Free Her Ideal Man by Ruth Wind Page A

his hands on. My father just wanted to make money, and he didn’t give a damn about the land. Lance does. He’s not going to overbuild.”
    Anna felt a little hurt that he was still classing her with outsiders. Technically, she was one, but—she just wanted his respect. “You can’t stop it, you know, all the people coming here.”
    His jaw was hard. “I know. But it’s sad. Don’t you think it is? I mean, look at that—” He gestured to indicate the view. “How can we let that be ruined? How can we let people build on it, and chase the animals away?”
    â€œNot everyone is coming in here to change it, Tyler. Most people want to be here for the very thing you’re talking about. We want to—” she frowned, trying to find a way to put it into words “—become part of it, let it teach us. It sounds so silly, but I swear, Colorado claimed me the minute I stepped out of the car when I was fifteen. It was like I couldn’t not come here. You know?”
    Unexpectedly, he covered her hands with one of his own. “I didn’t mean you, Anna.”
    â€œYes, you do. You mean people like me. I hear the natives talking about easterners coming and changing things, and I hear how bitter they are about it.”
    â€œYeah, there’s a lot of bitterness. But you’re not doing what a lot of them are. They come from big cities and from California, and they come to be part of the wild, open West, where everybody is supposed to be an individualist, and free to make his own way.” His brows lifted. “And then they start agitating to change the laws so things are just like the places they left. Like the damned PTA is running the world.”
    Anna laughed outright. “So you moved up to a mountain where they can’t tell you what to do.”
    He slapped his leg mockingly. “Damn right, missy. Man’s gotta be free.” He shook his head. “Sorry. I’ll get off my soapbox now.”
    â€œWell, console yourself with one thing,” she said. “I happen to know all of that valley is national forest, so it’s protected. And I also know that more of Colorado than almost any other state is either national park or national forest, so it’s safe from the kind of development you’re talking about.”
    He sobered. “Don’t count on it, Anna. Money talks.”
    She looked out to the wilderness, and listened to the stillness, and tried to imagine it being lost. It gave her a hollow, lost feeling, and she could only imagine how much worse it was for Tyler. “How do you stop it?”
    â€œThat is the twenty-thousand-dollar question.” He stuffed sandwich wrappers back in the bag and offered her another sip of coffee. “We’d better get back down the hill. Hear that wind?”
    Anna stood, listening closely. “No.”
    â€œLow, like a moan.”
    And suddenly she could hear it, a distant rustling. She looked at Tyler and grinned. “I do hear it!”
    He was facing her, his hair shining bright in the dark day, his eyes warm. Anna felt a shift in him suddenly, a softening, and he seemed to sway closer. For a fleeting second, she thought he was going to capture her face in his hand and kiss her. And he did touch her face, lightly, just the barest brush of a thumb over her jaw, a feathering of fingers near her ear. Then he seemed to catch himself, and straightened, pulling himself upright, away from her. “We’re going to have to make quick time,” he said gruffly, stuffing the thermos into the pack. “Can you handle it?”
    The deliberate push wounded no more than his warning last night about his love for his wife. Anna calmly pulled on her gloves. “Sure. Lead the way, Captain.”
    He didn’t bother with even a semblance of a smile. He simply tossed the pack over one shoulder, pulled up his hood and led the way back down the mountain. Just before