Christine

Fingers of pink and gold sunlight reached from behind wispy clouds and splashed the sky above the plains with vibrant color. The sports car dominated the road, utterly responsive under Travis’s capable hands. I eyed them hungrily, those clever hands, and my body sizzled with the memory of his caresses, a flickering ember in the ashes of a blaze not fully extinguished.

Because I couldn’t touch him, I stroked an appreciative finger along the edge of the leather seat. “This is a great car. Have you had it long?”

He downshifted on the curve between two low hills and kicked the speed up a notch, simultaneously shifting in his seat. “Couple years. Saved her from the scrap yard and brought her back to life.”

An effortless smile pulled my lips upward, and I tilted my head to survey his profile. “So the man has his own talents.”

“You have no idea.” The mischievous crooked grin was a hair shy of an outright leer, bumping my pulse upward. “But I promise you will.”

As they exchanged the two-lane highway for the long, dusty driveway of the ranch, the bright sun burst through the windshield causing shards of rainbow-colored light to dance over us both. I gently capture the source of the prismatic effect, a tiny crystal angel dangling from the rearview mirror by a pale blue cord.

“Pretty.” I glanced at Travis to check his reaction, arching an eyebrow when he studiously showed none. I released the angel. “And a little… unexpected.”

He keeps his eyes aimed on the driveway. A muscle working in his jaw, but he says nothing.

“I don’t look at you and think angel.” I throw a teasing glance in his direction. “More like cowboy-on-the-white-horse hero.”

His lips move upward but the smile never quite forms. After bringing the car to an abrupt stop in front of the stable, Travis sets the brake and cuts the engine. He stares ahead for a moment then seems to come to a decision and twists in the seat until he faces me, an inscrutable mask in place.

“You’re mistaken,” he says, the words barely audible. “I’m no one’s hero.” He reaches out toward the angel, stopping just short of touching her, almost as though the touch might bring about unspeakable pain. “I put her there to remember someone.”

Jealousy hits, more fierce than anything I had felt in the bar the night before. Like a welder’s spark, it arced through me and lands in the pit of my stomach. Somehow I managed to keep my voice even. “Someone you love?”

Just before he smiles, I see a spasm of pain shadow his features. “It was heading that way. Heading that way real strong.”

Heat rushes my face. “I’m sorry. I’m intruding.”

He shakes his head. “It’s okay. She was a part of my life, but —that was a while ago now. She said she’d be there and then she just —didn’t stick around.”

“And yet you want to remember her.”

“Yeah.” This time his smile comes more easily, so not all the memories were bad ones. “Yeah, I do. I owe her that much. She believed in me, helped me through a bad time and I’m —grateful.”

I swallow hard past the tightness in my throat. I didn’t know what he was going to say but I got the feeling “grateful” had been a last-minute substitution.

He grasped my hand and cradled it in his. “I’ve been thinking of taking her out of here.”

In silence, I searched his face. Maybe not so much in the past as he liked to think, she was still very much in his heart. So apparently Travis hadn’t returned to Pine Haven as unattached as the grapevine thought. Maybe not even as unattached as he thought himself.

More bad timing. Didn’t that just figure?

“No,” I said, warming my voice against the chill of disappointment that had settled in my heart. I liked the tenderness in his eyes. With a soft sigh, I touched the pretty bit of crystal with the tip of my finger, sending it into a gentle swing. “She’s exactly where she should be.”

* * *

Travis

Absently stroking my thumb over Christine’s knuckles, I immersed myself in the eyes I found so compelling, finding I liked what I saw of the woman behind them. I enjoyed the glimpses she occasionally let me see of the inner beauty beneath the sexy packaging. Would she understand my feelings for the angel who had saved my life?

I thought about kissing her, I really wanted to. But my emotions were suddenly raw with thoughts of the past, and it wouldn’t be fair to Christine. I wasn’t even certain if, in that moment, I would be kissing her or the woman who had once given me the will to live. Nor was I certain, at that moment, which woman I really wanted to kiss.

No, this wasn’t the time or place to indulge in another kiss. But oh, I did want to, almost more than I wanted to keep breathing.

With a start, I realized she had gone quiet, and I looked up. In the golden light of early morning, her features were soft, the innocence in her smile almost angelic. And her eyes… I could spend forever looking into them and see something different every time.

I gave her hand a light squeeze. “Ready? I’ll get us a couple of horses. You can load your kitchen sink pack into a couple of saddlebags.”

“You’ll appreciate my efforts when lunchtime comes around,” she called after me. “Unless you want me to throw together some trail mix and you can rustle us up a rattlesnake.”

I kept walking, tossing her a wave and a thumb’s up sign over my shoulder without looking back.

This was going to be one interesting ride… if I could get through it in one piece without crippling my manhood. I picked my hat off the peg just inside the tack room, deliberately ignoring the off-white Stetson in favor of the black.