Free My Special Angel by Marcia Evanick Page B

contentment settled over her. “I was wondering why some woman hadn’t pinched you up by now.”
    “Pinched me up by now?”
    “You know—brought you to the altar, followed by two-point-three children, a dog, and an orthodontist bill.”
    “The saying is ‘snapped me up,’ not ‘pinched me up.’” He pulled a long blade of grass and idly twirled it around his fingers. “So you think I’ll make a great catch?”
    “Trout make a great catch. You would make a great husband.” She stifled another yawn. “So why aren’t you married?”
    He gazed at her. She looked partially asleep, all soft and cuddly. “The right woman never tried to snap me up.”
    “Hmmm...” She nodded her head somewhat, closed her eyes, and mumbled, “Maybe she should have tried to pinch you instead.”
    Owen frowned. Here they were discussing the main topic of conversation in Crow’s Head, his marital status, and Nadia had fallen asleep! Didn’t she care that he was the most eligible bachelor in the western part of the state? Hell, it could be the entire state for all he knew, and the one woman he wouldn’t mind answering a few questions for couldn’t even bother to ask them.
    He reached over and tenderly brushed a curl off her face, then tucked it behind her ear. She looked like an angel, all soft and heavenly. Thick, dark lashes were fanned out against her cheeks, and her lips were softly parted. He could detect a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth, and he wondered what she was thinking.
    Stretching out beside her, he watched, entranced, as the sunlight played across her face. He wondered what it would be like to wake up next to this woman night after night, year after year.

     
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    Nadia wiggled her nose and brushed her hand across her face. Something was disturbing her sleep, and she wanted it to stop. When the irritating insect tickled her nose again, she stuck out her lower hp and blew. Her eyes flew open as a deep chuckle sounded next to her ear. Rich brown eyes, the color of thick, creamy chocolate stared back at her. Owen’s eyes. She’d know them anywhere.
    She smothered a yawn and glanced around. The sun had moved halfway across the heavens. “Oh, my! Why didn’t you wake me?” She quickly sat up and gazed down at the man still stretched out on the quilt He looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
    “Do you know you talk in your sleep?”
    “I do not!” She ran her fingers through her hair and tugged at her shirt. A frown pulled at the smooth skin of her brow as she studied his relaxed expression. “Do I really?”
    “Uh-hmmm ...” He idly twirled the piece of long grass he had used to tickle her nose between his fingers.
    “What did I say?” He looked as if he knew a secret. Was she reading more into his expression than was there?
    “I couldn’t understand most of it.” His lips twitched with some hidden amusement.
    “I was mumbling?” She tried to remember what she had been dreaming about and came up with a blank. It could have been anything, or everything.
    He frowned at the blade of grass for a moment before looking up at her. “No, you weren’t mumbling.” A devilish grin lit up his face. “You were speaking in some foreign language.”
    “Russian?” He shook his head. “German?”
    “No.”
    “Polish? Czech? Slovak?”
    Owen stared at her in awe. “How many languages do you speak?”
    “Fluently?”
    He raised his gaze toward the heavens. “I’ll bite, fluently.”
    “You bite what?”
    He chuckled and bit back his response. Nadia didn’t seem ready to listen to what he would like to nibble on. “It’s a saying, like ‘I give.’ “
    She frowned momentarily at the slang. English was the hardest language she had ever learned, and she still had her doubts about ever attaining perfect fluency. “Counting English, I speak eight different languages.”
    Owen whistled softly. “What university did you attend?” He’d had four years of