Anything You Ask Read Free

out of his will.” A malevolent grin twisted Jeff’s mouth. “All this land belongs to a literature professor who doesn’t know the first thing about farming.”
    An image of Danielle struggling with the tiller sprang into Hale’s mind. The awkward way she’d tried to start the engine filled him with empathy. Even though she might not know the first thing about cultivation, she wasn’t short on determination.
    He looked at the fields that permeated his dreams and a surge of bittersweet longing pinched his chest. “I trust her instincts. She’ll take good care of this place.”
    “Unlike your brother.” Jeff kicked an empty box of nails out of the way. “Did you see the hole in the ceiling?”
    “What hole?”
    Jeff motioned for Hale to follow him into the cavernous interior of the barn. When they reached the far end of the structure, Jeff pointed to a gash in the floor above. “That’s where your brother fell.”
    A sharp pain sliced through Hale’s stomach when he looked up at the rotten planks that gave way to send his brother hurtling to the hard concrete below. Not trusting himself to speak, he stared at the floor in mute anguish.
    “He survived the fall, but he had a massive coronary on the way to the hospital. Danielle told you, right?”
    “Yes. She sent me a text.” He touched his back pocket to make sure his cell phone was still there. For too long, those text messages from Danielle were his only connection to home.
    “She sent you a text? That’s cold. Why didn’t she call you?”
    “Reading a text is easier than hearing someone over the phone.”
    “Oh, right.” Jeff’s narrowed gaze dropped to the dry straw scattered near his boot. “You still smoke?”
    A rash of anger prickled across Hale’s skin. “No.”
    Jeff’s brow rose. “You ought to tell Danielle. She’ll be happy to hear a Cooper can quit an addiction.”
    Hale gritted his teeth. “What’s your addiction?”
    “Women.” A tight smile touched Jeff’s mouth. “But at least I’m not hung up on one, like you. Don’t make the mistake of thinking Danielle might keep you around. She’s a professor now. A girl like her belongs on campus, not a farm. As far as I can tell, she can’t wait to get off this piece of dirt. Even though she didn’t accuse you of setting the blaze, that doesn’t mean she thinks you’re innocent.”
    “Good to be around family again,” Hale muttered, stunned at Jeff’s unprovoked attack. Then again, Coopers made a point of remembering each other’s vulnerabilities. What better way to keep the wolves at bay?
    “Speaking of family, thank your brother for making sure Danielle never wants to get involved with either of us.” Jeff slapped on his baseball cap as he headed out of the barn. “You know what it’s like living under the same roof with a Cooper. Imagine being married to one.”
    Hale jerked, wishing his sleek, new hearing aid hadn’t picked up every single syllable of Jeff’s departing taunt. Truer words were never spoken. After Mark failed her so abysmally, Danielle had good reason not to trust anyone else  especially a Cooper. The hollow fear in her eyes convinced him his family had picked her apart until all she had left was the brittle conviction to get by on her own.
    He could relate.
    Leaving this place was the only way he could have healed. He found peace when he drove all the way to the windswept fields of grass in Oklahoma and took a job on a ranch, tending cattle.
    He couldn’t blame Danielle for needing to start over, too. Still, he didn’t want her to go. Now that he was strong enough to claim the farm, Hale wondered what it would take to win the woman who lived there, too.

Chapter Two
    Danielle rubbed the band of tension along the back of her neck. She told the boys their uncle would join them for dinner, but there was no sign of him. The clock read five minutes after six o’clock, the boys were hungry, and she had no idea who was going to melt down first 