Free Her Lone Cowboy by Donna Alward Page A

was only a breath away from her, and her hands itched to reachout and draw him closer. She didn’t want entanglements. But she did want him . Not that she’d admit it in a million years.
    “You don’t strike me as a keep-it-light kind of woman,” he said softly, his deep voice penetrating right to her core.
    “Oh, but I am.” She panicked, scuttling away as the pasta threatened to boil over, knowing it had been many years since she’d allowed herself to “keep it” anything. “I definitely choose keep it light over hot and heavy .”
    She turned her back to him, attending to dinner, but the way her senses were clamoring around, she knew hot and heavy was exactly what had been running through her mind.
     
    Lily carefully took the cardboard box out of the backseat of her car and shut the door with her hip. Andrew’s truck was gone and so was Jen’s car. She’d just leave the supplies and head back home. She could do with a day to tidy up her own place and possibly even spend an hour or two on the deck with the latest paperback she’d picked up at the drugstore.
    The door to the house was open and she stepped inside, marveling at the transformation since Jen and Andrew had gotten engaged. Gone was the plainness that she’d seen during her first visit. There was fresh paint on the kitchen walls, and the yellow and white accents were brought out even more by Jen’s subtle touches. Lily went through to the living room and put the box down on the sofa. Inside, Jen would find the stationery she had ordered as well as the materials to put together table centerpieces of floating candles and silk flower petals. She reached out and grazed a finger over a cool glass bowl. There’d been nothing like this at her wedding. It had been rushed and simple and…
    Footsteps clumping up the porch steps pulled her out of her thoughts. As the front door slammed open, she pressed a hand to her chest before rushing to the kitchen to see what the commotion was about.
    Noah was at the sink, water rushing into the stainless steel basin as he added soap to the water. “Dammit, dammit, dammit,” she heard him mutter.
    “Noah?”
    He spun, water flying everywhere, his face blank with shock at having her appear before him. He turned back and shut off the water. “Give me a hand here,” he commanded, and she immediately went forward.
    “Did you hurt yourself?” For a moment she felt a shaft of panic that he might have done something to his one good arm.
    “No. Beautiful’s foaling and Andrew’s in Calgary with Jen. I can do it but…” He shoved his hand in the sink and swished it around. “This is stupid. I need to scrub up and I obviously can’t scrub my own arm.”
    Relief rushed through her as she stepped forward. “I’ll do it for you.” She grabbed the antiseptic soap and began working his fingers through her own. “Why didn’t you use the sink in the barn?”
    His voice came from above as she worked the soap with the spray from the tap. “The faucet broke yesterday and we didn’t get a chance to fix it yet.” He chuckled as she continued, her fingers working in a most businesslike fashion, the warm sound doing swirly things to her insides.
    “Lily?”
    “Hmm?”
    “You need to go up past my elbow.”
    She blanched a little. A farm girl she was not, but she dutifully scrubbed and cleansed until she dared any germ to get in her path.
    “There,” she breathed once she was done. Even a job as brusque and businesslike as washing his hand seemed intimate these days. In fact, since their meal the other night, she’d barely been able to think of anything else.
    “Thanks. Now I’m going to need your help.”
    “My…my help?” She stammered the words out, her fanciful thoughts scattering. Washing hands was one thing, but she’d never birthed anything in her entire life. Nor had she had any burning desire to. “Noah, I don’t know….”
    He looked down at her, so solid and confident she felt like ten times a