Free Hawk's Way by Joan Johnston Page A

changing. Dad wouldn’t have wanted you to stay a little boy. He’d want you to grow into the man you’re destined to be.
    â€œAnd I don’t think he would necessarily want me to spend the rest of my life alone, without ever loving another man.”
    Jack jumped on the one word that stuck out in all she’d said. “Are you saying you’re in love with that drifter?”
    â€œNo.” But I could be.
    Honey put her hand on Jack’s shoulder, but he shrugged away from her. She ignored the snub as they headed up the porch steps and into the house. “Let’s just take each day one at a time, shall we? I hope you’ll give Jesse the benefit of the doubt. I don’t love him, but I do like him, Jack. I’d appreciate it if you could try to get along with him.”
    â€œI’ll try,” Jack said. “But I’m not promising you anything.”
    â€œThat’s all I can ask,” Honey said.
    After she had sent Jack to bed, Honey stoodat the lace-curtained window in her bedroom and looked out into the dark.
    Where are you, Jesse Whitelaw? What brought you here? And what do you want from me?
    It was three in the morning before Honey heard the front door open and close. Jesse was back. She sat up, thinking to confront him about where he had been. Then she lay back down.
    He wasn’t her husband. He wasn’t accountable to her. And it was none of her business what he had been doing. Or with whom.
    Honey closed her eyes. When Cale died she had made up her mind never to let another man break her heart. She lay on her side and pulled the covers up over her shoulder. She was going to put that drifting man out of her mind once and for all.
    Maybe Jack was right. From now on, she would keep a little more distance between herself and the hired hand.

FIVE
    J esse had known he was heading into deep water the first time he touched Honey Farrell. But it had been impossible to ignore the woman. There was something about her that called to him. He had no business getting involved with anyone, not with the life he led. Yet he hadn’t been able to control the desire for her that rocked him whenever she was near. His attraction to her was as strong now, three weeks after he had first laid eyes on her, as it had been that first night. Once having tasted Honey, havingtouched her, it was an exercise of will to keep his distance from her.
    He had been a fool to take that room off the kitchen. He could have found a way to steal General without arousing suspicion even if he were living in the barn. It was rough enough seeing Honey every morning for breakfast, without knowing that he didn’t have the right to hold her the way he wanted.
    As it turned out, he had ended up seeking out the room in the barn at odd times—like now—for the privacy it offered him. Jesse crossed his arms behind his head and lay back on the bunk. The room offered few amenities. The bed was hard and the walls were unadorned wooden slats. It smelled always of leather and hay. But at least here he could get away from her to think. Right now he had a lot to think about.
    Something had happened this morning that he wasn’t sure he wanted to remember, but he was quite sure he would never forget.
    He had woken at the break of dawn, since he and Honey had agreed that he should have use of the bathroom first each morning. As heclimbed the stairs wearing no more than jeans and socks, scratching his bare chest, he distinctly heard the water running. He had wondered what Honey was doing up so early. Over the past three weeks she had kept her bedroom door closed until he had bathed and shaved and headed back downstairs to make coffee. Then she would bathe and join him to finish making breakfast before the boys awoke.
    Jesse had been curious enough about the change in routine to continue to the bathroom door. He knocked, but there was no answer.
    â€œHoney?”
    When she didn’t respond, he tried