Read Online Wild Heat (Northern Fire) by Lucy Monroe - Free Book Online Page A

might be taller than average, but he was still two inches shorter than Tack.
    And he never let Egan forget it.
    Egan glared, looking like he was getting ready to deliver something harder than an easy backhand.
    “Are you saying he has the muscles of a grizzly bear?” Kitty asked, smoothing things between the brothers just that fast.
    Just like she used to when they were kids.
    “No way.” Egan looked properly horrified. “That might be a compliment.”
    Kitty looked Tack over like a musher buying a new dog for her sled. “But not too far off the mark. You’ve grown into an impressive man, Tack.”
    She wasn’t trying to be sexy—her tone was too matter-of-fact—but damn if having her eyes on him wasn’t making his jeans too tight at the fly again.
    “ Aana can’t get him married off, so I’m not sure the women around here agree with you,” Egan suggested. The little shit.
    Kitty brushed past Tack, heading back to his office. “Marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
    Egan gave Tack a look.
    Tack didn’t bother to answer it. He was too busy trying to mask his reaction to that very brief, very casual touch.
    Kitty came out of his office with her purse. “I need to get back to the Knit and Pearl.”
    Tack nodded, his throat dry.
    “Do I have the job?” she asked.
    “Yes, but I don’t want you wearing yourself out. You work the hours out with Miz Alma.”
    “Of course I will.” The words were right, but somehow Tack didn’t think Kitty meant them the way he wanted her to.
    She wasn’t going to give herself a break. It wasn’t her way. Miz Moya had raised her granddaughter to be independent and strong. Those traits were still there inside of Kitty, even if she didn’t realize it.
    He would just have to watch for signs of fatigue. He’d call Miz Alma himself if he needed to.
    *  *  *
    “She needs a friend,” Egan said quietly from beside Tack after Kitty left, carrying a now empty cake plate.
    “I know.”
    “Do you?”
    Tack turned to face his brother. “What do you mean?”
    “You loved her, when you went down to college together in the Lower Forty-Eight.”
    “Do you have a point?” He wouldn’t deny the truth, but he’d never said it out loud and sure wasn’t going to do it today.
    “She broke your heart once; don’t give her a chance to do it again.” Egan’s dark eyes were shadowed with concern, his mouth set in a serious line.
    “I’ve got no plans to let her at my heart.” Again.
    “Hey, guys, why so serious?” Bobby came out of the room with a copy machine and the table he and Egan used for doing paperwork.
    Choosing not to comment on Bobby’s question, Tack asked, “Do we need to get a desk or something in here for Kitty?”
    “Wait. What?” Bobby asked. “Why would Miss Grant need a desk?”
    “We’re hiring her as a part-time receptionist. Lucky you, she’ll be helping with phones and paperwork.”
    “That’s great,” Bobby said with all the enthusiasm of a teenager who just found out he didn’t have homework.
    “So, a desk?” Tack asked again.
    Egan shrugged. “Maybe. Probably.”
    Bobby nodded his agreement. “Women like their own space. Just ask Jenna.”
    Bobby’s older sister was a force to be reckoned with. If she said women liked their own space, then Tack was inclined to believe it.
    “Think we can get a desk in Kenai?” He had commissioned the one in his office from his father. They didn’t have the six months minimum it would take to commission another one.
    “I think so, if we’re not worried about getting real wood. There’s that office supply store by the airport,” Egan said. “They’ve got some desks.”
    Bobby whistled. “Granddad is going to have a fit if you two bring prefab furniture in here.”
    “We can’t wait until next year for it.” But Tack was pretty sure his cousin was right.
    Egan frowned. “We should at least tell him what we need.”
    “So, call him.” Granddad would know if someone in the family