Free Fool for Love (Montana Romance) by Merry Farmer

had to like a man who was well-settled but still up for a new challenge.
    “Game play is simple, as I understand it,” Amelia launched into an explanation with charming enthusiasm.  She crossed to a case at the end of the painted boards and retrieved two long poles with crescents on the ends.  “You each take one of these and choose a color of discs.”
    “I’ll take blue,” Eric claimed his color.
    “Your loss, my friend.”  Ben thumped him on the back.  “Red is my lucky color.”
    Eric caught the mischievous grin on Amelia’s pink lips as he took a pole from her and went to fetch his discs.  This might just be a good idea after all.
    When he and Ben were both set up with equipment Amelia went on.  “Now you set a total score that you are trying to reach, I believe twenty-one is most common.”
    “Twenty-one it is then,” Ben agreed.
    “You choose who goes first and then slide your discs across the board, attempting to bring them to rest in a numbered zone of the triangle on the other side.”
    “Well that shouldn’t take but three minutes,” Eric said, scratching his head and lifting the pole in his hands to get a look at it.  “One of them numbers is a ten and I got three of these disc things.”
    “If your disc lands in the furthest area of the triangle it takes ten points away from your opponent,” Amelia told him.  The light in her eyes was downright impish.  If she wanted him to push those little discs all around the ship with his nose with Christopher riding on his back, he’d do it.
    “Your confidence recommends you, sir,” Ben told him, puffing out his own chest.  “It will also be your downfall.”
    “You think so?”  Eric lowered his pole and turned to face Ben as though they were about to take ten paces and draw.  “There ain’t many men that can beat me in a game of skill or chance.”
    “Funny,” Ben replied with enough swagger to make him look ten years younger.  “They say the same about me.”
    “Is that so?”  The glimpse of Amelia’s beaming smile as she watched and probably laughed at the two of them gave Eric strength.  “Let’s do this.  I’ll even let you go first.  Age before beauty, after all.”
    Ben chuckled.  “It’ll be your funeral.”
    Ben positioned himself with one of his discs at the foot of the triangle closest to them then made a show of sizing up the lay of the land.  Then he straightened and placed his pole behind his disc.  With a wink for Amelia he sent the disc skittering across the deck.
    “Hey, no fair winking at my wife,” Eric exclaimed.  The words felt more right than anything he’d said in the past six months.
    Ben’s disc came to a stop just left of the triangle.  “A man can’t help but admire the scenery when there’s something to admire.”
    “Some m ight think that was cheating.”
    It was hard to keep a straight face with Amelia giggling.  Her eyes sparkled in the sunlight and rose-red played on her cheeks.
    He stepped into place, clearing his throat to focus.  The urge to win the game for her welled up from somewhere deep in his gut.  He placed his pole behind his disc and gave it a powerful shove.  The poor disc flew across the deck, well past the triangle, and smacked into the boards of the wall behind it.  A player in the game next to them flinched and scrambled away, giving him the evil eye.
    “Hell,” Eric muttered.  “It’s harder than it looks.”
    “My husband is always putting full enthusiasm into everything he does, Mr. Chase,” Amelia commented from the side of the board.  “If you’re impressed with his game play, you should see the effort he puts into his ranch.”
    Eric froze halfway through switching places with Ben.  A comment like that was anything but innocent.  A grin tickled the corner of his mouth.  He took his place by Amelia’s side while Ben took his next shot.
    Ben made a show of lining up his shot for a second time.  He also adjusted his hat and hiked up his