Heartland Read Free Page A

more accurate. But it had started with friendship. Did she dare allow it to start like that again, when she knew the feelings that still stirred inside her at the sight of him?
    â€œI think that would be a mistake,” she said at last. “Wasn’t it some ancient philosopher who once said that ‘even God cannot change the past’?”
    â€œI don’t want to change it. I just want us both to learn to live with it.”
    â€œI’ve lived with it every day for the past eleven years. I don’t need you reminding me of it.” She’d blurted the words out angrily, without thinking of the implication of her admission.
    He sighed. He reached out a hand to touch her, but she jerked away. “Oh, Lara, did I hurt you so badly? I’m sorry. I never meant to do that.”
    Blinded by sudden tears and determined that he wouldn’t see them, she got to her feet. “It’s far too late for being sorry, Steven, and I certainly don’t need any sympathy from you. Just go on with your life, and let me go on with mine.”
    He stood beside her. Before she realized his intention this time, he was tracing the line of her jaw with his finger. She felt the shock of that touch ricocheting through her.
    â€œI don’t think I can do that, sweetheart. Not anymore.” There was an apologetic note in his voice, but the gleam of determination glowed in his eyes. She knew that look all too well, and it made her quake inside.
    â€œYou have to,” she said, her words edged with quiet desperation. She swore it was the closest she would ever come to a plea. Even before he responded, she could see from his expression that he intended to ignore it.
    â€œSorry.”
    Lara could take no more. “Jennifer! Kelly! Wake up, girls. It’s time to go home.”
    They were slow, impossibly slow, and each second they took to wake and get ready to leave made her hands shake and her nerves stretch taut. Steven seemed to regard her mounting anxiety with lazy fascination, which only added to her sense of being caught like a rabbit in a snare, heart fluttering with fear.
    Without saying another word, he watched her as she led the girls off toward the path through the woods. She could feel his gaze on her and wondered at the wistfulness she’d seen pass quickly across his rugged features. Then she thought of the strong resolution that had replaced it in his eyes, and she shivered, only barely resisting the impulse to run. She knew instinctively that he would not give up so easily. He never had. Steven was a man who set clear goals for himself and attained them with dogged determination. Her escape today had merely been a brief reprieve.

Chapter Two
    T he white frame house was bathed in moonlight. Steven stood staring at it for the longest time, as if willing a light to go on in Lara’s upstairs window. The relentless darkness mocked him, effectively shutting him out.
    It had been years since he’d done this, years since he’d waited outside like a lovesick teenager hoping for a glimpse of a girl who’d caught his fancy. Even though he’d been twenty-seven back then, that’s the way he’d felt from the moment he’d laid eyes on Lara Danvers down at the stream.
    It had been a hot, dry summer day. A Thursday, he recalled, because his weekly meeting with his accountant to go over the books had been cancelled at the last minute. He’d decided to take advantage of the unexpected free time and explore the area. He’d even planned to take a swim to cool off, if he could find a deserted spot along the stream that edged much of the farmland he was interested in buying.
    He’d driven along a dusty dirt road for several miles, then abandoned his car and walked through a stretch of woods. When he’d come upon the stream, dappled by sunlight, it had been irresistible. Seeing no one around, he’d stripped off his clothes and waded in, the cool water a