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.“I moved on and created a whole new life for myself.”“A life that put you in control as a deputy sheriff, but even that wasn’t fulfilling you in the way you’d hoped.Now that life has changed, and with Bobby back in the picture—”She jumped to her feet.“What picture? There is no picture!”“Sweetie, you’re talking to me from inside his bathroom.”Leeann hated when her aunt pointed out the obvious.“Okay, you have a point, but Bobby is not back in my life.I don’t even know if he’s back in town for good.”“From what I’ve heard his house is pretty impressive.”A snort escaped before Leeann could slap a hand over her mouth.“Yeah, that seems to be the word for it, impressive.As in impersonal.Sort of like a cross between an art museum and Little House on the Prairie.”Her aunt laughed.“Sounds like it needs a woman’s touch.”“Not this woman.” Leeann knew exactly where her aunt was going.“I’ve already told you, Bobby and I are just…old friends.We’re not even friends anymore.We’re more like acquaintances.Two people who used to be a part of each other’s lives a long time ago.”“Like I said, he was your first love.”Leeann looked at herself again in the mirror, but remained silent.There was nothing she could say to refute the obvious.“He was your only love.”Her stomach clenched at the truth in her aunt’s words.Her life in New York had been all about work, a social calendar that was more about self-promotion than relaxation and a crazy schedule that left her with little personal time.There had been only a couple of men since Bobby, but none that she ever gave her heart to, and certainly no one in the past six years.“Okay, I need to go, Auntie.I’ll talk to you later.”She felt like a jerk for running her aunt off the phone but talking about the past with everything else she was trying to deal with today wasn’t helping.Deciding it was time to get out of this house, Leeann yanked open the door, stepped into the hall and slammed right into a mountain.“Oh!”She grabbed hold of Dean’s shirt.He steadied her with one hand, the only casualty being a cardboard tube that bounced against the slate flooring.“Boy, you never know who’ll come walking around a corner here.” Dean gave a deep chuckle as he released her.“One minute a real live mannequin wearing little more than a bunch of lace and string strides by and now you!”“Hmm, why do I get the feeling you’re enjoying having a fashion model around to gawk at?” Leeann grinned as Dean bent over and picked up the cylinder.“We’ve got two fashion models in the house.At least according to Bobby’s bright idea.”Leeann rolled her eyes.“He told you about that, huh?”“Don’t be hard on him.He’s just a guy, after all.”“I’ll keep that in mind.”Dean grinned and pointed the tube at the door to her right.“Hey, would you mind putting this in Bobby’s study? They’re breaking for lunch and he’s having some back spasms.I need to give him a quick rubdown.”She took the tube from him.“Sure.”“Thanks, doll.”Dean gave her a wink and took off for what Leeann guessed was the exercise room downstairs.She stepped into the next room, noticing the decorators had continued their mountain lodge/Western theme in here as well.A massive desk sat on the far side of the room in front of an oversize window with a couple of leather chairs nearby.Against one wall was a table holding a two-level miniature replica of Bobby’s house, right down to the grass, flowers and rocks.Wow, that was really neat.The exterior model showed how well the log mansion and the new outer buildings fit into the surrounding mountains and flatlands.It was breathtaking seeing it this way and Leeann realized Bobby had every right to be proud of what he’d built here.Hanging on the wall above the model was an aerial photograph of the house and surrounding land.Leeann could easily see her pond just to the south.She lightly traced her fingers over the bright patch of blue peeking through the trees and the cylinder in her hand tipped upside down.The lid fell off and sheets of rolled paper fell out.“Oh, shoot.”She bent and picked up the thin sheets, noticing they were architectural drawings.The label on the tube read “Murphy Mountain Log Homes,” the company that built this place.Was Bobby looking to do even more building out here?Unable to resist, she spread out the papers on his desk.She could tell it was the large parcel of land down past the outer storage buildings and barn.Thickly forested, it had remained untouched by her family for the four generations they’d owned it, but when a second transparent drawing slid into place over it, a large oval shape blocked out many of the trees and even more buildings dotted the landscape.What was that? My goodness, it looks like a—“So, what do you think?”The sounds of Bobby’s voice had Leeann spinning around.He leaned heavily against the doorjamb, wearing the same faded jeans he’d had on when she first arrived.The flannel shirt was back, too, but now it hung open—revealing a flat stomach—as if he’d just pulled it on.“Ah, I’m sorry.” She waved at the paperwork.“Dean just asked me to drop these off in here, but they fell out of the tube in the process.I should have just put them back, but I was curious.It’s not my place, I shouldn’t have looked at them.”“You’re right.” He entered the room.“But you did and if I know you, you’ve got something to say about them.”Leeann looked back at the drawings.“I’m not even completely sure what I’m looking at.Is that a racetrack?”Bobby nodded.“Regulation size, complete with viewing bleachers and a test facility.I figured with all this land my next plan was to move my racing operation here to Destiny.”Shocked, she dragged the two drawings back and forth across each other.Each time the sight of all those trees and precious open spaces disappearing tore at her heart.Guilt for selling the land filled her.A necessity in order to save her aunt’s life, the money went to pay the exorbitant cancer treatment bills.But what if she hadn’t? Would this area never have been at risk of being destroyed?“Isn’t there something else? Something better you can do with all that land?”“Something better?” He took a step closer.“You know, I bailed on a back rub so I could find you to apologize for earlier—”“Forget the apology.How can you destroy all that forest?”“Because I paid for it?”“And that means you get to do whatever you want with it?”“It’s my land.Unless you’ve got a better idea?” He shoved his fingers through his hair and blew out a frustrated breath.“Jeez, what is with you, huh? You don’t like it that I’m rich, you’ve already decided my racing career is over.I thought maybe we were finally getting— I swear, it’s one step forward, two steps back with you, Lee
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