Austin slipped his finger beneath her chin and tilted her face back until her gaze met his. “I suspected as much.”
“Why? Because I’m so plain?”
“You’re not plain, Loree. There’s something about you—a sweetness that just bubbles up from deep inside you. It touches your eyes, your lips. Once a man had gained your affections, he’d be a fool to leave you.” He grazed his thumb over her full lower lip. “I have been known to be a fool.”
“You say that as though you had gained my affections. If you believe that, you assume too much. I don’t even know you. I was hurting and needed comfort. You offered, and as wrong as it was, I took. That’s all.”
“Was it wrong, Loree?”
In the encroaching darkness, he still saw the tears welling in her eyes as she nodded briskly.
“Why did you have to say her name?” she rasped. “Now, I can’t even pretend you wanted me. Iknowyou were thinking of someone else.” She shot off the porch like a bullet fired from a rifle. She waved her hand dismissively in the air. “It doesn’t matter. You used me. I used you.” She scooped up the dog and hugged it close against her breast. “You don’t owe me anything.”
But it did matter, and he did owe her because he didn’t think Loree Grant couldusesomeone if her life depended on it. He came slowly to his feet, his gaze never leaving hers. “Maybe I owe me something.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“I’m not sure.” He mounted Black Thunder and touched his finger to the brim of his hat. “Take care, Miss Grant.”
He set his heels to his horse’s sides and sent him into a lope. Austin had spent five years thinking about an auburn haired blue-eyed beauty. He didn’t intend to spend the rest of his life thinking about a oldeneyed blond haired woman who had touched him one night and sent all his common sense to perdition.
He’d given her the damn dog. He had nothing else to offer her. And she was right. Even his heart wasn’t free.
Chapter 6
Austin Leigh owed her nothing. Loree repeated that litany in the following days as she watched Two-bits romp through her garden. He was a fierce protector. As she watched him attack the worms he uncovered, she couldn’t remember when she’d laughed so hard.
Two-bits would never replace Digger in her heart, but he was slowly earning his own place, different but just as precious. She wondered if any woman would ever replace the woman Austin held in his heart. She thought it unlikely. She doubted that his heart even held room for another.
She wished she had kept her hurt buried deep inside and hadn’t shown it to him when he visited her. She had driven him away with her accusations. He’d never return now. She knew it was for the best, but the loneliness increased because for some unfathomable reason when she had seen him sitting astride his horse, it felt as though a part of her had come home.
Standing in her garden, she heard the rapid clop of horses’ hooves and the whirl of wheels. She spun around, her heart imitating the rapid motion of the buggy as it approached, two matching bay horses trotting before it. Austin pulled back on the reins, jumped out of the black buggy, and swept his hat from his head. “Morning, Miss Grant.”
Her breath hitched at the warm smile he bestowed upon her. “What are you doing?”
“Well …” He turned his hat in his hands as he walked toward her. “I told you my parents had lived near Austin. My brother drew a map of the area for me before I left. I woke up this morning with a hankering to see the old homestead. I was hoping you’d give me the pleasure of your company.”
He halted his steps and his fingers tightened around the brim of his hat. “But I’m not courting you, Loree. I’ve got nothing to offer you so I want to make that clear at the outset, but since you’d mentioned not knowing me well … and thinking that you should, I just thought you might like to come.” His smile lessened. “And I’d like for you to be there with me.”
“I could pack some food and we could have a picnic.”
His smile returned, deeper than before. “I had the kitchen staff at the hotel fix us something and I bundled up the blankets from my bed …” His gaze slowly roamed over her. “So you wouldn’t have to get your britches dirty.”
“Oh.” She glanced down at her brother’s clothes. “Do you have time for me to change into a dress?”
He settled his hat into place. “I have time for you to do anything you want.”
“I won’t be long,” she assured him as she hurried past him and scurried into the house, her heart beating so hard she was certain he’d been able to hear it. He had come back. His reasons didn’t matter, and she didn’t care that he wasn’t courting her. She would spend the day without the loneliness eating at her.
She washed up quickly before donning the faded yellow dress. She rolled the stockings over her callused feet and up her calves before reaching beneath the bed and dragging out her black shoes. She worked her feet into the hated leather, reached for the button hook, and sealed her feet into what she’d always considered an instrument of torture.
But for reasons she couldn’t understand, today, she was glad she’d kept them. She almost twisted her ankle with the first step she took toward the mirror. She gazed at her reflection, wishing the dress were a bit more fashionable, her hair more colorful. She wasn’t a beauty. Yet Austin had rented a buggy and two horses and driven out here, seeking her company, when surely he had met women in town.
She tossed the braid over her shoulder, hating the way it made her look like a little girl. But she had never tried to sweep it up into a womanly fashion and had no idea where to begin. With a sigh, she grabbed a ragged shawl just in case they didn’t get back before nightfall and headed out the door.
Austin shoved himself away from the porch beam as she closed the door, the shawl draped over her arm. She hadn’t noticed before how his shirt appeared to be freshly laundered, recently ironed. His hair no longer curled around his collar, but was slightly shorter, cut even along the edges, and when the breeze blew by him and traveled to her, she smelled soap and a scent that was uniquely his. For a man who wasn’t courting, he’d gone to a lot of trouble. When she had finished her slow perusal, she lifted her gaze to his sparkling blue eyes.
“You’re wearing shoes,” he said quietly, but she heard the amusement in his voice. “I was beginning to wonder if you owned a pair.”
