Western Man Read Free Page B

place in the kitchen.
    The spilled milk that hadn’t initially landed on Ridge was now dripping off the edge of the table. Sharon grabbed the dishcloth from the sink and mopped up the milky film on the table. All the while Tony stayed very quiet and very small, not wanting to draw further attention to himself in an attempt to avoid possible punishment. He lookedsufficiently chagrined so that Sharon didn’t feel anything more needed to be said.
    As she returned to the sink to rinse the dishcloth under the faucet, Ridge followed her. “I’m afraid your towel is soiled,” he said, acknowledging it had picked up some of his dirt along with the milk.
    “It’ll wash.”

Chapter Two
    Taking the towel from him, Sharon draped it over the edge of the counter to dry and folded the dishcloth to lay it over the divider of the double sink. She felt him studying her with a penetrating thoughtfulness and sent him a curious sidelong glance.
    “I hear you’ve been seeing a lot of that oil man lately,” Ridge said.
    “Oil man?” She frowned with an initial bewilderment, then her expression cleared. “You mean Andy Rivers,” she said, realizing suddenly whom he meant. “He’s a geologist who
works
for an oil company.”
    The Piceance Basin of Colorado contained one of the largest concentrations of oil shale. According to Andy, they estimated there were over 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the shale, more than the provable reserves of crude oil in the OPEC countries. It defied imagination when one considered they were standing on top of it.
    “Same difference,” Ridge shrugged at heranswer and continued to study her with a kind of interested speculation. “Is it true it’s become a regular thing?”
    “More or less. Between his work schedule and my horse show dates, we don’t see each other all that frequently,” Sharon insisted. “But I suppose we go out on a fairly regular basis.”
    “Are you thinking about marrying him?” he asked.
    Just for a second she searched his face, trying to find some reason for this personal interest, but there appeared to be little more than the casual interest of a family friend. She suppressed a sigh. Friends always seemed to be more inquisitive than family.
    She laughed shortly and with little humor. “Why is it that if a girl sees a guy more than a half-dozen times everybody assumes she’s planning on a trip to the alter? Maybe I’m just taking a page out of your book—or Scott’s.” She was vaguely impatient, but there was no heat of anger in her voice.
    His eyes narrowed speculatively. “What do you mean by that?”
    “You and Scott seem to be on the road to becoming confirmed bachelors.” To her knowledge, neither Ridge nor her brother had been serious about any girl they had dated. “Maybe I’m not the marrying kind either.” Her real problem was that she had to stop comparing every man she met to Ridge. Until she did that, she probably never would find a man she could care enough about to marry. “Ienjoy going out with Andy. We have fun together.”
    Which was true. Andy made her laugh. When she was with him, she rarely thought about Ridge. Maybe that didn’t seem earth shattering, but she considered it important.
    “The three of us used to have some good times together. You, me and Scott,” Ridge stated somewhat absently. Lifting a hand, he trailed a finger along her cheekbone and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Didn’t we?”
    “Yes.” Sharon didn’t trust herself to say more.
    There was a poignant drift of memories back to that time he had recalled. It had always been a threesome, although Sharon had been so wildly infatuated with Ridge at the time that she had believed her brother was tagging along with them—instead of her tagging along with them. She had built so many dreams from those innocent evenings in Ridge’s company. She had wanted so much to believe he loved her that she had exaggerated every slow dance, every kiss, out of