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but he knew exactly how vulnerable a single woman was, no matter how resourceful and independent she tried to be.
    “You really should talk to your brother about it.”
    “I shouldn’t have brought it up. Tell me about you,” she insisted. “Why are you here? In Marietta, I mean. Ranching. ‘Cause that’s a really nice suit and it doesn’t look very old.”
    Her switch to interviewer threw him and he debated pushing her to expound on her own situation, but he could see she wanted to close that door.
    “I got tired,” he replied. “Money’s nice and so is the Caribbean, but frankly, when I finally got time off, the last thing I wanted to do was get on yet another airplane to visit the beach. And the men might as well be cattle for all the ways I had to ride herd. If they so much as grazed the wrong blade of grass, my ass was in a sling. I’m not saying we don’t need environmental laws, but I got tired of micromanaging to enforce them.”
    “And you think there aren’t regulations governing ranching? Gone are the days when you just had to keep the wolves off the herd and drive them to market, you know.”
    “I know. I was on a ranch until I was twenty and saw a lot of changes in those last few years. It’s changed even more since.” He wouldn’t tell her that her remark the other day about going organic had put a bee in his bonnet. He was looking into it.
    “It’s a business,” she reinforced.
    “I happen to have a degree in business.” He wasn’t bragging. It was a fact.
    “There’s also a lot of backbreaking labor,” she cautioned, but a winsome grin and a scan across his shoulders told him that her questioning his strength and willingness to work was a tease.
    “I’ve always been the hands-on type,” he assured her, pleased that she heard the innuendo and blushed.
    “Do you have family in Marietta?” she asked.
    “Other side of the state. Some cousins and an aunt. We get in touch a couple times a year, but I don’t see a lot of them. We all have lives.” He shrugged.
    She nodded.
    The latest bachelor winner caused a huge cheer to go up, making them both look.
    “Oh!” She waved as she saw her companion was shrugging into her coat and looking for her. “I think Liz wants to go. Thanks for the drink.” She gave him a crooked smile. “I mean that. I’m glad we’re okay.” He thought he heard more than a chipper goodbye. She looked like she wished they weren’t cutting this short.
    He wished they weren’t, too. Damn it, why wouldn’t she just come back to his place and let them get where attraction wanted to take them?
    Her friend wound her way through the tables to arrive next to them. She was the poster-child for California Girls with dark blond hair, white teeth, and looks that were glamorous and wholesome at the same time.
    “Sorry to interrupt, but—hi,” she said with a friendly smile.
    “Linc Brady, Liz Flowers. Soon to be Canon,” Meg introduced. “I finally got that sister I asked Santa for when I was five.”
    “And a clumsy niece,” Liz said with an exasperated chuckle. “I just got a text. The girls were using a box cutter to make some backdrops for the play. Nothing life threatening, but Petra needs a couple of stitches. I’m going to run her to the emergency room, but I’ll come back for you. Do you mind?”
    “Oh, um…” Meg had thought Liz wanted to leave for the night. They had dropped Petra at her cousin’s on the way to the auction, so it would only take a minute to collect her and cut across town to the hospital. Meg was done with the auction, but wouldn’t mind finishing her drink with Linc. She glanced at him.
    “I can take you home,” he offered. “I’ll be driving right by.”

Chapter Four
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    M eg hadn’t expected that. Or the way her blood expanded in a big pump of excitement through her veins as she absorbed how close he stood. Glancing up, she found him looking at her mouth. The sizzle in her nerve endings grew sharper.
    “Would