Page 73 of Bad Rio

“You mean on horseback? Yes, I love horses.” As a child in private schooling, proper horsemanship was part of the curriculum.

After dinner, she helped Sarah clean the table while Rio washed dishes. Eventually, the men went onto the screened veranda. Big Jim smoked a fragrant cigar and Rio took a tall whisky on ice. Their low voices rumbled.

When the last dish was being put away, Sarah looked sideways at Becca. “Rio’s smitten,” she said, “with you. It’s obvious.”

“Oh, I don’t think—”

“Trust me. I know him. He’s my brother and he’s crazy about you. He’s never brought a woman home before. Never. And he looks at you as though he’d like to eat you for lunch.”

Becca didn’t know what to say.

“Are you in love with him?” Sarah demanded. “Just tell me.”

“I—I don’t know.” She met the other woman’s eyes anxiously. “I’m ... safe with him. He ... makes me feel beautiful and valued. It’s just so soon. We only met days ago!” She rubbed her brow. “I’m grateful he’s helping me solve this terrible mystery my family is mixed up in.”

Sarah waited, and so Becca whispered, “All right. I’m crazy about him.”

“Good enough,” Sarah said briskly. “That’s all I need to know. He’s a fine man. He deserves the best. Looks like he found it.”

Becca flushed. She hoped so. She really, really hoped so.

Chapter Thirty-One

That night they sleptin his childhood bedroom, a simple room with a queen bed, an iron headboard, and a patchwork quilt. Becca curled to Rio’s side, her arm across his chest. He pulled her close and within moments, he was out. For a little while longer, Becca lay awake. This man had come to mean a great deal to her. She trusted him. She needed him.

While he seemed just as taken with her, she really didn’t know. She couldn’t see inside his mind, couldn’t tell what he might want from her later. Gently, without waking him, she stretched up to place a soft kiss on his neck. His skin was rough, warm. Under her lips, she could feel the steady beat of his heart. Her own heartbeat joined his, and it seemed to her that they thrummed together. Slowly closing her eyes, she drifted off with that wonderful thought.

In the morning, Rio used Big Jim’s laptop to send emails. He made a series of hushed phone calls, and while waiting for answers, he helped his dad haul away a fallen tree, and later tinkered with a broken tractor engine.

On a ranch, Becca learned, there were endless chores. She warned him to be careful and not stretch the skin too much over his wound. He waved her away.

Becca helped Sarah prepare breakfast. Afterward, together they made a new apple pie and Becca enjoyed learning the skills of rolling out dough and mixing chopped apples with butter and sugared spices. The kitchen filled with the smell of cinnamon.

In the afternoon, they tacked up two saddle horses and went riding into a green meadow where deer grazed. A stand of Douglas fir trees shaded a fawn at its mother’s feet.

Becca held the leather reins in her left hand and leaned her forearms on the saddle horn. From Sarah, she’d borrowed jeans and an old straw cowboy hat. The jeans were okay through the hips, but were so long she’d had to roll them up at the hem.

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