Second Time Around Read Online Free PDF Page A

talk the paint off the walls.”
    “Well, since you’re the expert, poke me if I start to do something wrong.”
    “Just relax and be yourself. Kids can spot a phony attitude a mile off.”
    “Oh, thanks. That really helps boost my confidence.”
    Quinn was silent, staring out the window as the plane settled to the ground. Five years. He couldn’t stop his heart from proclaiming he’d finally come home. Would the ranch be the same, or had Lanie changed it to the point where he wouldn’t recognize it anymore?
    He glanced around at the click of Duncan’s seat belt being unfastened. “Did you rent a car?”
    “The only thing they had was a Jeep,” Duncan said. “It should be waiting on us.”
    He reached into the overhead and pulled out several bags. “You know, being on a ranch will probably be good for that leg. Might even see some improvement. No matter how many hours you spent in the gym, sitting behind a desk most of the day wasn’t helping.”
    2“So you told me.” Quinn stepped into the aisle and lifted out several more bags.
    “At least twice a day, if I remember correctly.”
    “For all the good it did.” Duncan paused as the pilot appeared and opened the door, then went past him into the warm sunlight.
    Quinn stopped the pilot as he turned back toward the cockpit. “Jack, when are you heading back to Chicago?”
    “In the morning. It’ll take most of the afternoon to service the plane. Duncan booked a room for us at a motel near here.”
    He nodded. “Have a safe flight back.”
    “Thank you, sir. And you have a pleasant vacation.”
    Duncan was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and Quinn glanced at his watch as he joined him. “Let’s grab something to eat before we head out. I don’t want to get there right at lunch time.”
    “Sounds good to me.”
    * * * * *
    “I’ve never been to the mountains before,” Duncan commented as they headed north on Antelope Flats Road, leaving the town of Jackson behind them. “It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic. It kind of feels like they’re falling on you.”
    “I think most people feel that way at first. You get used to it.” Quinn looked out at the majestic peaks of the Grand Tetons, Rendezvous Mountain towering in the distance.
    Snow still covered the higher slopes, the sun causing the white powder to glimmer with sparkles of light.
    “I guess you spent a lot of time here when you were growing up. Strange, but Edward never struck me as the type of person who would enjoy a place like this.”
    Quinn smiled sardonically. “He didn’t. It was my mother who loved it. My grandfather bought her the ranch as a wedding gift. Until she died, we stayed here every summer and holiday.”
    “And this is where you met your wife?”
    His wife. A strange tickle of emotion ran through Quinn. He’d spent every day since the accident trying to make himself believe that Lanie was no longer his wife. But she had been, even if they hadn’t realized it, and Duncan’s words brought all those possessive instincts surging back to life. His wife, his child.
    “Yeah.” He traced his scar with one finger. “Although at first she was just a pest.
    She was only fourteen. I was eighteen. Her parents had died a few months before and she’d moved in with her grandparents, the Howells. Their place was next to mine, so we were neighbors.” For the first time in years, he let himself remember the night he’d met Lanie, and a smile played around his lips as he related the incident to Duncan…
    2~~~~~
    Who would have thought prim, proper Susie Morsten would be so hot, so
    uninhibited? Or maybe she just got her rocks off because they were practically in public.
    He knew some women did, had even participated with a few of them, although he personally preferred privacy.
    Yeah, it sure looked to be a good summer, even if he’d had to blackmail Edward into letting him spend it here in Wyoming. His father thought he should work at the company, waste his last few