LITMIR.BIZ

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emptied her bowl by the time he’d quit talking about the vast construction project. Despite the fact that he’d deliberately made the year sound as mundane as possible, a sparkle of admiration returned. Eyes like hers could make a weak man sell his soul to the tabloids without one regret.

      “So, you’re a talented craftsman, an industrious businessman and a great cook, too. The soup was delicious.”

      “Thanks. Would you like more?” Adam pushed his chair away from the antique oak table, anxious to put some space between them.

      “I’d love some, thanks. Where’d you learn to cook?” She stood and walked into the kitchen with him.

      Adam watched her refill her soup mug, noting similarities between Lisa and each of her sisters. Like Emily, she hadn’t let her underprivileged childhood keep her from dreaming. And like Katarina, Lisa overflowed with enthusiasm and creativity. He’d seen her work in several magazines.

      He tore his gaze from her as she disappeared into the dining room, recalling her question. Realizing that every word he said played right into her hand, he held back. “My dad liked to cook. I guess I got it from him.”

      “Oh? Do Kevin and Alex cook, too?” she asked as she peeked around the corner, her eyes wide with curiosity.

      And like both sisters, she was what any man would consider attractive. Adam wondered about her life, constantly on the move. “Alex does. Kevin can’t boil water.” Turning the conversation around, he asked, “You still living out of a suitcase, or have you found a place to call home? Between assignments, that is.”

      “I’ve been too busy to settle down.”

      Did he detect a note of sadness in her remark? “I guess that’s good in your business, right?”

      She hesitated. “I can’t complain. It pays the bills.” Lisa took another spoonful of soup.

      He nodded. “Don’t you ever miss going home? Sinking into your own bed? Eating a home-cooked meal?”

      She looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language. Or at the very least, as if he’d asked her to spill some deep dark secret.

      Lisa held up the soup mug. “I am eating a home-cooked meal. I’m in a beautiful home, and the company isn’t bad, either.” Her pink lips turned up stiffly at the corners. “Don’t you ever long to see all those wonderful sights to be appreciated out in this vast world?” Her voice softened. “Don’t you wonder if you’re in the right place, doing the right thing?” It cracked. “Don’t you ever just want to take off and avoid all this responsibility?”

      Now it was his turn to look at her as if she were from another world. He couldn’t believe the regret he felt, exposing the pain he heard in her soft voice. “My roots are in this soil, and I’ll do everything it takes to keep them planted right here. The last thing I want is to disrupt the peace with chaos of the outside world. I thank God every day for taking me out of the corporate world and bringing me home.”

      “How nice.” She stood up, cleared her place and took her dishes to the kitchen.

      Her icy response instantly made him recall Kat and Emily’s concern about their little sister’s hurried life and Lisa’s distance from God. He winced. This wasn’t going well at all.

      “Adam, it’s been a very long day. I think I’ll call it a night.”

      “I didn’t mean to say anything to offend you, Lisa.” He wanted to reach out to her, to take his words back, or at the very least, have the chance to ease their discomfort. “I promise it won’t—”

      Without turning around, she said, “Don’t bother, Adam. Promises mean nothing to me. I’ll see you in the morning.”

       Chapter Four

      Adam locked the front door, ready to put the day behind him. He needed sleep. It looked as if tomorrow would be another long day.

      He turned around, greeted by the coat rack. Lisa’s coat instantly reminded him of how nice she had felt in his embrace. She was tempting as homemade apple pie—a perfect mixture of sweet and tart.

      What was he thinking? He hadn’t as much as been on an official date in three years. And if he planned to see someone, a woman who spent her life on the road would not be the one for him.

      Lisa had a portfolio full of dreams, and enough talent to make them come true. Despite the challenges of her early years, she, like her sisters, had stomped on the restrictions their meager background could have inflicted on them. Each one had set goals and never gave up until she reached them.

      Adam closed the door between the lodge and his private quarters, the modest ranch house his grandparents had built in the early forties. Climbing the narrow stairs to the attic bedroom, Adam found it odd to think he had his first guest staying in his new lodge. Even more perplexing that it was Lisa.

      He spent half the night awake, wondering how to protect his heart from the unwelcome woman at the tip of Cupid’s arrow. Despite recent efforts by many well-meaning friends and relatives, no woman had caught his eye since Alex and Katarina’s wedding. He and Lisa had spent the better part of the blizzard sipping hot chocolate and telling stories about their brothers and sisters. He immediately discovered Lisa wasn’t an easy woman to get to know. She didn’t like talking about herself, her accomplishments or her feelings.

      Why the drifter had made such an impression on him, he wasn’t sure. It was more than her looks, as there were plenty of good-looking women in his life. With each tidbit he picked up about the youngest Berthoff sister from his brothers, Adam realized he stood a better chance of surviving a stampede than he did falling in love with Lisa. She wasn’t his type. Wanderlust was in her blood, and he was more than content in his own corner of the world.

      Lisa was a journalist. Her job came first. After all, that’s why she was here. She hadn’t come to see him, or even her sisters. It was a story she was after. A story about a romantic getaway. That means big trouble for the ranch, and me.

      It had taken him long enough to find where he belonged, and he’d be sure that no one—especially not a woman with no ties to family or land—came between him and the dreams God had called him home to.

      Adam didn’t need or want his life turned inside out by a stubborn woman who didn’t believe in promises, or God, or slowing down long enough to see exactly what she was missing. A loner like himself had no business tying anyone else down to his obligations.

      Keeping Lisa around in the confines of his lodge was definitely asking for trouble. Regardless of her familial connections or her charming personality, the beautiful drifter couldn’t stay. Wouldn’t, even if he’d be foolish enough to ask her to.

      While he wouldn’t exactly call his ranch secluded, it was a far cry from the hub of activity Lisa was accustomed to. Just yesterday, she had started her day with plans of whale-watching, and by the end of the day she was in Colorado to write a totally different story on a bed-and-breakfast. The world was her playground, and this ranch was his world.

      While his brothers had followed in their father’s footsteps of the construction business, Adam had counted the years, just waiting for the day his parents would let him spend summers helping his grandparents run the ranch. Now he had that chance. Whispering Pines was all he had to remember his grandparents by and he would do everything within his power to maintain the legacy they had left behind.

      This was his dream. His destiny. His calling. And if he couldn’t make a go of the guest ranch, his cousin would be more than happy to put his own name on the deed. Chance had offered to buy the MacIntyre cousins out in the very beginning, and still did on a regular basis. At the going price of land in the area, and the rate of population growth, they all knew their opportunistic cousin probably had investors lined up to divide and develop the entire ranch.

      Lisa’s mission stirred up fears and shadows, from the list of unfinished

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