“Oh,it’s beautiful!” Tears stung her eyes. She’d never witnessed anything soprecious in her life. “Will it start nursing right away?”

“Usuallywithin a couple of hours. The mother will clean it up first.”

Thebaby stood on wobbly legs for a few seconds before it nuzzled against itsmother seeking out her nipple. “Oh look! It’s already trying to walk and feed.This has been fabulous. Thank you.”

“Wedidn’t do anything.” Joel’s father chuckled. “The horse did all the work.”

“Butyou allowed me to witness this. I’ve got some great notes for my next book. Ican’t thank you enough.”

“Ourpleasure.” Joel moved closer to her and slipped his arm around her shoulders.“I’m glad you got to watch the birth. She’s the only one we have close todelivery.”

Shesmiled, snuggling into his side to absorb his warmth. The wind seemed to havekicked up a bit, cooling down the heat of the day.

“Howabout we head to the fire so you can get your fill of that, too?”

“I’dlove to.”

“I’llcheck on her later, Dad, if you want me to.”

“Thanks,Joel. I’ll stay with her for a bit to make sure the foal is nursing. If youwant to check her before you head to bed, I would appreciate it.”

“Sure.”

“Havefun by the fire. The weather seems to be cooling down with the wind kickingup.”

“Yeah,you never know about Texas weather in April and May. It can be unpredictable.”

Joelspun her around and headed toward the barn doors with his arm still around hershoulders. The weather had indeed cooled down, and goose bumps rose on her arms—thoughshe wasn’t sure if they were from the wind chill or the sexy cowboy next toher.

Theflames rose into the night sky, stretching like fingers toward the inkyblackness. Several people surrounded the warmth, absorbing the heat into theirfingers by holding their hands or feet out toward the fire. Joel found them acarved out seat made from an old log. The bottom had been smoothed out of thecut log to make a great chair.

“Wouldyou like a couple of marshmallows to roast?”

“Sure.”

“I’llbe right back.” A large picnic table sat nearby with chocolate, marshmallows,and graham crackers for S’mores. “Do you want thewhole fixin’s?”

“No.Just the marshmallow is fine. If I try to make S’mores,they’ll make me sick with all the sweetness. I love chocolate but too muchdoesn’t like me, since I had the chocolate dessert earlier.”

Therich sound of his laughter sent chills down her spine.

“Awoman who can’t handle chocolate. That’s a first for me.”

Heatrose up her neck in embarrassment. It was hard not being able to toleratechocolate too much. She usually had to have a white cake with whipped creamfrosting as a child because her stomach couldn’t handle too much.

Joelreturned to her side with a straight wire holder containing two prongs. With amarshmallow stuck on both ends, it would serve as their roasting stick. “Do likethem barely roasted or black?”

“Sortof dark, but not too burnt.”

Heshook his head and handed her the stick. “Why don’t you roast them and I’ll eatwhatever you fix? I don’t care how they are roasted. I just like the stickysweetness in my mouth.”

Laughing,she shook her head. So much for being the difficult cowboy.He seemed almost too sweet to be true. She needed him to be a little morearrogant and self-centered to be the hero of her novel. Oh well. She couldalways tweak his personality a bit to make him difficult for the heroine todeal with. Ah, the job of a romance writer.

Withinmoments, the marshmallows caught fire and she lifted them toward her mouth toblow out the flames. Just right. Squishy but not burnt. “One for you and onefor me,” she said, holding out the stick so Joel could slide one of the fluffythings off the end of the metal contraption.

“Perfect.”He stuck one between his full lips, grinning like a kid on Christmas.

Herbody tingled in all the important places as he licked the sticky substance offhis fingers. She wanted to lick him all right. Everywhere.

“Aren’tyou going to eat yours?” he asked, winking.

I’d like to eat something. “I’mletting it cool a bit.”

Thegrin grew wider like he knew exactly what she had on her mind. I wanted him a little more arrogant. I gotit.

“Haveyou always been such a ladies’ man?”

“I’vehad my share of women.”

“Ibet you have.”

“Jealous?”

Sheshrugged, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing. “Nah. Just notsurprised, is all. I bet all of your brothers are the same way. The women ofBandera and San Antonio better watch out when you all are on the prowl.”

“WhenI find the one, I won’t be prowling anymore.”

Themarshmallow melted on her tongue as she slid it between her lips. Joel’s lipsparted as one eyebrow arched over his left eye. Damn, he looked sexy as hellwith the little smirk of a smile on his mouth. She wanted to kiss him again.Wanted to do other things with him. Not agood idea.

“Good?”

“Yes,”she whispered, wondering whether she meant him or the marshmallow. The stickysweetness on her fingers had her licking it off as she watched his eyes dilatein the firelight. He sure seemed like he might be a little into her. The wholething seemed weird, though. Surely a guy like him wasn’t attracted to a girllike her. She knew her hips were too wide and her butt seemed a bit too big forher liking. Getting guys like him to notice her didn’t come with instructions.Popular wasn’t an affliction she had growing up. She was the quiet, shy girl. Somethingshe had to get over rather quickly as a writer, since she was in front ofdozens of people at times, but she never quite managed to be outgoing with men.

Jasonsauntered over. “Hey you two.”

“Jason.”

“Wouldyou like more marshmallows, Mesa? You seemed to be enjoying them.”

“Sure.Thanks.”

Jasontook her stick from her hand and headed back to the table.

“Don’tget too close to him.” The serious tone of Joel’s voice had her on edge.

“Close?”

“Imean be careful.”

“Why?He seems like a nice guy. You wouldn’t warn me away from one of your ownbrothers, would you?”

“He’smy brother, yes, and I love him but he likes to play with women.”

“Idon’t understand,” she said, sitting forward on her seat to hear him better.

Joelgrasped her hand in his. “If you want the bad boy for your novel, he’s yourman. He’s more into one-night stands than any of my other brothers. Women arelike playthings for him. He doesn’t get serious about women at all.”

“Youknow, he does sound like the bad boy of the group.”

“Well,we all are to some extent, but he seems like the worst. I don’t know if he’llever settle down.”

“Whydon’t you tell me about each one in turn? Give me details of their lives, theirpersonalities. You know. Those kinds of things. I canmorph all of your personality traits into one kick-ass hero.”

Jasonreturned with her marshmallow stick. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’tlisten to Joel about me. He’s a bit biased because he’s not as attractive as Iam.”

Shelaughed at his words. They were identical in most ways, especially looks. “Youtwo are terrible to tease me like that.”

Thetwo men laughed. Jason sauntered back to his spot, flashing her a wicked grinand a wink from his seat several feet away.

“Okay.You want to know more about each of us. I’ll start with Jeff. He’s the eldestat thirty-four. I already told you he’d been married once before.”

“Yes.”She pulled her pen and paper out to jot down some notes.

“Jeffis Mom and Dad’s pride and joy. The prodigal older son.He helps Dad run things around here. He’s kind of bossy, but he’s a good guy.We all hated when his marriage broke up because he really loved her. On theother hand, we were glad because she wasn’t the right woman for him. I hated tosee him so heartbroken. He’s very adamant about running this place as a workingcattle ranch. He didn’t like when we went to accepting guests here tosupplement the income. Sometimes I think he was born in the wrong time. He’scowboy to the bone. I hate to see the woman he really falls hard for becauseshe better be country through and through to win his heart. He won’t settle forsome high rise, corporate type.”