Hiding Out At The Circle C

'Margaret won't hurt you. Her only thought is Where's my food?' He stood and patted the cow on the head affectionately. 'She's sweet, but not too bright.'

'Margaret? You name your cows?'

He shrugged and gave her that harmless, I'm-so-innocent smile. As if he'd ever been innocent. 'Why not?'

Haley looked at the cow and suddenly couldn't help herself. Never having been within miles of a cow before, she wanted to touch it. Tentatively, she reached out a hand, then whipped it back when Margaret shifted her huge head to gaze balefully at her with those big brown eyes.

'She doesn't see too well,' Cam said. 'But you can touch her. Go on, she won't bite.' He took her wrist, drawing her hand close until she could smooth it over the cow's soft, warm forehead.

She couldn't contain her small smile.

Cam watched her. 'Never touched one before, huh?'

'No,' she admitted.

'Well, for a city girl you're doing okay, then.'

The funny-and sad-thing was, she was no more a city girl than a country one. She truly belonged nowhere. Her entire life had been spent studying, observing and scrutinizing. Locked away from reality, Haley hadn't realized until that very moment that she didn't seem to fit into any one, specific setting.

She didn't belong anywhere. Or to anyone.

Forcing the thought away, she reached again for the cow and just managed not to flinch when Margaret snorted very wetly and noisily. With one last look at Cameron and Haley, the cow slowly lumbered away in search of more grass. Or whatever cows went in search of.

Cameron's eyes sparkled, and she knew he wanted to laugh at her. She liked to think he didn't dare. 'I've got work,' she said with as much dignity as she could manage.

His lips twitched. 'So you've said.' He rocked back on his heels and looked at the perfect sky marred only by a few streaks of white cloud. 'Storm's brewing. We'll have rain tonight.'

She wrinkled her nose, squinting at the sky. 'There're no rain clouds.'

'I can feel it,' he said simply. 'I love the rain.'

She did, too. No matter where she'd lived, whether the rain had beaten against wide, frothy fronds of palm trees, whipped at the desert floor, or streamed down mountainsides, she'd loved it. To find this unlikely common ground set her further off-balance. Purposefully, she picked up her broom and went to move away, but he reached out and took her hand.

'Do you like it here, Haley?'

She glanced down at their joined hands pointedly, hoping he'd take the hint and let go. He didn't, so she pulled free. 'I haven't been here very long. Only a day.'

'All right, then. Could you be happy here?'

The big house stood behind him; wide, open and inviting. She'd never had a home-or a real one, anyway. Boarding schools had been her haven as a child, since her mother had never sent for her and had visited only occasionally. After that had come college. Then her work, which had her either closeted away in a laboratory, or traveling all over the globe. She'd always dreamed of a permanent place to belong… but what would she do with one?

'Haley?' Cam stepped closer, ducking his face to look into hers.

'I don't know,' she said quite honestly. 'I've never really had a place like this to stay before.'

'Where's your home?' His voice, with its low, rich quality, almost lulled her into answering more truthfully than she intended.

'I don't have one.'

He tipped his head, considering. 'Everyone comes from somewhere.'

'Not me.'

His smile faded. 'You're full of secrets, aren't you?'

'Yes,' she said honestly. 'I'm sorry.'

He let out a long, frustrated breath, once again showing that slightly rough, earth edge she'd sensed earlier. 'It's my problem, not yours.' Taking the broom from her hand, he stepped up to the first rug she'd hung and smacked it. Dust swirled and he shook his head. 'I never noticed how dirty these were,' he said a little apologetically. When dust had stopped rising from the rug, he moved to the second.

'Wait! That's my job.'

He twisted to glance at her over his shoulder. 'I'll do it. You look tired.'

She looked tired. 'I'm the housekeeper.'

'It's okay, Haley.' Smack! Smack!

She wrestled the broom from him and blew the hair from her face. 'It's my job. Now go away and leave me to it.'

'Can I watch?' As her eyes narrowed dangerously, he backed up, raising his hands in surrender. 'Wow. You should see how blue your eyes get when you're riled. They're something.'

She thought about wielding the broom as a weapon and bounced it in her hands. 'You've got to have work to do. Go do it. Go ranch.'

'My brothers are doing that.'

'Then go… do something. Make another shelf.'

He grinned in his usual easygoing way as she turned the broom in her hands, holding it like a baseball bat. 'I don't feel like it.'

God save her from lazy cowboys. 'Well, go feel like something. You're in my way.'

The grin spread. 'You like me.'

She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him, listening to him whistle as he sauntered away.

'Oh, and Haley?' he called out. She refused to look at him, but that didn't stop him from yelling, 'Don't scare any more cows. It's not good for milk production.'

His laughter rang out in the cool, afternoon air.

* * *

That night, standing in the kitchen, at a total loss over what to make for dinner, Haley began to panic.

Zach came in. 'Hey, Haley. How's it going?'

'Fine,' she said politely, thankful this brother didn't seem as innately curious as his younger one.

'The house looks great,' he said, proceeding past her to the refrigerator. 'It hasn't been so clean since… Well, ever.' He stuffed an apple into his mouth, grabbed two armfuls of chilled food, and dumped it all on the counter, kicking the door closed with his foot. He smiled around the apple when he noticed her staring, then began to open an assortment of containers.

'What are you doing?'

He pulled the apple from his mouth, taking a huge bite. 'I'm making a sandwich. I'm hungry.'

She moved to his side to protest. 'But I'm going to cook dinner for you.'

'Oh, don't bother for me, thanks. I'm studying.' Another bite, and the apple had nearly disappeared.

'Well, at least let me make whatever it is you're going to make for yourself.'

He shot her a smile. 'You worked hard today, take a break.'

'Dinner's my job,' she protested, watching him make short work of a piece of chicken he found in some foil. Where, she wondered, eyeing his tall, lean body, did he put all that food?

'Nellie and Jason are going out to dinner to be alone,' he said, rolling his eyes. 'Take advantage.'

Nellie's absence explained why Max had been trailing her for the past hour. But it didn't rid Haley of guilt. She had to work. She owed these people everything.

'Cam's in his studio,' Zach continued, starting on the second piece of chicken. 'He'll be there all night.'

She tried not to wonder why the mention of his brother's name made her stomach tingle. 'All night?'

'Yeah.' He pulled out a huge roll that surely one person couldn't eat by himself, especially one who'd already