Wild Horses (Sadie's Montana #1)(93)

Should she get down? Or stay up on Paris?

Better to dismount, fix her dress—her dress that was too old and too small. Why in the world hadn’t she taken the time to change?

And then he stood before her, his hands reaching to her shoulders before looking at Reuben and dropping them to his sides.

“Sadie.”

“Mark. Welcome back.”

“Thank you. This is Reuben?”

Reuben nodded happily, his grin literally spreading from one side of his face to the other. All his teeth were shining visibly, his eyes crinkling to a thin line of pure delight.

“Why’d you come back to Montana? I thought you were going to stay in Pennsylvania,” she asked slyly.

Mark laughed good-naturedly. It was a sound Sadie loved.

“Well, Pennsylvania is nice, but Montana is nicer.”

Reuben smiled, and Sadie prayed he would keep his mouth closed.

He didn’t, of course. “I bet! Sadie don’t live in P.A.!”

Sadie cringed when he said “P.A.” Oh, how common! How old-timer-like! He could have at least said “Pennsylvania.”

Mark scuffed the toe of his work boot against a tuft of grass, averting his eyes. Those impossibly thick, black eyelashes swept his cheeks, and he didn’t answer.

Sadie was humiliated to the point of tears. He probably hadn’t come back for her at all, and here was Reuben blatantly throwing her at him, as if he was so sure of the fact that anyone would be glad to be dating his sister.

Mark raised his eyes which were crinkled at the corners, still good-natured, still kind.

“Well, now, Reuben, I don’t know about that. Hey, you think the horses might be thirsty? It’s a warm day. Come on down to the barn. Maybe you can give them a drink.”

Reuben slid off his horse, bounding lightly on his feet, his thick hair lifting and falling.

“Where’s your straw hat?” Mark asked, still grinning.

“Don’t wear one. Can’t. Blows off all the time.”

“Fine by me. Can you take the horses, and I’ll show your sister around my place?”

My place? My place. Oh, my. Mark Peight had bought this property?

Reuben grabbed the reins before Sadie could recover her senses and walked away jauntily, whistling under his breath.

They were alone.

Mark turned to her immediately. She couldn’t breathe properly. It was this dress. It constricted her breathing. She was actually having irregular heartbeats, and there was a rushing sound in her ears.

“Hello.”

That was all he said. She tried not to take a step forward, but she did. Her feet took steps of their own, and she closed the terrible distance between them.

He folded her soft form close to his heart and held her there for the space of a heartbeat, not nearly enough to assure her of his feelings for her.

Why did he pull away so quickly? He must not want her at all, or he would convey his love in the most natural way on earth, to have and to hold. Was she so repulsive to him that he could only hold her for the space of one heartbeat? The loss was too great to bear.

She steeled herself before meeting his brown eyes, willing herself to be strong even in his denial of her.

“You are still so beautiful—even more than I remember.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“I’m back. I bought this place, Sadie. I can’t wait to get started remodeling and fixing it up.”

He gestured toward the barn.

Sadie smiled then.

“It’s actually yours?”

“Well, the bank’s. I have a mortgage, of course. But, yes, it’s mine. I will make my home here in Montana. I love it here, the wide open spaces, the clean air, but most of all, the work I do as a farrier. I get paid well for shoeing horses at these ranches. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. I do other things as well—trim hooves, float teeth… I’m sort of an overall horse guy who helps other people with their animals.”

Sadie nodded, then looked around.

“Where is the house?”

Mark laughed.

“There isn’t one.”

“Where do you stay?”

“In the barn, but just for the summer. I’ll probably have to winter over with my uncle.”

“In … in the barn?”

“I fixed up a room. It’s quite livable, actually.”

There was a yell from the lower end of the barn, and Mark grinned down at Sadie.

“He found it.”

He turned to her then and stepped very close, his hand touching her chin as light as a summer breeze.

“Sadie, before we go to be with Reuben, I have to talk to you. I’m back in Montana because of you. I can’t be away from you—this much I know for sure. The rest … is painful. I need time. My life is a puzzle with most of the pieces lost. I never liked working on jigsaw puzzles with little ones around to lose all the pieces … but … Let’s just say almost all my border pieces are lost. I’m not sure anything good can come of my determination to get you back, but if I don’t try, my life stretches before me like a long, hard road without joy.”

He paused, then gripped her shoulders.

“Please, Sadie.”

What was that look in his brown eyes? So intense. So…

“Mark, I…”