Rachel nodded. She hoped her face hadn’t gone gooey at the sound of his name.

Stella’s face had gone a little white. “Damn it. I forgot to tell Hal that was for Max. He likes his burgers cooked to an inch of their life. Why he wants to eat a hockey puck, I have no idea, but he’ll shout the place down until we get it right.” Stella started marching toward the dining room. Rachel gamely followed, carrying Max’s refreshed Coke.

“I don’t think he’ll get upset. He seems perfectly reasonable to me. He’s just a little shy.” Rachel wasn’t sure why, but Stella seemed to think that Max was a time bomb waiting to explode. Now that she thought about it, everyone gave Max a wide berth.

Stella turned on a dime, and Rachel had to stop quickly to avoid running into her. “You’re kidding, right? Honey, that man is the bear of the county. Seriously, I have often hoped that someone will shoot him and bring him trussed up to the Big Game dinner we have at the end of the summer. He would probably be too tough to eat. That man is only gentle with horses. If you don’t have a long tail attached to your ass, he’ll tear you apart when you cross him.”

Rachel took a deep breath and continued following her boss. The dining room was filling up. She saw Jen’s ponytail bob as she bounced through to shove her orders at the cook. The younger waitress looked over with a questioning glance. Her eyes followed the track of Rachel’s movements and grew wide. Rachel watched her shrink back and knew there would be no help from that corner.

“Now, Max, this was my fault and not Rachel’s.” Stella acted as though she was approaching a dangerous animal who might pounce at the first given sign of attack. She held her hands out. “I got busy and took two orders after yours and forgot to note your preferences.”

Max looked from his burger to Stella and then to Rachel. He seemed to make a decision. “It’s perfectly fine, Stella. Rachel brought me just what I wanted.”

Stella’s brows came together to form a perfect V on her forehead. “Max, that damn thing is practically still mooing.”

Max waved off her worry. He picked up the burger. “I’m sure it’s perfect.” He took a big bite. Rachel couldn’t help but notice him wince as he bit into the medium-rare burger. He smiled through it. “It’s great,” he said, choking it down. “And it’s got pickles.” He coughed. “Love those pickles.”

“Have you gone insane?” Stella asked, hands on her hips.

Max discreetly used his napkin to rid himself of the offending pickle. When he looked back at Stella, his face was serene once more. “Nope, I’m perfectly sane. Can’t a man change his mind?”

“I’ll take it back to the kitchen, and Hal will burn it just the way you like it.” Stella reached out to grab the plate.

Max pulled it back defensively. “No. Rachel brought it, and I’m going to eat it.”

Stella went still for a moment, then threw back her football-helmet hair. She laughed long and loud. “Damn me, I never thought I’d see the day. I look forward to this, Harper. Paybacks can be hell, you know. Enjoy your undercooked burger, my friend. I’ll be sure to note your newfound appreciation for pickles.”

Stella turned on her stark white-and-red embroidered cowboy boots and walked off. Rachel felt the weight of just about everyone in the diner staring at her. She set the Coke down on the table.

“I can take it back if you like,” Rachel offered with a small grin. He looked a little pale as he tried to eat the burger. Rachel had learned Hal would just lightly sear it if you didn’t give him explicit instructions.

He shook his head, and Rachel admired his short, curly brown hair. It was thick with red and gold threaded through the brown. She really wanted to see if it was as soft as it looked. His masculine jaw was starting to show signs of a five o’clock shadow though it was just past noon.

“It’s fine. I’m not hard to please.” He looked at her directly, and she got the feeling he wasn’t talking about the burger. “As a matter of fact, I’m quite easy.” He reached out and brushed his hand against hers.

Rachel laughed nervously, her skin tingling where he touched it. She suddenly wondered what it would feel like to have that hand on a more intimate part of her body. It was an awfully big hand. “That’s a pretty horse.” Rachel changed the subject quickly because the need to sit in his lap had just become almost too much to bear.

He looked down at the file he’d been studying. There was a gorgeous horse in the picture. “Her name is Sunflower. She’s a quarter horse, and she’s got everything it takes to be an excellent rodeo horse. My client’s daughter is a barrel racer.”

“But?” There had to be a but. She’d learned a little about Max over the past two weeks. He was very good at training difficult horses.

“Well, she kicks everyone who comes near her.” Max’s voice was a deep rumble that rolled over her skin. “It makes it hard to train her, so her owner is sending her to me. It’s what I do, Rachel. See, deep down, Sunflower is really just scared. She doesn’t want to kick and buck every time someone comes near her. She wants love and affection. She wants to please her master. She’s just not sure how. That’s where I come in. I teach her it’s all right to accept love. I gently ease her into the saddle. I show her just how nice it is to let someone special ride her.”

Holy crap, she was getting wet in the middle of the diner. It was like his low, sexy voice had a direct line to her pussy, and everything heated up when he started talking.

“Do you like to ride, Rachel?”

Oh, boy, did she like to ride? Not horses, of course, but she definitely wouldn’t mind a cowboy. She missed riding. It had been a really long time, and part of her thought she might never ride again. “Sure,” was all she managed because her brain was thinking about what it would feel like to ride Max Harper.

Max smiled up at her, a wide grin that made his eyes sparkle. He looked more approachable when he smiled like that. “That’s great, Rachel. What kind of horse did you train on?”

“Oh, I’ve never ridden a horse,” she blurted out without thinking.

Max’s smile turned distinctly seductive. “Then what type of riding were we talking about, darlin’?”

Rachel swallowed and sought an easy way out. She couldn’t do this with him. As gorgeous as he was, she couldn’t flirt and pretend that she was this carefree girl. She must never, never forget what was at stake.

“I have to get back to work.” She turned away from the hottest man she’d ever met. She walked back to the counter, where Stella was talking to Mel Hughes, the resident conspiracy nut. He lived in a small cabin up the mountain but made the trek almost daily to sit at the diner’s counter and visit with Stella. He was completely insane but harmless, Rachel had discovered. He also made the prettiest pottery. Rachel had admired it when she walked through the town’s galleries.

“But, Stella, when I left the house I checked the time,” Mel insisted. “It was 10:21. When I got to the car, it was 10:35. It does not take me fourteen minutes to get to the car. They took me, I tell you.”

Stella looked sympathetic. “Oh, hon, that wasn’t an alien abduction. You just can’t set your clocks right. I’ll come up to your place and make sure all your clocks are in sync, all right?”

Mel leaned in, his voice low and trembling. “Then how do you explain the fact that my backside is very sore in an intimate place? I think they probed me, Stella.”

Rachel fought hard not to giggle. She knew exactly what Stella was about to say. They had this little discussion every couple of days. She walked to the counter and opened the bakery plate.

“They didn’t probe you,” Stella assured him, patting his arm. “You just eat bacon on everything. You need some fiber. Rachel?”

Rachel reached to pass her a bran muffin on a clean plate. She glanced out over the dining room. The muffin fell off the plate as she was completely shocked to see Max Harper talking to a perfect replica of himself.

“Oh my God,” she said in utter horror. “There’s two of him.”

Without missing a beat, Stella got a new muffin. She looked cheery as she followed Rachel’s sight line. “Don’t worry about it, hon. You won’t have to pick. The rumor is they like to share.”

“Not helpful,” Rachel said in a daze. It wasn’t helpful at all.

* * *

“Hey, bro,” a familiar voice said. Max looked up and saw Rye walking in. He nodded and winked at a couple of the regulars before turning a chair around to straddle it with his long legs. He was wearing his sheriff’s uniform and requisite Stetson. Max’s twin politely took his hat off and set it to the side.

“How was Colorado Springs?” Max asked. He wished Rye was still there. He hadn’t expected his brother back for another two days. He’d been attending training sessions at some bigwig crime-fighter convention.

“Boring.” Rye leaned forward and stole a fry. “I could barely stay awake during the lectures on the new traffic laws. Seriously, couldn’t they just give me a pamphlet or something? Three hours of some DPS dude droning on just about killed me. You gonna eat that?” Rye reached out and grabbed the burger. It was halfway down his throat before Max could give his assent.

“Feel free,” Max told his baby brother. “Baby brother” was a misnomer. Rye was exactly two and a half minutes younger than Max, but he was never allowed to forget it. Max pushed the plate toward Rye. He didn’t care about the burger. He was still thinking about Rachel.

He’d come on too strong. He should have known better. He should have taken it easier. She was nervous around him, and he’d come on to her like a horny bull. He’d been very careful around Rachel Swift up to this point. For two whole weeks, he’d watched his temper around her. He’d been excruciatingly polite to everyone in her vicinity. It hadn’t been all that hard. His anger issues seemed to take a nosedive when Rachel’s sweet face was around.