“And you? Will you go have a look at the horses?” Liz asked.

“Of course, but only if you show me around and introduce me to everyone,” Raylen said.

“You got it,” Liz said with a smile.

Her smile affected him just like it did that day back when they were teenagers and she had hung on the rail fence and watched him exercise Major Jack. He’d been mesmerized by it and her dark eyes that he felt could see right down into the depths of his soul.

He cleared his throat and said, “I’d better be going. I left my horse out back, tied up to the fence. Saw the barn door open and thought I’d better check on things.”

Liz moved around the table. “I’ll walk with you. Is it the same horse you rode back when we were kids?”

“No, this one is Danny Boy. I was riding Major Jack that day,” Raylen answered.

She fell into step beside him. “Uncle Haskell said y’all have two over there that folks stand in line to get a chance at their bloodlines. Is one of those Danny Boy?”

“That’d be him right there.” Raylen pointed. “And Major Jack. They both won the Texas Heritage Stakes and made the ranch what it is today. O’Donnell Ranch has a dozen blue-blooded mares that Mama and Daddy use to raise colts from those two. She’s got a long list of folks interested in buying a colt from either one of them.”

Liz reached up and ran her hand down the length of his nose and he nuzzled her hair. “He’s a beauty.”

“You really do like horses, don’t you?” Raylen was amazed that Danny Boy let her touch him. He was usually skittish around strangers.

She nodded. “And cats and dogs and cows.”

“Tell me the truth,” Raylen insisted. “You’ve been teasing me, haven’t you? You were really raised on a ranch out in west Texas, weren’t you?”

She looked up and locked eyes with him. “I was raised in a carnival. I tell fortunes and do some belly dancin’ to bring in the crowd when Aunt Tressa or Mama is telling fortunes. We winter out near Claude, Texas, from the last of November until the first week of March, and Poppa likes animals. I told you this before, and it’s the gospel truth.”

He leaned forward and she moistened her upper lip with the tip of her tongue. His pulse raced, but it was a slow-motion experience. When his lips claimed hers in a sweet but oh so passionate kiss, she kissed back with enough heat to almost melt the soles off his boots.

“I been wantin’ to do that for eleven years,” he said, and then hopped the fence, mounted up, and rode away.

Chapter 5

Liz sat straight up in bed and slapped the alarm clock so hard that it bounced off the far bedroom wall and kept buzzing. What was she thinking, telling Jasmine that she’d be at the café at six o’clock in the morning? Somewhere in the Good Book there had to be a verse that said “Thou shalt never see the pearly gates if thou riseth out of thy bed whilst it is still dark outside.” She threw herself back on the pillows, but the alarm clock sounded even louder, pitching a buzzing hissy fit as it lay upside down on the hardwood floor. Finally, she threw off the covers and crossed the room, picked up the indestructible varmint, and pushed the off button. She trudged to the bathroom, flipped on the light, and covered her eyes with the back of her hand.