Still, there was no way she could keep her gaze from darting to Daniel. He definitely looked as if he belonged on the back of a horse. His posture was relaxed, and yet he seemed completely in control of the entire area around him.
"Do you work all this by yourself?" she finally asked to break the comfortable silence between them.
"Pretty much, although I do hire in or barter for some extra help at different times of the year."
"Must take a lot of work to run a place like this."
He flashed a full smile, and the power of it warmed her from head to toe. "So does waitressing. I guess if you really like what you're doing, it doesn't feel so much like work."
"Point taken," she agreed. "And you love doing this."
He nodded. "It's pretty much all I've ever known, but yes, I love it. I never really wanted to do or be anything else other than a rancher."
"That's what life is all about, finding your happiness," Lizzy replied. "Did your wife like to ride?"
"No." The smile that had warmed his features only seconds before vanished, and Lizzy mentally cursed herself for bringing up a subject that so obviously filled him with sadness.
"It's a beautiful day," she said after she thought too long of a painful silence had reigned. She hoped to bring that smile back to his lips.
"Probably not as nice as those California days you had selling surfboards."
"Sun and surf are vastly overrated, as far as I'm concerned. California is beautiful, but it's not the place for me. Besides, I got tired of the sand. It gets into everything."
"When you've finished with this bucket list of yours, will you return to Chicago?" He looked at her with curiosity.
"Probably," she replied after a short hesitation. She shrugged. "It's what I know, where I grew up. I guess it makes sense for me to end back up there."
"And will you return to the same kind of work you were doing before?"
Lizzy frowned as she thought of going back to the ad agency. "I don't think so. I'm not sure what I'll eventually decide to do, but it will definitely be something that I love and something that gives me time to enjoy things other than work."
"Ready to go a little faster?" he asked.
She flashed him a challenging grin. "However fast life takes me, I'm always more than ready." She swallowed a squeal as Dandy took off at a gallop and Molly gave chase. Lizzy grabbed onto the saddle horn and held on for dear life.
Once again as her body found and meshed with the rhythm of the horse, a thrilling exuberance filled her. They galloped for several minutes. The wind through her hair, her very first gallop on a horse and the sight of Daniel just ahead of her, everything combined to create one of those moments she knew would go on her list of best experiences ever.
Across a fenced area in a separate field, she saw another cowboy on a horse in the distance. Daniel raised a hand in the air in greeting and the other man waved back.
They slowed to a walk once again when they approached a thick grove of trees. He pulled his horse to a stop and Molly stopped, as well.
"That was absolutely thrilling," she exclaimed.
He laughed. "And that wasn't even a run." He dismounted with graceful ease. "There's a stream here and a pretty place I'd like to show you. We'll let the horses take a little breather, take a little walk and then head back. Can you get down on your own?"
He moved closer to Molly's side, and suddenly Lizzy didn't want to get down on her own. She wanted his big, strong arms around her as she slid from the horse's back. She wanted to get up close and personal with the heady cologne and clean maleness that had dizzied her senses whenever he got near her.
"I'm not sure," she said.
"Same way you got up only backwards. Don't be afraid. I'll catch you if you fall."
As she swung her right leg back to dismount, she was actually grateful for his arms reaching up for her as she nearly fell backward.
She felt herself with her back sliding down his broad chest and his big, warm hands on her arms until her feet hit the ground. His nearness felt so good, and there was nothing more she wanted to do than lean back against him and intensify all the crazy, thrilling sensations that danced through her entire body.
He quickly stepped away from her, and when she turned to look at him his face gave nothing away to indicate that he'd felt anything remotely similar to what she'd just experienced. "Let me show you the stream," he said and began to walk on a well-worn path through the trees.
Lizzy followed close behind him, wondering what in the world was wrong with her. Why was she feeling such a sharp edge of desire for a man who was so obviously off-limits? A man whose heart was still so bound to a woman he'd lost.
It was apparently some wild and crazy hormonal thing, some quirk of chemistry that she just needed to ignore. He led her to a small clearing that was bisected by a clear stream. Wildflowers dotted the area and with the full-leaved trees surrounding them, she felt as if she were in a secret garden.
"Oh, Daniel, this is beautiful," Lizzy said.
"My dad used to call this place his chapel." He pointed to a large rock that jutted up from the edge of the trickling clear water. "And that was his thinking rock."
"He sounds like a wonderful man." A wistfulness shot through her as she thought of her own father, who had been reliable only in his complete and utter unreliability. "The two of you were close?"
Daniel nodded. "Both my mom and dad were great." He motioned her to the thinking rock, where she sank down as he leaned with his back against one of the nearby tree trunks.
"And you were an only child?" she asked.
Once again he nodded. "And I'm guessing you were an only child, too."
"Yes, it was just me, although for a while I pretended I had a little sister. I drove my mother crazy, kind of like the imaginary friend scenario." She smiled at the memory. "I made Mom set a place for my sister at the table. She had to be buckled into a seat belt in the car. I even tried to make Mom punish baby sister Sarah for things I had done."
"How did that work for you?" he asked with a touch of humor lighting his eyes.
"As you can imagine, it was never Sarah sitting in time-out, it was always me," she said ruefully.
A bird sang from somewhere nearby and the leaves of the trees whispered with the breeze. "This is such a peaceful place. Do you come here a lot?" she asked.
"I used to. Not so much anymore. Spring is a pretty busy time around the ranch, so it's been a while since I've been here."
"And here I am taking you away from all your work," she replied.
He smiled again, that breathtaking grin that she thought she would never get tired of looking at. "Spring is behind us and summer is here. Summer is the time to kind of kick back and just watch things grow."
"That sounds nice." There were things she'd like to ask him, about his past, about the woman he'd lost, but she told herself that not only did he not seem open to discussing anything like that, she shouldn't want to know anything personal about him. Besides, she didn't want to steal that easy smile from his mouth, see the tension creep back into his shoulders by bringing up uncomfortable subjects.
"Who was that you waved to in the other pasture?" she asked, more to keep the conversation rolling than any real curiosity.
"One of the Benson brothers. Their place is next to mine. Do you know them?"
"Sam and Adam come into the café pretty regularly," she replied.
"There's a third brother, Nick. He's the youngest, but he left town a while back and hasn't been back." Daniel shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "I imagine Mary told you about what happened to my wife and Cherry Benson."
Lizzy nodded. "She told me there was a car accident and both women were killed. I'm so sorry for your loss." The words sounded inadequate even to her ears.
"Thanks. What about you? Any marriages in your past or present?" he asked in an obvious attempt to swerve the conversation away from his tragedy.
"No marriages past or present," she replied. "Not even any close calls."
"Really?
"Oh, there's been a few very brief relationships, but nothing serious."
"Not the marrying kind?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. I guess I haven't met the right man yet, and right now I'm not looking for him."
He pulled his hands from his pockets. "The bucket list."
"Exactly."
They both fell silent, and this time Lizzy didn't feel the need to fill the silence with meaningless chatter. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes and listened to the rush of the wind through the leaves and the murmur of the stream flowing over stones.