His answering smile was unshadowed now, even a bit teasing as he responded to her rather maternal admonition. “I’ll do my best.”
She opened the door.
Shane started to cross the threshold, but then he paused and turned to her again. “Um, Kelly—thanks for letting me talk it out, okay?”
“You’re welcome.”
On an impulse, she reached out to hug him. His arms closed warmly around her, his cheek resting against her short, blond hair. For several long moments, they stood entwined in the open doorway, oblivious to the cool night air wafting in from outside. Kelly offered comfort in the embrace and Shane accepted it. It was a hug between friends who had hugged many times before.
And then something changed. She became suddenly aware of how warm he was against her. How firmly he held her against his lean, solid body. She felt his breath against her cheek, and noted the appealing scents of soap and spicy aftershave. Something buried deeply inside her responded to those observations, quivering to life.
And in reaction, Kelly pulled away, her action so swift and abrupt that Shane nearly stumbled. His eyebrows rose quizzically as he studied her flushed face. “What was that?” he asked humorously.
“That,” she replied, her voice crisp, “was me telling you it’s time to go home. You’re wearing a jacket, but I’m freezing.”
It was a lie, of course. She was more in danger of burning than freezing. And she reacted to that danger with a very logical retreat. She all but pushed him out the door. “Good night, Shane.”
“Good night, Kel—”
She closed the door in his face, then sagged against it. Friends, she reminded herself. She and Shane were friends. Almost family. And she would do nothing to jeopardize that precious relationship.
Chapter Two
Shane spent Sunday afternoon with his father, restringing barbed wire fencing at the back section of the small, but sufficiently profitable cattle ranch they owned and operated together. It was hard work, but a nice day—cool, crisp, clear—and Shane enjoyed being outside. November signaled the beginning of the slow time for their ranch. Calves had been weaned and sold, the herd had been culled and vaccinated, the haying was finished and preparations had been made for winter feeding. Calving would start in mid-January, but until then they had some time to catch up on paperwork and general maintenance.
Shane and Jared didn’t talk much while they worked. They had always been comfortable with long stretches of companionable silence, feeling no need to make small talk just to fill in the spaces. Jared was the one who spoke first after a long, busy pause. “How are you doing, son?”
Just as they didn’t need small talk, they rarely had to elaborate for each other. Shane knew exactly what his father referred to. “I’m fine, Dad. You?”
Jared lifted one broad shoulder. “Yeah.”
The single syllable spoke volumes as far as Shane was concerned. Like his son, Jared was saddened by the meaningless, early end to a wasted life, but he had long since resigned himself to his ex-wife’s determination to self-destruct, and his own inability to stop her. Jared had gone on with his life, but he hadn’t forgotten the woman who had borne his first child.
Glancing over his shoulder, Jared studied Shane’s face for a moment. “You seem to be in better spirits today than you were yesterday.”
Shane grunted as he put his muscles into stretching the wire taut. He fastened the wire and straightened. “I feel better about it. Kelly and I talked awhile last night and I guess I needed that.”
He had needed it more than he’d realized, actually. He’d been so troubled by his mother’s meaningless death that he almost hadn’t gone to Kelly’s at all. And then something had drawn him there. He’d known as soon as she opened the door, greeting him with a warm, pretty smile and a look of concern in her striking emerald eyes, that he’d made the right decision.
“You and Kelly seem to be getting pretty tight lately.”
A bit surprised by his father’s comment, Shane looked up from his work. “Kelly and I have been friends since we met. Nothing has changed.”
“Hmm.”
Frowning, he searched his father’s weathered face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jared deftly twisted wire around a steel post to fasten a strand of barbed wire in place. “What?”
“The way you said ‘hmm.’ Like there was something else you wanted to say.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just said ‘hmm.’”
Shane felt a need, for some reason, to continue to justify his personal discussion with Kelly. “Kelly’s practically a member of the family. It isn’t unusual that she and I would talk about family matters.”
“Because they were raised in the same foster home, Kelly and your cousin Brynn are sisters at heart, not in fact. We all consider Kelly part of the family, but there is, of course, no blood relationship.”
Shane had never heard Jared make that distinction before, and he wondered why he did so now. “So are you saying I shouldn’t have talked to Kelly?”