Free How to Wrangle a Cowboy by Joanne Kennedy Page B

He put out food and water, and that was in addition to the mice they caught.
    But Lindsey was a city girl. She wouldn’t understand that the animal would adapt. Given time, it would grow sleek and predatory, same as the rest of them.
    Then again, how might he have adapted if Bill Decker hadn’t entered his life and given him the keys to this quiet world of the West, with its wholesome values and tight-knit communities? Would he have become a predator too?
    The kitten batted at Cody’s fingers, chasing them and pretending to bite. Cody laughed, and Shane had to smile as he watched the boy pick up the kitten and hold it to his chest. Lindsey watched too, and the expression on her face surprised him. When her gaze softened like that, she became a different woman. And this one turned him on as much as Angry Lindsey. Maybe more.
    She sighed and shook her head, blowing out her breath like a horse after a hard run. “Sorry. Cody’s fine, and it looks like Grace is too. It’s just been a long day.”
    Her eyes glossed over with unshed tears, and he realized she’d probably been going since dawn. It was a long way from South Carolina to Wyoming, and there’d been the cockapee to deal with first. She’d been poised all through the funeral, supporting her grandmother, making polite chitchat with the guests, and even taking time for Cody.
    She blinked, squeezed her eyes shut, and took a deep, shuddering breath. Shane could feel steel walls going up around his heart, could hear doors clanging shut, bolts being thrown, all in a protective panic.
    Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. If you cry, I might touch you. If I touch you, I might like it.
    I know I’ll like it. I remember…
    He made a pointless perusal of the darkening distance while he waited for her to collect herself. She sniffed a couple times, blinked hard, and looked up at the sky.
    What to say. What to do. How to act.
    He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Moon’s pretty tonight.”
    She nodded and flushed, looking away, and he wondered if she was remembering another night. Another time they’d met, under that same benevolent moon, a night when he’d been so undone by the sight of her tears that he’d made the biggest mistake of his life.
    No, it had been more than tears that night. It took more than that to make him go after another man’s woman, even if the man in question was as obnoxious as Rodger with a D .
    It had been sorrow. Misery. Complete and utter despair.
    Apparently, she’d escaped her misguided marriage. There was no ring on her finger. But she couldn’t have been free for long, because surely she’d have come back. Not for him—despite the electric shimmer he’d felt in her kiss, she’d been genuinely outraged by his clumsy overtures, and furious with herself for responding. He’d regretted his part in that disaster through a thousand sleepless nights.
    But why didn’t she come back for Bud? Had Shane’s clumsy advances been the reason she lost the chance to reconcile with her granddad?
    He ought to make it up to her somehow. Maybe this was a second chance, or maybe it was just one of those mockeries life sent his way now and then, to remind him of his many flaws.
    “It’s been a long time.” Her voice was soft, but she might as well have shouted. Either way, she broke his reverie and slammed him back into the present.
    A long time since what? Since I kissed you? Since I touched you? Since I drove you away?
    “Sure has.” He scraped a toe across the worn boards of the porch, drawing a perfectly straight line between them, but it didn’t help. He’d thought of her so often. Wondered about her. He had to ask.
    “Are you okay? Your husband, is he—”
    She answered too quickly, as if she wanted to spit the news out and be done with it. “We divorced,” she said. “But I’m fine. Really. Just fine.”
    “Good.”
    She looked right, then left, as if desperate for escape, and took a tentative step backward.
    “I’d better