Ever After at Sweetheart Ranch Read Online Free Page B

you don’t have to come, really you don’t,” said the woman, her cajoling voice full of warmth.
    â€œMrs. Acker, you can’t keep me away,” Will said. “I always ride fence with Mr. Acker. What do you say, sir? It’s our spring ritual.”
    And then Lyndsay remembered who they were, and a wave of sadness—­and curiosity—­washed through her. They were the parents of Brittany, Will’s high school girlfriend, the one who’d died in a car accident.
    â€œWill, you have your own ranch to work,” Mr. Acker said.
    â€œYou tell me this every time, but it makes no difference,” Will insisted. “I have two brothers who work with me, my dad, and some ranch hands. I can name my own time. So I’ll see you tomorrow morning at eight?”
    Lyndsay couldn’t see their faces, but in the silence she could imagine Mr. and Mrs. Acker looking to each other to make a shared decision.
    â€œAll right then,” Mr. Acker said, his voice thick with emotion. He cleared his throat. “See you then, Will.”
    Lyndsay stood with her back against the cold metal stands, waiting for what she hoped was a long enough time for everyone to have left. Then she came around the end of the stands and—­
    Ran right into Will.

 
    Chapter 3
    W ill caught Lyndsay before she could fall back on her ass. He felt the lean strength of her arms, saw the wide shock in her deep brown eyes, and, for the first time, he noticed the tiny golden flecks hidden within. Her breasts brushed his chest, and for just a moment he held her still, stunned by an unexpected flare of desire, the need to bring her hips up against his. Her full lips shone with a touch of pink gloss, looking suddenly so kissable that he let her go and took a step back.
    They stared at each other, and he couldn’t help admiring the long fall of her brown hair where it tumbled around her shoulders and touched her breasts. She’d recently added highlights—­when had he first noticed that?—­and her bangs fluttered evocatively in spikes almost to her eyelashes. He was letting himself see her as a desirable, available woman—­and then he had to push that thought away. She wasn’t a woman like all the others—­she was Tony’s sister and a longtime friend. She was probably his only woman friend, since ex-­girlfriends and the wives of his buddies didn’t count.
    But this smoldering heat within his veins was telling him otherwise, and it made him uneasy. He wasn’t going to let emotions overrule his good sense.
    â€œWill?” Lyndsay said at last, the surprise in her eyes giving way to confusion and then concern. “Are you okay?”
    He put on the easy grin that worked like a charm with women. “Of course I’m okay. Just curious why you were lurkin’ around, eavesdropping.”
    A blush flamed across her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I came around the corner and you were right there. It—­it looked serious, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
    â€œSerious? Since when is anything I do serious?” He felt a deep sense of unease that was hard to keep hidden. What the hell was up with him?
    â€œWell, I know, I thought the same thing, Will. How could I not?”
    Her smile was tentative. He’d known her too long to see it as anything other than forced.
    â€œOkay, sorry for startling you,” he said. “Hell, you startled me, too.” His own reaction to her certainly had.
    â€œI don’t want to keep you from ice cream with your grandma.”
    She bit her lip, perhaps to tamp down her smile, but all he saw was her lips. He thought again of kissing her—­like he hadn’t just kissed . . . what’s-­her-­name . . . a ­couple weeks ago.
    Had it been a ­couple weeks since he’d broken it off with . . . damn, what was her name, the gift shop owner from