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across Chance’s rump. “I’d give my right arm to be going with ya, but Wade Henry says I ain’t seasoned enough yet. How’s a man supposed to put any cracks in his chaps if nobody ever lets him sit in a saddle?”
    She didn’t have an answer for that one. She’d been sitting in a saddle since the beginning of time. A hazy memory of riding in front of a tall, blond cowboy lingered in the back of her mind to this day, the only memory that she had of her late father.
    â€œHere comes the rest of the crew now.”
    Annie looked across the yard at a trio of men emerging from the bunkhouse. The first had black hair and brown skin, the second was lean and wiry, and the third was as burly as a buffalo and twice as tall.
    â€œThe Mexican is Emilio. He’s the best roper I ever saw. Can lasso a dragonfly at full gallop. Hope you know some Mexican, though, cause he can’t speak a lick of English.”
    The only Spanish she knew couldn’t be spoken in public.
    â€œAnd that there’s Tex in the middle. He can break a horse like nobody’s business. I once saw him take a mustang down in seven seconds. Flap Jack there is the big feller on the end. He can track a hoot owl in a snow storm. Wait here—I’ll bring ’em ov—uh, I just remembered there’s somethin’ I gotta do.”
    Dogie hadn’t skulked more than a few paces away before the cutting call of his name stopped him in his tracks.
    Annie turned and spotted Corrigan emerging from the stables. It had taken every ounce of will power she owned to ignore him earlier. After the way he’d manipulated himself into her life, she hadn’t trusted herself to look at him, much less carry on a polite conversation with him.
    He wasn’t an easy man to ignore, though. With a voice like thunder and eyes like lightning, Corrigan could make stout-hearted women wilt and fierce-tempered men cringe. Even now, as he strode toward them in a loose-limbed walk, he carried an aura of authority that commanded notice as much as respect.
    And Annie definitely noticed. Damn. She tossed the forgotten saddlebags over Chance’s rump. No man should look so devastating this early in the morning, and wearing simple work clothes to boot! Yet the gray shirt and leather vest he wore stressed the broadness of his chest, and tawny chaps fit over his faded blue jeans with glove-tight perfection. Polished silver spurs banded a pair of dark brown box-toes that had seen plenty of days in a pasture.
    And with that rolled-brimmed, crown-creased “Boss of the Plains” Stetson completing the outfit, the gambler could almost pass for a seasoned horseman.
    A pang of guilt assailed her for the uncharitable thought when he held out a steaming mug of coffee.
    â€œAre you the one making all the noise around here?” he asked Dogie.
    The boy’s face went ashen white. “Just havin’ a chat with Miss Annie,” he said.
    â€œYour chatting can be heard clear across the Mexican border.”
    Annie looked first at Dogie, then at Corrigan.
    Both were speaking in perfectly normal tones.
    Realizing that Dogie wasn’t hard of hearing after all, Annie tightly remarked, “It seems I’ve been made the day’s entertainment.”
    Corrigan’s eyes twinkled. “If it makes you feel any better, he once pulled the same prank on me.”
    It didn’t make her feel better. After the restless night she’d spent, then the confrontation with Corrigan, she was in no humor to be played with.
    Just then, the men joined them. Though they seemed harmless enough, she couldn’t stop herself from retreating a few steps—directly behind Corrigan’s solid back. Annie silently cursed her cowardice, and sidestepped out of his shadow. She thought she’d gotten that weakness under control years ago.
    When he introduced each crew member, Annie returned their nods of greeting with one of her