Читать книгу 9 Out Of 10 Women Can't Be Wrong - Cara Colter - Страница 10

“Your brother is a photographer’s dream. And a red-blooded woman’s nightmare.”

“Harriet,” Stacey said sleepily, from the other side of the bed, “Ty doesn’t see you as a red-blooded woman. Go to sleep. He’s going to have us up at five in the morning, because you said you wanted to see them bring in the cattle from the upper pasture. Your enthusiasm for the ranch is beginning to make me very sorry I invited you. I thought we were going to sleep in, watch videos and make pizzas.”

“You can do those things in Calgary,” Harriet said, as if her mind wasn’t solidly locked on the words Ty doesn’t see you as a red-blooded woman.

Why would he? Stacey Jordan’s older brother, Ty, was the most astonishing man Harriet Pendleton had ever seen. He was tall, broad-shouldered, lean and hard-muscled from years of ranch work. His face passed attractive and went straight to sinful. When his eyes rested on her, dark as melted chocolate, Harriet felt the shiver of pure male energy in the air.

Don’t ask, she ordered herself firmly. But a small voice, definitely hers, asked aloud. “Why doesn’t he see me as a red-blooded woman?”

As if she didn’t know. Harriet Pendleton was well aware she was too everything. Too tall, too skinny, too freckled. Add to that crooked teeth, and bottle-bottom eyeglasses. Too ugly.

“Harriet, he doesn’t see you as a red-blooded woman because you’re my friend. He thinks we’re both kids.”

“But I’m older than you!” Harriet protested. “Twenty-two is not a child.”

“So, tell him!” Stacey said grumpily. “And let me go to sleep.”

“Someday,” Harriet said, “I’m going to be a famous photographer and I’ll have enough money to get my teeth fixed and have laser surgery done on my eyes.”

“Harriet, don’t be so silly. You glow. Anyone who knows you, knows how beautiful you are.”

Except your brother.

Harriet and Stacey were roommates at the Alberta College of Art. Harriet was upgrading some photo courses, Stacey was taking commercial art. Stacey had invited Harriet to spend spring break on her brother’s ranch, the Bar ZZ, south of Calgary.

It had sounded like so much fun.

It would have been so much fun, except for him. A man like that made breathing in and out seem difficult. Words caught in Harriet’s throat. She was in such a constant state of blush that he thought her face was naturally beet red. He’d remarked they needed to keep her out of the sun! She was so self-conscious in his presence that she did everything wrong, tripped over her own feet. After she’d fallen and spooked the cattle, he’d remarked they needed to keep her away from the cattle, too.

“He calls me Lady Disaster,” she fretted, out loud.

“He’s teasing you, Harriet! Please go to sleep. Please?”

She willed herself to go to sleep. She promised herself that tomorrow everything would be different. And it was.

The next day Harriet fell off a horse and broke her arm.

Her trip to the Bar ZZ was over, ending in the emergency ward of the tiny High River Hospital. At least she had felt his arms! He had carried her, strong and sure, gently teased her out of her pain.

And then he’d said goodbye.

But when she developed the photographs she had taken, she realized she would never really say goodbye to him.

The photos of Ty shone, as if the man was lit from within. She had done on film what she had no hope of doing in real life. She had captured him.

On the basis of those pictures, she was offered a photo assignment overseas.

And on the basis of a badly bruised heart, she took it….