 
Mending Fences

Texas Heat - Book One

AMELIA ROSE

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Amelia Rose

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To YOU, The reader.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your emails.

Thank you for your reviews.

Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Other Books by Amelia Rose

Connect with Amelia Rose

About Amelia Rose

#  Prologue

The sun was bright, and it shone down on her as if it meant to light her on fire. This was the third time in two weeks that she'd been dragged kicking and screaming by her hair to the broken fence at the edge of her parent's property. It seemed as if some force in the world had wanted to see her suffer. Instead of spending the summer running wild with her friends from school, swimming in a lake and riding horses at summer camp, she'd had to stick behind and put the fence back together. To their mother, the chore was a fair one, since her other siblings were off doing other jobs on the ranch that required just as much attention.

She was fifteen—of course she was going to complain. There wasn't a day that passed that she wouldn't have the need to open her mouth and scream bloody murder as she kicked her feet back and forth in a tantrum that could melt a steel fence.

Marlene O'Connor wiped her brow free of sweat and helped her older brother to hold his post digger as he stuck it into the ground to carve yet another replacement hole for a fence post that had gone missing. She didn't want to be out here in the heat digging holes to begin with, yet her mother made certain to remind her that she wouldn't get dinner for a week if she didn't pitch in. It had been ground into her since birth that it was her responsibility, along with her siblings, that they were to help the family and that keeping the family floating in both good and hard times were above all the most important things a person could do in their lifetime.

She sighed as her brother, Andrew, moved to the next missing fence post. Her father had been beyond grumpy that morning, and it wasn't a hard guess as to why. There wasn't an animal on the planet that could pull a fence post out of the ground and run off with it, or for that matter, run off with the fence wiring that went along with it. The man had been mad enough to spit the nails required to build a house. The money to buy the replacement posts alone were going to put them all out on the street if the culprit wasn't discovered by the end of the summer. As it was, a few of their animals had gotten loose and wandered over into the neighboring ranch to cause trouble. It was a problem to be certain, and heaven help the poor fool when Red O'Connor got hold of him.

"What I can't figure, is who the hell would want a fence post to begin with." Marlene said to Andrew.

He was melting; the sweat was running down the sides of his face and there was enough of it to soak through the collar of his shirt. He paused for a moment and leaned on his digger. "Dad says that he wants to set a trap." He said and wiped his face with his shirt. "Can you imagine him out here in the middle of the night waiting on someone to come by and steal a bit of wood?"

Marlene smiled. "I bet he's a superhero that can eat only wood. He flies down from the sky and yanks a post before you can say lickety split." She snapped her fingers for emphasis.

"Don't be silly," Andrew chuckled. "Hold the digger while I put another post in. We have to get this done before the afternoon, so stop daydreaming about superheroes. If there was one around, I'd already have him digging holes."

********

He was fifteen years old, sure, but he knew beautiful when he saw it. Sure, the missing posts had been his doing, and he was going to keep that a secret until the day he died, but seeing the beautiful girl had been the only thing on his mind when he'd come out in the middle of the night on his boss' land and lifted five posts out of the neighboring rancher's fence line. He'd run into a problem with what to do with the long pieces of wood. The horse that he'd used to ride out to the fence with had disagreed with him when he'd thought to load them onto his back, and even though he was a pretty healthy kid, he couldn't have carried all of them back with him. So, he'd run back to the main farm house, grabbed a shovel and dug a hole large enough to put the posts into the ground for safe keeping. For all he cared, they could remain there until the end of the world.

His world revolved around seeing the beautiful girl that accompanied one of the O'Connor boys out to the fence each time he decided to poke a hole in it. She was beyond beautiful; her hair was a deeply alluring shade of light brown that glinted with red highlights in the sun, and it perfectly complemented her pretty skin which was slightly tan from all the work she'd been doing outside. Slender and lithe, she was like a flower that once seen, demanded to be picked and admired.

Naturally, his efforts to talk to her or get close to her had been thwarted by the rest of the O'Connor clan who thought that a girl ought not to be talking with random ranch hands. He'd gotten more than his share of dirty looks and veiled insults; he knew if he approached her, that the only thing he'd get for his efforts would be to have his feet tied with rope and then strung up in a tree and left for dead. Everyone knew the O'Connor clan prided family and their loved ones above everything else.

"Marlene O'Connor! Stop dawdling and let's get back to the house! Dad will be furious if we're late for lunch!"

_Marlene._ Even her name was beautiful. He closed his eyes and sunk down against the tree he'd been hiding behind. From where he was, he knew that he wasn't going to be seen, even if a little part of him wanted to dash from his hiding place and yell at the top of his lungs so that Marlene would be forced to turn around and see him. They'd never met, and would probably never meet. He knew that if she found out what he'd done to her father's fence and planned to keep doing, that she'd hate him instead of like him. It was a shame; there was never going to be a girl that beautiful in his life again. He was only fifteen, but he was certain of it.

#  Chapter One

It was one of those days that were neither hot nor cold, that once you were out in and out there with nowhere to go but through the best of it, you felt stuck as if you'd fallen into a vat of glue. The only way she had of getting through the afternoon conscious and in one piece was the thought that if she wrapped her car around a tree, her father would find her in the afterlife and punish her for being so stupid.

Marlene O'Connor yawned as she stood outside in the tepid thick air of the late afternoon and pumped gas into the fuel tank of her trusty but rusty vehicle. She had been driving since early in the morning, and she wanted nothing more than to get into the back seat of her four door and crash until someone brought back the dinosaurs. She wouldn't be home for another couple of hours at least, and the thought of having to drive even five miles was enough to exhaust her to the brink of coma.

_Home_ , It meant something more to her now when she thought about it, since it wasn't her little apartment that she was headed to, but rather the ranch that she'd grown up on. She'd had to leave it after she graduated high school; if she hadn't forced herself she would have stayed and never known anything of the outside world other than the fact that horses ate hay and that a work day started before the sun even had the nerve to rise.

She'd wanted to become a nurse. For a reason, one that she didn't fully understand herself, it was within her to help others; the need to be there when others needed her was too powerful to ignore. She supposed that some of it came from the fact that her family was a close knit one, and that they'd all worked hard together to provide for each other and look after one another. Her mother had done well by instilling the fact that hard work paid off in the end and that to get anything in life you had to break a sweat.

Marlene smiled. The family was expecting her, and they were happy to have her home finally after so many years spent away. The vacation time that she'd paid half of her soul to earn was well worth it; the month she'd be staying on her family's ranch sounded better to her than a cruise or a vacation on a deserted beach ever would or could. For the money that she'd spend sailing around in a circle with a bunch of old buzzards playing shuffleboard and a bunch of loser men looking for an easy time, she could save her money and spend the time at home where she knew she'd get the sleep she desperately needed to catch up on the home-cooked meals that could be found nowhere else on the planet.

She looked to the gas pump, realized that it was near to finishing, and just as the tank reached its capacity, she pulled the nozzle. It was one of those nice pumps where you didn't have to go inside and pay, and she thanked the brilliance of it since she was too tired to walk the fifteen feet to the gas station's store. She reminded herself that a few more hours wasn't going to hurt her, and that she'd done far more tiring things in her lifetime.

She lifted her cell phone from her pocket and dialed her oldest brother's line. Since he'd come of age, he'd inherited the reigns of the ranch, and it would be him that she'd need to inform of her pending arrival so that he'd open the gate for her.

"Hello?"

"Hiya, Andrew. I'm just hitting the county line now, and I'll be in town in a few."

"You sound tired. You're all right to drive, aren't you?"

She shrugged, knowing full well that Andrew wasn't able to see the gesture. She said, "I am. I'm probably not going to be up for much when I get home, but tomorrow is another story. I want to ride my mare, so I hope you've made sure that my saddle and everything I need is there for me to use."

"Sure thing, Sis. Just get here in one piece."

Marlene hit the end call function of her cell and pocketed it before she had the mind to call her brother back and tell him that she'd decided to hit up a motel. She knew how badly they all wanted to see her, and even if she'd pay for it later, it was better she get to where she was going. Besides, nothing but fun and relaxation waited for her—at least, that was her brilliant plan.

********

Marlene frowned as she pulled onto the dirt road that led to her family's farm. For one thing, even if she hadn't reached the gate yet, she could see that Andrew had forgotten to open it for her. It meant that she'd be stuck at the entrance until he ran out to open it for her. The only thing she could think of was the bed that was waiting for her on the other side, and it made her grumpy to think that she had to wait that much longer to get to it. Why was it so difficult to do something as simple as opening a gate?

She pulled her car up to the gate, and was about to get out of it when she saw a man on horseback trotting down the fence line. She didn't recognize him, or know him from the next farmhand in the bunch, but as he came closer, she instantly wished she did.

The man was hot. Not hot as in temperature, but hot in the descriptive sense. The temperature in the car had risen, and she fanned herself as she let her eyes roam over him. Probably over six feet standing, the man's long legs hugged the side of the horse he was riding. The jeans he was wearing conformed to the muscular shape of his thighs and as her eyes drifted upwards, she could see the flat of his stomach as the wind kicked up his shirt to reveal the very tanned skin underneath. To top that off, if it was possible to outdo that kind of sight, his face was terribly handsome; not conventionally square, but unique and catching to the eye. His hair was long and it would have been in his eyes if the movement from the horse hadn't brushed it out of the way for him.

When he came to a stop on the other side of the gate, it was all she could do not to get out of the car and introduce herself to him. What would she even say to a man like that? It would have been a miracle if she could have gotten her name to go past her lips before she stripped off all of her clothes and jumped him.

********

Curtis Copeland, ranch hand by trade, pulled the reigns of the horse he was riding and came to a stop at the front gate of the Circle O Ranch. As expected, there was a car out front to greet him, even if the person inside of the car didn't know that that was what he'd come to do.

Andrew O'Connor, his boss, had requested him to take a horse to the gate to open it for a guest that he was expecting. Since it wasn't the first time that Andrew couldn't be bothered to do something as menial as opening a gate, he didn't find it surprising. There wasn't a thing that an O'Connor could do that would surprise him. The whole lot of them were predictable.

He hopped down off of the horse, waved to the car and then made his way to the gate. His mistake came when he bothered to look up to catch a glimpse of the driver.

His breath caught in his throat, and for a long moment he was afraid that he was never going to breathe again. The woman sitting in the driver's seat was drop dead gorgeous. Her long, light-brown nearly amber hair was in ringlets around her shoulders and the ends of her hair reached far enough to brush the top of her breasts. Her cleavage was ample; he could tell this because of the simple tank top she was wearing. As he drifted downwards, he could see the shorts that she was wearing were high enough to expose the creamy color of her thighs and legs.

Her face was the most alluring. Heart-shaped and innocent looking, her nose was pert and perfectly matched to her with full lips that made him wish he knew her name so that he could ask to kiss them. What man wouldn't want to kiss those lips?

This was perhaps the first time that he thanked Andrew for sending him to do his dirty work. He had no idea who the woman was, though he knew certainly that he was going to know her. The most important thing he learned growing up was that to pass up on a beautiful woman was a waste of opportunity. Beautiful women, especially ones that didn't fit the conventional definition of the word, were rare.

Remembering to open the gate, he unlocked the padlock and lifted the hatch. He pulled the long length of it toward himself and had it squared off to the side before he had the time to realize that he'd barely taken his eyes away from the woman. She had to know by now that he'd been staring at her.

The woman pulled her car forward and he thought that it would be the last he'd see of her; at least until he made his way back up to the main house, but then she was coming to a stop in front of him and he was having a hard time ignoring the sudden pounding of his heart as it thudded in his ears.

"Do you know where Andrew is?"

The frown that turned his face upside down couldn't be helped. Of course this gorgeous woman would belong to someone. What man in their right mind would let a woman like this stay single for any length of time? He knew that if he had the chance, he'd bind her so tight to him that escape would be impossible.

He found his voice just seconds after the last of her words hit his ears. "He's up at the house by now. He was out tending to the animals last I checked. Wanted to get everything squared before the sun fell."

"Oh, well," and she faltered. He could hear the stammer in her voice just begging to squiggle out, and curious, Curtis moved from the gate and came up to her driver's side window. Her face was flushed to that perfect blush—the kind of crimson a man likes to see on a woman's face. It ran over her cheek bones enough to give the heart of her face that cute little glow. Adorable would have been his word for it.

"You got a name to you? I can't just say 'hey you' when I see you next." He felt himself leaning and corrected his posture. He wouldn't get that close to her; at least, not yet.

********

Marlene thought that she was going to die from all the blood in her body rushing to locate itself in her face. She couldn't help it; her thoughts always gave her away, and as the man at the gate had come close to her, she'd had nothing but naughty things to think in his direction. The cherry color to her cheekbones, the heat that filled the whole of her body, was nothing but an indication of that knowledge.

She'd asked him about her brother for two reasons. One, she wanted to know where Andrew was, and secondly, she wanted to hear the sound of his voice. As expected, it was deep and it rumbled in just the right way that if he'd been leaning closer to her car, he would have noticed her shiver.

She hadn't expected him to talk to her, or for that matter, ask for her name. It made the cells in her brain scramble to give her the courage and the ability to remember what her name was.

She said, softly and just above a whisper, "My name is Marlene." She remembered her manners at the last second and stuck her hand out through her window. In a louder voice, she said, "My name is Marlene O'Connor, nice to meet you."

Instead of taking her hand and shaking it like a decent man would have done, he backed away from her and went to his horse as if the act of touching her was going to burn the skin from his fingers. The expression on his face had been blank, so there wasn't a way for her to know what might have been going on in his head—if she knew anything, it was that he definitely didn't want a thing to do with her. Understandably disappointed, she withdrew her hand and pushed the gas to her car. She wasn't going to stick around in the wake of something so embarrassing. She might as well have had the words 'I'm an idiot' tattooed to her forehead. Her bet was that he'd gotten a good look at her plain mug and decided that he'd rather shoot himself in the head as to have anything to do with her.

********

Marlene pulled up to her parent's house just as her brother was coming out of it. He looked dirty from the day's work, but as she stopped the car, he saw her and was headed over to her before she'd even cut the engine.

As she got out, his big arms wrapped around her and hugged her tight enough that she wasn't able to inhale.

"Lord girl, you've gotten so tall. I bet since I've seen you that you've gotten at least three feet added."

She smiled as she thumped Andrew on his muscled shoulder. "You missed me so much that you had someone else greet me at the gate?"

Andrew thumbed his chin. "Oh, yeah, about that. I had my new hand run up there to let you in since one of the horses decided to foal right before you got here. Later, after supper, we can go take a look; the newborn ought to be cleaned up real nice by then."

"Who is he?"

Andrew frowned at her. "Who is who? The horse's papa?"

"That hand you sent down to open the gate. Who is he?"

Andrew shrugged. "Nobody really. I had one of my hands leave and he showed up looking for work. I needed the help so here he is. The guy's a ghost. Why are you asking?"

Marlene swallowed. She'd forgotten that Andrew was as sharp as a pitch fork and even worse than her father when it came to men she could possibly be interested in. They had been like that her entire life, and the only one who got more of it than she'd had to go through had been her little sister, Moira. If Moira ever ended up with a man, it would be an act of God. Probably.

"What's his name?"

Andrew shrugged. "What's it matter?" He scratched his head. "Come to think of it, I barely remember any of their names." He grinned. "I've got dinner made, why don't I take your bags inside and let you put your feet up? You know the day comes early on a ranch."

Marlene paled. "Just what do you mean by that? My day is going to start at noon and not a minute sooner. I work too hard to get up at the butt crack of dawn."

Andrew moved to stand at her trunk and he held his hand out for her keys. Once she gave them to him, he said as he lifted the trunk's lid, "You're here now and you're an O'Connor."

Marlene felt her eyes narrow. "I'm your sister, sure, but I'm on vacation. Tell that to someone who hasn't driven all day to get here... in fact, tell that to someone who earns a paycheck from you."

********

Curtis stood in the stall with the horse he'd just brought in and set his hand against the horse's whither. He shouldn't have walked away. Though, and understandably, as soon as that woman had given him her name, everything inside of him had recoiled. Not only was she his boss' sister, but she was completely off limits to him. He shouldn't even have spoken with her.

He sighed. He had done his best to forget his past, even as much as to move in other lines of work, and yet the path his life stubbornly had to take always drew him back to the Circle O and to a particular pretty face that he knew he shouldn't have the stones to even lift his eyes to.

He'd thought to never see her again, much less have the privilege of talking with her face to face, even if when he'd done so he hadn't known it. Of course, he'd dated other women, even came close to marrying one of them, but Marlene had been something else to him. She'd been the one that got away; the forbidden interest that made the endeavor to even see her all the more worthwhile. At least before his conscience got the better of him and he'd given up.

He cocked his head to one side as his horse, Sam, nickered at him to put his face to him again. Sam would get what he wanted or he'd nip his shoulder, so he dipped his head inward.

He wondered how long of a stay little Miss O'Connor was going to have and how long it would take for him to lose his ability to stay away from her. He frowned. At the moment, the woman probably hated his guts and thought that he was the scum of the Earth. She'd offered her hand to him and he'd turned his back on it; no matter where you hailed from or what language you spoke, the action itself was rude. He'd seen her attraction to him, most likely imagined on his part, and to walk away from her had probably hurt her feelings.

At least he still had Sam and he still had a job, though if he couldn't control himself and he approached Marlene, either wouldn't be around much longer than a hot fart in a hurricane.

"Ah, Sam, you have it easy pal. You don't have to worry about what your mare's brother will do to you if you nicker at her, do you? All you have to do is flick your tail and strut your stuff and she's all yours." He set his hand against Sam's neck and ran his fingers through the horse's thick mane. "What a life you've got. I'd kill to have it as easy as all that, I'll tell you."

He chuckled as he remembered Sam was a gelding. Poor guy didn't have it easy after all. Still, if Sam could talk to him, he'd tell him to own his pair and cowboy up. To pout over old mistakes and missed chances was a waste of time.

Marlene didn't know it yet, but she was in for one hell of a visit. If it was the last thing he did, he was at least going to tell her his name. If anything beyond that happened, he'd look skyward and thank God for the favor he'd given him. He'd have to plan the interlude for a time when her brother's ever watchful gaze wouldn't find him and obliterate him back to pre-existence.

#  Chapter Two

Marlene's eyes opened before she was ready for them to. It was still dark out and yet because she'd grown up at Circle O, her ears and her mind remembered the sounds of the early morning and she was unable to keep on sleeping. Someone was already out in the pasture and collecting the previous day's manure from the horses that had been out during the day, and there were lights on in the barn to let her know that the horses were being brushed and fed and standing patiently while their stalls were mucked clean. Even though she couldn't see them, someone was out on a lawn mower and cutting grass. The sun hadn't even come up, and yet there was probably a ranch hand out there with fog lights attached to his mower cutting the over growth like a redneck champ.

She sat up, ran a hand through her tangled bed hair and once she got her bearings she got up and dressed. She'd sworn she'd stay asleep, comfortably wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets until she damn near turned into a butterfly, but with the sounds of work around her bleating at her subconscious, she couldn't go back to that bliss even if she'd wanted to.

By the time she made it to the kitchen, Andrew had already left for the morning, but there was a note left next to a coffee mug that had the words, "I told you so," written in Andrew's rough scribble. She smiled as she picked the note up and folded it to put in her pocket. Some things, no matter how much time passed, would never change.

After the best cup of coffee she could remember having in a long time, she moved to the porch with a book so that she could sit in the new light of the day and read. She read often; in her down time when she wasn't working at the hospital, she loved to explore the lives of others and to picture what the worlds they lived in looked like. It was nothing for her to sit for a few hours and let the words blur until she found herself there with the characters, fighting their battles with them, by their sides, even if she knew that she had to come back to the real world for a time to live her own life.

Contrary to popular belief and to the conviction of the other nurses that she worked with, she did have a life. She hadn't had a boyfriend in a while, but it wasn't because she didn't have offers. It was good for her to be single now - she had a good job that she loved doing and she didn't want anything in it that would complicate what she had or distract her from it. She had been there and it wasn't worth the headache. While she was younger and in college and exploring all the interesting little things that life could offer, she'd been too often distracted. There were too many times when she'd come close to losing what she'd worked hard to make happen for herself.

As she read her book, she let her mind drift to the potential distraction she'd met yesterday at the front gate. She was pretty sure nothing would come of it; in fact, she would probably never see him again. She smiled wryly; imagine calling a man who wasn't even attracted to her a distraction.

"Dream on, Marlene." She muttered to herself.

She wondered at the silence of the house behind her. It was never quiet in there growing up, and she knew that once the rest of her family returned from the horse show that had the clan absent for the first two days of her visit, the noise they'd bring back with them would be deafening. Still, it was worth the noise to be able to wrap her arms around her mother's waist and have her cheeks pinched by her still able-bodied grandmother. She'd probably hit her sixties with her grandmother still kicking it with the best of them; when she was a little girl, she'd known without a doubt that the woman was immortal.

Marlene let out the air in her lungs slowly over the pages of her book and watched them flutter briefly before she closed it. While the book was fascinating, she couldn't get into it. For some darned reason, she couldn't get the image of that cowboy off her mind. The way his rear had looked in a pair of jeans... she broke off to lightly fan herself with her hand, feeling unusually warm.

"Hey, lazy bones!"

"Hey, you" she said with a smile as her brother crossed the yard and bounded up to the porch, his face ruddy from the exertion of his morning work.

She stood from her chair, set her book in the seat and had just enough time to face Andrew before he grabbed her in a bear hug.

When he let her go, he held onto her shoulders.

"I see you're up." He said with a smile.

"Yes, I am." She grinned up at him.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to sleep the day away."

"I wanted to," she said with a shrug. It wasn't as though she hadn't tried.

He dropped his hands and stepped back.

"We should go riding in the fields like we used to. Would you like that?"

Marlene hid her exasperation. She thought her brother's treatment of her was fitting for a girl rather than a woman, and she was hardly a child.

"Sure. I was thinking I'd like to get to know my mare again, she was always the most loving horse anyone could ask for."

Andrew opened his mouth to speak and then shut it as his cell phone jingled the tune to Walker Texas Ranger.

"Hold that thought." He picked the phone out of his pocket and stepped away from her.

For the few minutes he talked on the phone, Marlene could tell that she wasn't going to be riding with her brother on the back of a horse any time soon. As he turned to her with a frown on his face, her assumptions were verified.

"Sorry Marlene. I've got to handle some business."

"So we're not going on that ride, are we?" In spite of herself, she felt a trickle of disappointment.

"No, we're not. I need to settle some stuff with the feed guy before Dad gets home." His smile was filled with regret.

"Well, I am here for the month." She said trying to make him feel better.

"One of the ranch hands will help you to get your mare out of the stable, I'm sure. You don't mind riding by yourself?" He looked worried.

"Relax, Andrew, I'll be fine."

"You'll be careful as you go about by yourself, won't you?" He asked looking serious, "I hate to think of what I'll have to tell Ma if anything happened to you."

"You know, I am a grown woman and I've lived all by my lonesome for years now," she said with a frown, not trying to disguise her exasperation anymore.

He laughed and ruffled her hair just as though she were still a kid and was gone. She watched him hop into his truck and knew that even though he was a busy man that his heart was in the right place.

********

It was another day and another morning and he knew that with time, he could forget that he'd ever seen Marlene at the gate. She wouldn't have him, couldn't have him, and he'd have to be okay with it.

Curtis frowned as he thought about the girl he hadn't been able to stop thinking about for the past ten years. Of course, she was no longer a girl and now a full grown woman; just a minor detail to add to the thoughts that had tormented him for years. In part, she'd been the reason that he couldn't bear to stay off of a ranch, or for that matter, stay away from the O'Connor's Circle O.

He'd never been much for school; even when he'd tried to hit the books, his mind would wander and he'd forget where he was. At times, it was hard enough even staying away. No, he'd not been the kind to study hard and get good grades; he was the type of man that needed to get his hands dirty and have the sun at his back and feel the wind in his hair. It didn't mean he was stupid either; the kind of smarts he had couldn't be gained from any book - you couldn't learn from a book how not to get thrown from a horse that had a fear of puddles.

He found himself inside of the stable for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning, and his frown deepened as he looked at the state of stables. The other workers had carelessly thrown their saddles to one side instead of hanging them up on their posts like they were supposed to. If he didn't see to them, Andrew O'Connor would ream him from now until the same time the next week.

He bent to pick up the first of the saddles and as he rose with it, his eyes lifted and caught sight of Marlene as she headed into the stable. From where he was, she wasn't able to see him, and for a long moment he thought about keeping it that way. If he started with her now, there was a good chance that he'd never want to stop talking to her. However, his curiosity burned with the need to know her, to hear her speak. He wanted to know what her life was like and what she did for a living; he'd even settle for her favorite color. Truth was, he couldn't keep away even if he wanted to.

He set down his saddle and brushed off his pants with the flat of a palm. Without thinking, he ran a hand through the dark pelt on top of his head that refused to be tamed. Nothing on the planet could get his hair to lie flat against his skull and he was used to it. He straightened his back, tried to plaster a smile on his face and failed. Giving up, he moved around the front stalls so that Marlene could get a good look at him.

As her eyes caught his, she started to smile and then stopped. Her expression went blank as her feet carried her the few feet forward to meet him. She looked as if she was about to undergo a root canal. Either that, or she believed that she was about to be run over by a semi-truck.

Her face wasn't welcoming so his eyes looked elsewhere. She looked better than she should have in a simple T-shirt and jeans, which she'd tucked into a pair of boots. No woman had the right to look to damned good in that getup. He noticed that she was in good form and was tempted to let a wolf whistle escape him, but caught himself just in time.

"Hi," he forced his vocal chords to work.

"Hi."

She didn't say anything else beyond that and he didn't know how to go on. He walked forward and leaned against a beam.

"Is there anything I can help you with? He finally asked.

********

Marlene was still trying to catch her breath. She'd walked towards the stable not expecting to see him, but secretly hoping that she would and then she'd looked up and there he was. Her heart missed a beat and her steps had faltered. Then she'd made herself keep walking, as though drawn by an irresistible force. She remembered his question now.

"Er, I..."

This was too embarrassing. She was sounding like a tongue-tied teenager, with her first crush and she couldn't have that.

"Cat got your tongue?"

His words immediately eased the tension between them and she felt her lips twitch.

"Well," she drawled with a smile, "I came down here to find my mare. Do you think you can help me? Maybe even help me to find her a saddle so that I can take her out for a ride?" She batted her eyelashes at him.

He stared at her silently for a moment and then a slow smile inched up his face. Marlene caught her breath as his face was transformed from its chiseled hardness to drop dead gorgeous. Her pulse began to race.

"Sure thing," he said with a nod and then pointed toward a corner over her right shoulder. "The light saddles are over there, the heavier ones are behind me. The tack for the individual horses are in their stalls, along with their brushes and blankets." He paused and folded his arms to his chest. "You do know how to tack a horse, right?"

"It's been a very long time since I rode a horse." She said with a shrug.

"Well, I'm sure you'll do okay. Do you have a horse of your own?"

"Yes, I do. My father gave Ginger to me before I left for college."

"Why would he give you a horse just as you're leaving for college?"

"His idea was that I'd fall in love with her and come home often to ride her and take care of her."

"And did you?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious.

She closed her eyes with the memory and continued, "I did for the first couple of years. While I was in college, I was home as often as possible to come ride her. But then I started work at the hospital and I came home to visit less and less."

"You work at a hospital?"

She opened her eyes and stared at him, and then almost forgot to answer. He was staring at her with focused intensity. She took a deep breath and released it in a rush before speaking, "Well, sure, I'm a nurse."

"Huh."

Marlene felt her eyebrows bunch together. Curtis seemed satisfied with the answer and before she could say anything else or keep the conversation going, he moved past her and went for the saddles on the wall. He pulled one down, tucked it underneath his arm and then walked past her a second time. As he neared the first of the stalls, he looked over his shoulder at her.

"Well come on if you're coming. I think Ginger is in the last stall on the left."

Marlene was confused. What did she say? Why had he become abrupt that way? Without a word, she followed after him. When they reached her mare's stall, she watched as he slung the saddle over onto the stall's door before he unlatched it and opened it just enough so that he could slide through. She moved to the door as it closed shut and leaned on it.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Curtis stopped what he was doing and as he kept his back turned away from her, she watched him inhale and then sigh.

"I'm sorry. It's just—I have no idea what to say to you. I'd talk about the color of dirt if that's what you found interesting."

His honesty surprised and delighted her, so much so that she chuckled in relief.

"How about I start with your name and we can go from there."

"Curtis." As he said this, he kept a hand on Ginger's roan-colored coat and he extended the other toward her. "I'm Curtis Copeland."

Marlene considered giving him the same cold shoulder that he'd given to her, but then she saw his eyes and she could tell that he was attempting to make up for their first meeting. She swallowed before she took hold of his hand.

The feel of his warmth as she enclosed her fingers around it made her want to close her eyes and lean until she ran smack into the rest of him. She made the mistake of gazing up at him and felt like she was drowning in the depth of the twin pools.

It seemed like it took forever to let go of his hand, but when she did, she closed it over and held it to her chest in an instinctual gesture. She could feel the pace of her heart thumping against her rib cage through her flesh and her shirt. She mentally shook her head and focused on the reason she'd come to visit the stables in the first place.

Ginger was the same as she'd remembered her. Ginger's coat had just the lightest spattering of grey through her fur which gave her the dusty appearance of ginger roots. As a filly, she'd been as spicy as her namesake, though as she'd gotten older she'd relaxed some and the bond that developed between them had been like nothing she'd had with any other animal, or for that matter, any human being.

She made two short whistles between her teeth which had Ginger twitching her ears and lifting her head. The mare nickered and moved to come over to her stall's door so that she could nuzzle the shoulder of her favorite person. It was as if she was saying that she'd missed her and that she wasn't pleased it had taken her human so long to come back to her.

"Seems like she remembers you."

Marlene nodded. "No matter how long we spent apart, Ginger has always been my horse." What she didn't mention was that she called father all the time to remind him to send her pictures. She must have a million of them all over the apartment; instead of the crazy lonely cat lady, she was the nut bar horse whisperer."

#  Chapter Three

Marlene had forgotten the feel of a horse beneath her, the feel and sense of freedom that the movement provided. Perched on top of Ginger with nothing to separate them except for the saddle she inhaled the fresh air and as she exhaled, felt the stress of the past years seep out of her body. She hadn't felt this relaxed in years and she wasn't sure there was a masseuse on the planet that could give her that kind of satisfaction.

"You okay?"

She looked at the man who had been silently riding beside her and smiled slightly.

"I'm fine."

"You looked..." he shrugged, "you looked weird just now."

"I was just remembering how wonderful it is to be out here in the silence. There's nothing like this in the world—nothing can even come close to it."

He smiled at her and she felt a flutter in her belly. She glanced away in confusion. Why was she reacting so strongly to this man? He was just a typical cowboy, dressed in jeans and T-shirt and a cowboy hat. What was so different about him that she was all in a tizzy? As that she felt a small smile on her lips; that was a word her grandmamma loved and she hadn't heard it, much less thought it in years. She stole a glance at the cowboy from the corner of her eyes. He looked completely relaxed, as though he was in his element, which he probably was. He had insisted on coming along with her for the ride, not happy with the fact that she'd planned to ride out on her own. How typically male, she thought.

"You know, I must have been out here a few thousand times, but now it seems like coming out here today has been the best idea I've ever had."

She chuckled. "Technically, it wasn't your idea." She pulled Ginger to a stop. "You know, since you're here with me, why don't we have a race? Let's see whose horse is faster."

Curtis lifted an eyebrow. "You sure you want to tangle with a man and his horse? You're prepared to lose, aren't you?"

Marlene grinned. "I don't think so, cowboy. I think you should prepare yourself to eat my dust." She pulled Ginger to the side and waited for Curtis to come up beside her. She turned to look at him and as he looked at her they both nodded in unison.

She gazed away and looked ahead of her, leaning slightly forward in the saddle. She lifted the reigns and knew that Curtis was doing the same. At some point, whether it was verbal or not, they both shouted and their horses took off. They were flying suddenly, the horses' hooves barely touching the ground as they galloped across the expanse of ground. In a few minutes, they covered half a mile of wilderness.

Marlene wanted to win, that was the crux of it. She wanted to move as fast as she could and as hard as she could on the back of her horse and outdistance this man. It wasn't as if she wanted to be better than him, just prove to him somehow that she was worth it. It was ridiculous.

She wasn't paying attention to where she was going, save for the fact that her eyes could see where she was going. Her brain was elsewhere, thinking of silly things, and she didn't see the ground water in front of her before it was too late. Ginger, unfortunately saw it; she pulled herself to a stop so quickly that the sudden force from the stop catapulted her hapless rider through the air.

Truly, she was flying. Marlene thought that if only she could somehow learn how to keep herself in the air, that she would never have to suffer the landing that she knew was rushing up to greet her. She hit the ground hard and she rolled instinctively. She came to a stop only when her back hit against a tree and then she simply lay there.

Stunned was the word, or perhaps shock. Either one of the words would have worked for her and for the pain that wandered through her nervous system. She didn't think anything was broken, but then again, she didn't want to move enough to find out if anything was broken.

A pair of warm and gentle hands touched her and rolled her onto her back. She had to blink a few times so that she could focus enough to see the face that was hovering just above hers. The face was handsome, deeply worried, but handsome.

She might have been a little dazed from the fall, perhaps hit her head a few times as she rolled to a stop, but she thought it was perfectly natural to touch the handsome face hovering over.

********

Curtis knew that Marlene had suffered at least a good knock to her head when she lifted her hand and put it to the side of his face. She was serene, smiling and out of reflex, he put his hand over hers. While she was otherwise occupied, he used his other hand to look her over for rough patches or blood. The only blood he saw was from a small cut on her forehead.

"Hey, Doll, you need to listen to me for a minute. Can you tell me where you hurt?"

Marlene smiled at him. "You're a handsome man, Curtis.""

"I think the knock to your noodle is telling you to say things," Curtis replied.

"But you are handsome." She said with a pout.

"How many fingers do you see?" he held up two fingers, ignoring what she'd just said.

"Two fingers, Curtis." She said with an impatient sigh, "Now help me up so I can get back on Ginger."

"I'm not sure you should move just yet."

"I'm fine."

"Maybe I should call your brother."

"What? No! Why on earth would you want to do that?"

"If he finds out that something like this took place and I didn't call him..." He let his words trail away.

Marlene knew what he meant; her family was all protective of each other, but Andrew could be a little controlling. There was no use pretending otherwise, Andrew was more than a little controlling; he'd turned it into a new art form. If he knew that she'd fallen off her horse, he would do his best to ensure she didn't ride for the one month she was home. She suppressed a shudder at the thought and turned pleading eyes toward Curtis.

"Curtis, please..." she began hesitantly, "I don't want you to get in trouble, but if Andrew finds out he's going to blow it all out of proportion."

"I don't know, Marlene." He said sitting down next to her. He sighed and avoided her gaze.

She placed a gentle hand on his arm and waited till he turned to look at her. "Please."

He let out his breath in a sigh. "Okay." He agreed.

"Thank you," she said sincerely.

They were both silent a while then, "How do you feel?"

"I think I hit my head."

He nodded.

"I think we should move from the forest and take the horses with us. I have a first aid kit back at my cabin; we can bunk there while I see to that head of yours."

"Okay."

********

Curtis rode on the back of Sam and it felt like the longest ride of his life. Sitting behind him with her arms around him was Marlene. She'd been in no form to ride and so he had put her on his own horse. Now the bulge in his southern region was telling him he was in no form to ride either. His chest felt tight and he had to struggle to get air inside his lungs. He didn't know what to say to her and so he remained silent. It was like all his all his fantasies rolled into one. And yet, at the back of his mind was the niggling warning, the certainty that he could have nothing to do with her; not seriously anyway.

All too soon, they were at his cabin. He got off Sam and turned to Marlene to help her off the Stallion's back. She slid forward out of the saddle and down to where she was braced between the horse and his body. She reached out as though to touch him and then withdrew her hand. He told himself it was not disappointment he was feeling.

"Let me tie the horses up and then we'll get you inside." He said brusquely.

********

Marlene waited for him and then together they walked into the small place he called home.

"Hey, I remember this cabin." She said.

"Really?" he quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, my brothers and I used to play here." She admitted.

Looking around she could see that it had undergone some fixing up over the years. It looked to her like the supreme bachelor pad; there was even a bit of his clothing scattered helter skelter and bunched in random corners. Someone had come by and given him curtains—the sunflower pattern was definitely something she knew Curtis wouldn't have chosen for himself.

Curtis gestured for her to have a seat on his sofa and then he disappeared into a back room. A few minutes later he came out carrying a battered-looking first aid kit which he sat between them as he sat with her on the sofa. He opened it and poured antiseptic on to a pad of gauze which he then put to the cut on her forehead.

Marlene winced as the alcohol made the cut sting, but then Curtis was removing the gauze and leaning forward to blow on the cut so that it didn't continue to sting. He smiled at her as he moved slightly backward.

"You're a beautiful woman, Marlene."

She felt a blush rise to color her face and she looked away from him. While it wasn't a new concept to her, it had been some time since a man had verbally appreciated her appearance.

"I'm glad to hear that" she said meeting his gaze boldly. "I was sure you didn't think that when you first met me."

He frowned.

"I understand how you could think that," he said. "I was unforgivably rude the first day we met, and I'm so sorry."

She shrugged, not wanting to admit to him how much it had hurt. She opened her mouth to tell him it didn't matter, but his fingers on her lips stopped her. She froze as a bolt of lightning shot through her. Gazing into his eyes, she was surprised by the longing she found in their depths.

"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever met," he said softly.

He took his hand off her mouth and she felt her lips tingling where his fingers had been.

"How can you say that?" she asked, her voice a little breathless. "I bet there have been plenty of beautiful women in your life."

From nowhere, a spark of hurt hit her, which was ridiculous considering she had no claim on him. He was a fully grown man; even she would have been worried if there weren't other women in his life. She shook her head and looked away from his too perceptive gaze.

"I'm sorry, forget I said that."

"There have been other women; I'd be a liar if I said otherwise." He took hold of her hand, and again his features turned serious, "But..." he seemed to have some difficulty articulating what he wanted to say. "You're just different."

Confused, she opened her mouth to ask him how she was different, but her phone began to ring. She knew it was her brother because of the ring tone, one she'd specially assigned to him.

"Andrew?"

"Where the hell are you?" His brusque tones came across, putting her on the defensive.

"I went for a ride, remember?"

"It's been hours and you're not on the trail."

"I'm fine, Andrew."

She heard him sigh.

"Look, I'm worried, okay. Just humor me and tell me where you are."

Like that was going to happen.

"I'm fine. I was out riding on Ginger with Curtis and Sam. Ginger started at a puddle and threw me, so I ended up at Curtis' cabin. I'm fine, I promise."

"Who the hell is Curtis? Are you still on the ranch?"

"Curtis is your ranch hand, Andrew. You know? The one you sent to meet me at the front gate yesterday? He helped me tack Ginger and then he was kind enough to join me out on the trail. He's been taking care of me."

She could tell her brother was less than impressed.

"So where are you two?" he asked, his tone deceptively gentle.

"At his cabin."

"Alone?"

"Alone."

He let out a string of swear words and Marlene swore, holding the phone away from her ears. When she brought it back, she could hear him yelling.

"I want you to get back to the house now. What the hell are you doing alone in a cabin with a strange man? You know better than that Marlene. You saddle up your horse and get back here. Now, Marlene!"

Marlene listened to his tirade and felt anger beginning to get ahold of her. She was reminded with full force of why she'd left home in the first place.

"You are not my keeper, Andrew O'Connor. I am a grown woman and I can make choices for myself. If I want to be in Curtis' company, there isn't a thing you can say about it. So put that into your pipe and smoke it!"

"I can fire him. Get your rear back to the house before I lose my temper, Marlene. You don't belong hanging around that man."

She sighed. "You know you can be such an ass, Andrew. I'm coming home and don't think this is over."

Before Andrew could shout at her some more, she hung up her cell phone and slid it back into her pocket. She turned to face Curtis, who had been listening quietly while she'd argued with her eldest sibling.

"I better go before he goes nuclear."

"You don't have to, you know."

"I know. But Andrew..." she sighed, not knowing how to describe her bossy and controlling brother. "I don't want him to fire you." She said at last.

He shrugged, "There are other ranches around and there's always work for a ranch hand."

She knew what he was saying. He was letting her know that he wanted to keep seeing her and didn't mind if he lost his job. The enormity of that scared her and she scrambled up to her feet.

"I should be on my way."

"Let me take you back." There was an awkward tension between them and then he lifted his hand and gently pushed back a few strands of hair that had come loose from her ponytail. "Thank you."

#  Chapter Four

After Marlene left his cabin, Curtis felt an unusual restlessness overtake him. Well, not so unusual, he remembered with a wry smile that the only other time he'd felt that way had been because of the same woman. Throughout that summer when he was young, he'd felt that way until he'd caught sight of Marlene. And since then, there were days he couldn't get her off his mind and the restless feeling wouldn't leave until he took some random woman to the sack, just to get one specific woman off his mind.

His jeans had become uncomfortably tight in some areas because of the hard on he'd been sporting. It was a wonder she hadn't noticed it; she probably would have run screaming from him. He sighed then. He probably wasn't going to see her again. Even as the thought crossed his mind, he rejected it outright. He couldn't not see her.

He had not lied to her when he'd said she was different. She made him feel as if he was capable of anything, as if he was worthwhile. She made his heart feel lighter—someone could have come up to him that afternoon and shot him in the back and he wouldn't have felt a thing as long as Marlene kept smiling at him.

He put a hand to his cheek. He could still feel the slight light touch of her warm fingers as they'd glided across his skin. If he died at this exact moment, he'd die a happy man for the gift she'd given him. Sure, she'd been delirious when she'd put her hand to his face, but even after she'd gotten her head back together, she'd seemed more than willing to stay close to him.

He closed his eyes and sighed again. Marlene O'Connor spelled nothing but trouble. If he were wise, he'd do the smart thing and stay away from her. Losing his job would be the least of his worries if her brothers caught up with him. But then, no one had ever accused him of doing the smart thing. He had walked away from Marlene and the possibilities once because he hadn't had much of a choice. He wasn't going to do that again, not if he could help it.

********

As she finally made it back to the main house, Marlene felt achy and in dire need of a bed due mainly to the fact that she'd been thrown five feet through the air from the back of a horse. Even though she had some talking to do with her brother, she figured the majority of her tongue lashing could be achieved at a later date. Besides, a lot of her anger had fizzled out and she was just irritated at Andrew's overprotective streak.

He was waiting for her in front of their home.

"There you are," he said with a lopsided smile. "I really was worried."

He opened his arms wide and she stepped into them, even as she shook her head at him.

"You didn't have to yell at me over the phone, you know." She chided gently.

"I know and I apologize."

That was the problem with Andrew, Marlene thought. It was almost impossible to stay angry at him.

And then he squeezed her and she yelled.

"Ouch! I'm hurting all over right now, Andrew, please don't squeeze me like that."

He drew back with a frown and studied her face.

"You're serious then about being thrown? I thought you'd just made it up so that you could spend time with that cowboy."

She scowled at him.

"If I was going to make something up, I would have been a tad bit more creative than that don't you think?"

"I don't want you seeing him."

She stepped back and placed her hands on her hips.

"Really? Alright, tell me, what do you have against that man? All he was doing was making sure that I was all right, that I didn't need to be rushed off to a hospital. As a matter of fact, you should be thanking him that he had the presence of mind to be out there on the trails with me in the first place. What do you think would have happened if I had been out there by myself when Ginger threw me? What if I had hit a tree and died? Would you still be upset that I had been with a man then?"

Andrew moved his lips to defend himself and she held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't even say a word." She frowned. "Every man that got close to me was run off by my family. Sure you all have not been around for the past few years, but I was too busy to even think of being in a relationship. Now, I've met someone who is sweet, and doesn't seem to care that he might be on the wrong side of the almighty O'Connor men. He's been nothing but kind to me and a gentleman to boot. Now, if you want to get upset over something as trivial as my spending an afternoon with him, then go ahead. Just don't tell me about it."

She watched as Andrew's face ran through a few emotions before finally landing on contrition.

"Geez, Marlene, I'm sorry." He rushed a hand through his hair as he toed the ground with a one of his booted feet. He said, "I just want to look out for you is all. The men I hire are all rough guys. They do a good job but they eat and breathe grit. I wouldn't want someone to hurt you or take advantage of you."

She moved to her brother and punched him on the upper part of his right arm. "Just try to give people a chance. There's nothing wrong with Curtis, in fact he's much better at being a good man than half of the men I've met over my lifetime. I don't know if there's anything much more to us than just talking—like you said, I just met him."

He sighed.

"You deserve better than that."

"Way to go being a snob, big brother." she said giving him a disgusted look. "Look, I need a shower." She turned to leave and then paused, "Look I'm only here for a month. Please don't make me regret coming back home."

And with that she walked into the house.

Marlene took a shower to wash all of the grime from the outside from her body down the drain, and after a good meal, she nestled up on the sofa in the living room. It was large, comfortable and appropriately ugly. It was the kind of older couch that was to be expected in the homes of folks aged beyond fifty. For a reason she couldn't quite explain, she loved it.

She wanted to curl up with a book and get back on track to the reason she'd come out to her childhood home; the point to all of this was to relax and forget that there was an entire world waiting for her to return to—a world in which she didn't have the luxury of reading a book or sleeping until she felt like waking up or for that matter, meeting handsome men that were kind enough to carry them on the back of a horse to their home so that they could patch up her boo boos.

For the second time since she'd tried to do it, she tossed her book to the side and decided once and for all that she was going to give up trying to get through it. There were far more interesting things going on around her than what was happening within its pages.

She knew that Andrew had gone out again, saying that he had to make sure that all of the animals had been fed and that his men had done their job as he'd asked them to do, so for the most part she was stuck in a big house all alone with nothing better to do than eye a book as if staring at it could set it on fire.

She couldn't get Curtis out of her mind. She hadn't had that sort of connection with a man in such a very long time. She paused to reflect and came to the conclusion that she had not ever had the kind of connection she seemed to have with Curtis. She stood up restlessly and walked to the kitchen to get some water.

As she drank, she remembered the look in his eyes when he'd told her he didn't mind losing his job over her. It had made her nervous, like this wasn't just some random thing for him; like it wasn't just about the hot chemistry between them. She was so attracted to him and she saw in his eyes that he felt the same way about her. And yet, she'd sensed that for him, it was deeper than just sexual attraction which was crazy seeing as they'd only just met.

Marlene shook her head in wry amusement. It was obvious that her wishful thinking was getting better of her. She rinsed the cup and was wondering what to do with herself when suddenly, an idea entered her mind. It was bold and audacious, and not something she'd normally do. But this was different, and she owed it to herself to see where it led to. With a smile, she turned and headed for her room.

********

Curtis was about ready to fall asleep when he heard a knock at the door. At first, he was prepared to ignore it, considering that there shouldn't be someone at his door annoying him, but then as the knock continued, he felt compelled to answer it if for no other reason than to make it stop. He looked down at his bare chest and briefly thought about covering it up, but he wasn't the intruder. He was going to stay comfortable in his own home, damn it.

The last person he expected to see at his front door was Marlene. She was looking spectacular in the fading light of the evening, her face ruddy and smiling. For a long moment, he didn't say a thing, but then he grinned with her and asked, "What brings you by here? Did you forget something from earlier?"

Marlene shook her head. "I just thought that I'd come by and apologize for my brother. He doesn't have a right to tell me what I can and can't do. That and I wanted to thank you for being so kind to me. You really were very sweet."

Curtis noticed the backpack that she had on her shoulder. "What's that you have there?"

"I grabbed some things out of the kitchen and then I thought that it would be nice to watch a movie while we talked—if that's something you wouldn't mind doing." Her smile faltered a bit.

He stood away from the door and pressed it open with an arm so that she would know that he was inviting her inside. He caught her looking at his chest and then as their eyes met, she blushed furiously. As she walked past him, he couldn't keep the grin off his face. It felt good to be admired, even if it was just a blush on the face of a pretty woman. So that he didn't make her feel uncomfortable, he decided that he'd go and rustle up a shirt for himself; it wouldn't do to have her distracted while they were trying to get to know one another. At the idea that he was even going to be allowed that opportunity, he wanted to do a little dance of happiness right then and there.

Marlene sat down on his sofa and he tilted his head toward the back end of his cabin as he made sure to let her know that that was where he was going to be for a moment, and then after he'd grabbed himself a T-shirt, he joined her on the sofa.

"You know, I don't own a DVD player. Actually, I think the biggest problem would be that I don't own a television."

Marlene frowned at him. The way the corners of her face turned down, it looked more to him like a pout than a frown. The effect was cute.

"What do you do in your down time if you don't at least have a television to watch? Don't you get bored?" she asked in surprise.

"I work all day long, every day all week long." He said with a shrug as though that should explain everything. When he stole a glance at her, he saw that it did explain everything.

"What of family?" she asked curiously.

He shrugged.

"I don't have family to speak of. Maybe a half-brother somewhere, I'm not sure."

She frowned, looking so pretty as she tried to figure out what he'd just said.

"How can you not know if you have a half-brother or not?"

"Well, I grew up in an orphanage, but I seem to recall that there were two of us before I ended up at the orphanage. I was just two years old, so I'm not really sure. I dream about it sometimes though." He shrugged again.

In the silence that followed, Curtis wondered why he'd told her about that. He had never mentioned it to anyone before, ever.

"I don't know why I told you that," he said avoiding her gaze. "You just seem easy to talk to, like I've known you forever."

He looked at her then and she was smiling a soft, smile. He saw the tenderness in her eye and his chest tightened. No one had ever directed tenderness his way before.

"I feel the same way. It's just so easy to talk to you—to want to talk to you." She sounded as surprised as he felt.

Curtis watched as Marlene reached into her backpack and pulled out a pie tin and a couple of forks. She set it on the coffee table in front of them, and before he could offer to go and get some plates for them, she scooted off the sofa and sat on the floor with the pie on the table in front of her. She looked up at him.

"You want to sit down here with me? It's a shame we can't watch a movie, but we can talk about anything you want to."

He didn't need to be asked twice. Soon they were both sitting on the floor and eating pie off of his coffee table. It was weird that something so simple felt so extraordinary.

"So," Marlene began, "did you always want to work on a ranch?"

Curtis swallowed the bite of pie that he had in his mouth. He was pleased that it was a blueberry pie—there was no way that she could have known that blueberries were one of his favorite things to eat.

He shrugged.

"It's good work." He'd tried his hands at different things, including riding the rodeo. He'd been good at that too, but the fast life and faster women just weren't for him, so he'd quit and gone back to working as a hand. "Did you always want to be a nurse?" he asked.

She cocked her head to the side.

"I wanted to help people. I thought about becoming a doctor, but then I learned that nurses get to be with people all the time and so I went to school for nursing. It's what I've come to know I was meant to do with my life."

He could believe her too. He heard the passion in her voice and couldn't keep the admiration from his.

"You're an incredible person. I think it's wonderful that you have such a sense of direction. Not many people have that in their lives."

Marlene frowned at him. "You know, I keep looking at you and I keep getting reminded of a summer I had here a long time ago where say this boy. He was working for the neighboring ranch that summer. You have dark hair like he did."

He felt his heart start and then stutter thump to a halt. It wasn't possible that she could know about his past with her, or the fact that he spent an entire summer as a teenager attempting to destroy her father's ranch. He swallowed a few times and kept his gaze from her in the hopes that she wouldn't see from his expression the guilt that he still carried around with him. For a long moment he said nothing at all and when she stopped to stare at him, he got the impression that she felt that she'd said something wrong to him.

He said finally, "What makes you think of him when you see me, other than the dark hair?"

He couldn't help himself; he was too curious. Was it possible that she'd been looking at him as he'd been looking at her?

She replied, "One day during that summer, I had gone out with Andrew to buy more supplies for the fence that we were repairing. I saw the boy doing work out in the field. I never did get to learn his name even though I seriously wanted to, but I thought that he was handsome. I guess I was trying to tell you that I thought you were handsome too."

Curtis smiled and pretended to shine an individual badge on his chest. "Well, isn't that something. I think you're beautiful, so I suppose we're even."

They both laughed at that.

"You really saved me today. I could have been really hurt and you took care of me."

He shrugged. "It's what any man should do when someone, especially a woman is in trouble. Besides, your brother would have had my hide if I hadn't done something to help his sister."

"I should thank you for not calling him, too. I think you know already that he tends to worry too much where I'm concerned."

Curtis scoffed and decided to change the subject. "So, you never did tell me why you're here instead of back at that apartment of yours taking care of sick folks."

Marlene chuckled at him. "I'm on vacation, silly. I came here to get some fun and relaxation and maybe to forget for a while that I'm so busy that I barely have time for anything else. That and I miss my family. I haven't been home in a long time."

He turned his head to look at the clock on his wall in his kitchen and he frowned. It was going on nine at night and it was getting dangerously close to that hour where it would no longer appear appropriate for Marlene to keep visiting him. Not that he could give a damn what appeared proper or not. Even though they were doing nothing more than sharing dessert and talking with each other, he had to admit that he was having the time of his life. So what if someone might think that Marlene had come to him to bed him down after just having met him? If it wasn't true, it wasn't true. Only, he did care what people thought of her. She didn't deserve to have anyone think badly of her. Besides, he could feel the fire in his veins and going by that, he wasn't sure it would remain untrue much longer if she didn't leave.

"I think you should be headed back." He said. He saw the disappointment in her eyes and felt compelled to add, "It won't do for the other hands to think badly of you." He knew he was doing a lousy job of explaining, but was grateful when her expression cleared up.

"I'm sorry for keeping you. I know how early you need to be up." She said with a smile.

He moved from his spot between the sofa and the coffee table and picked up the pie tin that was now quite empty. Over the course of their conversation, they'd devoured an entire blueberry pie between them. He took it to the kitchen where he tossed it and by the time he returned, she was up and moving toward the door. She turned to him and before he could stop himself, he walked right into her. She was off balanced and before she would have fallen against the door, he caught hold of her shoulders and righted her. It was then when he noticed that she was staring at him and that remembered that he'd forgotten to take his hands away from her. It was the kind of moment, had it been a movie, that the audience would have been holding their breath waiting for the couple on screen to have their first kiss. He leaned in, the attempt there and the moment right, but at the last second before he would have been able to place his lips to hers she turned her face away from him.

"I think I should be heading back now."

Curtis sighed at the lost opportunity. He'd desperately wanted to kiss her, to feel if her lips were as soft as they looked and if they tasted of blueberries.

They walked to the door and he reached out to open it, and then paused.

"Did I upset you?"

Her eyes went wide and her face, characteristically, flushed crimson. He could tell that there was something she'd thought that she desperately didn't want him to know and the fact that he'd caught on to it had embarrassed her. He gave her a stern look.

"Come on, tell me. Do you really not want me to kiss you?"

She looked away from him. "You'll laugh at me, I know you will."

Now that was curious.

"Why would I laugh at you if there's something so wrong with me that you don't want me to kiss you?"

She looked so surprised by his words that the tightness in his chest immediately eased.

"There's nothing wrong with you," she looked away and then sighed. "It's silly really."

"I still want to hear it."

She cracked a smile, "I haven't brushed my teeth or anything."

He laughed so hard at that that he thought he was going to pass out. Of all the things in the world she could have said, what she did say had been the very last thing he thought she would say.

#  Chapter Five

During the walk back to the house, the tension between them was thick enough to slice with a knife. At one point, their arms brushed and they both hurriedly moved away. She felt the part that he'd touched tingling. She should probably have kissed him back at the cabin. But even though she told him it was because she had not brushed, she knew it was because the strength of her attraction scared her. She wasn't sure that they would have stopped at just a kiss, no matter how gentlemanly he wanted to be and she barely knew him. Her ma had raised her better than that.

Still, she shivered just from being so close to him. When she'd walked into his cabin and seen the honest to goodness gift of him without his shirt on, her mouth had become dry. She'd had to swallow hard to speak. She'd been grateful and disappointed when he'd covered himself up.

They got to the front house and she noticed that the front porch was well lit. They both stopped walking. With a deep sigh, she turned to him. He was staring at her with hunger written all over his face.

"Thank you..." her voice trailed away as he gently drew her close to him.

Very slowly, giving her enough time to pull back if she wanted to, he lowered his mouth to hers.

Marlene's eyelashes fluttered shut as she felt the onslaught on her emotions. Curtis lips on hers felt cool and hot at the same time. He lifted a hand to cup her face and she leaned into him. As she opened her mouth and he deepened the kiss, she felt a ball of heat unfurl in the pit of her belly. His tongue flitted against her tongue and for long moments they tangled until she was pressing against his chest with both hands in the effort to gain enough distance to gasp for breath. When he let her go, she took a big gulp of air and he chuckled seductively against her ear. The action sent a trail of goose bumps along her arm as she shivered with desire.

They stood there with his arms wrapped around her and she couldn't explain the contentment she felt. She felt warm and coddled, protected even. She wished that she could remain safely cocooned in Curtis' arms forever.

"Are you okay?" He asked in his soft drawl.

Unable to speak, she simply nodded. She didn't want the quiver in her voice to give her away and ruin the moment that they were sharing. Eventually, however, she bravely kissed his cheek and backed away. She turned to go inside, but his voice stopped her.

"Can I see you again tomorrow?"

She smiled to herself, and without turning back to face him she replied softly, "I'd like that."

********

The next morning came and found Curtis disheveled and distracted and whistling to himself. The happiness he felt wasn't precisely unexplained; the kiss that he'd shared with Marlene had been the most satisfying entangle that he'd ever experienced. It wasn't as if he'd never kissed a woman before, hell, he'd had his share of stolen kisses, but the fact that he'd had the absolute pleasure of kissing Marlene made all the difference in the world. If that was all he ever had the chance to do, he'd rest easy knowing that he'd done it well. Marlene had practically needed to hold on to him for fear of flying away. If he'd had the chance to notice, she'd probably had one foot kicked at a right angle like in a wind-swept romance movie.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Confused for a moment and irritated that he had to break the reenactment of the kiss he was definitely fond of remembering, he looked up from what he was doing to see Marlene's brother glaring at him. He didn't look particularly happy, but then again, he never looked particularly happy.

"Excuse me?"

Andrew was dressed in his work clothes, the cuffs of his jeans tucked in his boots to prevent horse muck from getting into his socks, and as Curtis got a good look at him, he realized the man had dark circles underneath his eyes from a lack of sleep. If he'd been a smarter man and not so wonderfully distracted by the continued remembered feel of Marlene's lips on his, he would have thought that the man's lack of sleep might have had something to do with the interaction he'd had with his sister. As it was, he didn't have to think about it because it was thrown in his face as if it were a tall glass of ice water.

"You know what I'm talking about. What the hell do you think you're doing with my sister? I saw you two last night in the yard. You were walking her back from your cabin, right? Did you sleep with her?"

For the first time since he'd met Andrew, he was truly angry with the man. He was not a guy whose first inclination was to fight, and yet, he had an incredible urge to throw a good punch to Andrew's superior-looking mug.

Instead, he replied calmly, "I don't know what you're talking about, but whatever it is that you think you know, I can tell you that you're wrong. I have been nothing but a gentleman to Marlene."

"Then why were your hands all over her?"

Curtis could hear the climbing anger in Andrew's voice and knew that the man was one step off from losing his control. The last thing he wanted was to hand the guy his rear and then have to explain to Marlene why her brother had to go to the hospital. If it came to a fight between him, he knew he could take Andrew any given day of the week and twice on Sundays. He tried to remain and hoping to deescalate the situation.

"We were talking with each other and I walked her home. I kissed her, that's all. If you want to know so much, why don't you talk to Marlene about it? I'm sure she will tell you the same thing that I've told you."

"You want to keep this job, right? Stay away from Marlene. If not, I'll throw you out so fast that your ass will bounce on the dirt. That and I'll make sure no one else in the state of Texas will hire you either."

"You seem to think I care."

Andrew's eyes narrowed to slits.

"Without a paycheck what do you have? You think my sister will move into your truck and live there with you? 'Cos that's all you have isn't it? All you can afford...living in your truck."

Curtis felt anger swell inside of him and then like a tide, it subsided. He felt the bitter taste at the back of his throat and the knowledge that once again, he was being judged. As awful as he felt, he couldn't deny that Andrew had a point. While he didn't really care about the job, it was unfair to put Marlene in a tight spot with her folks. He didn't want to do that to her. So he stepped down.

He could have argued or even pleaded with Andrew. He wanted to see Marlene and get to know her and possibly even develop something truly remarkable with her, but there was no sense in trying to get through the thick skull of an O'Connor. The Irish blood that ran through the man's veins made him incapable of seeing reason while he was angry—that much Curtis understood.

Andrew must have sensed Curtis' withdrawal because he nodded.

"I'm glad you see things my way." His tone became more reasonable. "Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against you, but Marlene is out of your league." His voice turned hard. "If I hear from the other hands that you even so much as look at her, I'll have your ass in a sling in no time at all."

"Maybe you need to direct that to your sister."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

Andrew's stance had changed, like he was badly looking for a fight. Curtis didn't mind. He felt sore enough to welcome whatever the other men felt he could dish. Still, he didn't think Marlene would appreciate a fight between him and her brother and he didn't want to make her choose.

He laughed bitterly then, as though there was even a doubt where her allegiance would be. She was an O'Connor and he...well, he was nobody.

He tipped his hat with his thumb.

"Well, if you're done issuing threats, _boss,_ I'd like to get back to work." He infused as much insolence as he could into his voice.

"Whatever you do, be sure to remember who gives you a paycheck and we'll both have a good day."

With that parting shot, he walked away.

Curtis walked off and spit at the dirt the man left in his wake. He felt like breaking something and briefly considered running his fist through a wall, but he caught a few of the other hands eyeing him and held back. Just when he thought that something good was finally happening in his life, it was snatched away from him. What chance was there for folk like him who were raised in an orphanage and had no family? None, that was what.

********

Marlene curled in her blanket and smiled into the plush comfort that it offered to her. She woke with the remembered feel of Curtis' hard body against her and she felt joy bubbling inside of her at the thought of repeating the adventure. It was then that the cloud carrying her into the lofty heights of the sky dissipated and she plummeted to the ground. She suddenly remembered that her holiday would soon be over and she would be returning to work. And then there'd be several counties separating Curtis from her. It had taken her nearly three years to make it back home to visit—meeting Curtis and allowing herself to get swept away by him only meant that she'd have to suffer the pain of waving goodbye to him when she left him. How was it fair to engage him in blissfully seductive kisses saturated in warmth when the very act of engaging him was an act of cruelty?

She closed her eyes and pressed her face into the recesses of her forgiving blanket. Curtis had to have known that she wouldn't be around forever. It was a shame that she had forgotten, but it wasn't as if she was playing around with him so that she could hurt him on purpose. She truly liked the man, and now that she'd had the chance to get to know him a little, she knew that she liked him beyond his appearance.

She decided as she hugged her blanket that she'd take whatever Curtis had to offer her and let the chips fall where they landed and call it even. She'd had the best time with him the day before and even a better time with him that evening, and for that she knew that she was hopelessly addicted to his presence. Already she couldn't wait to see him again and hear his voice as he ever so gently said her name; there wasn't a shred of control left to her that made her want to give it up. She figured that she could face what was to come at the end of the month when that time came.

Smiling again, she removed her face from the blanket and sat upright. She left her bed, showered and dressed and with renewed cheer, she found her way to the kitchen where Andrew had once again left hot coffee for her to savor.

She found a note reminding her that she'd need to go into town to do some shopping for the dinner he'd planned to have once her parents and three middle brothers returned from the rodeo that they'd gone to. He mentioned as a side note that her twin brother Michael had won a prize for his show horse Ace.

She smiled when she thought of her absent family. Her mother, father and grandmother would have hugs in abundance when they saw her, and she couldn't wait for their smiling faces. While she knew that the majority of her siblings no longer lived at home, once in a while they made it home to go to rodeos with their father and whoever else wanted to go. It happened but rarely and it was a dying tradition, but as long as she could remember, it had been important for the family to spend time with one another. After all, family was everything to the Irish culture.

Marlene downed a cup of coffee, rather, she gulped it as if she were a dying fish in need of water, and she grabbed a few slices of toast to ebb away the hunger in her belly. She realized that she was rushing through the morning routine, but the faster she made it through and reached a satisfied ending, the faster she'd be able to find Curtis and hang around with him until he pushed her away or told her to get lost. She doubted highly that he wouldn't want her to bug him all day, and if she had to, she'd even help him to do his work so that he could get done early and give all of his attention to her.

She thumbed her chin so that she could think on what to do with him that didn't involve the nonexistent electronics that he couldn't bother himself to own. She decided that she'd give taking the horses out for a ride another shot since she wasn't quite through with taking Ginger through her paces. Just because she'd been thrown didn't mean that she never wanted to get back in the saddle. It wasn't as if yesterday had been the first time she'd taken a fall.

Put together and freshly scrubbed and coupled with a full belly, she headed for the front door eager to face the day and discover what knew things with Curtis there were to find out about him. He represented everything that was good in life; excitement, passion and curiosity. As she stepped out onto the porch, she chided herself. She was getting carried away and too involved; if she was careful, and if it hadn't happened already, she knew that she was in danger of falling in love with Curtis.

She didn't have the chance to make a single step off of the porch. As soon as she made the move, Andrew came up in his truck and after he'd screeched it to a dusty halt, he got out of it and slammed the door so hard that it was a wonder that the glass hadn't shattered. She couldn't remember the last time that she'd seen him that angry.

#  Chapter Six

Curtis took his sweet time with his work through the morning and then into the afternoon. He debated the idea of heading into town for the stiffest drink of his life, but the more he thought about it, the more it appealed to him. At least, if he was in town and off the ranch, he wouldn't have to face Marlene and be forced to tell her that she couldn't be around him anymore. It wasn't a fair thing to do to her, and he knew that when it came time to do it, that he would cave and give his job to whoever wanted it as he flicked Andrew a rude gesture with both hands.

Since it was lunchtime and his stomach growled for the need for him to put food in it, he took the time out of work and sat down to eat the sandwich he'd prepared for himself. He was out by the fence line that reached for a few miles along the side that ran adjacent with the neighboring ranch and as soon as he took his first bite of his sandwich, he couldn't help but think of what he'd done to that same fence nearly ten years before. No doubt, the posts he'd lifted out of the ground and buried were still underneath the dirt where he'd left them.

In the ten years that had passed since then, since he'd been crazy enough to destroy someone else's property in the obsession to see a girl that didn't even know he was alive, he'd never once breathed a word to anybody about what he'd done. However, it didn't mean that he wasn't sorry.

When he'd left the Dupont Ranch, the land that ran alongside the Circle O, he'd wanted to earn the money he knew it had taken to repair the fence and give it back to Redmond O'Connor. He had been young enough and naïve enough to think that he could earn that much money on his own; when he'd asked one of the ranch hands that had worked for Circle O at the time what he thought the repairs to the fence had cost him, the price he'd given had been more than he'd imagined he could earn in a lifetime let alone in a summer working for pennies an hour.

Well, he'd more than earned it back, somehow. Doing the rodeo had helped a lot with that and he had just been waiting for the right time to give it back. He would hang around the Circle O for a while, long enough so he could keep seeing Marlene. Even if he couldn't be with her or speak to her, he could at least see her and maybe say hello. Once she was gone however, he would hand pay back what he owed and walk away for good. It was time for him to do something else anyway. For too long, his only dream had been Marlene. Obviously, he needed new dreams.

********

Marlene stood still as her brother stormed up to her.

"I never thought I'd see the day you'd stoop so low." His voice was cold and she felt a thin finger of ice creep up her spine. Andrew inherited much more than his hot temper from their dad, he also inherited their father's ability to intimidate anyone he was angry with. And it was obvious that Andrew was angry with her.

Determined not to be intimidated, she lifted her chin in false bravado.

"What have I done now? If you want to accuse me of something, go right ahead and state it."

"Curtis."

A single word, but it was said with such disgust that she frowned in confusion. What was it with Andrew? Why couldn't he let her have this vacation in peace without all the drama? That was something she had forgotten about her family; they thrived on drama.

"I have no idea what you're going on about," she said, "I haven't even seen Curtis today."

"And you damn well won't see him, today or any other day for that matter."

"Are you kidding me?" she asked. In the wake of the indignation that flooded her, she forgot about being intimidated. "Who died and made you God. Why do you think you can dictate to me who I see or don't see and what makes you think you even have the right?"

Her tirade was lost on him.

"He's not right for you, damn it!"

"I've only known the man a couple of days. Who's saying anything about being right for me? I'm just getting to know him for goodness sakes!" she flung her hands up in frustration.

Andrew moved closer to her, trying to brow beat her with his presence and snarled.

"Obviously the length of time you've known him hasn't kept you from whoring about for him."

Without conscious thought of what she was going to do, Marlene swung and heard the cracking sound as her palm came to contact with his face. They both froze.

Much later, when she thought about it, Marlene couldn't tell who was more shocked. She'd never hit anyone in her entire life, not even when they were much younger and always bickering. She covered her mouth with her hand and felt the fine tremble that went through her hand.

"Oh my God, Andrew I'm..." she waved her hand in distress, "I'm so sorry."

She couldn't believe she had actually hit him. Sure he'd provoked her, but that was no excuse to go losing it that way. He looked down and didn't say a word; and her distress mounted.

"Andrew...?" Her voice was hesitant.

He looked up then, his face unreadable and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Marlene," he said surprising her. "I had no call to speak to you like that."

She sighed also and felt tears prickling behind her lids.

"No, you didn't, particularly as I didn't sleep with him."

They were both silent for a minute.

"What made you think I slept with him, Andrew?"

"I saw you last night."

She was confused at first and then it dawned on her that he must have witnessed the kiss they'd shared. Her brows cleared but furrowed again almost immediately.

"How could you, Andrew?" her voice was filled with censure. "It was just a kiss. I was just getting to know the man, besides I wouldn't sleep with a complete stranger."

He sighed and moved towards the front porch. He sat on the steps and after a moment, she joined him. It was so reminiscent of their childhood - when they'd spent several hours there talking about whatever struck their fancy. She almost smiled, but couldn't quite bring her mouth to stretch. Her heart felt so heavy. Out of all her brothers, Andrew had been the closest to her; they'd been near inseparable at one time and she didn't know where they'd gone wrong.

Maybe I should never have stayed away so long.

"I spoke with Curtis this morning." He said at last.

"And...?"

She couldn't wait to hear just what Curtis had said that had sparked off such a rage in him.

"I asked him to stay away from you."

"You didn't... Andrew!" His name was a wail of distress.

"I don't want you to get hurt." He said unrepentant.

"I can't get hurt from just a kiss. Jeez! Look at you, you've been doing more than that since you hooked up with that Tallulah girl when you were in tenth grade and you're not hurt yet."

He flashed a look at her and she caught the humor in his eyes before it turned stormy once more. She knew then that there was more he wasn't telling her.

"Alright, out with it. What happened?" When he didn't say anything, she touched his arm gently, "Just tell me, I can take it."

"I overheard the ranch hands talking," he began reluctantly "They were saying stuff about how Curtis had managed to "bang" the Boss' sister."

Marlene let his words sink in. She understood how he would have become livid after hearing something like that; the O'Connor men were almost unreasonably protective of what they perceived as the honor of their women. It didn't stop with just their women though; they took family honor very seriously. Trying to walk in his boots, she attempted to imagine what her reaction would have been if she'd overheard something like that about Moira and knew she would want to kick ass. Still, she couldn't let Andrew get away with thinking he could dictate to her on who she spent her time with.

She stared at him intently until he turned to look at her. She maintained eye contact.

"I did not sleep with him." She said very carefully. He gazed at her and didn't say a word. "Do you believe me?

He held her gaze for a few more moments and then nodded slowly. "Yes."

Something eased within her.

"Good."

She sat back and was quiet, lost in her thoughts.

"If he comes near you I'm going to fire him."

And just like that the tranquility she'd felt a few moments before dissolved at his quietly spoken words. She sat up quickly and turned to him, the sure determination she saw in his eyes let her know that he was in one of his unreasonable states; he'd made up his mind to protect her and he was going to do so whether she wanted his damned protection or not.

"Is that what you said to him?"

He didn't need to reply, she saw her answer deep in his eyes and let out a string of curses that had him widening his eyes.

"I did it to keep you safe."

"I don't want you to keep me safe!" she got up and began to pace. "What is it with you? I'm an adult; I've lived on my own since I left for college. How do you think I survived without your wonderful protection all this while?" her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"You will stay away from him."

He had his arms folded across his chest and his face was implacable.

"No." She folded her arms across her chest, unconsciously mimicking his posture.

Marlene was equally as stubborn as Andrew, but there was no surprise there; they were both O'Connors after all.

"Think about it sis," he said gently, "This is the only job he has. If you don't stay away from him, I'll make sure no one hires him in the whole of Texas."

She stared at him in horror, her heart banging against her chest.

"You wouldn't do that."

"You know I would." His smile was filled with regret, but she could find no hint of letting up in his eyes.

"I can't believe this." She looked down and felt hot angry tears fill her eyes. She angrily dashed them away with the back of her hands. "You don't know what you're doing, Andrew. You think you know best, that you're always right, but just think about this for a moment. What if you are wrong? What if Curtis and I were meant to be together? Then the very thing you say you want to avoid, the hurt you're trying to protect me from would have been delivered by you."

She turned and ran up the steps, through the house and into her room. She turned the lock and threw herself on the bed. As the hot tears slid down her cheek and soaked her duvet, she wished she could speak with Curtis and tell him what was going on, but she knew it was hopeless. Andrew held all the aces. While she didn't mind braving his wrath, she would never willingly put another person in trouble, or threaten their livelihood, and Andrew knew that. Her hands were well and effectively tied and there was nothing she could do about it.

********

The weekend started early for Curtis. As soon as he was done with his duties, he headed for town and the nearest bar. He had one aim only; to get so roaring drunk that he forgot his own name. Maybe then he wouldn't think so hard about what he'd lost or how much he missed a woman he'd only known a couple of days. Of course, there was the fact that he couldn't lose what he didn't have and he'd never had Marlene; that's what his brain tried to tell him, but it was no use. He rubbed his chest, where he felt like he'd obtained a monster bruise and then went back to drowning his sorrows.

"Easy there, son, whatever it is couldn't be as bad as all that."

Lost in his glass, Curtis lifted an eyebrow and turned to the man sitting beside him. He looked to be in his thirties, a couple of years older than Curtis. All he could see was that the man had dark blonde hair, but he couldn't tell the color of his eyes. Yet there was something strangely familiar about him; like he should have known him somehow. Ah well, he probably would know him if he wasn't half way to drunk already. He just needed to keep at it and he would achieve oblivion eventually. He turned back to his drink, set it to his mouth and didn't bring it down again till he'd seen the bottom of the glass. Then he turned to the stranger, he'd brought out a cigarette and lit it.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." He mumbled.

The stranger dragged on his cigarette and let out a few smoke rings before he spoke again.

"Well, whatever it is will most likely still be there in the morning," he said with a careless shrug, "Along with a godawful hangover."

Curtis leveled a stare at the wannabe prophet of doom.

"Mind your own business."

"Trust me, I am."

He wondered what that meant, but didn't have the energy or inclination to pursue it and so let it drop. He turned back to his glass and beckoned to the waiter to refill it. What did the other man know? What did he know about feeling like there was a large hole in his heart, which not even alcohol could fill?

He wondered why he was so broken up about not being able to see Marlene anymore. He barely knew anything about her. All he knew was that she was gorgeous, so beautiful and yet very down to earth; not snobby at all. He knew she liked him or at least she used to, before her bloody brother got to her. She loved to laugh and to help people and she kissed like a dream. Boy, she kissed like a dream. He would cheerfully go to hell and back for another chance to kiss Marlene. Still, that was no reason to go to pieces, was it? It wasn't as though he loved the woman.

He was in the process of taking another swig from his glass when the thought struck him and he swore profusely.

"You should talk about it you know."

Curtis realized that the stranger was still sitting beside him by the bar. He looked at the man, but he was facing forward.

He swore again.

"I'm in love with her."

Saying it loud had such an effect on him. Just hearing the words made him realize that it was true, somehow, and he couldn't explain how, he had fallen in love with Marlene O'Connor.

"Hmmm..."

"But her brother's right. She's too good for me."

"He's probably right, but what does the little lady say?"

"Sweet..." he murmured. Suddenly he turned to the stranger, "Do I know you?"

"Maybe," he replied cryptically.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means maybe you know me and maybe you don't...I can't vouch for what goes on in your head."

Curtis stared at him for a moment and a memory tickled softly at the back of his mind like elusive fingers. He tried to reach for it, but it kept dancing out of his grasp. He shook his head and the memory disappeared, but he was suddenly sober.

"I should be on my way." Curtis stood up then.

The stranger nodded, "You'll tell me to mind my business, but take it from someone who's been there...if you love the woman and she feels the same way about you, don't let her go. You forget about what the whole world thinks and go with this." He formed a hand into a fist and touched it to his chest.

As Curtis stared at him, the man turned back to his drink. He turned to leave and then hesitated.

"Do you have a name?" He asked looking back at the stranger.

"Mind your own business." The man replied without facing him.

Curtis felt his lips twitch as he realized the man had thrown back his own words at him. He wanted to say something, but in the end he just shook his head and walked out of the bar. The warm air hit him and he breathed in hard, squinting against the sunlight. He wished he'd at least been drunk or even tipsy. But all he'd achieved from his drinking spree was a feeling of depression. With a sigh, he decided to head for the grocery store. Since he was in town, he might as well stock up on supplies and get the alcohol out of his system before heading back to Circle O.

#  Chapter Seven

Marlene was glad for the change of scenery and for the chance to get reacquainted in the town that she'd grown up in. Like everything else, it hadn't change much in the years that she'd been away, and she found the grocery store that she was looking for as easily as if she'd had a string attached to her that was pulling her in the right direction.

As she found herself walking through the aisles, she tried to remember all of the items on her list that Andrew had written down for her and of which she'd forgotten back at the house. She was never that good at remembering to grab the small things or to latch on to the finer details; it was better for her that she fly by the seat of her pants and hope that her rump didn't get road rash for the effort.

The cart she was pushing had the beginnings of a good cookout; hot dogs, hamburgers, steak and bratwurst made up the majority of the meat that she thought would do for the barbeque Andrew was planning, and it was a no-brainer to grab the condiments that went along with them. She snagged a few bags of French fries along with more than a good share of onion rings, and she was just about to consider what might make a good dessert when she felt a jar to her entire body as she slammed into a stationary object. The object happened to be a person; a man in fact.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry!"

Marlene forgot the cart and the swag that she'd gathered and she scrambled to help the man she'd nearly broken to his feet. He looked stunned but not upset, and as he tried to straighten his clothing, she noticed that the pair of glasses that he'd been wearing was still on the ground.

She stooped easily to grab the glasses and handed them to the man. He wore them and smiled at her.

"I really am sorry. I must have been daydreaming."

"No, don't worry about it. It's not every day a beautiful woman comes along and knocks me off my feet. Literally." The man chuckled at his joke and extended his hand. "My name is Dr. James Davidson. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"My name is Marlene O'Connor, and likewise." She briefly shook his outstretched hand.

"O'Connor? You wouldn't happen to be the daughter or Redmond O'Connor, would you?"

Marlene nodded as the corners of her mouth quirked upward. No doubt everyone in town knew her father; he was the kind of man whose reputation preceded him.

"How do you know my father?"

James chuckled. "He's come by the hospital more than a few times. The man works hard and every now and then I see him in my emergency room with a good cut or bruise from not paying close attention to what he's been doing. I guess daydreaming runs in the family." He paused and cocked his head to one side. "Say, are you the daughter of his that he talks about, the one that's the nurse?"

"Yes, I am."

"You know, I could use your help around my hospital."

Marlene opened her mouth to object, fully prepared to tell him that she already had a job in the town where she lived, but the man was offering her his business card which he'd fished from his pocket.

"I'd like to come by the house sometime and talk with you about maybe coming to work at my hospital. I could make you a good offer as well. I'm in need of a good head nurse, and given how proud of you your father is, I think that position would more than suit you. Besides, no one can take charge better than an O'Connor."

Marlene smiled politely as she tucked the card that James had given her into the pocket of her purse.

"Why don't you come to the house tomorrow? We're having a barbeque for when my father and mother come back to town. I think he'd like to see you. If you want, we can talk about work then."

James nodded. "I'm going to look forward to meeting with you again, Marlene. And, I'd like you to think about my offer. Don't say no in a hurry okay?"

After a brief hesitation, she agreed to think about it. She missed her family, there was no doubt about it but the thought of coming to live here on a permanent basis had her blanching in horror. To live under the ever watchful gaze of Red O'Connor and his boys...

"Heaven help me," she muttered to herself.

Clarendon was too close to Circle O for comfort.

********

Why don't you come to the house tomorrow?

That was all Curtis had heard and had felt the roar in his brain. How could she do that? He didn't want to believe that Marlene was that sort of woman; the kind that got an ego trip from making men want her. He'd seen women like that in the brief time he'd been on the circuit and he could have sworn that she was nothing like that. But he knew what he'd seen and heard and try as he might, he couldn't keep the bitter taste of jealousy out of his mouth. He wanted to march over to where she was standing and rage at her for putting his life in a tailspin. He wanted to snatch the business card out of her hand and rip it to shreds. Instead he just stood there, shoulders slumped in defeat. What claim did he have over her anyway? So they'd shared a kiss and had talked a little; and yeah, he'd had the bad fortune to fall in love with her when she'd made no such commitment to him. So what? That wasn't grounds enough for demanding fidelity from her, was it?

The thought occurred to him that if he was like this, insane like this, in less than one week of being around her, then it might be better to just walk away and let her go now, while he still had a chance of regaining his sanity. Oh who was he kidding? It had taken him close to ten years to get over his first sight of her, what made him think it wouldn't take twice as long to get over kissing her? What was it about Marlene that got him all twisted up? Perhaps if he could answer that, he could find a way out of the dead end he'd walked into.

Ignoring the small voice in his head that told him that he should just walk in the opposite direction and forget that he'd seen her at all, and the larger voice that told him that he needed a job more than he needed to be in Marlene's company, he moved his feet forward and found her in the next aisle over. Thankfully, the man that she'd seemed so interested in had gone off to god knew where.

He came up behind her and before she could turn to catch a glimpse of him, he tapped her on the shoulder and boldly, he kissed her cheek. "Hello, beautiful."

The sudden slap to his face brought him up short. He stared at Marlene in shock; how could someone who looked so unassuming and willowy pack such a punch? He wondered. As soon as she saw him though, she went white.

"Oh my God, Curtis? Oh, oh no!"

She ran her hands over his head and brought them to rest on each side of his cheek. After examining his face for the imprint of her fingers, she turned contrite eyes to him. He saw the tears in them and felt his heart constrict.

"Aww Marlene, please don't cry."

He drew her close and held her to him.

"I'm so sorry, Curtis. I didn't mean to hit you. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"No, I'm sorry," he hushed her. "I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that. How were you to know I wasn't a stranger?"

"I should have checked. I don't know why I've been going around hitting people like this."

Her voice sounded so sorrowful that he drew her closer, not minding that they were standing right in the middle of the dry foods aisle in the grocery store. Then her words struck him and he drew back with a frown.

"Who else have you hit?" He asked.

"I hit Andrew the other day when he said some horrible things to me."

Curtis felt satisfaction come on the heels of the odd jealousy he'd felt, which he would examine for later.

"I'm sure he deserved it," he murmured.

"Oh yes, he did," she agreed with him.

They shared a look and they both began to chuckle. Marlene stepped out of his embrace and his arms fell to the side. He felt bereft suddenly; holding Marlene was almost as good as kissing her.

"I'm not supposed to see you again," she said sadly.

"Yeah, I gathered as much when you avoided me around the ranch."

Her eyes fell for a second and then she faced him squarely.

"I don't want you to get into trouble because of me."

"You should let me decide what is trouble and what isn't."

"Andrew said no one would hire you again."

"Is that right?" He asked quirking an eyebrow. If Andrew had been within punching distance, he would have punched the lights out of him. "You leave Andrew to me." He told her instead.

But Marlene was shaking her head, "It's not an idle threat, Curtis. Between him and my father they can make your life pretty miserable."

He knew she was right and there was a certain gratifying element in the fact that she was that worried about him. It made him feel several feet tall. Still, he was not afraid of the O'Connor family and he needed for her to know that.

"I can take care of myself."

"Is that why you've also been avoiding me?" She asked with a frown. "I thought...never mind," she said with a shrug.

He held her gaze. "What did you think?"

She sighed deeply, "I thought you'd had your fun with me and you were done."

He laughed at the irony. He didn't think he could ever be done with her. Drawing her close, he cupped her face with a hand and felt his heart race when she closed her eyes and nuzzled against his arm.

"Andrew said you're too good for me." Her eyes flew open then and he could see the rage in them, but when she would have spoken, he went on, "I agree with him completely. But I'd still like to have a chance with you."

Her eyes widened a fraction and he saw happiness flood their depths.

"I'll be returning to work in a few weeks," she cautioned.

"I know that. But we have now, and besides I might be headed to town myself."

"Really? What would you do in town?" she asked curiously.

He dropped his hand and shrugged, "I don't know exactly, but I've always fancied opening a training school for kids.

He watched as her eyes shone with excitement for him and his heart clenched. She really did like him; that much was clear. But did she like him enough to take a risk on him? He wasn't so sure about that.

"Wow, that's great! But that could be capital intensive, right?" She asked hesitantly.

Curtis smiled; she was actually worried about him, how cute.

"If by that you mean it's gonna cost some good cash then I suppose you're right." He shrugged lightly. "It's a dream though and miracles do happen."

He had to believe that. A miracle had brought him back to Circle O just before Marlene had come back on holiday. And that he could wrap his arms around her and exchange those soul moving kisses with her...that was definitely a miracle.

She was nodding her head vigorously. "I like the sound of a miracle." She reached out and threaded her fingers through his. Her smile was almost shy, "So are we dating now?"

He drew in a sharp breath.

"Do you want to?" He asked gazing deep into her eyes, hoping that he wasn't badly misreading the signals he was getting. "Would you like to, uh, date?"

He felt as gauche as a high school kid and it bugged him. Truth was, he was never this nervous about asking a girl out in high school. He figured it was because there was so much riding on this. He waited for her to speak, wanting so badly for her to say yes.

"Yes."

One word and he felt joy explode in his innermost being. He wanted to haul her into his arms and plant a huge one on her shiny lips, but he just stood there and grinned instead. He was dating Marlene O'Connor...wonders would never cease.

********

They went through the aisles of the grocery shop doing their shopping together. When he would have just stacked up on a few tins and a six pack of beer, Marlene silently put in some fruits and juice.

"Hey, what am I going to do with those?" He protested.

She raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips before replying, "Gee, I don't know. Eat them maybe?"

He smiled at her sarcasm, but shook his head firmly. "I don't need those." He took out the fruits and returned the juice to their shelf on the aisle.

"Don't worry I'll pay for them."

He frowned, he could pay for his own damned food and he told her just as much. "I'm just not into all this stuff. Give me a good steak any day."

A stubborn glint entered her eyes and she folded her arms on her chest. He recognized that stance from her brother; it struck him then that she was an O'Connor through and through.

"Unless you're trying to say you don't want me visiting your cabin, you might want to make sure there are fruits for when I'm around."

Without another word, he silently put back the juice into his shopping cart and dumped even more fruits than had been in there before when she'd picked them. He threw in some carrots and eggplants for good measure. When he was sure he had enough to feed an army of goats, he turned to look at her. She was staring at his cart in shock. She looked up at him and then burst into heartfelt laughter.

Watching her, standing there and overflowing with mirth, Curtis knew it was a moment he would never forget for as long as he lived.

The rest of the shopping expedition passed in a blur after that and long after he was back in his cabin, he was still in a state of euphoria thanks to Marlene's good bye kiss. She'd been hesitant about kissing him after he'd walked her to the car park. It was still daylight and there were bound to be ranch hands from Circle O in town.

"I don't want to get you in trouble," she'd said with a worried frown. "I know you need the job."

He did need the job, but not in the way she thought. He didn't want to get fired before he had time to get to know her properly. But he wasn't about to let the prospect of being fired keep him from spending time with her. So he'd shrugged and kept his eyes on her.

"I can take care of myself sweetheart. But I need that kiss to tide me over."

She'd smiled mischievously and stepped closer to where he was standing. "Since you're so persuasive, what can I do?" she murmured, "Wouldn't want to deprive you or anything."

"You sure don't want to do that." He agreed with her.

His arms had snaked around her waist and hers had slid up to entwine around him. He'd lowered his mouth to hers and just as his lips touched hers, her eyelids had fluttered shut.

He sighed now as he took a sip from the juice he'd bought for her. He grimaced at the sweetness of it and then absentmindedly took another sip.

He missed her.

He could just imagine spending evenings like this one, cuddled on the sofa with Marlene in his arms while they talked about anything and everything. A man could live for that.

********

The house was quiet when she got back, and somehow it was worse than the noise she was hoping to find. Just as she got all of the groceries put away, a call rang through on the land line.

"Hello?"

"Is that you, Marlene? You sound wonderful, dear heart."

She smiled. Her mother's voice, no matter if it was angry or happy or disappointed, had the capacity to cheer her up.

"Hey Mom, it's great to hear your voice. Are you and dad close to town?"

"We're just an hour out. Your father was getting anxious with you home and with us not being there, so we decided to get back a day early. Are you and Andrew getting along there without us?"

"Same old Andrew, Mom. Still as aggravating as always, but I've missed him. He has been busy working though. In fact, I don't think he's stopped but to sleep since I've been here."

"Men are all like that, sweetheart. You'll see. You think that they'll have time for you and then before you know it, you never see them. Andrew took right after his Daddy."

"I know, mom." She looked at the clock in the living room and then said, "Let me go so I can get something on the table for you all when you get here. I have a message for dad when he gets home."

After her mother said goodbye to her, she hung up the phone and mentally rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. She wasn't the best cook in the world, but no one was going to die from her cooking either. Besides, she needed something to keep her busy.

She was still feeling slightly giddy from her time with Curtis in the grocery shop. She hadn't come out to Circle O looking to be in a relationship. She rolled her eyes lightly at the thought; who in their right minds would think of a relationship under the ever watchful eyes of her brothers? But she'd found Curtis and she was excited about dating him. A slight frown marred her face as she got to work preparing a meal. She was going to have this out with Andrew; she wasn't going to let him put a damper on things. This was serious business.

#  Chapter Eight

If he'd thought their agreeing to date was the beginning of the love affair of the century, Curtis had another thing coming. Instead of the two days he thought that he'd spend pining after her, it had been close to two and a half weeks that he'd not seen hide nor hair of her save for brief moments she'd been able to spare him as she'd seen him around the ranch. It was rapidly becoming obvious to him that he'd underestimated the power of the men in the O'Conner clan.

At first Curtis and Marlene had contented themselves with a few stolen kisses and anguished looks here and there, but that had finally dwindled away until he began to wonder if she had become tired of him. The few times he'd seen her, she'd been almost cold towards him. The entire thing was beginning to drive him crazy.

He had half a mind to ride in there on Sam, carry off the woman and ride into the sunset. He snorted at his romantic fancies, even though they were only part fancy. He had a sneaking suspicion that if she'd given him the slightest sign that she'd welcome that sort of action, he probably would have risked the wrath of the O'Connors and gone through with it.

Just then, there was a knock at his door causing his eyebrows to knit together. He never had visitors. Well, the only other time he'd had someone stop by had been Marlene and she wasn't giving him the time of day any longer so it obviously couldn't be her. Still, no matter who it was, he figured that person would be better company than his tortured thoughts. He stood up to open the door, but before he could get there, it was flung open and he found that he was in an enclosed space with the person that had caused enough stress to his life to zap the black hair covering his skull and turn it white.

He stood eyeing her for a moment. He told himself he wasn't sure if he was glad to see her, but his rapidly racing pulse called him a liar.

He kept his face empty of emotion. "What are you doing here?"

********

Marlene felt hurt fill her as she stood before Curtis. Gone was the ready smile and the look in his eyes that had told her she was beautiful. In their place was a hard unsmiling face. She understood why he was acting that way though and so she fought her instinct to turn and flee and stood there instead.

"Hi Curtis," she said softly.

"What are you doing here?" He repeated his question.

She tried to catch his gaze, but he steadfastly refused to meet her eyes. She sighed.

"If this is a bad time, I could come back later."

She turned to leave, but felt his hand on her arm. She paused and looked back at him.

"Stay."

It wasn't the most gracious invitation she'd received, but she turned back without a word and entered his cabin.

"Thank you."

"Would you like some juice?" He walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of orange juice.

Marlene stared at him in surprise. Had he kept the juice all this while? "Er, would it not have gone bad or something?" She felt the need to ask.

He shot her a look and went to search for a glass. He picked one from the cupboard next to the fridge and poured her a glass of juice.

"I stocked up again," he said handing her the glass. "This is just a couple of days old."

She nodded, took a sip and set the glass down.

"I missed you," she said softly.

"That wasn't the impression I got."

She nodded again. "They made it practically impossible for me to see you," she began. "Dad ordered me to never see you again. But that wouldn't have stopped me. However, they kept me so busy, I barely had time to eat."

"You could have told me," he muttered.

She shrugged, "It would not have made a difference."

"You acted as though you didn't even see me whenever our paths crossed." He said this with a frown.

"I'm sorry about that." She looked contrite. "I just thought that as long as they believed I was no longer interested in you, they'd stop fighting me and quit piling me with so much work."

She saw his eyes flare with understanding. "And did it work?" He asked with a slight smile.

Her answering smile was huge. "I'm here am I not?"

"Technically, yeah, but you're too far away."

She felt her heart sing as she moved over to where he was seated on the arm chair and sat on his lap. His arms came around her waist and she rested her head on top his.

"I missed you so much," she said, her pulse racing as she felt at peace for the first time in two weeks.

"I missed you too, baby." He murmured, "The last two weeks have felt like an eternity."

They were both silent, basking in each other's presence. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence even though another kind of tension was growing between them.

"How long are you here for?" He asked.

She drew back and smiled. Then leaned forward and dropped a kiss on his lips.

"How about till morning?" She whispered.

His manhood sprung to life then and he stood up, clutching her in his arms effortlessly.

"Sounds good to me," he replied with a slow smile before making his way to the bedroom.

********

He woke, rested and energized, in his bed with a warm body nestled to him. the feeling was foreign and familiar at the same time. He smiled as he remembered how Marlene came to be resting next to him, and he relished the vision of her lying so carelessly in the grip of sleep. She had relinquished herself to him and no matter if she'd found someone else, she was with him here and now and it didn't matter to him. All the while he fought with his jealously and the other random petty emotions that circled him like flying buzzards, he'd known deep in his soul that if she wanted him that she'd eventually come find him. It would take an act of God to pry her apart from him now.

With a fingertip, he gently traced a line from the top of her exposed left arm and over her shoulder to then stop on her shoulder blade. He then traced a faint circle on the exposed and delicate bone, knowing that if she were awake now, that she'd be smiling ever so softly at him. He could literally feel his heart filling at the image, and it was damn near full to bursting as it was.

He whispered, "I love you," as he now bent close to her ear so that the movement of his exhaled breath was enough to flutter the small hairs around her neck. She stirred but didn't wake and for a long moment he wrestled with the fact that his confession had fallen on deaf ears. He wanted and yet didn't want for her to know how he felt about her.

He'd loved her as a boy, or more accurately, he'd loved what he'd seen of her. But that was nothing compared to the depth and intensity of what he felt for her now. With Marlene beside him, he was a great man. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but there were so many obstacles on the way. No matter, nothing good came easy they said. In his case, nothing had ever come easy to him so he was prepared to work hard for this woman. Thank heavens he had no problem with hard work. He stared at her sleeping form and knew that he would never do anything to betray the love of this woman. Oh, she had not said she loved him yet, not in so many words at any rate. But her mere presence in his bed, and the fact that she'd come looking for him had told him all he needed to know. And if he still wasn't sure, all he need do was look into her eyes and see the love for him shining through.

He withdrew from her and eased himself out of the bed. As quietly as possible, he clothed himself and then moved to his dresser to open the drawer that had held his secret for so many years. Inside of the drawer there was a box, and within this box was where he'd saved all of his money for every year of the last decade. What he'd made from the rodeo was not part of it and he was glad to see that he had enough to atone for his guild without touching that. He'd carried the guilt long enough, and felt huge relief sweep through him at the thought that he was finally going to be rid of it. That secret had weighed upon his neck like a millstone and even now, colored his relationship with Marlene. He went through each day scared that she'd find out he'd ruined her summer several years ago and right then, there was no room for that sort of fear anymore. He knew she'd forgive him if she heard, but he didn't want to seem like less of a man in her eyes. It was time to make things right.

He got ready, hastily scribbled a note for Marlene informing her he'd be at the ranch, and picked up the box. Once he paid for his crime, he would be totally free to love Marlene. It didn't mean her family would give approval and he was loath to part her from her family; but if it came to that, and she chose to go with him, he wouldn't think twice.

The thought of going to face Red O'Connor, Marlene's dad made Curtis nervous. But nerves or not, he was going to do what he had to do. He loved Marlene and he meant to have her and he wasn't going to let a few fence posts stand in his way. But even if she decided in the cold light of day that she didn't want him anymore, at the very least, he would be free of the guilt that had plagued him for close to a decade.

At the thought that Marlene might not want him anymore, he felt his heart squeeze and he faltered in his steps. Then he tightened his resolve and kept moving towards the main house.

********

"Sir, I don't think you know me very well, and I suppose that you wouldn't know me from the next ranch hand that works for you, but my name is Curtis Copeland and I'm in love with your daughter."

Curtis inhaled as he stood in front of Red O'Connor and he felt that what had come out of his mouth had sounded ridiculously rehearsed and full of insincerity. He wanted to spill his guts, grovel and then beg for his mercy, but as a man, he wasn't capable of destroying that much of his pride. At the moment, it was taking everything he had to stand still and take the glare that was studying him from underneath a Stetson.

"Son, do you have any idea how early in the morning it is and how very little patience I have? I don't think you want to be bothering me with this so very early. Hell, the sun ain't even up yet and I haven't had a cup of coffee. You want me to sprout out grey hair?"

Curtis shook his head. He said, "No Sir, but I came here to tell you something important and I would like it very much if you'd just hear me out. I know that it's early in the morning, but it can't wait. If I don't tell you now, I may never tell you and then your daughter Sir will never be able to trust me again. Okay?"

Red O'Connor, the big man on the ranch, nodded his head and Curtis had to let out a sigh of nervous relief. He could be relieved in the fact that he was going to be able to tell him what he had to get off of his chest to tell, but the adventure was far from over.

He began, "About ten years ago, you were having some trouble with your fence. That summer, I believe you must have replaced something like fifty posts because someone had come along and stolen them."

"Well that ain't news to any of us here, boy. I don't know if you realize this or not, but I am a very busy man."

Curtis cleared his throat. "I realize that, Sir, but I'm not here to remind you of what happened, I'm here to confess that I am the person that stole all the posts."

Finally, he had the man's attention. He dropped the pen that he'd been using to tally the record books and the big man narrowed his eyes until they came to within an inch of becoming slits. Before he had the chance to blow like Mt. Vesuvius, he moved forward and set his box in front of him.

"Sir, it's a long story as to why I did what I did. And the only thing I think that you'd want to hear is the fact that I'm very sorry I didn't come forward sooner. I can't say that I wish that I wasn't stupid enough to break your fence and steal the posts, but I can say that I wish I had thought of a better way to meet your daughter." He gestured to the box in front of him. "That right there should be enough to take care of the money that I owe you for what I put you all through that summer."

Red O'Connor, a man so larger than life that it took meeting the man to believe that a person with so much personality could actually exist, pulled the box that Curtis had so carefully and even lovingly at times put money into over the years and once he had it in his grasp he lifted it and then carried it the short distance to the garbage can where he dramatically dropped in inside.

"You think that all I care about is the money, boy? Hard work and family are the only things in this world that matter. I doubt you understand the meaning of either, so few of you nowadays understand the concept of hard work. You listen to me when I tell you that if what you mean about my daughter is true then you have some long hard work ahead of you and you won't be able to get me on your side by trying to pay for your mistakes the easy way.

"Every day of that summer my daughter and son put their blood and sweat into the repair of that fence, so much so that there was nothing else to them outside of working on that fence. They had other things I'm sure that they'd rather have done that summer, and there were other uses for my time and money that I'd have rather directed myself toward, but what happened was something that occurred for a reason."

Curtis had his arms folded to his chest as he eyed Red O'Connor. He couldn't figure out if the man was being obtuse on purpose or if he really had no point to what he was saying to him. It was clear that he couldn't give the man the money that he owed him, and even though there was nothing more tempting than the desire to pick the money up out of the garbage can and run with it, he considered it a loss and knew that even if he'd given all he had to Red he would still have rejected it. If all he had wasn't enough, then he didn't know what would be enough. He'd given his time, paid his dues quite literally, and now all he wanted was to return to the bed that he shared with Marlene and try to be the best man that he could be. Being a good man had been the only thing that he'd ever wanted. That, and Marlene; and if he could be a good man to Marlene, he would have all he wanted.

He was halfway to the door, his hand poised to the handle when Red cleared his throat and he was forced to turn around.

"That took a lot to walk away from all that money didn't it boy? You felt the pain of its loss and the loss of the hard work that it took to make it. Leaving it in the trash felt to you as if all the years that you went through to make up enough money to pay me back were worth nothing and that you shouldn't have put in the effort in the first place to try and make it up to me. You know now what it was like for me to have to give up on what took me a long time to earn because the effort I put into earning it didn't amount to much against the mind of a love struck fifteen year old."

Curtis took a deep, deep breath and let it out in a sigh. The O'Connor's would be the death of him, he'd long decided, and it seemed he was right on the money.

The man grinned and it looked as if the smile was literally cracking his face. "Did I forget to mention that I knew what you were up to all along? I should have told someone about what I knew, but then I had such high hopes that a certain young man would have come to me and confessed to me what he'd been doing with my fence.

"Maybe I shouldn't have let you carry that around with you for ten years, but then nothing happened to you that wasn't your own choice, young man. If you'd had the guts to come to me before, then you wouldn't have had to suffer so long."

Red's face grew serious as he eyed him up and down as if inspecting a bit of horseflesh that had come along for him to buy. He said, "As for how you feel about my daughter—it took a lot of guts to come here and face me knowing that I have a good idea what spurred on this sudden spouting off of love and all that mess.

"It's just as well that I've seen how she's been these last couple of weeks—she was bound and determined to undermine her brothers and get past them in order to sneak off to see you even though I'd commanded her myself to stay away from you. Face it, boy, you're not the best specimen of male fortitude on the planet and there's not a thing you could provide for my daughter that I couldn't give her myself."

"Begging your pardon sir," Curtis had no idea where the courage came from. "You may have given her life sir, but you can't love her as much as I do."

Both men stood there for a brief moment, staring at the other. Red with his mouth pursed with an expression that reminded Curtis of Marlene and Curtis, standing ramrod straight, refusing to be intimidated even if the man made him nervous. He'd done the honorable thing and as much as he would love to have Red's blessings, the man needed to realize that Curtis didn't _need_ those blessings.

"Fine, so you love her do you?" The man's eyes were calculating.

"Yes I do."

"You're going to have to prove it. I can't stop you from seeing her, but the fence is another matter altogether and I'm going to take out in trade." He leaned back in satisfaction, making Curtis become wary. "For every one post I find buried in the dirt, I'm going to remove and cover from the fence now and then I'm going to have you put it back together with your bare hands by yourself. You're a strapping guy full of muscle, so I know you won't have such a terrible time with it. Until then, I won't give you the permission I know you're after.

I don't need your permission.

Curtis curbed his wayward thoughts, but something must have come through because Red smiled wryly.

"You may not need my permission, but my daughter would be heartbroken without it. Now if you love her as you say you do, then you'll do your best to avoid just that."

Curtis felt his shoulders slump in defeat. The old coot had him there and he knew it. There was no way he would put Marlene in a position where she had to choose between him and her family, not if she could help it. So he squared his shoulder and looked Red in the eye.

"Yes sir."

********

Marlene had just about made it to her father's study when she overhead her father talking to Curtis. She could tell it was Curtis from the deep rumble of his voice and the tinge of heat that was rimmed the edges of his words. It was likely that it the temperature of his tone was something only she could hear. She caught herself in a giggle and she had to clamp it down before she could even hear what her father and lover were talking about with each other. She wanted to barge in on them and poke her nose in on what they seemed to be so deeply involved in discussing, but she figured that she'd be better prepared for the fallout if she stuck her ear to the door and listened for a while. She wondered if what they were talking about was a good or bad thing, and if it had anything to do with her. She supposed that it had to have something to do with her since Curtis hadn't had anything to do with talking to her father in the weeks that he'd been home; she doubted highly that it was related to working on the ranch.

"I'll allow you to date my daughter and I'll give my blessing to you if you prove to me how much you want to be with her. I don't care that you claim to love her—love is about the hard work involved that you put into a relationship to make it stand the test of time. If you're serious, if you want to be with her, then you'll do as I asked."

"You're talking about months of work. It will take me at least a week to dig out all of those posts."

"If she's worth it to you, then you won't mind the work, will you? She's my daughter, one of only two of them, and I won't have some rough-edged cowboy steal her from me if he's not at least willing to prove how much he loves her to me."

Marlene's eyes widened. Did her father just say out loud that Curtis loved her? Was this what it was all about? She lifted a hand to barge in there as she'd originally had the thought to do, but before she could, her eldest brother had better ideas and pushed her out of the way.

The door was standing open as Marlene watched Andrew fume first at Curtis for having the stones to be in their father's study and then at their father for allowing such a meeting to take place.

"Whatever it is that you're considering, Dad, I suggest you think better of it. This man shouldn't be allowed to come within ten feet of Marlene. She deserves better than—"

"Andrew..."

There was a warning in Red's voice and it was one Marlene recognized. Andrew chose to ignore it and went on speaking.

"He doesn't deserve her." Was all he said, proving Marlene's earlier supposition wrong. He'd obviously heard the warning.

"My mind is made up." Red said shortly.

Andrew locked gazes with his father and no one spoke for a few seconds. Finally the younger man stepped back with a nod.

"Fine." He turned to Curtis, "You'd better make sure you dig up every single one of those posts. And if I hear even so much as a whisper that you hurt my sister, this whole country won't be big enough to hide your sorry ass."

"Noted," Curtis said.

She must have made a sound because Curtis suddenly turned and caught her gaze. What she saw reflected in the depths of his eyes, almost brought her to her knees. There was tenderness and shared moments; and the promise of tomorrow. But most importantly there was love. Her heart began to bang against her ribcage even as she felt herself start a slow melt. In that instant, she knew that she was absolutely crazy about him and would follow him to the ends of the earth. The realization humbled her and brought tears to her eyes.

Curtis turned to her father, his chin lifted. He had unfolded his strong arms from his chest and his voice rang with resolve.

"Sir, I want to do whatever it is that I have to do to prove myself to you and Marlene. I want to be a better man and I want to have Marlene at my side. Once I'm done with the fence posts, I'll be heading for the city because that's where she'll be. I would like to leave with your blessing."

His voice indicated that he would leave with or without the old man's blessing and the message came across clearly to all.

Marlene moved from where she'd stood rooted to the spot in the frame of the door of her father's study and she went to Curtis and wrapped her willowy arms around his hard frame. She was instantly enclosed in his warmth and she didn't realize that she was crying until he pulled her back away from him and wiped her tears away.

"What are you crying for?"

Marlene swallowed and looked to her father and then to her brother before she answered him. She said finally, "I'm crying because I'm happy. I never thought you'd say something like that."

"You don't believe I love you? You know that I do, right?"

Marlene nodded. "I think I love you too."

They were oblivious to their surrounding as they had eyes only for each other. Everything faded away as each focused on the other. She wasn't sure who moved first, but suddenly they were leaning forward to share a kiss when someone cleared his throat, making her jump.

Marlene suddenly remembered that her father was standing right there, and her face flooded with color. She turned her face from Curtis and directed her gaze at her father. "Doesn't what I want have any meaning? Couldn't I just want him to be with me and that be the end of it?"

Red O'Connor shook his head. "This is something Curtis here knows that he has to do."

She turned to look at her brother. She was glad that her other brothers had decided to finally leave the ranch, since if the little office had been crowded with all of her immediate male family, she would have gone insane over all of the conceived protection that they thought that they were giving her. She hugged Curtis tightly to her as she turned to Andrew

"Curtis makes me happy, I love him. I can't imagine being without him and..." her voice broke and she inhaled deeply and then slowly released the air as she tried to get control of herself. She tried again. "Don't you want me to be happy? Can't you even try and be happy for me about this? Is it that hard?" She was pleading now, but she didn't care. This was much too important.

Andrew inhaled, his fists unclenching and clenching at his side. For a while, the knuckles of his hands had gone so white that they appeared as if the bones had been poking through. He had a temper to him, that much was understood, but as he stared at her, Marlene knew that her brother finally understood that she'd chosen Curtis and she wasn't going back on her decision.

"You do one thing to make her upset or if you break her heart, I'll make sure you suffer like no other human being has ever suffered."

Curtis, to her surprise didn't say a thing to her brother. She could hear the soft rumble of his chuckle through his chest, but that was the extent of it. She knew that somewhere along the line that Andrew and Curtis would end up being friends with each other. She turned back to her father.

"So is it okay then? We can be together?"

Her father shook his head. "I made a deal with the man. If he does what I asked him to do, then I will allow him to see you for however long he wants to see you. Until then, not a moment sooner. If you break the deal, I'll never give my blessing if you two decide to get married."

Marlene gave a baleful look at her father. Since she'd been little, she'd wanted a wedding that matched no other little girl's imagination of what a wedding should look like. It had to be the perfect affair—everything had to be included, even a Prince to sweep her off her feet. The one thing that she knew she didn't want to do without at her wedding was to have her father walk her down the aisle. He knew how badly she wanted him to give her away.

"Don't worry, Marlene. I'm fine with this."

She looked at him searchingly, "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent sure."

She nodded and she fished out a card from her pocket. She let herself loose from Curtis' grip on her waist and she set the card on top of her father's desk. "Remember the good doctor I invited to the barbeque we had? Well, that man offered me a job working at the General hospital in town." She looked over her shoulder at Curtis.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you who that man was. I saw you looking at him when he left the other day. I had him here so that I could arrange for the hospital that I've been working at to transfer my work history to Dr. James and so that they could arrange for my replacement."

He stared at her, "What does that mean?"

"It means I won't be going back to the city until we can both go together."

Curtis eyes widened with such joy that she wanted to start crying again. She called herself to order.

"Not until you have a wedding ring on your finger though," Red interjected, "No going back anywhere together till then."

Marlene looked to her father. "I'm not planning to stay here, just so you know."

"Where will you stay then?"

"I'll be renting an apartment in town."

#  Chapter Nine

"Hey Curtis, flex those abs and quit making us wait, man."

There were chuckles and a giggle.

"What's he waiting for?"

"Let him be, Red. He's waited all these months. I guess he needs to savor the moment."

"Savor hell. It's getting damn hot out here."

"Red, your language, the kids..."

There was general laughter at that admonition and Curtis smiled to himself.

The past six months had been a learning curve for him. It seemed he'd dug his way out of the doghouse and into the affections of Marlene's family, literally and figuratively. He stared at the ground where the last fence post was buried and let out a deep breath. Elaine O'Connor was right, he was savoring the moment.

He placed his hand on his waist and stared up. It was funny that his biggest fan in the O'Connor family was Marlene's grandmother, Elaine. Before now she'd been a distant shadow, someone he only caught glimpses of every now and then. But as he'd gotten closer to the O'Connor's he'd begun to see that she and Marlene's mom were the glue that held the family together; kind of how Marlene was going to hold their family together.

He half turned to stare at the man who had asked him to flex his abs.

"Hey Andrew, think you can help me out with this one?"

"Uh-uh," Andrew shook his head, "That is your burden to bear. So man up and dig."

The other O'Connor men grunted in agreement.

Curtis shook his head and snorted; it figured that they were still leaving their dirty work for him to do. Although if he were honest, this was _his_ dirty work. He caught a flash of pink from the corner of his eye and angled his head. From the distance, he could see Marlene and Ginger and they were trotting to where the rest of the family was gathered. She hadn't been sure she was going to make it for the last dig. They'd had a surgery at the hospital and she wasn't sure how long it was going to take. He'd known she would make it, however; had counted on her making it.

He slipped his hand into the pocket of his jeans and fingered the ring in his pocket, all the while never taking his eyes off Marlene. She brought the horse to a stop and he walked the short distance to where she was and lifted her off the saddle. Even before her feet touched the ground she had her arms around his neck. The feel of her body pressed up against him made his breath hitch. Her eyes smiled up at him and his heart squeezed. They had come a long way and they had a long way yet to go. He still could not believe that she loved him; it blew his mind to think about it. Yet there she was, smiling up at him, her love shining from her eyes. Completely ignoring her family behind them and the mock growl from her brother, he lowered his head and captured her mouth with his. The kiss was sweet and filled with passion and all too brief. He drew back and smiled at her.

"I love you," he said in a low voice so she was the only one who heard him.

"I know," she said. "I love you too."

"I know," he smiled and traced her lips with his thumb. "Thanks for coming."

"You knew I wasn't going to miss this."

He did. She was one of the strongest and most determined women he knew. That they were where they were at that moment was largely due to her unwavering belief in him. He slipped his fingers between hers and drew her forward.

"Get your hands off my sister and dig, you pervert."

"Stop being such a grouch Andrew and go find yourself a woman." Marlene retorted without looking at her brother.

There was general good humored laughter at the gibe and he heard Marlene's sister, Moira, giggling again.

They got to the spot where he'd been standing before Marlene appeared on Ginger and they stared at each other. With a tight squeeze, she let go of his hand. The little crowd around them became silent. With a deep sigh, he picked up the pole diggers he'd been holding before his spectators arrived. He'd dug all the other poles out and had carted them off so he could fix the new ones, but Red had asked him to leave the last one and they'd all come out to watch him extract it from the earth. He'd already dug extensively and he needed just a little more effort before he could pull out the fence post, buried all those years ago. He turned and winked at Marlene and then began to dig.

A few minutes later, the fence post was out. Everyone was silent as he picked up a new fence post and walked over to the fence. Quietly, he mended the broken part, deftly working until he was done. As soon as he finished the last part and turned, Marlene's family broke into a round of applause.

"Go Curtis...Yay!" Moira jumped up and down, clapping vigorously.

"Good one son," Red came over and clapped him on the back.

Marlene's mom came over and hugged him tightly and then kissed him on the cheek. "Make her happy," she said in a serious voice.

Curtis just nodded. He couldn't speak around the lump in his throat. The nod must have been enough for her however, because she nodded, kissed him again and smiled before moving aside.

He watched with amusement as Andrew pulled out a few notes and handed them over to Grandma Elaine and then came to shake his hand, slapping him on the back with his free hand.

"Good one, doesn't mean I won't be keeping my eyes on you."

So they had been betting on him had they? He'd suspected as much and the proof of it only made him shake his head and smile wryly. The O'Connor's were a lot to take in, but they were not a bad bunch; real salt of the earth. He leveled a gaze at Marlene's brother.

"I'll be counting on it." Curtis said.

Andrew shook his head and moved off to speak with his father.

Soon Curtis was standing in front of Marlene. She looked so pretty in a pair of faded jeans and a pink tank top. She'd worn her boots over her jeans and her hair was held in a ponytail. Over ten years ago, she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen and now, more than a decade later, she was the most beautiful woman he knew.

She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. He couldn't believe what he'd done to earn her love, as a matter of fact he knew there wasn't a thing he could have done to earn it. He took a deep breath and always attuned to him, she looked up.

"Are you okay?"

"Just fine, baby, I'm just fine." He assured her.

But her frown didn't disappear. She drew back a little and pursed her lips as she gave him a piercing stare.

"What is it?"

He looked back at the fence posts he'd put up, almost half a mile long and marveled that he'd done it all alone; without any help from a single person. If he was honest with himself, he would have hated the idea of anyone helping him to earn the respect of a family that by all rights deserved to see that kind of show out of him. There wasn't a moment in all of his work that he'd taken a moment to complain about his lot in life or the path that he'd chosen to take. He knew that he loved Marlene. He knew it and he would make damn sure that everyone watching him break his back knew it as well. The sweat that had poured from him, the blood that had seeped from the cuts in his skin and the bruises that he'd carried were all for Marlene's sake and for the sake of the relationship that he wanted to have with her.

Each day and every day since his conversation with Red O'Connor in his study, since he'd fought for the chance to have the love of his life and her father's blessing on their relationship, he'd come out to the fence. At first, he'd pulled up all of the old poles, which over the course of ten years had weather rotted to the point that they were barely recognizable as once having been wood, and then after he'd gotten the majority count of the poles, he'd taken old man Red's wagon and stock horse and lifted the number of poles in the fence that he'd removed when he was fifteen. There had been a total of sixty seven poles.

According to Red's wishes, he put the pulled poles aside, along with the wiring that went with them, and set to organizing the brand new poles that Red had managed to acquire for him. One by one, he'd placed the poles and made sure that he took care to do them right the first time so that he wouldn't waste time having to go back a second time to right a pole that was too loosely set in the ground.

It had been back breaking work and the only thing that had made it bearable, the only person had been Marlene. Her father had laid down the law at first, saying they were not to see each other until the fence was done, but had not lasted more beyond the first month. He'd almost gone crazy then and Marlene had fared no better, and so Red had relented. Curtis suspected Grandma Elaine had had something to do with Red's change of heart.

He leaned forward and dropped a brief kiss on her upturned lips. When he drew back, he pushed back a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail and stepped back.

"I have something for you."

********

Marlene's heart missed a beat and began to race. There was a strange light in Curtis' eyes that made her tremble. He was looking at her with such intense possessiveness that she truly believed that at that time and moment, she was the only person in his world. She couldn't believe they'd made it this far. After the night they'd spent together, when she'd woken up to find him gone, they'd decided to wait till after he'd mended the fences. It had been torturous and she'd almost gone crazy, but somehow, they'd made it through.

When he stepped back, she wondered what on earth he had in mind. He'd said he had something for her, but had no idea what it could be.

She didn't have long to worry about it though because right before her eyes, in front of her entire family, Curtis went down on one knee.

Marlene's hand flew to her mouth and she stared at him wide eyed. They had talked about this of course, about starting a home and having kids, but she didn't think he would want to do that just yet.

The chattering from her family in the background slowly came to an end as everyone grew silent, waiting for Curtis to speak. He kept his eyes trained on hers.

"Marlene," he began, "Sweetheart, you know I have nothing. I'm not good enough for you, both your father and your brother have told me that repeatedly. But here's the thing...I love you more than my life. I want to have babies with you and I want us to grow old together. You make me happy and without you, I am nothing." He paused and took a deep breath, "I guess what I'm getting at is this...will you marry me, Marlene?"

There was a brief pause and Marlene thought her heart was going to break. Curtis was so much more than he knew or imagined. He made her a better person, challenged her to be the best she could be. He completed her.

"Answer the boy for heaven's sakes! I'm too old for this nonsense."

She smiled as her father growled. He and Curtis had come a long way. She was glad that he would be walking her down the aisle. She would have been with Curtis regardless of what her dad said, but she was happy she didn't have to go against his wishes.

With a squeal of delight, she threw herself in Curtis' arms. "Yes of course I'll marry you! Wild horses couldn't keep me from being with you."

He stood up, still holding her somehow and slipped the ring on the third finger of her left hand then leaned down and kissed her soundly even as a cheer rose from her family.

He brought a finger to her cheeks so gently that her heart ached.

"You're not supposed to be crying," he said softly, his mouth tipping back in a smile.

"I'm not crying," she said smiling through her tears. "I'm just so happy."

"I love you Marlene."

She looked into his eyes and her heart kicked in her chest. He really did love her; she had no doubt about that. More than that though, not a single member of her family doubted that this man would go to the ends of the earth for her.

"I love you too, Curtis."

They were surrounded by family members then, with Marlene's mom already planning the wedding. In the midst of the noise and chaos and celebration on the Circle O, Curtis kept his arms around Marlene. She knew he wasn't used to big families, she'd seen how uncomfortable he'd been around hers. But he'd worked hard and was gradually becoming part of her family. As he clutched her to him, she looked up and caught his eyes on her. She smiled at him and leaned her head on his chest. His heart beat steadily against her ear reminding her of the man himself. Curtis steadied her and she couldn't wait to begin life with him.

"Let's get out of this heat. You both can make calf eyes at each other beneath the shade, can't you?" Red growled out eliciting a smile from the couple and everyone else around.

"Lemonades and champagne people," her mom called out.

After everyone had ridden out, it was just Marlene and Curtis.

"I have something to tell you."

She looked up at him expectantly, "Go ahead."

"I have some money."

"That's great, we can go get groceries then."

His eyes twinkled before he became serious again. "I mean lots of money. Enough to buy a place and begin that training school I told you about."

She knew he'd played the rodeo, but she had no idea he'd actually won anything. It didn't make a difference to her either way. In the end, he was still just Curtis. She leaned up and kissed him soundly.

Whatever life brought their way, she knew they would be okay. They had each other and at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.

THE END

Thank you for reading and supporting my book and I hope you enjoyed it. Please will you do me a favor and review "Mending Fences" so I'll know whether you liked it or not, It would be very much appreciated, thank you.

#  Other Books by Amelia Rose

Stranded, Stalked and Finally Sated (FREE) (License to Love: Book 1)

Silver River Romeo (Rancher Romance: Book 1)

Silver Heart (Longren Family: Book 1)

Learning to Love (Carson Hill Ranch: Book 1)

Mending Fences (Texas Heat: Book 1)

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#  About Amelia Rose

Amelia is a shameless romance addict with no intentions of ever kicking the habit. Growing up she dreamed of entertaining people and taking them on fantastical journeys with her acting abilities, until she came to the realization as a college sophomore that she had none to speak of. Another ten years would pass before she discovered a different means to accomplishing the same dream: writing stories of love and passion for addicts just like herself. Amelia has always loved romance stories and she tries to tie all the elements she likes about them into her writing.
