A sigh of apprehension escaped Kate's dry lips. What was Cole going to say when he got home tomorrow and found out about the two high school boys she'd hired to help for the summer. They were not of the "best" bloodlines certainly. From the inner city, not much better than foundlings. Hard tough city boys who knew nothing about ranches or ranch life.

But that ad in the magazine had been irresistible. In her frustrated maternity, she mothered everything, Cole said. Even the calves and the cats and the dogs and the geese. Stubbornly she clung to the idea that it was a good thing to give a high school boy a job, particularly boys from the city who'd wind up on the street and get into trouble if someone didn't help.

A small voice in her head whispered that she also wanted to convince Cole that genetics weren't all that important. If she could make this experiment work this summer. If Cole got fond of the boys, then maybe he'd listen to reason about adopting a child.

Here she was, surrounded by all the fruits of the earth and she had no bounty of her own. All the animals on the ranch gave birth and multiplied and she alone was barren. Actually she really didn't know if she was the culprit. When the doctor had wanted to do further tests on both of them, Cole had adamantly refused.

Kate straightened up again and blew a long strand of chestnut hair from her sweaty forehead. The angled sun sent an elongated shadow of her across the ground. Short shorts and a sleeveless jersey did not distort the ripe sensuousness of her body. Long, long shapely legs, sleek curved hips, narrow waist and breasts that looked as though they were made for suckling a man's children.