The next day was windy and dark with scattered showers preceding the promised storm. Annie's activity in the orchards increased. She and Diego were everywhere, patrolling, digging, hauling and clearing.
Los ojos watched anxiously.
Annie lifted a metal smudge pot from the back of her 4-Runner and hauled it clumsily across the irrigation ditch. She had no thoughts of spirits or anything else except the frost on her precious apple blossoms. But there were eyes watching her.
The tiny pink-white blossoms on skinny bare branches were totally vulnerable at this stage. The forecast promised a dip to below freezing temperatures tonight, a late April storm that could wipe out Annie's entire apple crop for the year. Would those beautiful, little full-of-hope blooms droop and turn brown by midmorning tomorrow?
Por Dios! Not if she could help it!
Determinedly Annie tugged another smudge pot to the line of trees. In theory, the heavy smoke from the kerosene heaters would act as a cloud to insulate the orchard. Actually the smoke raised the temperature only a few degrees, but that could be enough to save a crop.
She heard a rumble and turned around just in time to see J.M.'s truck parking near her 4-Runner. God bless J.M. He'd promised to come help her and here he was. She wished he'd brought more help. She smiled gratefully and waved.
The man who emerged from the truck, however, wasn't Sheriff J.M. Meyer. Oh, he was lean and long legged like J.M. But his jeans were definitely tighter, and he wore no Stetson. When he hopped the irrigation ditch his step was light. He wore brown walking boots, which she noticed because they weren't typical of the cowboy boots most of the local men wore, and they were spit-polished clean. Nobody around here stayed that clean for long.
As he approached she could see that he was as tall as the sheriff but much darker. He wore an expensive haircut. Jet black hair, intense ebony eyes, a coppery complexion and the straight-nosed, thin-lipped face hinted at Spanish and Indian ancestors. He was J.M.'s son all right, but his resemblance favored his beautiful Mexican mother, Rosa.
"Hi, Annie. My dad said you would need some help tonight."
"I sure do," she replied. "By nightfall I'll need all the help I can get." She gazed appreciatively at the man reputed to be a hero. Neither handsome nor good-looking properly described him. Perhaps princely or noble more appropriately applied. "You must be Brett."
He extended a large hand. "My God, have I heard a lot about you, Annie. My dad thinks you hung the moon."
"You're the one who made the TV news." Her work-roughened hand was lost in the strength and noticeable smoothness of his. "And the front page of the Silver Creek Gazette. You're quite a hero around here."
"It's because of my dad. Otherwise, it was just another drug-related incident."
"J.M.'s mighty proud of you. And from what I've read in the newspapers, he has every right to be." For the first time in ages she wished she'd worn work gloves and taken better care of her hands. Self-consciously she slid them into her jacket pockets.
"They both exaggerate." He tossed his head back in a dismissive gesture. The motion reminded her of a stallion chomping at the bit. "I'm just a man doing a job who happened to be unlucky enough to get in the way of a couple of bullets. That's no hero."
Mary Tate Engels, author of more than 30 romance novels, soon to be on ebooks at Amazon.com, also has two non-fiction southwest history books with Texas Tech University Press: Tales from Wide Ruins, Jean and Bill Cousins, Traders; and Corazon Contento – Sonoran Recipes and Stories from the Heart, co-authored with Madeline Gallego Thorpe. She has three sons, two granddaughters, has raised a wolf in her back yard, and has adopted two black cats for good luck
Discover other Amazon titles by Mary Tate Engels at – http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias=digital-text&field-keywords=mary+tate+engels&sprefix=mary+tate
Loves Dawning- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DCB8W0
A Lasting Love - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004D4ZX10
A Rare Breed - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004HZXT9S
Rogue Diamond - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004R9QW52
Speak to the Wind - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004R9Q8YC
Under the Desert Moon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006IXPR7Y
Connect with me online at: www.marytateengels.com
Mary Tate Engels' Author Picture and Profile on Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Tate-Engels/e/B001KMASL8/ref=sr_tc_2_rm?qid=1323186456&sr=1-2-ent
Under The Desert Sky (Desert Sky Series) Page 20