The Lone Rancher by Carol Finch Page A

fare couldn’t compare to Elda’s. Quin could almost taste the cook’s delicious baked bread from here.
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    Adrianna waved to Elda, who was making her second visit since she had moved into the 4C ranch house.
    â€œI brought cookies,” Elda announced as she bustled up the steps, with the handle of her basket draped over her elbow. She halted to admire the gleaming woodwork and recently polished floors. “My, Bea has this place shining, doesn’t she? Knew she would.”
    â€œHow are things at 4C?” Adrianna asked as she grabbed a couple of melt-in-your-mouth cookies.
    â€œQuiet.” Elda held out the basket for Bea and Butler, who showed up the moment they heard her voice. “It’s sad, really.” She plopped down on the parlor sofa. “That man left everything as it was before his parents died. Why, he didn’t even move into the master suite, and you can tell that not one stick of furniture has changed position in the office or parlor. It’s like a monument to the past.”
    Adrianna frowned thoughtfully. Why hadn’t Quin moved on with his life and made the ranch house a reflection of his own tastes? She, on the other hand, had sold the mansion in Boston and only kept the country estate that held fond childhood memories of a life similar to what she experienced now. She had chased new dreams and adventure while Quin Cahill remainedentrenched in the past. Maybe being intolerant of change was who he was. Why else would he live in his parents’ shadow and allow their dreams to become his?
    It dawned on her that they were alike but in different ways—if that made sense. Cahill kept his father’s dream alive, as if he were the extension of his will. Adrianna wanted to prove she was as capable as her father was.
    â€œYou should see the other four bedroom suites.” Elda paused to munch on a cookie. “They must look exactly like they did when his brothers and sister moved out two years ago.” She leaned close and said, “But Quin didn’t confide what caused the rift. He did say he planned to leave things as they are. Maybe forever. Who knows?”
    â€œHe told me that his siblings had no intention of running the ranch and they wanted to make their own lives, make their own choices after their parents were gone,” Adrianna said.
    Butler smirked. “So that’s why he didn’t approve of you pulling up stakes and moving to Texas. You did exactly what his family did and he didn’t like it.”
    Adrianna nodded, then grabbed another tasty cookie while the older threesome chitchatted companionably. Leaving them to their reunion, she wandered outside to consult Rocky. After Elda left, she went upstairs to put away the laundry Bea had washed. She gasped in alarm when she noticed a plume of smoke rising in the distance. It looked as if it was coming from the 4C, perhaps near the grove of trees and underbrush where she had located her missing Herefords—and found herself about to succumb to her secret desires for Quin.
    Lurching around, Adrianna bounded down the staircase to alert Bea and Butler. Then she dashed outside toround up her hired hands to help her smother the fire. And blast it, she hoped Quin didn’t believe she was responsible for this latest mischief. Especially not after that steamy incident in the grove of trees. He’d likely think she had tried to lure him in, soften him up, then strike out in another spiteful retaliation.
    â€œFire!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
    Men darted from the corrals, barn and bunkhouse to see her pointing northeast. Adrianna grabbed the nearest saddle horse and a gunnysack that Rocky tossed to her. She raced across the pasture at breakneck speed. By the time she and her men opened the adjoining gate and headed north, six 4C ranch hands galloped over the rolling hill toward them.
    She became the recipient of six accusatory glares. No doubt, gossip in the