And then what? He wasn’t the kind of man who courted a woman just for sport. He never had been. He’d tried to instill the same set of values in his sons, tried to teach them never to play games with women who didn’t fully understand the rules.

Everything about Janet that he’d seen so far shouted that she was a woman deserving of respect, a single parent struggling to put a new life together for herself and her daughter. If he was only looking for diversion, would it be fair to accomplish it at the expense of a woman like that? It was the one question for which he had an unequivocal answer: no!

So, he resolved, he would tame his natural impatience and take his time with her, measuring his feelings as well as hers. It was the only just way to go.

But even as he reached that carefully thought-out decision, the part of him that leapt to impetuous, self-confident conclusions told him he was just delaying the inevitable. He’d made up his mind the minute he’d walked into her office that he wanted her and nothing—not his common sense, not her resistance—was going to stand in his way for long. “Where the devil have you been?” Mule asked in his raspy, cranky voice when Harlan finally got back into town on Saturday after four whole days of trying to keep Jenny Runningbear in line. “Ain’t seen you since that gal stole your truck.”

Mule’s expression turned sly. “Word around town is that you’ve got her working out at White Pines.”

Harlan tilted his chair back on two legs and sipped on the icy mug of beer Rosa had set in front of him the minute he sat down. “Is that what you’re doing with your time these days, sitting around gossiping like an old woman?” he asked Mule.

“It’s about all there is to do since you dropped out of our regular poker game to play nursemaid to that brat.”

Harlan accepted the criticism without comment. Mule grumbled about everything from the weather to politics. His tart remarks about Harlan’s perceived defection were pretty much in character and harmless.

Mule’s watery hazel eyes narrowed. “I don’t hear you arguing none.”

“What would be the point? You think you know everything there is to know about the situation.”

“Meaning, you think I don’t, I suppose. Okay, so fill me in. Why’d you hire her?”

“Because she owes me a lot of money for repairs to my pickup,” he said simply. “You ought to know. I had it towed to your garage.”

“Ain’t had time to take a look at it,” Mule said.

“When are you planning to end this so-called vacation of yours?”

“Who says I am? I’m getting so I enjoy having nothing to do. Maybe I’ll just retire for good.”