Night Hawk

“Sounds like a standoff of sort,” Gil agreed.

“If you can ask Kai to focus on that horse trailer and tell her why, I’d appreciate it.”

Gil rose. “I will.”

* * *

THE LATE-MORNING sun felt good coming into the back of the green barn where Kai was working. She was dusty from taking a broom and putting a bandanna around the lower half her face to start sweeping off the thick dust on every piece of machinery. There were clouds of dust hanging in the air, sparkling as it hit the shafts of sunlight piercing through the barn.

She lifted her head and saw Gil coming up the gravel slope. For a moment her heart pounded. The fear of having to confront him and then fight back her desire for him always left her exhausted afterward. His face was set and shadowed, the sun at his back. He was so damned good-looking to her. He always had been.

Going to meet him at the front of the barn where there was less dust in the air, she pulled the handkerchief off her face, broom in one hand. Kai longed for some kind of truce between them. But how could there be? Gil had not told her why he’d left her. Not said one peep. He had apologized, she reminded herself, when they’d had it out in the barn the day after her hiring. And he’d looked so damned sad, as if he were going to cry or something, but he always tried to hide it from her. She’d been brimming over with anger, and having gotten it off her chest now Kai wanted a truce, maybe.

“How’s it going?” Gil asked as he drew up to her, keeping a good six feet between them.

Wrinkling her nose, Kai said, “I couldn’t stand how dirty everything was.” She internally tensed, unsure why Gil was here. There was no reason that she could think of. And she didn’t want another argument with him. Searching his blue eyes, she saw worry in them, not anger or defensiveness.

“If we had more hands, I could get someone in here to do it for you. Like it should be.”

Her stomach began to unknot. For the first time, this was the Gil Hanford she knew from her past. He’d put his hands on his hips, shifting his weight to one leg more than the other. His face was relaxed looking, too. Some more of her sagged in quiet relief. “It’s okay. I’m good at cleaning up situations.” She managed a sliver of a smile.

“You are very good at everything you do.”

Praise riffled across her. She almost asked Gil if he’d gotten a decent night’s sleep, remembering the tense discussion at the dinner table last night. “Thanks, it’s nice to hear it.”

“Talon’s happy with you, and that’s all that counts.”

Gil wasn’t happy she was here, but she bit back the words. To say that would be to stir the tension that flowed between them. “What do you need?”

“Talon wants to get you a horse. Slade McPherson has some for sale on the other side of town at his ranch. I was wondering if you were at a place where you could stop for a couple of hours?”

A horse! Her heart sang. Kai felt giddy. “Sure. That would be a lot of fun to go look at horses.” She saw a slight curve of one corner of Gil’s mouth, his blue eyes lighter. Was he happy? It felt like it. Far better than being at odds with him.

“Let me go get cleaned up? I look like a dust bunny.”

Gil gave her a slow inspection from head to toe. “Yeah, a little. Go ahead. I’ll meet you out front in the company truck in twenty minutes?.”

Heat soared through Kai and she felt her breasts tighten beneath his heated gaze. That look wasn’t impersonal. Her mouth went dry. God, was it possible he wanted her? Man to woman? The realization was like a bolt striking her and Kai inwardly floundered. Her heart was doing a happy dance. Her memory sourly reminded her of the hurt he’d caused her. “Sure,” she murmured, setting the broom inside the barn. “Twenty minutes.”

* * *

KAI WAS UNEASY riding with Gil so close to her in the cab of the truck. They had a good twenty miles together. She sat with her hands in her lap, tense. Gil seemed relaxed in comparison. The scenery was rich and green, the valley blooming to life after eight months of hard, cold winter. She enjoyed the patchwork quilt of small farms on the left. To her right rose a rocky hill and cliff.

“Does Slade have quarter horses?” she wondered, wanting to break the silence.

“No. He’s got endurance horses. Talon was telling me Slade has a sunbonnet paint mustang stallion called Thor. His stud has won every endurance event in North America. Jordana McPherson rode Thor to victory two years ago. Slade got gored in the thigh by one of his ornery bulls and couldn’t ride him in the event, so she did and won.”