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She stared into his eyes but found no hint that he knew any more about her.
He went on. “I’d say those two events hurt you so much, but you kept them bottled inside, and some recent hurt brought the old to the surface. Confession to a perfect stranger is easier than talking to loved ones.” He shrugged. “You found an ear.”
She frowned up at him. “I thought you said you don’t talk much.” Irritated with him for no reason, Keena stomped off to join the others, and she could have sworn she heard him laugh for the first time.
Chapter Five
Keena’s eyes popped open for the millionth time as she lay on her bed. Tonight, she had decided to skip Mirabelle’s tonic, only to regret it. She couldn’t sleep. With a sigh, she sat up and felt around in the darkness for her shorts. She’d worn an oversized T-shirt to bed but had tossed the last outfit she’d worn that day across a chair.
When she had slipped into the shorts, she let herself out of her cabin and took the trek across the pathway to the main lodge. With any luck, Mirabelle would still be up, and she’d be willing to make Keena the drink.
As she walked, she noted that the way was lighted. The cloudless sky allowed the moon to illuminate the area, and Keena had no trouble finding her way. The door to the kitchen was closed, but she tried the knob and found it unlocked. Mirabelle, with red face and frizzy hair flying, stood at the stove removing something from it that smelled heavenly.
Keena shook her head. “Don’t you ever stop cooking?”
Mirabelle grinned, fanning herself. “I love it, and we have a full house this week. A ranch full of folks who love my pies. I can’t let them down by running out.”
Keena sucked her teeth and laughed. “You could tell the greedy things they have to help you bake, and pretend it’s just another one of the activities you have here.”
“Oh, you know, that’s not suc
h a bad idea since everyone pitches in with the outdoor cooking and the meal prep when everyone camps out for the night.” She waved her arm. “Never mind. I’d never share my kitchen. Shoot, I barely let my assistants in here.”
She burst out laughing, and Keena joined her while plopping down in a chair. When they both settled down, Keena said, “I don’t suppose I could hit you up for some of that sleeping potion you make, can I?”
The older woman grinned. “Potion? Believe me, sweetie, if I could whip up potions, there are a lot more important concoctions I’d create other than something to knock us out.” She giggled like a young girl and winked.
If Keena were light-skinned rather than deep cocoa brown, she might have had a red face right at that moment. The thought of Mirabelle, who must be in her late fifties or early sixties, conjuring a man was disturbing to say the least.
“I hear you,” Keena responded. “After several nights here, you’d think I’d be used to the quiet, or rather to the night sounds, but I’m not. I love the peace when I’m awake. It’s just at night I can’t take it.”
Mirabelle tsked and patted Keena’s hand. She swung back to the stove, cut out a huge piece of pie, and sat it on a saucer in front of Keena. This was why the pies didn’t last, she mused. Mirabelle must love feeding people as much as she loved cooking. If Keena didn’t get the woman to stop, at least when it came to her, even horseback riding wouldn’t work off the weight she would gain. She would arrive back home bigger and not much happier. That was not acceptable.
Mirabelle must have noticed her saddened expression. “Hey, you okay? Are you not enjoying it here?”
Keena rushed to assure her. “Oh, I’m loving it here. It’s just what the doctor ordered.”
“Doctor?” Mirabelle frowned and then put her hands up as if to ward something off. “Oh dear, forget I asked. I would never pry into your business. Trust me when I say I understand how important it is for a person to have privacy. I like to think of Luna Mountain Ranch as a safe haven where a person can be themselves and not worry about the outside world.”
Her words made Keena think about Ryan. Was that his reason for working at the ranch, to hide out from the world? Maybe he too had been hurt. She shook her head at that thought. Not everyone experienced what she did, and besides, she was just getting away for a short while. Ryan worked at the ranch. He’d admitted that he worked with horses all his life. This wasn’t hiding for him.
“What about Ryan?” she blurted and then regretted it. “Never mind. Now it’s my turn to apologize. Forget I asked.”
Mirabelle’s expression turned serious for a second and then seemed to clear with effort. She swatted Keena with her dish towel. “Now don’t you go developing a crush on one of the farm hands, sweetie. These men are cowboys through and through. They’ll break your heart without meaning to. We don’t get many single women out this way, but sometimes they come through. And you can be sure that one will go home in tears because she thought a little adult fun meant more.”
Keena’s mouth fell open at Mirabelle’s candor. She struggled to find words to respond, to deny she had attraction for Ryan without sounding like she did.
Mirabelle rushed on, taking Keena’s silence the wrong way. “I don’t want you to think the men at our ranch make a habit of seducing women. The boss would skin them. Trust me. But a man is a man, and there are women who will do whatever it takes to capture their attention, if you know what I mean.”
Keena was about to answer that she was in no way chasing any man, when their conversation was interrupted as if to prove Mirabelle’s point. The skank Keena had seen roped to Ryan that first day barreled into the kitchen. She ignored Keena and looked at Mirabelle.
“Have you seen Ryan? I wanted his help with something.”
Miss Thing was practically naked, with thin white strips making up her bathing suit and a towel tossed over her arm. Keena blinked in disbelief. She could not be serious dressed like that.
Mirabelle must have been just as stricken by the other woman’s appearance. She stood there staring at her rather than answering for a long while. Finally, when Miss Thing shifted in impatience from one foot to the other, enough to sicken Keena with her bouncing boobs, Mirabelle answered. “Adult weeks are scheduled at certain times during the summer. This isn’t one of them, Jade. Think of the kids before you put on a bathing suit that revealing.”
Jade. So that was her name, Keena thought. She waited to see what the woman had to say about Mirabelle’s comments.
