Read Online Only Hers by Francis Ray - Free Book Online Page A

as spry as a woman half her age. Let her get an attitude. He could fix his own supper. Shannon Johnson was no concern of his.
    “I came to say good-bye, Wade, and to thank you,” Shannon whispered as she stood amidst an array of wildflowers in the meadow. “I wish things could have ended differently.”
    She swallowed. The lump in her throat refused to budge. She hadn’t ached this much since the day she lost her grandfather. Then, as now, she felt adrift, lost. Her family and friends hadn’t been able to help, nothing had, and now she wasn’t sure what would.
    Hands clenched, she took one last look at the rustic cabin and walked to her car. Matt didn’t want her around, and pushing the issue would solve nothing. She didn’t have the time or the heart for a nasty court battle. And it would get nasty.
    Matt might not be aware of it, but once he began proceedings to contest Wade’s will, their private disagreement would become public knowledge. Both the Taggart and Johnson families were too well known and too prominent for the story not to grab attention.
    News that Wade had left his former nurse, a single younger woman, a valuable section of his ranch and that his nephew was hotly contesting the will would send the media into a frenzy. Unfortunately some people were as suspicious as Matt and they would think the worst about her friendship with Wade. Wade’s reputation would suffer, and the man who Wade had asked her to help would have another reason to mistrust women.
    A horse neighed. Automatically she turned in the directionthe sound had come from. Her heart stopped, then redoubled its beat. Matt, his signature black Stetson pulled low, sat on a horse fifty yards away watching her.
    She’d know those broad shoulders and muscular build anywhere. She didn’t have to see his face to know it was unrelenting in its disapproval. Whoever the woman was in his past, she had done more than “bruise his heart,” as Wade had put it. She had wounded his soul.
    Fumbling fingers opened her car door. Within seconds she was heading back down the road. Cowardly as it was, she didn’t want another confrontation with Matt. Thank goodness she had put her bags in her car before she drove to the lawyer’s office. She had intended to say good-bye to Octavia and thank her in person for making her feel welcome. A letter would have to suffice.
    Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw that Matt remained unmoved on his stallion. At least she hadn’t had to suffer the humiliation of falling apart in front of him. She just wished she knew where she went from here.
    With one arm draped over the open door of the refrigerator, Matt studied the well-stocked interior. Bone-weary, he couldn’t decide if a hot shower or hot food called to him more. Every muscle in his body ached, but he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and it was past nine at night.
    Questing fingers lifted the corner of a foil-sealed glass dish. Roast beef. Recovering Sunday’s leftovers, he picked up a quart-size plastic-covered bowl.
    “I need you to take me into town,” Octavia said from behind him. “My grandson has my car.”
    Having heard the housekeeper’s heavy treads on the linoleum floor, Matt didn’t even glance around. Instead, he tilted the clear container in his hand, recognized sliced canned peaches.
    “It’s important,” Octavia continued, her voice strained.
    “Riding in my truck might aggravate your arthritis.”
    “Shannon is in room twelve of the Paradise” came the tight-lipped reply.
    His hand paused inches from the meat drawer. Broad shoulders tensed. The Paradise, known around town as the “no-tell-motel,” had rates that were hourly and cheap. It was just the kind of place his ex-wife had frequented with men who could buy her the things Matt couldn’t. So he had been right about Shannon after all. Something in his gut twisted.
    He opened the meat drawer, then shoved it shut with more force than necessary. If his life had depended