[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
closed around his heart and refused to let go.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up to find Seth, whose eyes shifted between the saddle and the rag in his
hand. "Didn't you soap that saddle yesterday?" Seth asked, perplexed.
"Might have." Putting muscle into the job, Matt continued soaping the saddle, while wishing Seth
would leave. Solitude was what he wanted, a time to sort through his feelings and try to make sense
of them. All his life he'd prided himself on his ability to take control of things, make order out of
chaos, rid his mind of the extraneous and focus on the relevant. But for the first time in hell-and-gone
he felt that control slipping.
Seth leaned a shoulder against the wall and folded his arms. "Keeping a respectable distance from the
new nanny?"
Without looking up, Matt said, "What's it to you?
"Nothing," Seth replied, "but when you left her in the corral with Dynamite yesterday, she looked mad
enough to spit."
In his mind s eye, Matt confronted a pair of angry hazel eyes with dilated pupils, a snug-fitting shirt
clinging to every female curve as Ruth's chest rose and fell in agitation, a rapid pulse throbbing in her
throat. "She was."
"What did you do? Proposition her?"
Matt jammed the cloth against the saddle. "Find something else to do because right now you re
irritating the hell out of me," he said scrubbing with short, choppy movements.
"Geeze, you're pricklier than a horny toad," Seth said. "Or maybe you're just hot for a lady who sleeps
with her legs crossed."
"Stop being a horse s ass," Matt said in a dry tone.
Seth gave him a sidelong glance. "You aren't, are you? Hot for the lady?"
"If I was, pal, you'd be the last to know." He moved around to the opposite side of the saddle,
presenting his back to Seth.
"She's not exactly like you described," Seth's words came from behind. "Fact is, she comes across as
anything but a sexless old maid. You're loosing your touch, boss. You're usually pretty good at sizing
up women but this time you were dead wrong."
Matt couldn't refute it. Ruth had seemed like a sexless old maid at first. But when she walked into the
kitchen and took him by surprise, with her flushed face and tight-fitting shirt, and hip-hugging jeans,
he couldn't deny, she'd made him more aware of the woman than the priggish nanny he'd thought her to
be. He cocked a brow. "She's Annie's nanny, that's all. I feel nothing for her but a hell of a lot of
gratitude."
And affection and tenderness and protection& .
A strange and perplexing conundrum of feelings. What he couldn't figure out was the totally illogical
reason why he should feel anything at all for a woman he'd only just met. Or why he couldn't shake
her from his mind, no matter how hard he tried.
"And Annie? How does she like her new nanny?" Seth asked.
Matt let out a short, ironic laugh. "You know Annie. With her it's always a rocky start. But she'll come
around with Ruth. Fact is, I'd bet my last buck Annie's already starting to cozy up to her..."
***
Annie stop it!" Ruth grabbed the dresser drawer before Annie could dump everything on the floor to
join the contents of two other drawers. Annie had been testing her all morning, and Ruth was through
cajoling and conceding.
"It's my room," Annie scoffed, "and I can do whatever I want in it."
"Oh no, you can't!" Ruth shoved the drawer shut and stood in front of the dresser.
"Yes I can!" Annie climbed onto the bed and started jumping up and down.
Stop it this instant! Ruth said. You'll fall." But when she reached for Annie, Annie jumped down
and raced to the drawer and yanked it open again.
Cursing under her breath, Ruth shut the drawer while Annie was pulling clothes out, trapping a shirt.
"It took me thirty minutes to put this room together and I'm not going to let you trash it in five! Now
pick up those clothes and put them back in the drawer!"
"No!" Annie braced her hands on her hips. "And you can't say you'll pull off the Kens' heads either
because I hid the Kens where you'll never, ever find them. So there."
"Annie, I'm not going to put up with this. Now, I'm going to count, and when I get to ten, I'll expect
your clothes to be put away. One... two... three... four...."
In a sing-song voice, Annie said, while springing up and down on the bed, "I'm not going to pick them
up and you can't make me, ha ha ha,.. ha ha ha."
"No, I suppose I can't," Ruth said. "But I don't have to keep picking them up either." She turned,
unlatched the window and raised it wide open.
Annie stopped jumping and eyed her, dubiously. "What are you gonna do?"
"This." Ruth scooped up an armful of clothes off the floor and heaved them out the window.
They fell to the yard below. She followed with another armful, and another.
Annie shrugged. "Daddy ll be real mad at you for throwing my clothes away."
"We'll see." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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closed around his heart and refused to let go.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up to find Seth, whose eyes shifted between the saddle and the rag in his
hand. "Didn't you soap that saddle yesterday?" Seth asked, perplexed.
"Might have." Putting muscle into the job, Matt continued soaping the saddle, while wishing Seth
would leave. Solitude was what he wanted, a time to sort through his feelings and try to make sense
of them. All his life he'd prided himself on his ability to take control of things, make order out of
chaos, rid his mind of the extraneous and focus on the relevant. But for the first time in hell-and-gone
he felt that control slipping.
Seth leaned a shoulder against the wall and folded his arms. "Keeping a respectable distance from the
new nanny?"
Without looking up, Matt said, "What's it to you?
"Nothing," Seth replied, "but when you left her in the corral with Dynamite yesterday, she looked mad
enough to spit."
In his mind s eye, Matt confronted a pair of angry hazel eyes with dilated pupils, a snug-fitting shirt
clinging to every female curve as Ruth's chest rose and fell in agitation, a rapid pulse throbbing in her
throat. "She was."
"What did you do? Proposition her?"
Matt jammed the cloth against the saddle. "Find something else to do because right now you re
irritating the hell out of me," he said scrubbing with short, choppy movements.
"Geeze, you're pricklier than a horny toad," Seth said. "Or maybe you're just hot for a lady who sleeps
with her legs crossed."
"Stop being a horse s ass," Matt said in a dry tone.
Seth gave him a sidelong glance. "You aren't, are you? Hot for the lady?"
"If I was, pal, you'd be the last to know." He moved around to the opposite side of the saddle,
presenting his back to Seth.
"She's not exactly like you described," Seth's words came from behind. "Fact is, she comes across as
anything but a sexless old maid. You're loosing your touch, boss. You're usually pretty good at sizing
up women but this time you were dead wrong."
Matt couldn't refute it. Ruth had seemed like a sexless old maid at first. But when she walked into the
kitchen and took him by surprise, with her flushed face and tight-fitting shirt, and hip-hugging jeans,
he couldn't deny, she'd made him more aware of the woman than the priggish nanny he'd thought her to
be. He cocked a brow. "She's Annie's nanny, that's all. I feel nothing for her but a hell of a lot of
gratitude."
And affection and tenderness and protection& .
A strange and perplexing conundrum of feelings. What he couldn't figure out was the totally illogical
reason why he should feel anything at all for a woman he'd only just met. Or why he couldn't shake
her from his mind, no matter how hard he tried.
"And Annie? How does she like her new nanny?" Seth asked.
Matt let out a short, ironic laugh. "You know Annie. With her it's always a rocky start. But she'll come
around with Ruth. Fact is, I'd bet my last buck Annie's already starting to cozy up to her..."
***
Annie stop it!" Ruth grabbed the dresser drawer before Annie could dump everything on the floor to
join the contents of two other drawers. Annie had been testing her all morning, and Ruth was through
cajoling and conceding.
"It's my room," Annie scoffed, "and I can do whatever I want in it."
"Oh no, you can't!" Ruth shoved the drawer shut and stood in front of the dresser.
"Yes I can!" Annie climbed onto the bed and started jumping up and down.
Stop it this instant! Ruth said. You'll fall." But when she reached for Annie, Annie jumped down
and raced to the drawer and yanked it open again.
Cursing under her breath, Ruth shut the drawer while Annie was pulling clothes out, trapping a shirt.
"It took me thirty minutes to put this room together and I'm not going to let you trash it in five! Now
pick up those clothes and put them back in the drawer!"
"No!" Annie braced her hands on her hips. "And you can't say you'll pull off the Kens' heads either
because I hid the Kens where you'll never, ever find them. So there."
"Annie, I'm not going to put up with this. Now, I'm going to count, and when I get to ten, I'll expect
your clothes to be put away. One... two... three... four...."
In a sing-song voice, Annie said, while springing up and down on the bed, "I'm not going to pick them
up and you can't make me, ha ha ha,.. ha ha ha."
"No, I suppose I can't," Ruth said. "But I don't have to keep picking them up either." She turned,
unlatched the window and raised it wide open.
Annie stopped jumping and eyed her, dubiously. "What are you gonna do?"
"This." Ruth scooped up an armful of clothes off the floor and heaved them out the window.
They fell to the yard below. She followed with another armful, and another.
Annie shrugged. "Daddy ll be real mad at you for throwing my clothes away."
"We'll see." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]