“NOTHING,” LAURA TOLD the girls at the Union Junction Beauty Salon. “I’m telling you, there’s nothing between us. He didn’t kiss me. Gabriel’s barely civil to me.”

      The girls oohed and then giggled. Laura had received a fair bit of teasing and she expected the kissing booth incident had been thoroughly dissected. Privately, Laura wondered what it would have been like to have Gabriel’s lips on hers. It had been so long since she’d kissed a man—well, kissed a man as she had Dave. She didn’t count those chaste, predictable pecks in the kissing booth. Even the old ladies and the elderly librarian got their turn in the kissing booth, and the men lined up for them just as quickly. The older ladies—particularly teachers—received grandmotherly busses on the cheek from favorite students.

      Everyone was anxious to see the elementary school succeed. There was so much goodwill in this town. Laura was never going to regret moving here with Dave those five years ago. He’d said Union Junction was a growing town, he’d have lots of work, they’d make a family and be happy out away from the big city….

      It had worked out just that way for just over five years. Five perfect years.

      So she shouldn’t really be thinking about what it would have felt like to kiss Gabriel. She was twenty-six, too old for dreamy longings; she was a mom and a widow.

      “I bet he kisses great,” one of the stylists said to another, and Laura blushed.

      “Aren’t you curious?” someone asked her.

      Laura ran her hand through Penny’s hair as she often did. The feel of the corn-silk softness comforted her, as did the powdery smell of Perrin. “No,” she murmured, easy with the lie. “Gabriel is not my kind of man.”

      They all fell quiet, silenced by the uncomfortable position they had put her in.

      “She doesn’t need to tiptoe around Dave forever,” someone finally spoke up bravely. “Honey, we know you loved him, but you’re alive and he wouldn’t want you being sad forever.”

      Tears jumped into Laura’s eyes. Several ladies came over to hug her. She felt Penny press closer to her leg. “I know.”

      “All right, then.” They all patted her, then went back to their places. “So next time you get a chance to kiss a hunk like Gabriel Morgan, you just grin and bear it if you want to, okay?”

      “Maybe,” Laura said, smiling as she wiped away the unwanted tears.

      “Wish he’d buy out my booth,” someone said, and everyone laughed, even Laura, although she really didn’t think it was funny. What they didn’t realize is that Gabriel hadn’t wanted to kiss her, hadn’t even looked tempted. He’d sort of picked up his father’s responsibility—and then he’d headed off.

      A woman knew when a man was interested in her. All fairy tales included a kiss—a man knew how to get what he wanted, even in books. Dave had been a gentle pursuer, slow and careful as if she were a fine porcelain doll.

      Gabriel owned no such gentle genes. If he wanted a woman, she figured the indication of his desire would be swift, like a roiling wave breaking over a boat at sea, claiming it with powerful intent.

      Gabriel pretty much turned to stone every time he laid eyes on her.

      Dear Gabriel,

      By now you are at the house and are beginning a year of time you no doubt resent like hell. But money talks and though it might not talk very loud to you, I know you’ll stick out the year just to prove yourself. This need of yours to be a tough guy living on the edge is exactly what I now need to lean on.

      Remember when I bought that extra acreage and added on to my own hacienda out here? I bought it from a man who was down on his luck, and partly down on his luck thanks to me, which he has discovered. Now don’t go getting all high and mighty like I cheated this man out of his birthright, because the man is a scoundrel. And anyway, he needed the money.

      The problem is, I bought the land suspecting there was an underground oil source. I had it surveyed without his knowledge. He has since found out I paid for a geological survey of his property and feels cheated.

      Fact is, maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. He could have paid for his own damn survey.

      The trouble in this is that the man is Laura Adams’s father, with whom she has no contact due to the fact that he didn’t approve of her marrying a carpenter. Didn’t like her husband, felt he wasn’t good enough for his only child, which didn’t set well with Laura. He needed her to marry big to save his sorry ass.

      You see my predicament. I could sell the man back his land but the price would include a terrific profit which he cannot afford. I gave Laura’s children a tiny portion of what is rightfully theirs, since it would have been anyhow, I suppose, though I believe her father would have drunk up the estate. You might say I just hijacked Penny’s and Perrin’s inheritance, robbing from the poor to give to the poorer.

      Unfortunately, the jackanapes took to threatening me. He really feels cheated by life, and I suppose he has been, but the big dog runs off the little dog and that’s life, isn’t it? But for the grace of God go I.

      Anyway, you’ll be seeing him as he lives to create trouble. But I have faith that you’ll smooth everything over in due time, as you were always the responsible one in the family, even though it really chaps your ass that I say that. It just happens to be true.

      Pop

      “IT DOES CHAP MY ASS.” Gabriel forced himself not to shred his father’s letter. “It does indeed chap me like you can’t even imagine, Pop.”

      He did not appreciate being appointed the protector of the family fortunes, but even less so the knight