Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
31
Unbidden, an image of Jake Dalton flitted across her
mind, all lean strength and rumpled sexiness and she
sighed. Jake should be at the top of the list of Daltons
to avoid, she decided. He had always been the hardest
for her to read and the one she had most in common
with, as they had both chosen careers in medicine.
For various reasons, there had always been an odd
bond between them, fragile and tenuous but still there.
She would just have to do her best while she was home
to ignore it.
A tractor suddenly rumbled into view, and she was
grateful for the distraction from thoughts of entirely
too-sexy doctors.
She craned her neck, expecting to see her tío Guillermo,
her father’s bachelor brother who had run the
ranch for Viviana since Abel’s death. Instead, she was
stunned to find her mother looking tiny and fragile atop
the rumbling John Deere.
Ranch wives were bred tough in the West, andViviana
was no different—tougher than some, even. Still, the
sight of her atop the big tractor was unexpected.
Viviana waved with cheerful enthusiasm when she
spied Maggie in the garden. The tractor shuddered to a
stop and a moment later her mother hopped down with
a spryness that disguised her fifty-five years and hurried
toward her.
“Lena! How are you feeling this morning?”
“Better.”
“You should be resting after your long drive. I did not
expect you to be up so early.You should go back to bed!”
Here was the coddling she had expected and she