By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс
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starting at Tucker’s voice so close to her. She had to stop doing that. She hadn’t heard him or sensed him enter the stable, let alone come right up to stand by her shoulder.
She didn’t reply, her focus entirely on the mare. The contractions made her wince, but the baby was coming on fast. Before it seemed possible, the foal was mostly expelled, but Mom needed a few minutes to gather more strength before the next push. When it came, there was a beautiful soaking mess of a foal, and everything from that moment on went like clockwork.
Tucker never interfered at all, but he was right there when Annie took care of the umbilical stump and handed her towels to rub the foal.
She had no idea what time it was when Glory set about bonding with her baby, except that humans were no longer welcome in the stable.
After a quick look at the other two mares and getting cleaned up at the deep, old-fashioned sink, Annie led the way out. She expected that everyone had eaten, or at least to find the picnic basket and cooler waiting for them, sans company. But that was clearly too much to hope for.
Matt opened the cooler and pulled out two beers. “Cause to celebrate?”
Tucker took them both and handed one to Annie. “Textbook,” he said.
“Great. Let’s eat.” Shea headed to the parking lot, where Annie saw they’d set up the food tailgate-style, complete with folding chairs.
Annie had to admit she was hungry. It had been an utterly nerve-racking day, and while her adrenaline was flowing now, she knew a crash was inevitable. Thankfully, it wasn’t that late. Tucker could go home right after a quick bite, and she could at least try to get some sleep.
She had the feeling that no matter her degree of exhaustion, turning off thoughts of Tucker wouldn’t be easy. So many things to process, not the least of which was the fact that every time he came within spitting distance, the flutters started up with a vengeance.
There were enough chairs for everyone, and whoever had set them up did her a favor by putting them in a large circle. The cooler was brought to the open tailgate of the pickup, alongside the basket.
“We’ve got sandwiches,” Rachel said. “Roast beef, tuna and veggie on sub roles. There’s chips and carrot sticks—”
“And cupcakes,” Jessie added. Annie doubted he meant to sound quite so excited.
“Cupcakes and beer?” Tucker shook his head. “You Montana folks are culinary daredevils.”
Rachel snorted, but somehow made it ladylike. “We had a whole ten minutes to pull everything together because someone who should have reached out earlier didn’t,” she said, pinning Annie with a mock glare. “Oh, and there are cold sodas and bottles of water in the cooler.”
Annie really liked Kathy, but she was going to strangle her. “Just how many meals were you planning on serving?” she asked. “It’s late. You guys all have to go home so I can get some sleep.”
“We didn’t know that the horse was going to foal so early,” Matt said. “And I heard there was more than one ready to go.”
“We only have one other mare in the stalls, but there’s no reason to think she’s going into labor tonight.”
Shea looked at her. “Would you prefer that we left?”
Annie knew Shea wasn’t being sarcastic or touchy. “No, really. I just hate keeping you all out like this. Tucker flew in from Dallas this afternoon, remember?”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’ll be fine. I confess, I could eat.”
Annie touched his arm with her hand before walking over to the basket. “Thank you for your help today. It was unexpected.”
He stared at where her hand had been, then met and held her gaze in the weird light cast by two lanterns. “It’s been my pleasure. A very memorable day.”
She had no idea what to say to that, and honestly couldn’t tell if he was simply being polite or flirting. The flirting part was probably wishful thinking, which was nuts because what in the world was that going to get her? The two of them would never happen. No way in hell.
She swallowed hard. What she hated the most? The need was back, the desire to touch and be touched. And if anyone could satisfy that itch, it was a man like Tucker Brennan. She stepped back, away from temptation, and did everything in her power to not turn and run.
TUCKER GRABBED A RANDOM sandwich and bag of chips, way too aware of the woman beside him. He’d flirted with her. Hadn’t meant to, especially in front of her friends. The blame went to the long day at least for now, but when he was alone again, he’d have to have a serious talk with himself about appropriate behavior.
As no one else was sitting, he went for the farthest chair, hoping Annie would sit opposite him. He wanted to watch her from a distance. He would’ve preferred to observe from outside the circle so he could concentrate on what was important instead of chasing his personal fascination with the enigmatic Annie. Instead, food was grabbed quickly and everyone sat, leaving Annie the chair to his left.
“How did you find out about Safe Haven?” Shea asked.
Halfway to a bite, Tucker paused, the question catching him off guard. He thought about asking her the same question. A woman with her security clearance and computer skills didn’t fit in this cowboy world.
“My foundation manager,” he said. “I’m not sure precisely where he ran across this particular sanctuary, but he does a very good job of finding worthy causes.”
She nodded slowly. “Perhaps I can speak to him. I’d like to know how effective our online marketing is. It’s difficult to choose where to spend money and energy when there’s so little to spread around.”
“I’ll make sure to get you that information.”
It turned out the sandwich was tuna, and it was good. He’d been so distracted he hadn’t realized how long ago he’d eaten, and for a few minutes he did nothing else.
Annie was chowing down, too, and it should have been far less compelling to watch her hunched over her sandwich as if she were afraid someone would steal it. But she managed to make it look sexy in a way that was slowing him down as his pulse sped up.
Damn, but she was a beautiful woman. That was another conundrum. Beautiful women often seemed to use their looks to get what they wanted. It was difficult not to, when the world around them made it so easy. Beauty was a passkey to so much. Even as children, teachers treated cute kids differently, everyone did. He’d been a recipient of that kind of bias himself. And he knew for a fact Annie had successfully used her looks to deceive Christian.
Yet, here she was out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by livestock when she could have hidden in a hundred easier ways. He couldn’t imagine the number of men who would have been happy to hide her, to keep her safe.
When he looked down, he realized he’d not only finished his sandwich, but actually used his fingers to capture the last crumbs of his potato chips. After a swig of beer, he went back to the basket. “Anyone else want seconds?”
“I’ll take another beer as long as you’re up there.” That was…Matt. The rodeo champ.
“You still riding the circuit?” Tucker asked, handing Matt his beer before heading back to his own folding chair.
Matt didn’t answer straightaway. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ve got things here in Blackfoot Falls that are taking precedence at the moment, but I’m still riding.”
“You’d better be,” Annie said. “We’ve been talking about having a charity rodeo for Safe Haven. Trouble is housing out-of-towners. There’s an old boardinghouse that’s going to be fixed up, but we’ll probably have to hold the rodeo closer to Kalispell if we do it in the next year.”
“It’s not a bad drive.” Tucker sat, consciously slowed himself down while unwrapping