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seventeen-year-old had been a man.
    She’d actually fawned over him, rather embarrassingly, until she graduated from high school and gotten a giant slap of reality where he was concerned. Some might have even called her past feelings for him a crush. She didn’t. Nope. It was just youthful . . . whatever.
    That was before that summer day just before she’d gone off to college. The memory still had the power to make her shake with anger, and she wasn’t sure why. She’d gone over to his brand-new ranch, the one he’d secured with his already respectable rodeo earnings. And she’d seen him. Lucas, with some hot brunette, pressed up against the side of the barn.
    And, given the other woman’s state of undress and the flush on her face, her skin, there was more than kissing going on. Carly hadn’t stopped to look for details.
    Her face had prickled like she’d run head on into a cactus, her throat burning with a rash of heat, tears stinging her eyes. Even now, it was easy to remember how acute the pain had been. Which was silly, then and now. Lucas had never asked for her admiration, and he’d never owed her anything. And it had served as a warning. One she’d held close to her heart, down deep, ever since.
    By the time she’d come back for Christmas, Lucas was walking around town with a redhead wrapped around him like tinsel. When she came home in spring, he’d traded the previous one in for a shiny new blonde model, and that was when she’d had to face reality. It was who he was, what he did.
    And men like that didn’t change.
    Those memories were the biggest reason she treated him like she did, why she held him at a distance. They’d given her a window into Lucas Miller’s attitude on life. The kind of attitude one hid from one’s best friend’s younger sister.
    From then on it was eyes wide open for her.
    Mac picked his hat up from the kitchen table and rose from his chair. “I’m going to run out and make sure everything’s all secure.”
    Her brother’s ranch was the most important thing in his life. A small operation catering to people who wanted extra lean, natural beef. Mac had built it up from scratch, with a bit of start-up money from Lucas. Which she had to admit was decent of him. She hated to admit that.
    Lucas nodded from his position at the table, making it very clear he was sending his friend off and not going with him.
    Oh, no.
    She really didn’t want to be alone with Lucas, most especially with the memory of him, and just what he could do to a woman, fresh in her mind. That image still made her face hot and she was afraid the heat didn’t come purely from humiliation.
    As soon as the front door closed behind Mac, a smile spread over Lucas’s face. “Twice in one day. What did I do to earn the honor?”
    She stretched her lips into a fake smile. Anything to avoid being told she looked like she’d sucked on a lemon. “You could have gone with Mac.”
    “I’d rather talk with you, actually. Is that so hard to believe?”
    “A little surprising, is all.” She stood up and grabbed her plate, and Mac’s, walking across to the kitchen area and putting them both in the sink.
    “Why is that?”
    “Well, somebody told me earlier today that I’m mean. I would think you might want to avoid me, all things considered.”
    “You aren’t
that
mean, sugar.”
    “Until today I didn’t realize I was mean at all. That news flash came straight from you.”
    “So it’s just me then,” he said, taking the bowls that had contained the pasta and salad, standing and making his way over to where she was.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You really do reserve the attitude for me specifically.” He set the bowls on the counter. “And that means one of two things.”
    “Oh, good. I’m about to get some cowboy wisdom. Let’s hear it.” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and rested her hip against the countertop.
    “Either you like me a whole lot less than you like most