It Takes a Cowboy

“Aunt Blair isn’t easy to impress,” Jeffrey confided.

Scott chuckled. “Then I guess I’ll just have to work harder at it.”

Blair swallowed. That sounded a bit too much like a challenge for her comfort.

*

SCOTT OFFERED to help Blair make breakfast, but she declined his assistance. She liked to cook, she reminded him. She didn’t mind making her contribution in the kitchen since she had no intention of climbing onto the roof and hammering shingles.

Scott chuckled. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that,” he assured her. “Jeff and I finished the roofing repairs yesterday. However, if you would like to haul and split firewood...”

“I think I’d rather make pancakes,” she replied with a wry expression that made him want to kiss her. Actually, everything she did made him want to kiss her, he thought with an inward grimace. It was an urge that was growing stronger with each passing minute. He no longer wondered how Blair would react if he kissed her; he speculated, instead, about what she would do when he kissed her, as he fully intended to do before the weekend was over.

The pancakes were excellent. Scott was glad Blair had volunteered to cook rather than chop wood, and he told her so, making her smile. “I prefer it this way myself,” she agreed.

“So what are we doing today?” Jeffrey asked around a mouthful of food.

“Swallow before you talk,” his aunt advised.

Jeffrey gulped, then asked again, “What are we doing today?”

Scott set his orange juice glass aside. “I thought we’d do some fishing.”

Jeffrey cocked his head with an expression of interest. “I’ve never been fishing.”

“Never?”

“Nope. Grandma didn’t fish and neither does Aunt Blair. My dad’s going to take me deep-sea fishing pretty soon.”

Scott happened to be watching Blair when the boy made that announcement, and he saw the quick flicker of sympathy that crossed her face. She obviously doubted her brother would ever follow through on his promises to his son. “Well, we won’t be catching any sharks or sailfish today, but with a little luck we might snag a trout or two.”

“Are you going to fish with us, Aunt Blair?”

“I’m not much of a fisherman,” she answered with a smile. “I believe I’ll stay here and finish the book I started yesterday.”

Scott smiled then. “Good book, huh?”

She glanced at him to answer, their gazes meeting across the table. “Yes, it’s very suspenseful. Of course, I want to get back to my other reading as soon as I finish this book,” she added quickly, if without much enthusiasm.

Scott nodded gravely. “Of course. You can’t waste the whole weekend just kickin’ back and relaxing, can you?”

She gave him a repressive look. “It is possible to relax and improve the mind at the same time.”

He was beginning to find it almost impossible to resist her when she turned prissy and disapproving. It made him even more tempted to misbehave, just to watch her eyes flash and her lips purse so appealingly.

He really was going to have to kiss her soon.

*

AN HOUR LATER, he and Jeffrey stood side by side at the rushing stream a half hour’s hike from the cabin. It took all Scott’s concen

tration to keep the boy from snagging either of them with fishhooks. Fortunately, the kid was a quick study and was soon casting quite creditably, giving Scott a chance to relax a little.

“Having fun?” he asked, skillfully whipping his bait out to a promising-looking hole in midstream.

“This is cool. Wish I could hook one, though.”

“You’ll get the hang of it. Just keep trying.”