Belle’s eyes were immediately on Lara’s. “What was that?”
Belle never raised her voice, but Lara had known her too long to miss the reprimand in her sister’s quiet words. There was no use denying it. And Lara didn’t want to—not to Belle at least. “You know very well what that was.” She gave Belle a smile. “It’s fine. I think . . .” What did she think? She wasn’t in love . . . was she? “He’s a good man,” she finished lamely.
Belle made a noise deep in her throat. “I don’t know, Lara. I want to think he is, but there’s something about him. Please tell me you’ve seen it too.”
Lara pressed her lips together as she wrapped her arms around herself, the shawl snug around her shoulders. “Nothing more than I imagine any man carries.”
But itwassomething more. She chewed on her lip as she thought about Mitchell’s response to her question. If it wasn’t something that had happened to him, it was something he’d done.
What had he done?
She swallowed hard before forcing a smile upon her face for Belle. “We came here to find good men to marry, didn’t we?”
Belle frowned. “You wish to marry him?”
Yes. No! For goodness’s sake, she’d only just questioned whether she could even be in love with him. Why on earth would she be thinking of marriage? “I’m enjoying myself, that’s all. There are so few men left here, Belle. And when a good one of the right age shows up and seems interested in me, why shouldn’t I enjoy that?”
Belle twisted her hands together before rubbing them up and down her arms. Lara opened her shawl, inviting her sister to come closer. Belle didn’t hesitate, and together they huddled under the shawl.
“I only ask that you be careful. I don’t want you to lose your heart to him only to be disappointed.” Belle paused, her eyes on the water drill. “He seems the sort who might go running when the past catches up with him.”
Lara shivered, but she covered it with a laugh. “You know me. If there is something nefarious in his past, I’ll uncover it. Likely to my own detriment.”
Belle leaned her head against Lara’s. “If you even get that far before Arlen and George go chasing him off.”
Lara grinned. “Please don’t breathe a word to them.”
“Of course not,” Belle said. “Now if only a handsome cowboy would come riding up for me.”
The sisters laughed together as they strode back to the house, and by the time Lara climbed into bed, her fears had dissipated, leaving only the memory of Mitchell’s hand around hers and a pair of dark eyes with no desire to look anywhere else but at her.
Chapter Ten
The ricochet of thewater drill was just barely noticeable this far out past the ranch, but it was a comfortable reminder of what was to come.
Mitchell urged Trip over a rise in the land, keeping his eyes trained on the horizon for signs of the few cattle the ranch had left. By some miracle, there had been one calf born in the spring, but it was a daily struggle to keep the rest alive. The calf and his mama were kept closer to the ranch to ensure their survival, but the rest . . . Mitchell only hoped he didn’t happen on any that were dead.
