Never Say Never (41 page)
Authors: Tina Leonard
Carrie was used to the pain by now, but it didn’t make the hurt any easier to take. She rolled the tyre off to the back of the car and heaved up her spare. Rolling it around to position, she squatted down and prepared to give a big heave up. Then there were two extra hands on the wheel beside hers, and Carrie turned startled blue eyes up to stare at the shadow the sun was making of the man’s face. A glimmer of white blurred in front of her eyes; he must be smiling, she thought hazily. Then the white abruptly disappeared.
He said harshly, “You’re crying. What has made you cry? Did you hurt yourself on something?”
Carrie sniffed angrily, the anger directed at herself, and unreasonably, at him. “I am not crying,” she informed him icily, one corner of her mind whispering to her the word “perverse”. “And,” she continued as she pushed one big hand away, “you must have misunderstood me. I don’t want your help.”
He replied softly, “Oh, I don’t think that I’ve misunderstood you at all. However,” he plucked her up and put her out of the way, still speaking easily, “you’re going to get my help, like it or not.”
He moved back to the wheel and hoisted it smoothly back into place. Then, as she simply stood and watched, he quickly put the nuts into place, twirling them a few times before lowering the car with a few muscle-rippling pumps. He turned back to Carrie. She had herself quite under control by then, and she wore a very patient expression.
That white gleam streaked across his face again and he drawled, “That's better. Think you can finish yourself?” His tone was light, but she noticed a searching look in his eyes as they went over her face.
She lifted one mocking eyebrow and her tone matched his. “I daresay.” There was no evidence of her sadly damaged pride at the too easy tears, or of the dull ache in her chest that had never gone away. She showed this stranger a smooth, cold mask.
He walked over to his side of the road, speaking carelessly over, his shoulder. “Don’t bother to say thank you. It was nothing.”
Temper boiled below the surface of Carrie’s bland face, but she kept it securely battened as she said, quite every bit as dry as he, “My dear fellow, I had no intention of doing so.”
He said nothing, but grinned much like the Cheshire Cat would have, and leaned back against the fender of the Merc. Forcing back a sigh of exasperation, she turned and bent to finish the job of tightening the nuts as tight as she could, very much aware of a dark, watching presence just out of sight behind her left shoulder and telling herself that she disliked it very much indeed. As she gave the last nuts a final twist, the man spoke one more time.
“Be sure to see that someone stronger has a go at tightening those nuts for you when you get home.”
Carrie twirled the jack lever in her hand and couldn’t stop from replying, “You mean you’re not going to do it for me?”
He opened his car door. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” She resisted the temptation and didn’t throw the lever through his windshield as he pulled onto the road and soon disappeared, although she would have very much liked to.
Never Say Never
Tina Leonard
Even a frozen heart can melt in holiday heat.
Dustin Reed has enough on his plate trying to run his ranch while raising his young son alone. The last thing he needs is for his new housekeeper to show up with a tiny baby in her arms.
Jill McCall was all set to make a good first impression on her new boss. But the moment she sets foot on the porch with the infant she discovers on Dustin’s doorstep, the misunderstandings begin. It’s not her baby—someone left it there for
him
.
Dustin can’t find it in his embittered heart to turn either the child or soft, pretty Jill away. And as they settle in, Dustin finds himself envisioning a future with her, the kind of future he stopped hoping for a long time ago. But ranch life is rough, and the fight Dustin faces to keep his own child is about to get even rougher…challenging the notion that Christmas is a season of miracles.
This Retro Romance reprint was originally published in January 1997 by Scarlet Books.
Warning: Contains a hard-hearted rancher, two cute kids, and a feisty woman who melts his heart.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Never Say Never
Copyright © 2013 by Tina Leonard
ISBN: 978-1-61921-845-1
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Kim Killion
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Original Publication by Scarlet Books: January 1997
First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: August 2013
