Christmas With the Mustang Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

gotten the impression that Boone wasn’t the socializing sort.
    Ladling a small amount of salad onto her plate, she said, “You were saying earlier that a cell phone won’twork out here. Do you mean just for the time being, or do cells never work here on the ranch?”
    â€œI meant never,” he answered. “You might get a usable signal in town, depending on the service you use. But even that is iffy. You might be able to send a text message from here. I don’t know—I’m not up on that technical sort of stuff.”
    She offered the bowl of salad to him. “I see. Well, it’s mostly like that on our ranch, too,” she told him. “We live between mountain ranges and the signal is blocked.” Smiling, she shrugged. “When city folks show up on the Diamond D they think they’ve stepped in the twilight zone. Some people just can’t manage life without their technical gadgets. I use them, but on the other hand I can happily exist without them. And sometimes simpler is better. Take my truck, for instance. If the engine wasn’t controlled by a computer system, I could probably adjust the carburetor with a screwdriver and be on my way.”
    As soon as her words died away, she realized she’d been rattling and her cheeks blushed with embarrassment. She opened her mouth to apologize for all the chatter, but immediately pressed her lips back together. She wasn’t going to apologize for being herself. Besides, it didn’t matter if she was getting on Boone’s nerves. He’d already ripped hers to shreds.
    For the next few moments they both busied themselves with filling their plates. As they began to eat, Dallas remained quiet and so did Boone.
    Eventually, after she’d downed a whole slice of meaty pizza, he decided to speak. “Progress means changes and I don’t like changes. I suppose that’s why I like living here. It keeps me away from most of it.”
    There was nothing wrong with being a bit old-fashioned; she was behind the times on some things herself. And if Boone chose to live that way, that was his business. After all, he was a grown man. But it was a different situation with Hayley. As a child, she probably had no say in the matter, and Dallas couldn’t help but wonder how the young girl felt about living in such a secluded way. Surely Hayley missed doing the typical things that tweens and teens enjoyed, like calling and texting friends or spending the evening at the mall or the cinema.
    Even though Dallas had grown up in the country and understood what it was like to live without the lights and excitement of town, she’d not been nearly as isolated as Hayley. Getting from the Diamond D to civilization was easy compared to the trip between Pioche and White River Ranch. Plus, she’d had siblings and neighboring friends no more than three miles away. Clearly, the distance between Hayley and her friends had to be much greater.
    â€œCarburetors haven’t been around for years,” he said after a moment. “You’re too young to know about such things.”
    His remarks interrupted her thoughts about Hayley and she was glad. Questions about this man and his daughter were beginning to consume her and that couldn’t be good. Once she left Nevada their paths would most likely never cross again.
    Smiling vaguely, she said, “I’m thirty-two—that’s not so young. And the mechanics—well, I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy and the man who repairs the old trucks and tractors on our ranch is like a granddad to me. When I was around Hayley’s age, I’d trail along with him just to hear him tell stories—not about machinery, but about horses. I guess I digested more about motors than I realized.”
    He cast a thoughtful glance at her. “Is running the stables your only job?”
    Was he actually curious about her, Dallas wondered, or simply trying to maintain a