Page 2 of Treat Her Right

“But I thought you wanted my help?” came the innocent, taunting reply.

“You,” she said back, standing up and dusting herself off with enough force to leave bruises on a less hearty woman, “have done enough.”

Zack tried to see the mysterious Conan, but couldn’t. Her husband? A boyfriend? What kind of name was Conan anyway?

As the woman gained her feet, Dani said in awe, “She’s a giant!”

Chuckling, Zack squeezed her. “She looks as tall as me, doesn’t she, honey?”

His daughter nodded, watching the woman unload the box with jerky, angry movements, rather than try to move it again. Dani laid her head on Zack’s chest, quietly thinking in that way she sometimes did. Zack rubbed her back, waiting to see what she’d say next.

She shocked him speechless by suddenly leaning forward—leaving it up to him to balance her off-balance weight—and cupping her hand to her mouth, she shouted out the window, “Hello!”

The woman turned, looked up with a hand shading her eyes, searching. She spotted them and her frown was replaced by a bright toothy smile. She waved with as much enthusiasm as she’d used to dust her bottom. “Hello there!”

In his underwear, Zack quickly ducked behind the curtain. “Dani,” he said, ready to muzzle his daughter. “What are you doing?”

She wrinkled her little nose at him. “Jus’ being neighborly, like you said I should.”

“That was to the old neighbors. We don’t even know these people yet.”

She wiggled to get down, and when he set her on her feet, she said, “We’ll go meet ’em now.”

Zack caught her by the back of her cotton nightgown as she started to barrel out of the room. “Hold on, little lady. We have breakfast and chores and washing up to do first, right?”

Again, she wrinkled her nose. “Later.”

He almost grinned at her small, sweet hopeful voice—a voice she only used when trying to wrap him around her itty-bitty finger. “Now.”

Disgruntled and grumbling under her breath, she trod back to the window and yelled, “I’ll be out later!”

The woman laughed. It was a nice rich husky sound, much better than her screaming. “I’ll surely still be here.”

Zack looked out, feeling as if he’d landed in the twilight zone. Now that his daughter had drawn attention to them—and the neighbors knew they’d been watched—he couldn’t very well ignore them.

The man from the porch sauntered into the yard, smiling. Zack blinked with yet another surprise. Massive, was the only word for him. Built like a large bulldog, he stood a few inches shorter than the woman, but was twice as thick and all muscle. He lifted an arm as stout as a tree trunk and waved.

“I’m Conan Lane,” he called out, “and this squawking shrew is Wynonna.”

To Zack’s amazement and Dani’s delight, the woman elbowed Conan hard, making him bend double and wheeze, then she corrected sweetly, “Call me Wynn.”

Seeing no hope for it, Zack shouted back, “Zack Grange, and my daughter, Dani.”

“Nice to meet you both!” And then to further exasperate him, Wynn said, “Since we’re all awake and it’s such a beautiful morning, I’ll bring over some coffee so we can get acquainted.”

Zack stammered, unsure how to deny that audacious imposition, but she’d already turned and hurried into her house, the enormous Conan following her. He frowned down at Dani, who shrugged, grinned, and said, “We better get dressed.” And off she dashed, her blanket dragging behind her.

Zack dropped to the side of his bed and scrubbed his hands over his face. He was badly in need of a shave and a long shower. At the moment he had no doubt his eyes were more red than blue. He’d worked twelve grueling hours last night, tended two especially trying emergencies, and he was starved as well as fatigued.

Luckily, this was his day off, which he’d intended to spend shopping with Dani. Because his daughter liked to play hard, and paid no mind at all to the knees of her jeans or the elbows of her shirts, she was desperately in need of new fall clothes.

He did not want to be bothered with outrageous neighbors.

Especially not neighbors who’d awakened him too early and were too damn large. And loud.

Shoving himself off the bed, he determined to get through the next few minutes with as much politeness and forbearance as he could muster.

The doorbell rang not three minutes later. He’d barely had time to pull on jeans and a sweatshirt. He picked up his running shoes, carrying them loosely in his hand. On his way to the door, he peeked in at Dani. She stood there in a T-shirt and blue-flowered panties, surveying her closet with a studious frown.

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