LITMIR.BIZ

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even my parents. I work in Denver, and it sometimes feels like Wyoming—where the rest of my family lives—might as well be Mars.”

      “You’re busy with your work?” Johnny asked.

      He had guessed accurately. “Yes. I’m a social worker. I work long, hard hours—sometimes seven days a week. And I’m on call many of the nights.”

      Johnny nodded. “I know what you mean.”

      She supposed he did, in a backward, cowboy sort of way. Wrangling cattle was pretty much a 24/7 job.

      “There’s just this one thing, you see,” she explained. Oddly, she was beginning to feel comfortable in this cowboy’s presence. He was a large, intimidating man, to be sure, but he had kind eyes and a playful quirk to his lips that set her at ease.

      Still, she had to be careful where she trod, especially since Johnny seemed so sincere.

      It was best simply to get down to business and have it done with. They needed to work out a feasible solution to the problem she’d created, not become friends. Not that she wanted that, anyway.

      “You may have noticed there are no children about.”

      He cocked his head a little to one side, and then nodded. “I have to admit I was a little surprised—a family reunion with no kids.”

      “My Auntie Myra—she’s my great-aunt, really—lost her husband in Vietnam. They had no children, and her heart was so broken she never remarried.”

      “I see,” he said, though the look on his face told her he had no idea whatsoever where this conversation was leading.

      “Basically, Johnny, the lot has fallen on me. Everyone wants squealing little children running rampant through this farm, and they want them now.”

      “Well, sure they do,” he said with a soft drawl. “But you’re all of what, twenty-four years old? Twenty-five, maybe? And Scotty’s only just finished his high school diploma.”

      “I’m twenty-six,” Jenn clarified wryly. “And as far as my family is concerned, it’s time for me to settle down and start popping out some sweet little babies for them to spoil rotten.”

      She paused thoughtfully. “It’s not all that surprising, really, given everyone’s circumstances. I don’t blame them. It’s just not where I’m at in my life right now.”

      Ever, she thought grimly, but she didn’t say the word aloud.

      Johnny pursed his lips. “So, then, let’s see. The real problem is that Mr. Right hasn’t come along yet to sweep you off your feet?”

      Jenn chuckled. “I don’t even know if there is such a man. For me, at least.”

      “You’re pulling my leg,” he replied, with a shake of his head. “You can’t tell me you don’t have men knocking down your door every day of the week. A beautiful, intelligent woman like you?”

      He was teasing, but that didn’t stop Jenn from flushing from her toes to the tips of her ears. “I really don’t have time for dating.”

      “Well, you ought to make some.” His midnight-blue eyes were alight with amusement.

      Jenn waved him off with her hand. “Now you’re starting to sound like my family.”

      He laughed and stretched like a lazy cat. He was so large he dwarfed the armchair he was seated on.

      “I still don’t understand where I come in,” he said after a minute.

      “You don’t,” she stated emphatically. “This is all one big misunderstanding.”

      “I got that much. So who is—and more to the point where is—this fellow Johnny your family was clearly expecting?”

      She groaned and put a palm to her forehead. “That’s the thing,” she muttered. “There is no Johnny.”

      There was another long moment’s pause as Johnny considered her words, and then he shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

      She chuckled. “No, you wouldn’t. I did something stupid, at least in hindsight it appears that way. My family always teases me mercilessly about getting married and starting a family, so I made up a man.”

      “You did what?” He fingered the dusty Stetson in his hand.

      “It’s not as complicated as it sounds—at least it wasn’t, until you showed up and announced your name was Johnny.”

      “My name is Johnny,” he said with a low chuckle.

      “Unfortunately,” she muttered, and then clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

      He laughed. “I didn’t think you did.”

      She liked his laugh. He threw back his head and chortled wholeheartedly, his blue eyes glittering.

      Okay, so she was harboring a little resentment toward the man, even if she knew perfectly well it wasn’t really his fault she was in this predicament. Fortunately, he couldn’t tell how she was really feeling, this convulsion of emotions coursing through her heart and head.

      At least Johnny appeared to be taking her revelations with courtesy and maybe a touch of humor, which, Jenn thought, said a lot about the kind of man he was. He didn’t seem mad at her.

      Yet.

      He hadn’t heard the whole story. Johnny might appear to be a nice enough man for an unpolished cowboy, but he still had no idea how big a quandary he’d innocently walked into.

      There were limits to any man’s patience, and Johnny’s, she had to think, must already be stretched close to its limit.

      Jenn was about to continue her convoluted explanation when her mother interrupted. Clearing her throat loudly to announce her presence, Jenn’s mother entered with two steaming mugs of freshly ground and brewed coffee. Jenn inhaled the lovely aroma of hazelnut and crème, her favorite.

      Mom didn’t say a word. She set the mugs on the table and, with an encouraging smile to each of them, backtracked into the kitchen, closing the French doors that separated the rooms firmly behind her.

      “I sent myself flowers,” Jenn announced as soon as she and Johnny were once more alone.

      “That’s it?” Johnny asked, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s all you did? Signed the card Johnny and let everyone think what they may?”

      “Not exactly,” she said, chuckling. “I signed the card, Love, Me.”

      He laughed heartily, and Jenn was certain her family could hear that from the next room.

      “Clever,” he said. “Ingenious. This story gets better and better. So what happened when the flowers arrived?” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, as if anxious to hear the rest.

      In that, he would be disappointed. “There isn’t much to tell. The family made a big deal of it, of course, and started nagging me for a name. I’d only just blurted out Johnny when you and Scotty showed up.”

      “Hmm,” he said, stroking his strong jaw between his thumb and forefinger. His face was unshaven, as he’d been out on the range for a good week at least, Jenn thought.

      She wondered why she didn’t find the scruff unattractive. Stubble had never appealed to her before.

      He sat back in the chair. “My showing up puts you in a bit of a pickle, doesn’t it?”

      “Let’s just say it was a major jolt to my system, and leave it at that. I was really freaked out there for a while. But now that I’ve had a chance to settle down and think about it—and to talk to you—it’s really not so bad. We—I, that is,—just need to come clean with the facts. I simply have to tell my family there’s been a misunderstanding and you are not my Johnny.”

      “And

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