Read Online Two Alone by Sandra Brown - Free Book Online Page A

offered her another piece of the meat, which she tore into as though she'd been eating fresh, unseasoned roasted rabbit c ooked over an open fire every day of her life.
    "I ranch," Cooper replied.
    "Cattle?"
    "Some. Horses mostly"
    "Where?"
    "Rogers Gap."
    "Where's that?"
    "In the Sierra Nevada."
    "Never heard of it."
    "I'm not surprised."
    " Can you make a living a t just ranching?''
    "I do all right."
    "Is Rogers G ap close to Bishop? Do people ski there?"
    "We have a f ew runs. Serious skiers consider them a real chall e nge. Personally I think they're some of the most spectacular in the continent."
    "Then why haven't I ever heard of this place?"
    " We're a carefully guarded secret and want to remain that way. We don't advertise."
    " Why?" Her interest was piqued. She never passed up an opportunity to locate new and interesting property for her clients in invest in. "With the right developer handling it, you could make something out of Rogers Gap. If it's as good for skiing as you say, it could become the next Aspen."
    " G od forbid," he said under his breath. "That's the point. We don't want to be put on the map. We don't want our mountains littered with concrete condos or the peaceful community in t he overrun by a bunch of pushing, shoving, rude skiers from Beve rly Hills who are more interested in modeling their Rodeo D rive duds than preserving our landscape."
    D o e s everyone in town hold to this philosophy?"
    " Fortun ately, yes, or they wouldn't be living there. We don't have much going for us except the scenery and the tranquility ."
    Sh e tossed her denuded bones into the fire. "You sound like a hold over from t he sixties."
    " I am. "
    Her eyes were teasing. "Were you a flower child, advocating universal harmony? Did you march for peace and participate in war protests?"
    "No," he replied sharply. Rust y's goading grin collapsed. "I couldn’ t wait to join up. I wanted to go to war. I was too ignorant to realize that I would have to kill people or get killed myself. I hadn’t bargained on getting captured and imprisoned. But I did. After seven months in that stinking hole, I escaped and came home a hero."
    He practically snarled the last sentence. "The guys in that P OW camp would have killed each other for a meal like the one you just ate." His gray eyes looked like glittering knife-blades as they sliced toward her. "So I'm not overwhelmed by your Beverly Hills glitz and glamour, Miss Carlson."
    He stood up abruptly. "I'm going for more water. Don't wander off."
    Don't wander off, she silently mimicked. All right, he had put her in her place, but she wasn't going to wear sackcloth and ashes for the rest of her life. Lots of men had fought in Vietnam and returned to lead happy, productive lives. It was Cooper's own fault if he was maladjusted. He thrived on his own bitterness. That's what fueled him. He nursed it. He cultivated his quarrel with society because he felt it owed him something.
    Maybe it did. But it wasn't her fault. She wasn't responsible for whatever misfortune had befallen him. Just because he walked around with a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Everest didn't make him a worthier human being than she was.
    He returned, but they maintained a hostile silence while she drank her fill of water from the thermos. Just as wordlessly, he assisted her as she hobbled out of the clearing for a few minutes of privacy. When he eased her back down onto the thick pallet, which had become the nucleus of their world, he said, "I need to check your leg. Hold the flashlight for me."
    She watched as he unbound the bandages and pulled them back to reveal a jagged, uneven row of stitches. She stared at it in horror, but he seemed pleased with his handiwork. With his hand s around her calf muscles, he raised her leg to inspect it c loser. "No signs of new infection. Swelling's gone down." "The scar," she whispered roughly.
    H e looked up at her. "There wasn't much I could do about that." His lower lip thinned