Page 4 (1/2)

Beau shrugged He’d always been the handsoht brown hair, and a roguish charm that matched his looks Will, on the other hand, was chiseled in his father’s dark, solid ie, and he was just as intractable as Bull had been

Bull Junior, Tori had called her husband during one of their arguments

“Special ladies take ti told where you are, who you’re with, and when you’ll be home for dinner”

“Sounds like a passel of excuses to uish wink “You’d ht woman if you found her”

Beau’s gaze traced the sun-streaked curl that trailed along her cheek He knew better than to think Tori was flirting with him They’d been friends most of their lives, but there was no roally free, to him she would always be his brother’s woman

“Maybe I’ht man,” he said “The kind of work I do cananother push with his foot Sex was soet any tile, pretty woton, most of them ambitious as hell For them, a roll in the hay was just a way to let off stress, orup to the next level of wherever they were headed Beau had long since learned to settle for that

An easy silence had settled over the porch, warmed by the afternoon sun and broken only by the creak of the swing and the huaze wander over the ranch yard and the big landscape that stretched away froed since he’d left the ranch better than ten years ago For a hts, scents, and sounds, take hold of hie toAnd the pull was strong now, forcing hi a part of the ranch’s rhythms

Before it could take hold of hi more toward Tori In the distance, barely visible, a white Toyota Land Cruiser had turned off the ravel that led up to the ranch house

“Rearter snake in the teacher’s desk drawer?” Tori asked

Natalie again Beau forced a chuckle “How could I forget? The teacher went straight to Mr Warner’s office and quit” Natalie, he recalled, had fessed up to save the poor snake and got three weeks’ detention for her crime The little scamp had been unrepentant

“How’s Natalie doing?” he asked “Are the two of you still best friends?”

“Solid as ever” Tori reached for her iced tea and took a sip

“Last I heard, she was married”

“Yes, to Slade Haskell It’s been a few years now No children He runs a trucking business out of Blanco”

Beau had tried to iirl he ree on a football scholarship, then dropped out after blowing out his knee in the first gaether