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with a silent apology. “Why?” She hoped it wasn’t for the reasons she’d left Lyle.
    Wyatt shrugged. “She didn’t like it out here. She was raised in the city. There wasn’t enough to do.”
    “Did it hurt when she left?”
    Wyatt was quiet for a moment, and she thought at first he wasn’t going to answer. “I suppose so. But she’d been threatening it for so long that I expected it. I’d already told myself not to bond with her. She’d never been very maternal. I think what I hated most about it was what it did to my dad.”
    “I’d never leave someone like that,” she said. “It doesn’t sound like he did anything wrong.”
    Wyatt frowned. “Nothing except choosing the ranch over her, I guess. Anyway, enough about me. How are you liking the ranch?”
    She grinned. “I like it a lot. I’ve never been so happy. If I’d known it would be like this, I would have fought you a lot harder for that job.”
    “Good,” he said. “Wayne tells me you’re quite an asset. That you can calm the horses like no one else can.”
    “Horses like me,” she said, reaching down to stroke Rose’s mane. “And I like them. They don’t hurt anyone. Not on purpose. Not like people.”
    He nodded tightly. She sensed he didn’t like when she talked about what had happened to her. But he never told her not to, and she appreciated it.
    She felt, out here in the fresh air, with more freedom than she’d ever had in her life, she was coming out of the shell she’d been trapped in and was finally feeling like a person.
    And, when Wyatt was around, like a woman.
    “I like this a lot,” he said, trotting ahead of her. “Let’s do this more often.”
    She nodded, urging her horse to catch up and laughing as they rode alongside each other into a wide meadow pasture where there was plenty of room to run.

6
    A week or so later , when Wyatt came to the barn for their usual ride, Valerie actually felt her heart skip a beat at his presence.
    “Beautiful day,” he said, leaning against the barn wall and looking around. “The trees are turning. Our rides are going to just keep getting better. Well, until winter.” He gave her a bright smile, one that nearly knocked her on her butt. “I guess we better get in every good ride we can.”
    “Don’t you have a big group over at the lodge right now?” she asked, combing Rose’s hair gently. “I understand if you can’t come out for rides as often.”
    His brow lowered impatiently. “No. I hired someone to manage the social stuff at the lodge. I just don’t have the time. I’ve been doing too much on my own for too long.”
    “Who?” she asked.
    “John,” he said with a grin.
    She rolled her eyes. “Really? But he’s so lazy.”
    “Yeah, but he likes people. And he’s good with social stuff. And all he has to do is run card games and movies and shuttle them around when they aren’t looking to do horse stuff. And since this is just some business conference, I don’t expect them to do much but eat and talk.”
    She looked at him sidelong. “And you’d rather spend time with me.”
    “Yup,” he said, pulling on a pair of riding gloves. “So where to today?”
    She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
    He was wearing a fitted flannel shirt, a cocked tan cowboy hat, and tight jeans that tucked into snakeskin boots. His blond hair was tufted by the wind and his golden eyes were calm and serene.
    He looked gorgeous today, as usual.
    “It’s going to be a good fall,” he said. “We have some bookings, but not too many. I’m looking to hire another person to help with concierge, but that’ll take a few weeks. People do like coming out here in the winter. For the views.”
    “I’m sure,” she said hesitantly.
    He went on, oblivious to the awkwardness between them. Damn her for being a naive, innocent woman who had to start falling for the one man who was nice to her.
    Even if she couldn’t do anything about it.
    “You good riding in the