Lucky's Story: Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy (Montana Cowboys / Country Music Collection) by Cara North Page A

pretty lips parted again. “I got lost.”
    “Easy enough to do.” He spoke softly. He didn’t want her to shell up again. Hell, he really needed to figure out who she was and where she needed to go. “Are you a guest here?”
    She nodded.
    “You hungry?” He wondered if he got some food in her if that would help.
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Okay .” He smiled. One word was better than none. “You sit here and warm up. I’ll rustle us up something to eat.”
    He stopped at the couch and picked up a warm fuzzy blanket with wolves on it. Rafe’s kids had given it to him last Christmas. He offered it to her and she took it.

     
     
    Good Lord in heaven what have you gotten me into? Hope Inkwell had recently added Christian values back to her personal menu. It was easy enough to do at first. Where she came from her prospects were few and uninteresting. Those that were worth anything had been taken. One careless affair had left a family torn apart, a child without a mother, and Hope on the straight and narrow from that point on. So why did her gut burn hotter than the fire behind her the moment this tall drink of cowboy entered her life?
    The blanket trapped heat from the fire and soon she was warm enough to speak without her teeth chattering. “I went for a short hike and wound up taking a wrong turn or something. I’m not sure how to get back to my room.”
    “It happens.”
    “Thanks for letting me rest here a moment.” Not to park rangers. I should know better.
    “Well,” he said. “I work here, so I kinda have to take care of wandering guests. Is tomato basil and grilled cheese good?”
    “Absolutely.” She shifted away from the direct heat of the fire and settled to a nice warm spot nearby. “I thought my teeth were going to break if I let them keep chattering. It was so nice when I started out on my walk. Now it is freezing. Does the weather drop like that around here often?”
    “Yep.” He had his back to her. She let her eyes roam the view of his backside. He was tall, blonde, a classic v shaped torso reserved for insanely gorgeous and fit men. His waist wasn’t narrow by any means but compared to the width of his shoulders he obviously worked out. Long legs hid under denim jeans that fit oh too perfectly.
    He turned with two plates in hand. A bowl of soup centered on each one. She cautiously moved to the table where he sat the food. Aa the smell of tomato soup and grilled cheese hit her nose her stomach roared. Her face blushed. He didn’t comment or seem to notice though she knew it was impossible for him not to have heard it. Grateful for his discretion she sat at the table.
    Thinking the best way to distance herself from him immediately and get those thoughts of how amazing he smells or looks right out of her head she asked, “Do you mind if I say grace?”
    Damn him he held a hand out to her across the table.
    She stared at it a moment until he said, “You don’t grace family style?”
    Sure she did, she just wasn’t expecting him to. Her hand slid into the large palm of his hand and relished the warmth, the roughness, and the gentle way he closed his fingers on hers and waited.
    “Dear God,” It came out a little different than she had intended but she recovered and continued, “Thank you for the meal and the man who has provided it, amen.”
    “Amen,” he said.
    She looked up at him and noticed the quirked eyebrow. She quickly filled her mouth with grilled cheese to avoid saying anything to him. His blue eyes were bearing right into her soul. He pushed his food around on the plate, stirred the soup, but didn’t take a bite.
    She, on the other hand , was ravenous and had eaten her sandwich and half the soup in no time. “You’re not hungry?”
    “I ate right before I found you,” he admitted.
    “Then…”
    “I was afraid you wouldn’t eat if I didn’t make enough for two.”
    He was right. She would have felt awkward.
    “You want this sandwich?” he pushed his plate