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“Help me unpack my gear. I’m trying to clear out enough space in the camper to make it livable—and organize everything out here so I can start work in the morning.”
“Start work on what? Are you out of your mind?”
“No!” The grin that lit her face was pure radiance. “I’m going to build a cabin, and a garden, and a chicken coop. This is my land! Bull signed it back to me today!”
According to what he’d already heard, Rose’s news didn’t make sense. But Tanner knew better than to imply that it wasn’t true.
“Don’t just stand there with your mouth open!” she said, half-laughing. “Help me get these things out of the camper and covered with the tarp before it starts to rain!”
Tanner glanced at the sky. In the west, the setting sun glowed like a faded ember through the black clou
ds that were spilling across the sky. Sheet lightning flickered above the horizon.
Ducking into the camper, he picked up a heavy block and tackle and carried it outside. “Where did you get all this stuff?” he asked.
“I brought it from Mexico. Figured I was going to need it here.” Rose’s laughter echoed the joy that lit her face. It was the first time Tanner had seen her truly happy. She was more than beautiful, he thought. She was magnificent.
She was a woman he could almost love—if he were capable and worthy of loving.
“Are you going to sleep here, in this ratty old camper?”
“That’s the idea. This is my land, and I mean to live on it.”
“But you don’t even have a bathroom here, Rose. Don’t you have anywhere else to go?”
“I have an open invitation to stay in a duplex on the Rimrock. But this camper is my home now—until I can build something better.”
Tanner dragged what looked like a tow chain out onto the ground, leaving the camper emptied of gear. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re out of your mind, Rose Landro.”
“And for what it’s worth, I don’t give a hang what you think. Here, grab that tarp and help me anchor down the corners. A few of those rocks should do the job.”
By the time they’d dragged the canvas tarpaulin over the tools, the rain had begun to fall. Tanner had just dropped the last heavy rock in place when lightning forked across the sky, splitting the heavens with a deafening boom. Rain poured down, soaking them both to the skin.
“Come on!” Rose grabbed his arm and dragged him behind her through the back door of the camper. Out of breath, they sank onto the narrow bench that ran along one side. The camper was dark inside and warm from the afternoon sun. Rain beat a heavy tattoo on the shell and streamed down the windows.
The rain won’t last long, Tanner told himself. But as the seconds passed he felt a growing awareness of the tantalizing woman beside him. He was a man with a man’s built-in responses. Something told him he was already headed for trouble.
CHAPTER TEN
SITTING A HAND’S BREADTH APART, THEY HUDDLED ON THE BENCH in the camper, with the rain drumming outside. Rose was shivering in her damp clothes. Tanner ached to touch her wet hair, to curl it around his fingers as he cupped the back of her head and brought her close enough to brush her lips with his. He yearned to taste her, to warm her as a woman needed to be warmed. But knowing Rose as he did, he knew better than to try.
“I’m still trying to figure out why Bull Tyler gave you this land,” he said, looking for any topic to ease the tension.
“He didn’t give it to me. It was already mine. It just took time for him to figure that out.”
“So what do you plan to do with it—not just now, but in the years ahead?”
“Find ways to make the place pay—maybe some kind of small farming operation. My Mexican foster mother taught me how to make wonderful goat cheese. I could raise some goats, sell the cheese, or maybe some eggs as well. Whatever people would buy.”
“What does Bull have to say about that?”
“Not a thing. I made sure that was in our contract. I could raise alligators if I wanted to, and he’d have no legal power to stop me.”
Tanner chuckled. “Alligators. Now that would be something to see. But what about your life? It’s bound to get lonely out here alone. Don’t you want to get married and have a family someday?”
“I’m twenty-six years old. I think someday has come and gone—especially for a freak like me.”
“You’re not a freak.”
