He skillfully shifted her hair to one side before he slid the coat into place. For the space of a moment, his hands rested on her shoulders before sliding away again, the touch awakening an awareness of him she didn’t want to feel today. Even now, after he retrieved his hat and was escorting her toward the door, her body hummed from that brief contact.

“So all this thoughtfulness is self-serving?” she retorted, desperate to rally her absent defenses as she charged ahead of him. But she still felt hurt all the same.

“Elena.” Her name, softly spoken, stopped her. Or maybe it was the unexpected tenderness in his tone when he said it.

Whatever it was, she turned around and locked eyes with him.

“We broke each other’s hearts once, but it was a long time ago.” His dark eyes seemed to see right through her, past any lame attempt to keep him at arm’s length, right down to where she kept all her real feelings. “I don’t think we need to keep operating like we’re mortal enemies because of a long-ago breakup, do you?”

It was a skillful maneuver, putting her in a position where she would only seem childish and petulant if she kept needling him.

“Maybe I can rein it in,” she offered, her gaze sliding away from his. “At least long enough for the tour. Why don’t we talk about your former mentor instead? You can tell me all about Alonzo Salazar, a man who truly took scandalmongering to a whole new height.”

Gage managed to put off the conversation long enough to get the ranch tour under way. They were in a high-performance utility vehicle that seated two. He’d taken his time snapping the windscreen into place and helping her buckle into the open-air seat, all the while planning his strategy for addressing her question about Alonzo.

Once they were cruising along the dirt path that ran along the Kootenai Creek that fed into the Bitterroot River, Elena gripped the roll bar and pinned him with a frank gaze.

“For a man who offered me full-time access to ask questions, you’re noticeably silent on the subject of Alonzo,” she observed lightly. She reached to tighten the pink scarf she’d wrapped around her hair, trying to stop the dark strands from whipping in the breeze.

The windscreen helped, but it wasn’t the same as riding in a car. They bounced over a rocky hill and he turned sharply to follow the creek bed.