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electricity when she shook his hand that she felt just glancing at Kel. She admired Gun's looks—what living, breathing woman wouldn't?—but admiration was all she felt.

    "It's about time Kel found someone to take over while Grade's off taking care of her daughter," Gun said as he released her hand. "We were all in danger of starving to death."
    "I can see you're down to skin and bones." Megan eyed the width of his shoulders and wondered if she should add another box of spaghetti to the pot.
    Gun's appreciative grin faded as his eyes went over her head to Colleen, who'd just come into the dining room. Something flashed in his eyes, a look Megan couldn't quite identify. Pain? Regret? It was gone too quickly to be sure. Megan turned to look at the girl, seeing all the animation gone from her face, leaving her features stiff.
    "HeUo, CoUeen."
    **Gun." Colleen mumbled his name by way of greeting, her eyes sHding across him without pausing.
    "How are you?"
    * *Fine.'' Colleen's fingers tightened around the stack of plates she was carrying until the knuckles turned white, and Megan half expected to see the china crack. "I'll just go check the spaghetti," she said, when the silence threatened to stretch. She thrust the plates at Megan and turned to hurry from the room, her gait made more awkward by her quick pace.
    Megan turned to set the plates on the table, her eyes skinmiing across Gun Larsen's face as she did so. There was no mistaking the bleak look in his eyes. Whatever the reason for Colleen's reaction to him, it had cut him deeply.
    After the Uttle scene, she was unsurprised when Colleen was almost silent during dinner, her eyes

    rarely leaving her plate. The men's discussion of ranching business served to cover her silence but Megan doubted she was the only one who noticed it. Her curiosity was piqued. If Colleen had been older or Gun younger, she might have suspected a broken love affair. But Gun seemed about the same age as Kel, thirty-five or -six, and she couldn't see Kel tolerating any kind of affair between his nineteen-year-old sister and his friend.
    Megan wondered if she'd be here long enough to find out what the situation was.
    Colleen excused herself almost immediately after dinner, saying she was tired, but Megan would have bet her next week's salary that the girl's departure had less to do with courting Morpheus than it did with avoiding Gun.
    She pondered that thought while she cleaned up the kitchen. The two men had gone down to the bam to check on a mare that was due to foal any day. But they'd both complimented her on the meal before they left. Not that they'd needed to say anything. The fact that each had consumed two huge helpings of spaghetti and meatballs was compliment enough.
    She could grow to like it here, Megan thought as she shut the dishwasher. She delayed turning it on a moment, savoring the absolute quiet of the big old house. No traffic, no neighbor's television or radio, nothing but the rusty sound of crickets scratching out their song.
    Her mouth curving in a soft smile, she flipped the switch and the quiet vanished in the hum of the dishwasher. She wanted this job and it wasn't only be-

    cause of her attraction to Kel Bryan, though she couldn't deny that that had been the driving motivation. She needed what the ranch had to offer—peace and quiet, a chance to hear herself think, time to figure out where her life was going.
    With the kitchen immaculate, Megan wandered through the dining room and into the entryway. She was tired and it wasn't too early to consider going up to her room. A nice warm bath and a good night's sleep sounded lovely. But instead of going upstairs, she pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto the wide front porch.
    Letting the door close quietly behind her, she drew in a deep breath. As she released it, she felt as if she was letting go of all the tensions that seemed a normal part of city living. She'd spent the last year in Los Angeles, long enough for