Love Among the Llamas by Annie Reed Read Free Book Online Page B

behind a clump of sagebrush and
hope I didn't run into a rattlesnake. Why, again, had I thought
driving across the Nevada desert in the middle of the day without
any kind of provisions or plan or even a change of clothes was a
good idea?
    "Lead the way," I said.
    It turned out the llama rancher had a dusty
old pickup truck, no surprise, but his ranch house looked like any
other suburban house I'd ever been in.
    "It's pretty new," he said to me. "I've got
a buddy who's a developer in Fernley. He was doing pretty good
until the housing market went bust, so I hired him to build me a
new place. What do you think?"
    "I think I'm back in Reno," I said. But in
an upscale neighborhood. The house had high ceilings and spacious
rooms, tiled floors, and a magnificent view of the desert landscape
out of floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. Even the
bathroom was upscale, with an open area shower instead of a
walled-in stall or a dinky little tub.
    And that was the guest bathroom.
    I tried not to snoop too much while I used
his bathroom. The place was surprisingly neat for a man's house.
Not that all men were slobs, but I didn't think every man who kept
a scented candle on a holder in his guest bathroom. I sighed. He
was either gay or married, and either option left me feeling more
disappointed than I should have been. After all, I was just passing
through, and the only reason I'd stopped was for the llamas,
right?
    Of which I'd only seen the one.
    My Sam Elliott look-a-like llama rancher was
in the living room when I got done. "So where do you keep the rest
of your llamas?" I asked. I'd followed his truck down a rutted dirt
road nearly a half mile before I realized it was his driveway. The
fields on both sides of the driveway had sheep in them, but no
llamas that I could see.
    "The rest?"
    "The sign did say Lighting Llamas," I said.
"Not Lightning Llama."
    He nodded at me and grinned. "Got me there."
He gestured toward the bank of windows. "There's another field out
back, over that little rise. I have four llamas back there, a male
and three females. This time next year I hope to have seven."
    I tried to see a a boundary fence and
realized I couldn't. "How much land do you have here?"
    "A little over eighty acres."
    Wow.
    "And you live here all alone?"
    I'd peeked inside his medicine cabinet – I
couldn't help myself – and there hadn't been anything feminine on
the shelves. No eye shadow, no lipstick, no makeup of any kind. Not
that that meant anything. I mean, it was the guest bathroom.
    His grin turned into a full-out smile, the
kind of slow smile that said he knew I'd peeked and he wasn't upset
about it. "Yup," he said. "Hazen's not exactly a hot spot for
meeting women, and I work too hard to make the drive into Fernley
more than once or twice a month. The only reason I saw you down by
the highway today was because I was riding the fence line, checking
for breaks."

    He was standing pretty close to me now, but
I wasn't picking up any serial killer vibes. The vibes I was
getting were all first-date nerves type of vibes. Not that I'd been
on a first date in a long time, but I dimly remembered the feeling,
and I was pretty sure this was it.
    "You check the fence line in your truck? I
thought ranchers rode a horse to do that."
    He chuckled. He had a nice chuckle, I
decided.
    "You've seen too many movies," he said.
"Truck's faster and I don't have to clean up after it."
    "Good point."
    He tilted his head a little to look at me
like he was giving me a serious once-over. I couldn't quite read
his expression yet, but I liked whatever expression it was I saw in
his hazel eyes. "You're not like any other woman I've ever met," he
said finally.
    "Because I like Dexter ?"
    "Nope." He drew just a little closer.
"Because you stopped to see my llamas, and you haven't complained
once about only seeing the one."
    True. Of course, right about now llamas were
the last thing on my mind. The first thing on my mind was how nice
he smelled, even