THE RENEGADE RANCHER Read Online Free PDF

with the top down on a bright sunny day.
    His hair was short, but didn’t look like his normal style since he kept tossing his head as though there were longer locks there. She recognized that toss of his head and the nervous running of his fingers across his scalp. She did it herself to get short wisps away from her face. It looked as if it was growing out from a military cut close to his head, curling at the base of his neck.
    He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said the seat belt was stubborn. It wasn’t just a play to get closer. His hands touched her hip more than once and as hard as he tried not to, his arm grazed her stomach and thigh.
    The urge to twist those curls around her finger was a little heady. She’d acted on impulse before. It would be so easy to reach out and use her nail to trace the lean tendon leading down to his shoulder.
    She watched her hand sort of float down, getting closer to that musky skin.
    “There.” He stood straight, brushing her hand to the side with his shoulder, smiling from ear to ear as though he’d accomplished something much harder than snapping a seat belt. “Dang thing had an animal cracker stuck in it.”
    “Great.” She didn’t feel great. Maybe she had hit her head because she was definitely a little dizzy. He seemed perfectly fine and totally unaffected by all the touching.
    “Your shoulder okay?” he asked, adjusting the strap to make it a little looser while holding an animal cracker tight in his palm. He was thinking of his niece, not her. He just wanted her to be safe while in his truck.
    Shoot, he was a paramedic. He probably got hit on all the time. Girls probably fell at his feet. Well, that was the old Lindsey. The new Lindsey didn’t fall at anyone’s feet. She used her own. The tenseness she felt had nothing to do with the physical and everything to do with the potential threat on her life.
    Anyone would feel like this.
    “Great, thanks. Your mother must be very proud of raising such a gentleman.”
    The smile faded from his eyes and his lips twisted tightly into a thin line. He quickly shut the door. “Mom died of cancer a long time ago,” he said softly through the open window.
    He walked around the back of the truck, pausing to drop the bag in the back and again at the door. His face was out of sight, but she heard the deep inhale and slow release.
    Trying to pay him a compliment, she’d brought up a terrible pain. She knew all about the death of a parent and felt two inches tall for the remark she’d made about him still having his father when they’d first met.
    He got in and pulled from the parking lot. “Don’t feel bad, Lindsey. You didn’t know.”
    “I meant it as a compliment.”
    “And that’s how I took it. She’s been gone a long time.”
    “My parents’ accident was six years ago. When I remember that day...all the horrible feelings make me hurt all over. I can’t imagine it ever gets easier.”
    “It does and it doesn’t. Hang on to the good stuff.” He shifted gears and stopped at a red light.
    The streets were practically empty. She looked around for a black car, trying not to but paranoid. Each time they stopped, she searched.
    “I doubt he’s going to do anything when you’re with me. This guy makes it look like an accident. That’s why no one’s caught on. So where do you live?”
    “You must already know, since you’re headed there. It’s really okay. I looked up a couple of things about you, too. The fire did more than kill my cousin. It destroyed all your plans and your family’s. I think it’s cool that you’re an identical twin. You might have told me what happened this summer. Your story made the news. And your poor little niece.”
    “You didn’t seem too receptive to more talking this afternoon. Were the articles and pictures helpful?”
    “Yes. You can’t blame me for checking out your story. You could have been driving the car that ran me off the road for all I knew.”
    “And yet, you