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one large, callused hand held the reins while the other rested on his muscular thigh. She especially liked the day-old beard on his jaw and his warm, moss-green eyes.
    Pippa felt a surprising frisson of physical awareness skitter down her spine. She stared, wide-eyed, at the stranger beside her, suddenly breathless, conscious of a strong desire to know more about him. Pippa warned herself to be careful. She had no intention of letting another man into her life right now, especially one as charming as this cowboy.
    They’d reached the pond, and he dismounted and tied his reins to a budding aspen branch. He crossed to catch the reins by her horse’s mouth as she dismounted and then tied her horse off next to his. Then, without making any attempt to touch her, he headed toward a broad, flat stone, the perfect height to sit on, at the edge of the pond.
    “King had this stone put here,” he said as he dropped onto it.
    “Why would he do that?” Pippa asked as she joined him on the sun-warmed river rock.
    “I think he used to come here to be alone and think.”
    “And he doesn’t anymore?”
    He shot her a wry smile. “Nobody ever comes here these days but me and those cows.”
    Pippa leaned back on her palms, inhaling the crisp scent of the pines and listening to the jays calling to each other in the evergreens as she watched two white trumpeter swans glide across the pond. “That’s a shame. It’s beautiful here.”
    “You’re beautiful.”
    Pippa sat up, startled by the compliment, and her eyes locked with the stranger’s.
    He must have sensed her sudden wariness, because he grinned and added, “You fit right in with the mountains and the columbine and the pond and the forest.”
    She exhaled with relief that he’d simply been comparing her looks with the beauty of their surroundings. She didn’t want to be admired as a woman. She wasn’t looking for another boyfriend. What she really needed was a friend. She hoped she could steer this chance meeting in that direction. “It’s all very breathtaking, isn’t it?”
    Instead of answering, he took his hat off and laid it crown down on the rock behind him, thrusting his fingers through sun-shot chestnut hair that fell over his brow. Then he opened the bag and pulled out two items wrapped in tinfoil. He handed one to her, then unwrapped the other and took a big bite of what turned out to be a biscuit with ham.
    Pippa unwrapped hers and took a small bite, unsure how her stomach would react. But everything tasted wonderful.
    “I could have eaten this at home this morning,” he said, “but you have to admit there’s something about eating outdoors that makes everything taste better.”
    He was smiling again, and Pippa felt herself smiling back again.
    “How do you like living at Kingdom Come?” he asked.
    She opened her mouth to admit the truth and shut it again. King’s Brats were mean as cat’s piss, but they were also her aunts. She didn’t want to bad-mouth her family to a stranger, especially one of King’s cowhands. She settled for saying, “It’s not what I expected.”
    “Better? Worse?”
    She shook her head, unwilling to be pinned down. “Just different.”
    “Everyone is curious about how you’re getting along.”
    Pippa stiffened. “Why is that?”
    “It’s common knowledge that Matt brought a grown daughter home with him, but nobody’s seen hide nor hair of you in town.”
    “I haven’t had any reason to go to town.” And having grown up driving on the opposite side of the road in Australia, she was still leery of traveling on the highway.
    “To be honest, I don’t go to town much myself,” he admitted.
    “Why not?”
    He shrugged. “Prefer my own company, I guess.”
    “Oh.” She felt surprisingly disappointed. Did that mean he wasn’t interested in making a new friend?
    He lifted a brow and said, “What?”
    She had nothing to lose by admitting the truth, so she said, “I was hoping we could be friends.”
    He reached