She wiggled uncomfortably under his scrutiny, then finally swallowed a bit of pizza before demanding, "What are you looking at?"

"You."

She flushed, fidgeted some more, giving herself away. "Why?"

He simply grinned and continued eating, undisturbed, relaxing now that he knew the truth… she was secretly crazy about him.

A comfortable silence filled the room as they ate. They were all sitting on the freshly cleaned living room floor, before a warm, crackling fire, eating picnic-style.

That they didn't have four chairs in the kitchen wasn't the point. The sisters just loved being together, and they were willing to share that with him-and he wanted their one and only possession for himself.

"I didn't come to eat," he said quietly, putting down his pizza.

"Really," Zoe said dryly, brushing off her hands. "I never would have guessed." Her eyes sharpened on him. "You being here wouldn't by any chance have anything to do with you wanting this land, would it?"

Chapter 3

"Zoe, be nice," Maddie said lightly. She swiveled her head, her short, dark hair flying around her face, her dark, deep eyes warm with affection as she spoke to Ty. "She's a bully today because that jerk at the bank in Lewiston didn't hire her." She looked at Zoe again and reached for her sister's hand. "He just didn't recognize a treasure when he found one, that's all."

Zoe swallowed, closed her eyes for a long heartbeat, clearly touched, and just as clearly uncomfortable with Maddie's easy love.

Ty's curiosity upped a notch, so did a strange sense of protectiveness. The drive to Lewiston was long and never easy in the best of times. "Why did you want a job there? It's too far for you to drive it every day."

Zoe recovered from Maddie's affection in the blink of an eye and looked at him as if he were something she'd scraped off the bottom of her shoe. "It's funny how expensive this habit of eating is."

"I wish you wouldn't, Zoe," Delia said quietly. "We'll find a way. We'll sell something, or get a loan."

"Delia's right," Maddie insisted. "We'll make it work together or not at all."

Ty watched the three of them, felt their closeness as a tangible thing.

And it was, he reminded himself. These women were family. They were closer than family, for they'd chosen to be related. He'd chosen to be unrelated to the family he had left. It'd been for a good reason, that reason being survival basically, but the fact remained. He had no one.

God, he missed Ben.

Drawing in a deep breath, he realized the truth he'd only guessed at before. These women couldn't afford to get the ranch going, but they were too stubborn to give up. They might never leave and sell him the land. There was only one thing to do.

"I came here tonight to talk to all of you," he said. Zoe frowned, Maddie's brow wrinkled in worry. Delia sat calmly, waiting. Typical, he thought. The pessimist, the worrier, the cool one. Already, they were worming their way into his affections. He couldn't stand the thought of any of them being hurt.

That it was him trying to hurt them was unbearable. "I'd like to be your partner," he said.

That was met with stunned silence.

"You're already manager," Zoe said suspiciously.

And how she hated that. "This would be different. I'd be an equal partner. I'd share the losses."

"And the profits," she pointed out.

"Well, yes."

They all stared at him, three pairs of wide eyes, as if he'd lost his marbles.

"Hey, this is a good thing, ladies," he said, smiling into their pensive silence. "You want a ranch. You don't have the needed capital. I do. It would give you money to survive on until you got your stock built up through purchases and breeding."

"Wait a minute. Did you say breeding?" Delia carefully set down her drink. "Here?"

She said breeding as if it were a four-letter word, and it made Ty laugh. Delia was a city girl, born and bred. Los Angeles was her playground. Hell, she probably did think breeding was a bad word.

Once upon a time he had felt stifled in a city, claustrophobic. Chicago was a place where one couldn't even turn around without bumping elbows with a neighbor, and he had resented that. Ben had, too, and for as long as he could remember, Ty had wanted out.

He needed open space. Fresh air. His own land, lots of it.

What he needed was their land.

"And you have enough money just lying around that you could lend it to us," Zoe said, with serious doubt.

"Yes." He hadn't gotten it by inheritance, that much was certain. His mother had been a whore, his father a career criminal. He didn't have any relatives who would leave him a time bomb, much less something of value. He'd simply been very successful at raising and training horses, investing his profits wisely, making the most of what he'd earned.

"And how much is this going to cost us?" Zoe asked. "In say… land?"

Trust her to speak so bluntly. "I'm not going to cheat you out of anything, Zoe. Ever."

Her eyes, the color of drenched moss in the dim light, stared at him warily, unwilling to believe, which hurt in a way he hadn't expected.

"Well, I for one know you'd never hurt us," Delia said gently as she scooted around the pizza to put her arm on his shoulders. She squeezed him. "We just don't want to take your money, that's all."

"It wouldn't be right," Maddie said, smiling sweetly and patting his knee. "You keep it for yourself, Ty."

He couldn't believe it, but his throat actually tightened at their easy affection and trust. He hugged Delia back, and touched Maddie's lovely face. Something about the heat warring with fear in Zoe's eyes kept his hands off her, for she wasn't as simple to show easy affection to as her sisters.

But he wanted to touch her, the need shocked him. "I can help," he said instead. "You expected this place to be up and running."

"But, Ty, we hadn't decided that we were definitely going to… breed," Delia pointed out.

Ty had spent every summer since he was ten on a series of ranches in "the country," really just a suburb of Chicago. At first he'd been sent there by the city officials because no one had wanted the trouble-causing boy he'd been. He'd been worked hard, and he had grown to love every minute of it, while still pretending to hate it

Then later he'd gone willingly, taking Ben, feeling more at home in the great outdoors than anywhere else. He loved horses, loved all animals, and had begged, borrowed and practically stolen to make Ben's fantasy of ranching come true.

It had to be in one's blood to make this hard living work. And if it wasn't in these women's blood, they'd go away and he would buy the land. Then they'd all win.

"Let me get this straight." Zoe studied him carefully. "You want to be involved as a partner, not just to manage, but to own a part of it."

"Yep."

"You want to control it."

Her mistrust was palpable, and he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her to make her this way. "I wouldn't even attempt to control you, Zoe," he said softly, everything else fading away but this woman with the beautiful and so-unsure eyes. "If that's what you're thinking."

"You couldn't, anyway," she said, lifting her chin.

"It snows here in the wintertime," Delia said shakily.

"Quite a bit," Ty told her.

"If we had a bunch of animals here, we wouldn't be able to head south for warmer weather."

"You'll love cross-country skiing. I'll teach you," Ty said, shocked to discover he meant it. But they were leaving soon. He was counting on it, he reminded himself.

"Oh Lord," Delia murmured, rubbing her head. "It just hit me. The wilds. We're really living in the wilds."

"Eighty-three thousand square miles of wonder," he confirmed. "That's Idaho. There's no place more wild in the U.S., except for maybe Alaska."

Delia moaned.

"Well, it's not like we're camping," Maddie pointed out in her quiet, infinite wisdom. "You have electricity for your hair dryer, Delia. A tub for your bubble bath."

Zoe let loose enough to laugh, the sound unexpectedly light and happy. Her tense face transposed, softened… and took Ty's breath away. He couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Skiing," Zoe murmured a bit dreamily. "I've always wanted to try it."

The yearning in her voice tugged at him. "You're in, Slim?"

He knew what the stakes were for her, Delia had told him. After years of going to college at night while working full-time during the day, Zoe had finally gotten her business degree. Would she be happy running a ranch when a cool, easy living was all she'd ever wanted?

"And you're going to stick with us?" she wondered. "No matter what?"

They were still watching each other, so that there was no hiding what flickered between them. Honesty, fear. Need. Startling need. "I'm going to stick, no matter what," he said.

He saw the moment his response registered. The promise he was making. Saw, too, her fierce disbelief, and he experienced a strange urge to pound whoever had hurt her so badly in her past, whoever had caused Zoe to accept a promise, any promise, with such mistrust.

"Well, I think you'd make a good partner," Maddie said softly, with a shy smile. "But only if Delia and Zoe agree."

Delia's wide gaze whipped to Maddie. She was so uncustomarily ruffled she forgot to pretend she wasn't.

"I promise to make sure all the amenities run smoothly," Ty said seriously, though he wanted to sigh in relief. They'd never stay long, and while he might actually miss them, he convinced himself he was doing them a favor. "I'll even build a Jacuzzi, Delia. Just for you."

"Oh, really?" She beamed. "You really will?"

"Promise."

"Okay, but I won't raise pigs. Or kill anything that makes red meat," Delia said firmly.

"No problem. We can start with horses if you'd like." Delia flipped back her hair and took a deep, calming breath. "Oh God. Okay. I'm in, too. Maddie's right. You'd be a great partner. Zoe?"

All eyes flew to Zoe, including Ty's. She looked at him, unusually intense.

And again that strange, inexplicable communication happened between them. She was looking for honesty and he'd claimed to have given it, but he hadn't, not fully.

He was counting on them leaving and guilt hit hard.

She deserved more, but unfortunately he couldn't give it.

The room was thick with unspoken hopes and dreams. Ty watched Zoe, waited while that current tugged between them.

Stubbornness set her jaw, and he knew from the sudden disappointment filling him what her answer would be before she even spoke.

"You know what?" she said softly. "We'll do this, we'll manage to get this ranch running, but we can do it on our own. We won't be a burden to anyone."

"I never said you'd be a burden," he said carefully. What had given him away? Had she read his guilt for what it was? "I offered."

"Zoe, I-" Delia pinched her mouth closed at the look of determination on Zoe's face. "Never mind. You're right."

Maddie sighed, then smiled and took Zoe's hand, effectively disarming the tension. "Thanks, Ty, for offering." She spoke softly but firmly, sparing one last glance for her still-silent and brooding sister. "But we'll be fine."

They were united, together. Reluctant admiration shot through Ty. Seems they had grit after all.

Then he looked at Zoe, who was looking at him with a definite challenging light. He felt his blood stir to meet that challenge. They would still work together. After all, he was manager of their property for the next year whether they liked it or not. It would be interesting, to say the least, considering she was stubborn to the last drop.

So was he.

"But Ty, honey?" Delia smiled beguilingly. "Think I could still have that Jacuzzi?"


* * *

Zoe took a walk after dinner in the cold night, desperately in need of some perspective, which she couldn't get being in the same room with the enigmatic, sexy Ty Jackson.

Leaving Ty happily and easily charming Maddie and Celia, she stomped along. Why did he do that? she wondered. He certainly didn't bother with any charm when it came to her, yet with her sisters, he poured it on. It wasn't fake, either, which also confused her. No, when he spoke to Maddie or Delia his eyes were warm and relaxed, his manner genuine and easygoing yet somehow protective.

But she wasn't fooled.

Letting her pent-up energy take her where it would, she roamed. In daylight, Triple M was too gorgeous to believe. Behind the house, there were the three peaks, behind them more mountains for as far as the eye could see. The fertile black soil was covered with lush growth. Tall green grass, myriad colors of wildflowers, the azure-blue sky, the deeper blue of the raging river, and interspersed among it all were the two rustic red barns, the ranch house and a series of run-down cottages.