The Rancher's Blessed Event Read Free Page B

socks.
    â€œYes, it’s biscuits. And you shouldn’t be walking around without your boots. The floor is gritty. You’ll ruin your socks.”
    He gave her a twisted smile. “I’ve been known to get grit in my boots before.”
    No doubt, she thought. He’d made his living in thousands of dusty rodeo arenas. It shouldn’t matter to her if he ruined ten pair of socks on her dirty floors. And it shouldn’t feel so good to look at him, either. But it did.
    Carrying the pan of biscuits over to the table, she motioned for him to take a seat at one of the empty plates. “How do you want your eggs? Scrambled or fried?”
    â€œFried, if it isn’t too much trouble.”
    She went to the stove, broke four eggs into a skillet of warm grease, then carried a coffeepot back to the table and filled his cup.
    â€œAre you always up and going this early?” he asked.
    She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Normally I’m up and about much earlier. But I’ve tried to get a little more rest these past few days.” Not that laying in bed an hour and a half more did any good, she thought. She still felt drained and groggy, but she was determined to get better, to be able to smile and laugh again.
    â€œYou look tired.”
    As she tended the cooking eggs, her free hand unconsciously fluttered to her bare cheek. With no makeup and her hair pulled back in a messy French braid she knew she must look awful. Her work jeans and old blue sweater didn’t help matters, either. But for the past couple of years, she’d ceased to think of her appearance as important. How irritating for Cooper to notice and point out such a thing to her.
    â€œTen years can do a lot to a person’s looks.”
    He picked up the steaming cup of coffee and savored the smell as he brought it to his lips. After a careful sip, he said, “I didn’t say you looked older. I said you looked tired.”
    The eggs done, she carried the skillet over to the table, ladled three onto his plate and one on her own.
    As she took a seat opposite him, her eyes briefly met his and she wondered, if like her, he was remembering back to the breakfasts they shared ten years ago.
    Emily hoped not. She hoped that once he’d left the Diamond D, he’d totally forgotten the unabashed way she’d loved him, the nights she’d spent cradled in his strong arms. Just thinking of the pleasure he’d given her sent a shaft of guilty heat rushing through her.
    â€œI’m really okay,” she told him.
    Emily didn’t look okay. She looked like hell, but Cooper kept the opinion to himself. He could see her nerves were raw and he hadn’t come here to the Diamond D to cause her more pain. In all honesty, Cooper wasn’t exactly sure why he’d come back.
    The funeral had already taken place. He couldn’t help his brother now and he didn’t necessarily want to assert himself into Emily’s life just because she was his sister-in-law and newly widowed. Nor did he figure she would appreciate him sticking his nose into any unfinished legal business she might have to deal with over the accident. So had he really come here just to see her one more time? He didn’t want to answer that.
    Shaking tabasco over his eggs, he asked, “How is everyone else around here? Do your parents still live on the Flying H?”
    Relieved that he wasn’t going to bring up Kenneth’s accident right off, she relaxed a little. “Yes. My brother Ethan has graduated college and is living back home now.”
    His brows lifted and for the first time since she’d found him in the barn last night there was a genuine smile on his face. “Little Ethan is out of college? Why, he was just a little ornery horned toad that last time I saw him.”
    A vague tilt to her lips, she passed him a biscuit then took one for herself. “Well, he’s all grown up now.”
    â€œWhat about