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cook?”
    Dinah let out a soft, dainty laugh that eased into his ears like music.
    “A little.”
    He didn’t know how to read the grin that slanted her beautiful lips. It could have meant either that she mostly turned vittles into charcoal or that she’d picked up more than her share of kitchen skills along the way.
    “How ’bout you?” she asked, quirking one well-arched brow.
    Josh told her about the many times he’d manned the chuck wagon when his family hadn’t been able to find a cook to accompany them on cattle drives, and he admitted that his talents with trail food were limited to fried potatoes with canned beans and meat. “Never heard a complaint as the men walked away from the fire,” he said, grinning.
    “Well, I have firsthand knowledge of your abilities with biscuits and beef jerky.”
    She punctuated her comment with a merry wink that buzzed through Josh’s veins like a tiny lightning bolt. And when she winced and wriggled in the saddle, he asked, “Been a while since you sat on a horse?”
    “I’ll answer that by asking if you have any liniment in that bag of tricks of yours.”
    “I reckon I can spare a drop or two.”
    Thunder rumbled in the distance, drawing Josh’s attention back to the heavens. And because even the smallest bonnet in the store had been too big for her head, Dinah’s hat caught a draft of wind and drifted up and then down to the ground. Josh brought his horse up, intending to fetch it, but she slid down from her saddle and grabbed it before he could even make the offer. In no time, she was back on the horse, tying a perfect knot under her chin.
    “I was hoping not to need these bothersome ribbons,” she said, frowning slightly, “but unless I want this pretty cap to become a nest for a family of jackrabbits out there in the brush, guess I’d better use them.”
    Chuckling, Josh shook his head. The girl had a knack for making the best of things, no doubt about that. Had a knack for looking pretty in even the plainest of clothes, too. Put that same dull, brown skirt and simple, white shirt on another woman, and the ensemble would look downright dreary.
    Hopefully, she’d keep looking straight ahead. Or up. Anywhere but into his face. For she’d surely wonder what thoughts had turned his cheeks as pink as a silly schoolgirl’s! It had been a long time since a woman had inspired such feelings in him. Two months shy of three years, to be precise. He blamed his mind-set on the tricky ride to San Antonio, when he’d been baked by sun and drenched by rain. On the heartbreaking reason he’d gone there in the first place. On the fact that his promise to deliver Dinah to the Mexican border meant adding a day, maybe more, to his already too-long trip, and the fact that he’d been dog-tired when he’d found her. Or, more accurately, when she’d found him.
    Josh didn’t really regret his decision to accompany Dinah to Mexico. His brain never would have let him rest, wondering about all the awful things that might happen to her, alone in the middle of nowhere. Seeing her safely across the border would ease his conscience, and, maybe, as they traveled together, she’d learn that not every man she met up with wanted to use her as a punching bag. What kind of man would strike a woman? he wondered. Especially one so tiny and delicate and—
    “So, Josh, who’s waiting for you at home?”
    She’d caught him ruminating. Again. Tugging at his hat brim in hopes that it would hide yet another blush, Josh chuckled. “If I named them all, I’d talk myself hoarse.”
    Dinah inhaled a breath so deep, it lifted both of her shoulders. “Oh, Josh, how I envy you!”
    A boyhood memory surfaced from out of nowhere. Once, during a ride into town with Ma, the wind had caught hold of her favorite scarf. Billowing like a white sail, it had soared high into the sky, then fluttered like a wounded dove before settling to the ground. Halting the team, he’d jumped down from the wagon to