Heart's Desire Read Free

dealership gave her a great deal on this one.”
    â€œSo, your father owns a car dealership?” She nodded, glancing his way as she maneuvered onto the highway. “Do you work for him? Or Justin?”
    She frowned, watching the traffic. “I’m sort of all over the place, wherever my cousins need me. Today, that meant cleaning your cabin at the ranch and picking you up. Most days, I’m at Justin’s clinic.” Bailey glanced his way and waved a hand dramatically. “I guess you could say I go wherever the wind blows.”
    The sarcasm in her voice wasn’t lost on him, and Nathan let the conversation drop as she turned off the main highway and headed out of town. There was no sense in alienating his best informational resource within the first hour of this trip.
    â€œDo you mind if I turn on the radio?” he asked. AC/DC blared in the cab, and Nathan hid the smile that wanted to creep to his lips. Not exactly what he’d expected from the petite girl in worn cowboy boots, but obviously she was more like Jessie than he first expected and just as full of surprises.
    He couldn’t help but smile as he thought about the first time he’d seen Jessie giving a group of wannabe cowboys a lesson in manners when they’d dared to catcall her. Like Bailey, she had an indomitable spirit and a smart mouth to match. With her fiery temper and quick laughter, she’d kept him on his toes all summer. When she wasn’t teasing him about trying to learn something new like fixing fences and building a lean-to, she was tempting him with her sweet lips and quiet sighs in the darkness. Like a lightning storm, their time together had been electric and exciting but too short-lived.
    He’d allowed his father’s threats to cloud his judgment and let her slip through his fingers. By the time he’d realized what he’d given up, it was too late.
    Nathan sighed. He’d burned his bridge with Jessie a long time ago. He’d been shocked when his secretary told him Justin Hart had called, but even more flabbergasted when he mentioned that Jessie wanted his help. Knowing Justin as well as he had, the fact that Nathan’s face had never been beaten meant Jessie hadn’t told him about what happened between them.
    Maybe she’d never cared about him the way he thought she had; maybe she’d moved on. Maybe she’d never even thought twice about the fact that he’d never called. If she’d held a grudge, she never would have allowed Justin to reach out to him at all. He tried to convince himself this job would be easy. If he could pinpoint the issue quickly, he could be back in New York before the weekend. And maybe this was all wishful thinking.

Chapter Two
    J ESSIE HEARD THE crunch of tires on the gravel driveway and stepped onto the porch of the enormous log home. Her parents had raised their family here, in the house her father had built just before her brother was born. The scent of pine surrounded her, warming her insides. Even after her brother and sister had built houses of their own on either end of the property, she’d remained here with her parents, helping them operate the dude ranch and training their horses. She inhaled deeply, wishing again that circumstances hadn’t been so cruel as to leave her to figure out how to make the transition from dude ranch to horse rescue alone.
    Leaning against the porch railing, she sipped her coffee and enjoyed the quiet of the morning. When a teen girl walked toward the barn to feed the horses, she lifted her hand in a wave. The poor girl was spending more time at the ranch than away from it these days, since her mother had violated parole again, but Jessie loved having her here. Aleta’s foster mother, June, had been close friends with Jessie’s own mother, and she understood the healing power horses had on kids who needed someone, or something, just to listen. Now that Aleta was living with June