It was Thursday, the first week of December, and snow had fallen the night before.Around her the world was wrapped in a thin layer of white, the first of the year.
This was her spot on the Weston ranch.Nobody knew about it.She’d discovered it way back while she was still at school.Since then, it was her escape, her haven for when things became unbearable as it so often did for her.
Living with her sixth sense, orbeing feyas her mom called it, was easier said than done.Staying away from people all together was of course the only real solution, but not a practical one.She had three brothers she loved, friends she adored, and a mother who always had her back even though she irritated Willow no end with her constant talk about getting a husband.
Having to cope with knowing what her brothers and her mom were thinking and feeling was bad enough, thank you very much.She had no intention of adding anyone else to that list, no matter how tall and muscled and drop-dead gorgeous he was.
Her brother Walker’s death had nearly destroyed her.Falling in love with someone simply wasn’t an option, she wouldn’t survive when it was over.Relationship material she was not.She was difficult and weird and when she painted, time lost all meaning—nobody wanted a wife like that.
Damn, where didwifecome from; she didn’t want to be anybody’s wife anyway.Thank goodness these days happily-ever-after didn’t mean you had to get married.Besides, she knew she was difficult.At times she was too much even for her own family.
Her brothers hated that she knew things about them they’d rather had kept hidden.Fortunately, everyone in town knew she wasweird, as they call her, she very seldom had to explain to any man why she couldn’t go on a date with him because everyone knew she wasn’t interested.
Irritated, her mood disturbed, she turned and moved toward the rocks where she’d left her clothes.Just as well, it was time she went back before one of her brothers discovered she wasn’t in her studio and started to worry.She didn’t want anyone looking for her and finding this spot.
Usually, when she had an upcoming exhibition, she rarely slept or eat, leaving her house to go and swim in a hot spring wasn’t something she’d even consider.However, for some or other reason, she was struggling to find inspiration.
She’d promised the gallery in Seattle one more painting for her exhibition in two weeks’ time, but for the first time in her life, she had no idea what to paint.Nothing inspired her.Not the beautiful landscape around her, not the cattle or the horses, just nothing.
That had been the frustration that had driven her to her hot spring.She’d enjoyed it as she usually did, but her usually creative mind always bursting with ideas, was strangely silent.
The theme for her upcoming exhibition was “Seasons”—even that had taken her a while to figure out—and she still wanted to do another winter scene.With that in mind, she’d spent the last week on her horse, taking pictures of the ranch, the cattle, Cooper’s horses, and the cowboys working on the ranch.
At least that was what she’d thought she’d captured on her camera.It was only when she scrolled through the photos, she’d discovered she’d somehow managed to only capture one particular cowboy in every, single photo.
A familiar niggling feeling ran down her spine and she looked up.Something was wrong.Where was Dancer, her horse?
As she rose up from the water, a sound made her turn her head.Her breath got stuck somewhere in her throat.Dancer, a satisfied expression in her eyes, had returned but she wasn’t alone.
Behind the bay, sitting astride his horse, brooding blue eyes fixed on her, was Hunter Grant, the bane of her existence.Around them everything stilled and for a moment she could swore the world stopped turning.
Something flashed in Hunter’s eyes.The next moment, though, the shutters came down and his usual mocking smile was back.
Glaring at him, she quickly clambered out of the pool with as much dignity given the circumstances and picked up her towel.“What the hell are you doing here?”Shivering in the cold air, she tucked the towel securely around her body.
“Dancer came to find me.Great legs, by the way.But then, I already know that.”With a teasing salute, he turned his horse around and trotted away.
Only after he’d disappeared behind the small hill that cut off the hot spring from the ranch, did Willow exhale shakily.
Dropping the towel, she tried to put on her clothes.What should’ve been an easy task, took much longer than necessary.Her insides were a shivering mess, her heart was galloping away at an alarming rate and her hands were shaking.With another deep breath, she tried to calm herself.
So, Hunter had seen her naked.Again.Her hands stilled.The expression in his eyes.She had no idea what it was, but it was something she’d probably remember until the day she died.Damn it, she didn’t want to think about the man!She was still trying to forget what he’d told her a year ago.When we make love…When, not if.
Groaning out loud, she pulled on her jeans.For some reason or another, the freaking man had the ability to scramble her thoughts and make her heart do all kinds of silly things.For crying out loud, she was thirty not thirteen.There was no reason to get giddy just because she’d seen him.
Dancer was watching her with a knowing look.
“Why would you leave me here and fetch that man?”Willow scolded.“If you like Hunter so damn much, why don’t you go and stay with him?”
The horse snickered mockingly.Dancer, as she’d learned from the very first day Cooper had brought the horse to her, did things her own way.Willow got that, even respected that, and she loved the horse’s stubborn streak, but lately the bay had been impossible.
Ever since her brother Hayden had brought in Hunter to help manage their ranch, to be precise.Becket was focusing on his art and often away on book tours and Coop was the animal whisperer on the ranch and spend his days with abused horses and other animals.Like herself, both Becket and Coop helped during the busy times, but they’d needed someone else who’d be working full-time.
She got that they needed help, but why did it have to be Hunter Grant?Story in town was he had a ranch waiting for him in Colorado.Why was he here and not there where she didn’t have to see him every day?
Ever since that humiliating night a year ago, she’d tried to avoid him.She had been so stunned when he’d walked up to her and asked her to dance at the Winter Ball earlier this year, they’d been on the floor before she realized what was happening.And of course, she still remembered one big, warm hand on her back and the fingers of the other one laced with hers.
Now he’d joined her brothers in running the ranch and was always somewhere close—it was driving her to distraction.
