Free The Widow and the Wildcatter: A Loveswept Classic Romance by Fran Baker Page B

Rayburn said in parting.
    Joni made short work of the dishes, then went to the dining room to check on Grandpa before going upstairs to bed herself.
    One set of shutters was folded back, and a lumpthe size of an egg lodged in her throat as she studied his sleeping face in the moonlight. His cheeks were sunken, and the skin that stretched across the bones seemed transparent. But the meter of his breathing, if not entirely normal, was relaxed.
    His dog, a bluetick hound he’d named Sooner because it would “sooner chase rabbits than stay home,” lay curled at his side. It raised alert eyes to her now, as if to assure her that it would stay put while she slept.
    She reached across Grandpa’s peaceful form to cup the bluetick’s trusty muzzle in a caress, then turned and ran from the room before she lost it completely.
    Upstairs, she washed her face and brushed her teeth in record time, not wanting to risk a confrontation with Chance. She’d been on an emotional elevator ever since she’d met him, and she really wasn’t up to answering any of the questions she’d seen in his eyes when he’d left the kitchen.
    Turning away from the bathroom mirror to keep from being devoured by the hunger in her own eyes, she beat a hasty retreat to her bedroom. She undressed in the dark, then lay alone in her double bed as she had a thousand nights before.
    But sleep didn’t come with its usual ease. The soft wind wafting through her screen seemed to whisper his name. Chance … Chance … Chance. And the memory of his strong arms and sensual mouth awakened needs in her that no amount of tossing and turning could exhaust.
    Deeply pitched masculine voices rode a windflaw.
    Car doors slammed. The convertible top purred up, and Dr. Rayburn’s tires crunched down the gravel driveway. But she waited in vain for the opening squeak and closing slap of the screen door and the steady thud of boot steps coming up the stairs.
    Finally, overcome by curiosity about what could be keeping Chance, she flung herself out of her inhospitable bed and went to the window. She knelt and crossed her arms on the sill, watching him, unseen, as he paced the driveway, smoking.
    Moonlight poured over him like cream from a pitcher, running down those broad shoulders and that marvelously symmetrical back. The rolled-up sleeves of his white shirt contrasted starkly with his dusky skin.
    He took a deep drag on his cigarette, then dropped it and crushed it underfoot. Much as a lover’s fingers would, the wind mussed his thick hair. She fought a madcap urge to run down the stairs and out the door and rumple it properly.
    Muttering obscene curses that would have given a mule skinner cause for pause, he continued to pace. Once, he stopped and looked long and hard up at her darkened window. She dodged sideways, horrified to realize he might have caught her spying on him. But the instant she heard the regular crunch of gravel under his impatient feet, she went back to her post.
    Joni took no comfort in knowing that he felt as restless as she did. For him, this was just a detour on the road to satisfaction. But for her, it was as devastating as a head-on collision.
    She didn’t move again until he turned to come inside. Then she hurried back to bed before the creaky old floorboards could betray her. Lying there in the dark, her body tense as a bow, she listened to the muffled bang of the screen door and the mounting thump of his boot steps.
    A sigh of relief tinged with regret escaped her lips when she heard his bedroom door click closed. She told herself that the nights were always the hardest, but it seemed they were harder than ever now that Chance was living under the same roof.

Six
    The barn doors were open
.
    Impatience surged inside her as she parked the pickup and climbed out
.
    The wind caught the doors and slammed them against the side of the barn
.
    Damn Larry’s hide, anyway! She knew he’d been depressed lately about their financial situation, but that