Montana Creeds: Logan by Linda Lael Miller Read Free Book Online

through the lace curtains toward the main ranch house. Saw its lights shining through the trees in the orchard for the first time since she’d moved into Dylan’s place as caretaker-in-residence. The sight was comforting, made her feel less isolated and alone. Not that she meant to get too friendly with Logan Creed—he was easy on the eyes, and she’d liked him right away, even if he did make her nervous, but he was a cowboy.
    Like Vance.
    He’d blown in on a stray wind, like some tumbleweed, Logan had, and he was likely to blow right out again, when the right breeze came along.
    Biting her lower lip, Briana turned away from the window.
    In the distance, the phone jangled.
    She ran to answer, smacking her shin on one of the kitchen chairs as she passed. Wincing, she grabbed up the receiver and said, “Hello? Vance?”
    Silence.
    “Hello?” Briana repeated.
    “It’s Logan,” her neighbor said quietly.
    “Oh,” Briana said.
    “I’ll make this quick, since you’re expecting another call,” Logan replied affably. “I checked out Dylan’s pasture fence, and I don’t think it would hold that bull if he decided to charge. Since I’m planning to do a lot of work around the place anyway, I’m having new posts and rails put in. Just thought I’d let you know before the work crews showed up.”
    I’m not expecting another call.
That was what Briana wanted to say, but she couldn’t bring herself to let on that she was glad he’d phoned, glad to hear another adult human voice on a dark summer night. He’d think she was needy if she did. In the market for a man.
    “Did you clear that with Dylan?” she said instead, rubbing her bruised shin, and then wished she’d gone the needy route anyway. That would have been better than the unintentionally snippy way she’d put the question.
    Logan waited a beat before answering, to let her know he’d registered the tone. “I don’t imagine he’d object, since I’m footing the bill. If that bull got out and did some damage, it would be Dylan’s hide the lawyers nailed to the barn wall, not mine.”
    The thought of Cimarron running amok, with Josh or Alec in his path, pushed all concerns about how she might have sounded to Logan right out of Briana’s mind. Having watched hundreds of rodeos in her time, she’d seen bulls send cowboys and clowns into midair somersaults and, once or twice, cave in their rib cages when they landed.
    “You really think he could get loose? Cimarron, I mean?”
    “Yeah,” Logan replied. She heard
Isn’t that what I just said?
in his intonation, though that part went unspoken.
    “Oh my God,” Briana murmured, closing her eyes. Child care was hard to find in Stillwater Springs, so when she couldn’t take the boys to work with her, leaving them to study or play handheld video games in the casino’s coffee shop, she left them home to play,study or do chores. They had strict orders to call at any sign of a problem, and stay close to the house while she was away, but they were boys, after all. Lively and adventurous. She knew they probably ranged over most of the ranch when she wasn’t around.
    “Is something wrong?” Logan asked moderately.
    “I was just worrying,” Briana said, trying to smile, though she couldn’t think why, since she was alone in the kitchen and Logan couldn’t see her. “It’s a mother thing.”
    “I’ll take care of the fence,” Logan assured her. “In the meantime, see that the boys stay clear of Cimarron.” A pause. “Dylan did warn you about the bears, didn’t he?”
    Briana gulped. “Bears?”
    “They like to raid the orchard every now and then,” Logan said.
    “In two years,” Briana said, her stomach doing a slow backward roll, “I haven’t seen a single bear.”
    “They’re around,” Logan replied. “Mostly browns and blacks, but there is the occasional grizzly, too, and they’re bad news.”
    “G-Grizzlies?” Briana echoed stupidly.
    Logan sighed. “Dylan should have told