Free Navajo's Woman by Beverly Barton

the bracelet. She'd had every intention of returning it to him.
    You can do that in the morning, she told herself.No! Do it now. Don't put it off any longer,her Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    conscience insisted. Joe must have seen the bracelet on her wrist. He had to be wondering what it meant.
    She didn't want to give him the wrong impression.
    Leaving her pajamas and her cosmetics case on the back of the commode in the tiny bathroom, she scurried into the living room and over to the closed door of Joe's bedroom. She lifted her hand and knocked.
    "Yeah, come on in," Joe said.
    She opened the door. Moonlight shining through the window blended with the muted light from the lamp on the bedside table and outlined Joe's big, hard body. He turned around and looked at her.
    Bare-chested, wearing nothing but a pair of unsnapped jeans, he stood before her, gloriously, magnificently male.
    Andi swallowed hard.
    "Something wrong?" he asked.
    "No. Nothing's wrong." She took a couple of hesitant steps in his direction. Her other hand hovering over the bracelet, she said, "I meant to give you this at Kate and Ed's today."
    He glanced down at her hand covering her wrist. She eased the antique piece of handcrafted jewelry from her arm and held it out to him. He stared at the gleaming silver object lying in the palm of her hand.
    "It's the bracelet you gave me for my—"
    "I know what it is," he said. "Why give it back to me, now?"
    "I had intended to give it back to you years ago, but you left town before I had a chance."
    "You could have given it to Kate at any time."
    "Yes, I suppose I could have," she admitted. "But I felt I should return it personally."
    "Okay."
    She hurried over to him, grabbed his hand, turned it over and deposited the bracelet in the middle of his palm.
    "You could keep it," he said, but didn't make eye contact with her.
    "No, I can't." She didn't move away from him for several seconds, but stood there waiting. Waiting for what?she wondered. "You'll want to give this bracelet to someone else one day."
    "Yeah.Sure."
    He looked at her then, and she thought her heart would break. What had she expected? Had she honestly believed that he would say or do something that would miracu-lously make everything all right between them? He was no more a magician than she was. Neither of themwere capable of turning back the clock to a time when they'd had a chance at spending a lifetime together.
    Joe lifted his big, dark hand and caressed her cheek.Softly.A featherlight touch. She gasped quietly as Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    every nerve ending in her body cried out with pleasure.
    As quickly as he had lifted his hand, he let it drop to his side.
    Andi stared at him, praying that the longing she felt didn't show. Then, while she still had the strength to move, she turned around and walked away from tempta-tion.

Chapter 5
    Andi thought she heard a telephone ringing. She roused herself from sleep slowly, groggily, stretching her arms over her head when she sat up on the sofa. She groaned as she rubbed the back of her neck.
    Realizing she was at Joe's house, she wondered if Kate could have gotten his phone line reconnected so quickly. As she shoved back the blankets to the end of the couch, she heard murmuring coming from another room. Joe was definitely talking to someone. Padding across the wooden floor in her bare feet, Andi made her way to the kitchen.
    Seated at a small, square table, Joe clutched a cup of coffee in one hand and used the other to hold his cellular phone to his ear.
    "Yeah, she's here," Joe said. "Yes, she stayed the night.Slept on my sofa."
    Andi wondered who had called Joe at the crack of dawn. It was definitely too early for casual chitchat.
    "Sure thing.I'll pass on the message," Joe said. "And I will let you know what we decide to do."
    Joe closed his phone and laid it on the table, then put the mug to his lips