“Quinn was only pretending about the movie when he told them they could be in it.”
“If there’s a movie, I wanna be in it,” Benny insisted stubbornly.
“Okay,” Jo said at last.“If there’s a movie, I’ll do my best to get you in it.”
“But I ain’t running up no hill.”
“No, Benny.”Jo smiled again at the memory.“That’s a special thing only Dick has to do.”
Benny grinned.“He looked like a dork, didn’t he?”
“Yep, he looked like a dork.”Jo was in an extremely good mood as she rode toward the ranch buildings in the light of the setting sun.
And the catalyst for her good mood stood in an empty corral, twirling a loop over his head.With a beat-up Stetson shading his eyes, leather gloves on and a rope in his hand, he looked a lot like a cowboy.Jo’s heart picked up the pace.She wondered if buried under all that Wall Street conditioning was a man who could learn to love wide-open spaces and tolerate bugs and snakes.
Then she remembered why that was a dumb thought.No matter how much Quinn adapted to life as a cowboy, he couldn’t stick around, even if he had a notion to.The person everyone believed to be Brian Hastings couldn’t very well take up permanent residence in Ugly Bug.
Fred was nowhere to be seen, and Jo decided he must have coached Quinn on the basics and left him to practice.Quinn twirled the loop one more time, and with a snap of his wrist he let it go.It floated out in a beautiful arc and settled nicely over the post he had been aiming for.
“Yes!”he shouted, cinching it tight.“Finally!”
“Nice throw, cowboy,” Jo called.
He glanced over, shoved his hat to the back of his head and grinned at her.“Thanks, ma’am.”
Jo gulped.Damn, but he looked good.Almost like he belonged here.She nearly tripped dismounting because she couldn’t stop staring at him.“Of course that post isn’t moving,” she said.“Most things don’t stay still when you try to rope them.”
“That’s a fact.”
He’d even started sounding like a cowboy.
“I’ll put the horses up, if you want to go talk to Mr.Hastings,” Benny said.
Jo groaned.Apparently she hadn’t gotten through to Benny on this double identity deal.“No, that’s Quinn over there, Benny.”
“His name’s Quinn Hastings?”
“No, it’s—” She decided if she kept this up pretty soon she’d be as confused as Benny was.She handed the reins to him.“Never mind.Thanks for taking care of Cinnamon for me.”
“No problem.I love it.”
“And that’s why you’ll have a place here as long as I own the Bar None.”
“I know.”With a shy smile, Benny tipped his hat and led the horses away.
Benny was another reason she needed to hang on to the ranch.A new owner might only notice Benny’s mental deficiencies and not give enough credit to his instinctive bond with the animals.And then there was Fred, who was getting too crippled with arthritis to do as much as he once had.If Fred was fired, then Emmy Lou would leave the ranch.All three of them depended on her to keep the place going.
Jo looked at the corral as Quinn neatly roped the post again.The golden light from the setting sun touched his broad shoulders as he coiled the rope for another try.He was learning that skill for her, just as he’d been determined to ride Hyper this morning so that he’d do a credible job as Brian Hastings.If she managed to hang on to the ranch, much of the credit would go to Quinn for agreeing to her wild idea.
He’d abandoned his own work so he could get saddle sore, plagued with giant spiders and probably mauled by the townspeople during Saturday’s rodeo and dance.All to help out a lady in distress.Other than the satisfaction of a good deed, he wasn’t getting anything out of the deal.
A girl should be grateful when a man put himself out like that, Jo thought as she watched Quinn form a loop and twirl it over his head.Unfortunately, gratitude had landed her in hot water once before, when she’d been stupid enough to think she owed Dick the favor of marrying him after all the help he’d given her running the Bar None.But Quinn wasn’t asking for her hand in marriage or a chunk of the ranch.All he wanted was to make love to her.
God, that would be tough to take, she thought with a wry smile.But it wasn’t the lovemaking part that worried her.That would be glorious.No, what kept her from rushing into his arms and into his bed was not the loving.It was the leaving.
ChapterSixteen
Quinn had loved watching Jo ride in.She’d tied her hair back with a scarf and worn an old brown hat that gave her a rough-and-tumble tomboy look he thoroughly enjoyed.She sat straight in the saddle, her tummy in and her breasts thrust forward as she laughed and talked with Benny.Nice.
