Free Michael's father by Dallas Schulze Page B

off." Megan fdt Kel's eyes on her but she didn't look up.

    **It is, but if she stays here, she'll end up working. You know she will."
    Kel hadn't paid enough attention to her to have any idea what she did with her time, Megan thought irritably. She didn't have to Uft her eyes from the paper to know that he was still looking at her.
    "Can you ride?"
    The question had to have been addressed to her but it took Megan a moment to gather her wits enough to respond. She looked at him, feeling her breath catch a little, just as it always did when their eyes met.
    **It's been a few years," she said cautiously.
    **She could ride Mickey," Colleen suggested enthusiastically. "He's gentle enough for a baby."
    "Mickey?" Megan asked.
    "As in Mouse." Kel's tone was dry. "Colleen named him," he added with a mock-disgusted look in his sister's direction.
    "I was eight," she said defensively. "Besides, he's as gentle as a mouse so it's a good name for him."
    "It was the last time Dad or I let her name a horse," Kel told Megan.
    "So there's no Minnie?" For the first time in over a week, she felt at ease with him.
    "No. But if we hadn't stopped her, I suspect we'd have had a full complement of horses named after cartoon characters."
    "Imagine a stalUon named Donald Duck." Megan shook her head sympathetically at Kel's exaggerated shudder.

    "Laugh all you want," Colleen said, giving them both an offended look. "But I still think Mickey is the perfect horse for Megan."
    Which was how Megan found herself riding away from the ranch house on a bay gelding named Mickey Mouse. Kel was beside her on the big black horse she'd seen him riding that first day. The black's name was Dude, which she assumed referred to his somewhat flashy beauty.
    They made a striking pair, she thought, stealing a sideways glance at Kel and the big horse. Two superbly healthy male animals, in the prime of Hfe, arrogantly confident of their place in the world. Kel rode as if he was a part of the horse, his body hardly seeming to move in the saddle. In contrast, Megan felt as if she was bouncing up and down like a loosely filled sack of potatoes.
    "Loosen up," Kel said, apparently reading her thoughts. "Slouch down in the saddle a Uttle and let yourself feel the rhythm of the horse."
    She did her best to do as he'd instructed and it did seem to help a Uttle. But she still envied him the utter ease with which he sat a horse. In his faded jeans and one of the chambray shirts that seemed to compose a large part of his wardrobe, the gray hat pulled low over his eyes, his hands and knees easily controlling the big horse, he looked as if he'd stepped out of a painting of the old West. All he needed was a duster tied to the back of the saddle and a rifle in its scabbard, maybe a pair of revolvers tied low.
    Megan caught his questioning glance and looked away, embarrassed at having been caught fantasizing.

    even if he couldn't possibly know what she'd been thinking. She forced herself to concentrate on the view between Mickey's ears. There was plenty to see. Spread out before them was a sweep of land and sky so vast it was almost impossible to take in.
    She'd spent all her time since coming to work for Kel either in or near the ranch house, which nestled in the shoulder of low hills that served to soften the view a Uttle. She'd almost forgotten the sheer emptiness of the landscape that surrounded it.
    She turned in the saddle to look back. The ranch house was no longer visible. In all that vast expanse of land, there were only the two of them. It had never occurred to her that so much space could be oppressive. Yet it was also exhilarating.
    Kel watched Megan, trying to judge her reaction. Not everyone appreciated wide-open sky and empty plains. He'd taken Roxanne out riding not long after they were married. She'd hated every moment of the experience, starting with the Western-style saddle and ending with the barrenness of the land. It made her feel small, she'd complained, hunching her