Playing with Fire

"Run," Randi whispered. Lucy sprinted for the door, fearing that at any moment she would hear a gunshot, killing the only family she had. Randi, her best friend, her sister of the heart had put herself between the man with the gun and her. She ran for help, to Archer, the man Randi loved. Alex, Archer beside him, caught her as she leapt off the porch and into his arms, words pouring out of her. The men moved into action as the gunman dragged Randi from the house and into a pasture housing a cantankerous donkey. The animal attacked. Randi escaped. When it was over, Lucy sat in the living room, trying to relax as her world changed with each breath she drew. For Randi's sake, she had come to Live Oak. She was wearing boots and they weren't the dressy kind. These were real boots with mud on them. She woke up to cows mooing and that damn donkey that just saved Randi's life braying. The man beside her, Archer's best friend, Alex Weston was a fine example of the male of the species and if he hadn't been Archer's friend, she just might have taken him up on the challenge he represented. However, he was a farmer and she was a city girl. Live Oak was an okay place to visit if she didn't mind giving up lattes, her shoe boutiques, and expensive restaurants. Yes, Alex had picked her up in his own plane when he had brought her north from South Florida. In spite of driving a tractor in his own fields, he didn't match her idea of a farmer. Although handsome as a sexy film star, he was still not her type of man. She was not a woman built for home and hearth. His roots were buried deep in the north Florida soil. What's a woman to do? Especially when that woman had to rebuild her life from the ground up in a new city, with a new job in an area of the state about which she knew very little. Add in finding and making a new home and her plate was overflowing with complications. Alex was the biggest complication of all. He made her question her life and all her decisions. He challenged her and she so loved a challenge. Most important of all, he understood the games she played and showed her just how well he could play games too.