Heartsong (Singing to the Heart Book 2) by Sara Walter Ellwood Page A

dresses, and tonight was no exception.
    She wore tight faded jeans and a short-sleeved white blouse trimmed in eyelet lace. The scooped neck allowed him a peek at her cleavage. With her blond hair flowing around her tanned shoulders and a pair of bright red cowgirl boots upon her feet, she was a cowboy’s dream. Michaela arched a brow and her lips turned upward as if she knew exactly how she was affecting him.
    He swallowed and turned back to her mother. “I’ll let Michaela explain when she gets home. Right now, I think we’d better get going before it gets any darker.”
    She kissed her mother on the cheek, then grabbed a white Stetson from the pegs by the door and led the way out. He came up beside her and guided her to his truck. Michaela let out a low whistle as they stopped beside the Ford 150 Raptor SVT parked in the drive.
    He opened the passenger door of the cherry-red pickup and intended to help her in, but she had climbed in on her own before he had a chance to blink. “So, you like my truck?”
    With a shrug, she looked over the dashboard. “It’s nice, but I’ve never liked Fords.” She flashed him a smile. “I’m a Chevy gal myself.”
    Chuckling, he closed the passenger door. After he climbed behind the wheel, she said, “My question is, what do you need an off-road truck for when you live in the city?”
    The big engine roared to life when he turned the key. “I have plenty of friends who don’t live right in Nashville. Don’t worry. This thing’s been in some places a Chevy would never have gotten me out of.”
    She laughed, and it settled somewhere in Gabe’s low belly.
    Michaela was quiet until he turned at the Y in the drive to head to the big white house. “What are you doing?”
    He glanced at her and smiled. “We aren’t headed for a restaurant. I cooked.”
    Her eyes rounded. “But where? The house is locked up…”
    “You’ll see soon enough.”
    When he stopped the truck in front of the garage, her eyes narrowed. “Okay, I’ve played your game. Now I demand to know what’s going on.”
    “I bought the ranch.”
    “What the hell are you up to? Everyone knows some corporation bought it.”
    He shut the engine off and met her puzzled expression. “That’s what I wanted everyone to think. It’s a dummy corp Reese set up for me.”
    She gaped at him. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me? Heck, it might have helped our custody case.”
    He fumbled with his keys. “I wanted to tell you that day in the barn, but things...” He didn’t want to bring up the fight they’d had. “Reese wanted to use my buying the ranch, but I talked him out of it. I don’t want Lemont to know until I’m good and ready for him to know. I paid two million more than it’s worth, and the last thing I want is Lemont to get his hands on what is now Jesse’s money.”
    “But it’s in a trust fund. Lemont can’t touch it... Can he?”
    “It’s Lemont. You know he’s as crooked as the hind leg of a jackrabbit. He’d find a way to get to the money. After all, he stole yours and Frankie’s.”
    She twisted away from him, only to swing around and glare at him with her hands fisted at her lap. “You’ve owned it all this time?”
    “Look. Let’s go inside and I’ll explain. I told you I have a plan.”
    She didn’t answer and shoved the door open. By the time he got out of the truck, she was waiting on the concrete in front of the double doors of the semi-detached garage with her arms crossed under her breasts and the toe of her cowboy boot drumming steadily on the pavement.
    Did she have any idea how damned sexy she looked with the way her breasts pushed upward? He walked past her and headed up the back porch steps to the kitchen door. She followed him into the house and let out an exhalation of air as she looked around.
    He turned on the oven and faced her. “I figured we could eat here. I’d prefer that none of what we discuss be overheard by someone.”
    She slowly met his eyes,