Burned by a Kiss by Tina Leonard Read Free Book Online Page B

tell my sister you were coming out.” He sighed. “I was going to, but I got sidetracked.” He’d chickened out, he realized, and Sierra had paid the price. And Nick.
    “No problem. I understand.” Nick sipped his coffee, and Santana had to work really hard to remember that he wasn’t supposed to like this guy. There was no reason to like him. They were on opposite sides of a very messed up situation. But Nick seemed determined to let all the bad vibes wash right over him.
    “She doesn’t know I called you. But I think it’s best if I walk you through some things, since you’re—”
    “New to town,” Nick finished, when Santana had been unable to say the new owner of our ranch . “I get it. I appreciate you meeting me.”
    They finished their food, and Santana waited for the check. Mary’s cheeks turned a bit pink as she handed him the slip.
    “I’m sorry as hell about my mouth earlier, Mary,” he said.
    “Don’t think another thing of it,” Mary said quickly.
    Nick handed her a credit card. “I’m buying. It’s the least I can do.”
    “That’s not necessary—” Santana began.
    Mary grabbed the card. “What a courteous thing to do,” she said, hurrying off with his plastic.
    Santana drummed his fingers on the table, unable to look at the man he’d invited to town. He thought about Emma again, and how stunned she’d looked by the new turn of events.
    “You didn’t have to move out so quickly,” Nick said. “According to the trust, you had another six months.”
    “It was better this way.” He rose, thinking ties to the past were sometimes better cut quickly and efficiently. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”
    • • •
    Emma was surprised when Santana showed up at the clinic just as she was leaving. “Hi,” she said, acting as if her heart hadn’t just started beating weirdly.
    “Thought I might take you to dinner. If you’re available.” He cleared his throat. “I’d sure like to.”
    She swallowed, not certain why he was asking. He’d been so distant today at lunch. “Any particular reason?”
    “Sierra asked me to,” he said, and right then, Emma knew this wasn’t a romantic dinner request.
    What was new about that? “I have to pass. Thanks, though. I’ve got to exercise the dogs, feed the cat, tend the glass menagerie.” She stopped, blushing. “God, that sounds nerdy. I really didn’t mean to say that.”
    He smiled, for the first time since she’d seen him that day. “Come out with me. Sierra will chew my ear off if you don’t.”
    “Make a girl feel good, why don’t you?” She hopped in his truck when he unlocked the passenger side door. “So you’re going to help me walk animals, give me a chance to shower, and then take me to dinner because your sister asked you to? It’s a lot of work for a simple dinner.”
    “Yeah, well. Sierra says I owe you a meal because I was such a jerk at lunch.”
    She pulled down the visor so she could look at herself, winding her hair up a bit tighter into its typical ponytail. “I didn’t think you were a jerk. Things have changed in your life, and I understand. Anyway, I’m used to you being sort of out of reach.”
    He took the road toward her house. “Out of reach?”
    “Yeah. You were the guy all the girls had a crush on in high school. But apparently you rarely dated unless there was some kind of dance coming up.”
    “I was not the town’s most sought-after bachelor, but thanks for trying to sell me that way. My ego likes it, even if it’s not true.”
    He was very sought-after then, and no doubt now, as all the Dark men had been. For that matter, the local boys had loved Sierra—not that Sierra had been more than friends with any of them. “So what’s so important that Sierra can’t ask me herself?”
    “My sister hasn’t been herself since—since we found out everything.”
    “I can imagine,” Emma murmured.
    “So now she’s decided to open this wedding shop.”
    “Sounds like a lovely