Jericho tried to focus on the sludge left in the bottom of his mug, but his gaze had a will of its own, and before he could stop himself, he was staring at Ivy once more. With her head bent back, every sweet inch of her womanly figure was right there for the viewing, including all that soft, creamy skin showing from the lace at her bosom to her neck.

He had a sudden vision of her in the river, the moonlight shining down on her. He hadn’t seen anything he wasn’t supposed to. But son-of-a-gun, his imagination was trying to head in a direction it shouldn’t.

Heat shot into his veins as it had earlier. No. That was lust, and the last thing he wanted to do was lust after Ivy McQuaid.

Even so, as she pressed another kiss to her nephew’s belly, he couldn’t keep from admiring her changes. Gone was the dusty, windswept girl. And in her place stood a tantalizing, almost-dangerous beauty of a woman.

Wyatt blew out a half laugh.

Jericho jerked his sights back to his coffee, trying to keep his expression emotionless even as his insides churned with feelings he couldn’t begin to name.

Ivy had always attracted attention wherever she went. During that last summer he’d been home, he’d had to threaten several of his ranch hands to stay away from her. He could only imagine how many fellows were falling over themselves to have the chance to come courting.

At eighteen, she was still a mite young to be thinking about marriage and men, wasn’t she?

As Ivy took a place on the bench surrounded by her adoring nephews and niece, she thanked Astrid for the plate of food and began to eat as politely as any grown woman he’d ever met. When had Ivy turned into such a lady?

Astrid used the opportunity to distribute pieces of pie around the table. And as Jericho savored his first bite of sweet berry mixture and perfect flaky crust, he was relieved for the distraction so he could gain his composure.

While he ate the pie, he somehow managed to extinguish the sparks Ivy had ignited inside him, mainly by keeping his gaze from straying toward her. Afterward, with a fresh mug of coffee in hand, he shared more about Dylan and his new life in Chicago, leaving out all the bad parts about their brother’s waywardness and telling everyone instead about all the criminals Dylan had been involved in capturing and how he was gaining a reputation as a fair and decent lawman, especially because his sharpshooting skills were unmatched.