Page 14 of Rough Stock

‘I’m getting sick of them.’

‘But they’re helping. And you are walking better.’

‘They still suck.’ Strangely enough, they seemed to have bonded over the house repairs and the regular trips to town for his medical issues. But he had to remember he couldn’t get too comfortable with Izzy, not when she’d leave again.

When? He didn’t know, but it was inevitable. She had that big job in the city, on the other side of the country, that was paying her good money.

Craig could never offer Izzy that kind of lifestyle. Not the flash restaurants, the big shopping sprees, nor deep stimulating conversations on law. Hell, he didn’t even own a suit or tie. All he could offer her was peace, even if she was the one disrupting his peace of mind by just being here. ‘Does this mean I get the last three pages of the book?’

‘Deal.’ Her luscious red lips curved into that sly, sexy grin of hers. She enjoyed playing this game. Funny thing was, he didn’t mind because he got to see that spark of mischievousness in her eyes.

‘Hey, if you liked that book, I have another one you might like to read.’

‘As long you don’t rip out any pages.’

‘Promise.’

‘And you haven’t written any answers in the book’s margins to give away the clues?’

She screwed up her dainty nose, only to shrug. ‘I can’t remember if I did or not.’

They were interrupted by a rumble at the far end of their driveway.

‘Is that a Harley?’ Izzy faced the dusty track, where the avenue of trees needed a trim. The weeds too. Heck, the whole driveway needed to be graded. One trip in the tractor wasn’t going fix the driveway that had sold them on the house.

A black bike with shiny chrome detailing carefully wove its way past the many potholes from the last wet season. They’d need a load of gravel to fix that driveway.

‘How do you know what that kind of bike sounds like? Date some hairy biker in the city?’ Didn’t that make his guts churn with heat at the thought.

‘Not like you with your ten dozen buckle bunnies on speed dial.’

‘Do you see any of them here?’ None of them had ever visited Dustfire. He’d been very careful not to tell anyone he had a home, which was easy when half the time he didn’t even know if he was going to be home either. They certainly wouldn’t be visiting now word was out that he had a wife.

‘Who is that?’ Izzy shaded her pretty eyes with one hand.

‘You need a hat.’ He dropped his hat on her head. Then grinned so widely at how she looked, it almost had him rocking on his boot heels—if he had any on. ‘Where are my boots?’

‘Hmph, you’ll get them when we go back to town. If I remember where I put them…’

‘Please, no.’ Because it was quite possible that Izzy would forget. Craig had been finding all sorts of things in the oddest of places, like eggs in the bathroom, soap in the fridge. Signs that Izzy needed to establish her morning routine, and soon.

‘Next time we’re in town, can you remind me to buy a hat?’ She adjusted his hat to shade her face.

‘Sure.’ He was used to reminding her of times and dates.

Yet he grinned wider at Izzy wearing his hat that was too big for her. It was his hat, on his wife’s head!Hello, sweetheart.

‘Why are you grinning at me like that?’

‘Do you know the cowboy-rule about wearing a man’s hat, especially a stockman’s hat?’ Izzy looked super sweet and sexy in his hat, he had to turn away from his wife.

Ex-wife. Although, technically, they never did get divorced.

The loud bike arrived with a rider who had big shoulders. The noisy engine reverberated off the shed and house until it stopped to suck the noise into a heavy silence that was like being stuck underwater.

Izzy hid behind him, gripping the back of his shirt.

What was she so scared of? When Izzy was normally very inquisitive.

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