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during the roundup. Otherwise, I’m on my own. I like it that way.”
    Pippa struggled to keep the worried frown off her face. He lived alone and liked it that way? How did a woman fit into that intentionally solitary life? “Don’t you get lonely?”
    He shot her a lopsided smile, the one she found so attractive. “I’m hardly alone. There’s Wulf, for a start.” The wolf lifted his head from his paws and looked at Devon when he heard his name.
    Pippa shivered as Devon stroked the wolf’s fur, imagining his hands on her.
    “There’s also an abandoned fawn, a porcupine with a wounded foot, and a rabbit with a bitten-off ear.”
    Pippa laughed. “You have a menagerie.”
    He nodded. “I’m careful not to interact with them, and I reintroduce them to the wild as soon as they’re healed. The specific animals change, but there seems to be a never-ending number of wounded beasts that need help.”
    “Are you a vet?”
    “Nope. I do basic first aid and provide a safe place where they can heal. If it’s something really serious, I contact the vet in town.”
    “How do you find all these animals?”
    He looked sheepish. “I’ve gotten kind of a reputation—it started back when I was a kid—for taking in strays. So people bring me wild things in trouble.”
    Wild things in trouble.
Was that how Devon saw her? Was it sympathy he felt when he looked at her? Did he see her as a “stray”? Was that why he’d agreed to be her friend?
    Pippa realized that Devon’s sympathy or empathy or whatever you wanted to call it might be part of what she felt when she was with him. But that wasn’t the only thing. Desire was a part of it, too. She’d seen it in his eyes and felt it when he’d held her in his arms the night he’d comforted her.
    So if he preferred being alone, what did he want from her? Most likely what her former lover had wanted. Sex. And he was clever enough to lower her defenses by pretending to be her friend.
    Pippa sighed inwardly. She’d found out what she needed to know. Now she just had to resist the lures Devon had set out to trap her into repeating her past mistake. She would keep him at arm’s distance and make it clear that she wasn’t available for anything except friendship—assuming he was willing to continue the relationship once he realized sex was off the table.
    Pippa opened the canvas bag she’d brought and began pulling out the picnic she’d put together. “Are you hungry?”
    “Starved,” he replied. “What did you bring?”
    “Ham sandwiches.”
    He looked dismayed.
    Pippa giggled, then said, “Gotcha! It’s fried chicken, of course.” She made up a plate of food and handed it to Devon, who took it and sat cross-legged with the plate in his lap.
    “This is delicious,” he said through a mouthful of chicken.
    “Thank you. I wanted to ask if you have any idea what’s going on between your brother Connor and my aunt Eve. I thought Grayhawks and Flynns hated each other. Why on earth would they get married?”
    “They’re calling it a marriage of convenience. He’s getting a babysitter for his two kids, and she’s getting a place to keep her herd of mustangs. But the way I see it, he used the excuse that he needed someone to take care of his kids to convince Eve to marry him.”
    “Why would he do that?”
    “Truth? Connor’s been in love with Eve ever since high school. Somehow he ended up married to Eve’s best friend instead. Connor became a widower when Molly died in a car accident last year.”
    “Do you think Eve has always had feelings for him, too?”
    Devon shrugged. “Who knows? It would never have worked between them in high school because things were a lot worse between us kids in those days than they are now. Not that everything’s great, but we aren’t letting the air out of each other’s tires anymore.” He made a face. “It’s my dad who won’t let this feud die.”
    “So my aunts wouldn’t object if they found out we were friends?”