cared.

      “Sure,” he answered, feeling he was making a mistake, yet unable to resist hanging around her a little longer. “I need to move my bike from the road.”

      “I’ll take you to get it.” When she jerked her head, he saw she had brought her pickup back to the house. It was still loaded with her belongings.

      “If you’d like, I can help you unload first.”

      She shook her head. “I want to get to town to see my dad.”

      They walked in silence to the pickup, and he climbed into the passenger side. Sliding behind the wheel, Maggie started the motor. In a few minutes she dropped him off at his bike, turned around and drove back to the house with him trailing behind.

      Jake parked his bike, yanked on his black T-shirt and climbed into the pickup. “Want me to drive?”

      “No,” Maggie answered with amusement. “I’m accustomed to doing things for myself. And your hands look as if it would be painful to drive.”

      “I don’t mind.” As they drove away, he glanced out the window. “At least your house is saved.”

      “Thank heavens! It’s bad enough to lose everything else, but our house would have been so much worse. I’ve been working to turn our home into a bed-and-breakfast. I’d hate to see all my efforts plus our belongings go up in flames like the barn did.”

      “Aren’t you a little far out from any town for a bed-and-breakfast?”

      As she shrugged, he shifted slightly in the seat, turning to study her, looking at flawless skin that he knew would be soft.

      “I think some city people will enjoy a ranch experience and I can run the bed-and-breakfast while my dad runs the ranch. I’m going to give it a try. We have a big house, and I think I’ll succeed.”

      “Have you always lived here?”

      “Except for the two years while I was married. When I went to college, I lived at home and commuted. Where do you live?”

      “First one place and then another,” he answered. When she glanced at him, he suspected she didn’t approve of his vagabond lifestyle.

      “Dad said he’s seen you in rodeos.”

      “I’m a saddle bronc rider.”

      “Dad used to do calf roping, but that was a long time ago. His health isn’t as good as it used to be.”

      “Too bad. This fire is another burden.”

      “Thanks for stopping to warn us. It would have been worse if you hadn’t.”

      “I don’t know. No one could contain it until the wind changed.” Jake continued to study her, wondering about her and her life. She was a beautiful woman, and he couldn’t imagine her living like she did. “Don’t you feel buried out here on your ranch?”

      “Buried?”

      “Seems like a quiet life.”

      She flashed him a smile, the first he had received, and it made his pulse jump. She had a dimple in her right cheek and the smile showed in her eyes, animating her face in a quick, enticing flash like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.

      “It’s a quiet life, and I love it that way. Where’s your home now?”

      “On my bike.”

      He received a startled glance and grinned at her. “I don’t like a quiet life. I travel.”

      “Do you work or am I prying?”

      “Pry away. I do bronc riding and I train horses. I just quit a job working with horses for a friend of mine near Fort Worth. After a while I get restless and I move on.”

      “Where’s your family?”

      “I don’t have any.”

      “You had to have parents.”

      “They were killed in a fire,” he answered, looking out the window and clenching his fists. He had told few people in his adult life about his family and he wondered why he had just told her.

      She gave him a searching glance and then returned her attention to the road. “That’s why you fought our fire so hard,” she said quietly. “Dad and I wondered.”

      “Why

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