Western Man Read Online Free Page A

then pushed out of Ridge’s arms.
    “Tony,” she gasped the toddler’s name as she raced into the living room. He had managed to push the screen door open. When he heard her coming, he hurriedly tossed the cookie at the barking dog and guiltily let the door swing shut.
    “Doggie wanted a cookie.” He blinked at her with wide-eyed innocence.
    Fully aware that Tony was trying to make her believe he had intended throwing the treat to the dog all the time, Sharon wasn’t buying any of it. The cookie had been offered in an attempt to entice the dog inside the house.
    “All right, bud. It’s nap time for you,” Sharon informed him angrily.
    The minute she picked him up Tony started wailing at the top of his lungs. “Don’t want nap!” he protested. His cries immediately started the dog barking.
    Between the two, Sharon was nearly deafened. She shouted at both of them to hush up, but neither listened. When she turned, she spied Ridge leaning an arm against the doorway to the kitchen and watching the scene with detached amusement.
    “Will you shut that dog up!” she demanded.
    “Sam. Quiet.” The two words came out hard and quick. There was instant silence from the dog, although Tony continued his whining bawl in her ear. Ridge’s smile was close to a taunting grin as he moved lazily toward the door on a path that took him past Sharon. “One way or another, I think Sam and I have done enough damage for one afternoon.” His glance flicked to her lips and she guessed they were still swollen from his kisses. “Don’t forget to have Scott phone me tonight.”
    “I won’t.” But she’d practically forgotten the reason Ridge had stopped in the first place until he reminded her. Being in his arms had driven nearly everything from her mind.
    The instant Tony realized the dog was leaving too, he sent out a fresh protest. Ridge and Sam were long gone before Sharon was finally able to quiet him down. Although he tried very hard to stay awake, Tony was exhausted from all the excitement and eventually fell asleep against his will.
    When the ranch house was at last filled with silence, Sharon returned to the kitchen to put the last sheet of cookies into the oven. It was impossible not to think about Ridge. The scent of him still clung to her clothes and her skin, and theremembered sensation of his roaming hands remained with her.
    She was determined not to make a mountain out of this molehill-sized kiss the way she’d done in the past. To paraphrase an old saying—one kiss did not a romance make. But it gave her a lot to think about.
    Ridge—so easygoing and carefree on the surface. But there was more to the man than that, even if he never showed the serious side of himself around her. It existed—of that she had no doubt. No one could approach life with the shallow and lackadaisical indifference that Ridge showed and efficiently manage a ranch the size of Latigo. If that was the true sort of man he was, the ranch would have started going downhill five years earlier, when Ridge took over after his father’s death. That hadn’t happened. From the talk Sharon had heard, the Latigo was in a more solid financial position than it had enjoyed in years.
    Her brother Scott probably knew Ridge better than anyone, but getting him to talk was about as difficult as extracting oil from shale economically. Scott was undoubtedly a bonanza of information, but Sharon hadn’t successfully squeezed any of it from him.
    When the last of the cookies were cooling on the counter, she began washing up the baking dishes. It was funny to discover that as a teenager she had been attracted to the slightly wild and fun-loving side of Ridge, always ripe for a laugh and a good time. Now that she had grown older—and hopefullywiser—she was becoming more intrigued by the more silent, and probably stronger, side of him.
    It was nearly six in the evening when Rita came by the house to pick up Tony. She had to rush home to fix supper, so there