A man worth waiting for… Tough, handsome, dangerous… He is…

ONE OF A KIND

Two international bestselling authors

deliver two dramatic, emotional

stories featuring their trademark

gorgeous heroes.

ONE OF A KIND

Lionhearted

DIANA PALMER

Letters to Kelly

SUZANNE BROCKMANN

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Lionhearted

DIANA PALMER

Dear Reader,

With this book, the Hart brothers of Jacobsville are all happily married and building families. For me, it’s very sad to see the last Hart bachelor tie the knot, because their biscuit mania gave me some wonderful story lines. However, as with all things, we have to move on.

I have hinted in past books about the impish Janie Brewster, and she caught the wedding bouquets at both Micah Steele’s and Rey Hart’s weddings – so I thought that would give you the idea that she was fated to marry rather soon. What I didn’t realise was how wild a story she and Leo would have when they started getting serious. I think I spent most of the book laughing while it unfolded daily on my computer screen. My husband is now convinced that I’m nuts, having had his Western movies on TV almost constantly interrupted by maniacal laughter from the direction of my office! Talk about the patience of Job! After having put up with me and my profession for over a quarter of a century, he’s no stranger to my quirks. I could never have gone so far without him – and without all of you. When I count all my blessings, I don’t sleep. It’s a long list.

I hope you like Leo’s story. He has a really rocky road to the altar, and Janie shows him that she’s no shrinking daisy! Another interesting little sidebar that popped up was Cash Grier. I didn’t actually plan to put him in this book, but he was suddenly there and refused to leave. You don’t argue with a guy like this, so I let him do pretty much what he wanted.

Thank you, as always, for years of loyalty and kindness and prayers. You know already that I am your biggest fan.

Love,

Diana Palmer

To the FAO Schwarz gang on Peachtree Road,

Atlanta, and at the Internet Customer

Service Department.

Thanks!

Prologue

Leo Hart felt alone in the world. The last of his bachelor brothers, Rey, had gotten married and moved out of the house almost a year ago. That left Leo, alone, with an arthritic housekeeper who came in two days a week and threatened to retire every day. If she did, Leo would be left without a biscuit to his name, or even a hope of getting another one unless he went to a restaurant every morning for breakfast. Considering his work schedule, that was impractical.

He leaned back in the swivel chair at his desk in the office he now shared with no one. He was happy for his brothers. Most of them had families now, except newly married Rey. Simon and Tira had two little boys. Cag and Tess had a boy. Corrigan and Dorie had a boy and a baby girl. When he looked back, Leo realized that women had been a missing commodity in his life of late. It was late September. Roundup was just over, and there had been so much going on at the ranch, with business, that he’d hardly had time for a night out. He was feeling it.

Even as he considered his loneliness, the phone rang.

“Why don’t you come over for supper?” Rey asked when he picked up the receiver.

“Listen,” Leo drawled, grinning, “you don’t invite your brother over to dinner on your honeymoon.”

“We got married after Christmas last year,” Rey pointed out.

“Like I said, you’re still on your honeymoon,” came the amused reply. “Thanks. But I’ve got too much to do.”

“Work doesn’t make up for a love life.”

“You’d know,” Leo chuckled.

“Okay. But the invitation’s open, whenever you want to accept it.”

“Thanks. I mean it.”

“Sure.”

The line went dead. Leo put the receiver down and stretched hugely, bunching the hard muscles in his upper arms. He was the boss as much as his brothers on their five ranch properties, but he did a lot of the daily physical labor that went with cattle raising, and his tall, powerful body was evidence of it. He wondered sometimes if he didn’t work that hard to keep deep-buried needs at bay. In his younger days, women had flocked around him, and he hadn’t been slow to accept sensual invitations. But he was in his thirties now, and casual interludes were no longer satisfying.

He’d planned to have a quiet weekend at home, but Marilee Morgan, a close friend of Janie Brewster’s, had cajoled him into taking her up to Houston for dinner and to see a ballet she had tickets for. He was partial to ballet, and Marilee explained that she couldn’t drive herself because her car was in the shop. She was easy on the eyes, and she was sophisticated. Not that Leo was tempted to let himself be finagled into any sort of intimacy with her. He didn’t want her carrying tales of his private life to Janie, who had an obvious and uncomfortable crush on him.

He knew that Marilee would never have asked him to take her any place in Jacobsville, Texas, because it was a small town and news of the date would inevitably get back to Janie. It might help show the girl that Leo was a free agent, but it wouldn’t help his friendship with Fred Brewster to know that Leo was playing fast and loose with Janie’s best friend. Some best friend, he thought privately.

But taking Marilee out would have one really good consequence—it would get him out of a dinner date at the Brewsters’ house. He and Fred Brewster were friends and business associates, and he enjoyed the time he spent with the older man. Well, except for two members of his family, he amended darkly. He didn’t like Fred’s sister, Lydia. She was a busybody who had highfalutin ideas. Fortunately, she was hardly ever around and she didn’t live with Fred. He had mixed feelings about Fred’s daughter Janie, who was twenty-one and bristling with psychology advice after her graduation from a junior college in that subject. She’d made Cag furious with her analyses of his food preferences, and Leo was becoming adept at avoiding invitations that would put him in her line of fire.

Not that she was bad looking. She had long, thick light brown hair and a neat little figure. But she also had a crush on Leo, which was very visible. He considered her totally unacceptable as a playmate for a man his age, and he knocked back her attempts at flirting with lazy skill. He’d known her since she was ten and wearing braces on her teeth. It was hard to get that image out of his mind.

Besides, she couldn’t cook. Her rubber chicken dinners were infamous locally, and her biscuits could be classified as lethal weapons.

Thinking about those biscuits made him pick up the phone and dial Marilee.

She was curt when she picked up the phone, but the minute he spoke, her voice softened.

“Well, hello, Leo,” she said huskily.

“What time do you want me to pick you up Saturday night?”

There was a faint hesitation. “You won’t, uh, mention this to Janie?”

“I have as little contact with Janie as I can. You know that,” he said impatiently.

“Just checking,” she teased, but she sounded worried. “I’ll be ready to leave about six.”

“Suppose I pick you up at five and we’ll have supper in Houston before the ballet?”

“Wonderful! I’ll look forward to it. See you then.”

“See you.”

He hung up, but picked up the receiver again and dialed the Brewsters’ number.

As luck would have it, Janie answered.

“Hi, Janie,” he said pleasantly.

“Hi, Leo,” she replied breathlessly. “Want to talk to Dad?”

“You’ll do,” he replied. “I have to cancel for dinner Saturday. I’ve got a date.”

There was the faintest pause. It was almost imperceptible. “I see.”

“Sorry, but it’s a long-standing one,” he lied. “I can’t get out of it. I forgot when I accepted your dad’s invitation. Can you give him my apologies?”

“Of course,” she told him. “Have a good time.”

She sounded strange. He hesitated. “Something wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing at all! Nice talking to you, Leo. Bye.”

Janie Brewster hung up and closed her eyes, sick with disappointment. She’d planned a perfect menu. She’d practiced all week on a special chicken dish that was tender and succulent. She’d practiced an exquisite crème brûlée as well, which was Leo’s favorite dessert. She could even use the little tool to caramelize the sugar topping, which had taken a while to perfect. All that work, and for nothing. She’d have been willing to bet that Leo hadn’t had a date for that night already. He’d made one deliberately, to get out of the engagement.

She sat down beside the hall table, her apron almost stiff with flour, her face white with dustings of it, her hair disheveled. She was anything but the picture of a perfect date. And wasn’t it just her luck? For the past year, she’d mounted a real campaign to get Leo to notice her. She’d flirted with him shamelessly at Micah Steele’s wedding to Callie Kirby, until a stabbing scowl had turned her shy. It had angered him that she’d caught the bouquet Callie had thrown. It had embarrassed her that he glared so angrily at her. Months later, she’d tried, shyly, every wile she had on him, with no success. She couldn’t cook and she was not much more than a fashion plate, according to her best friend, Marilee, who was trying to help her catch Leo. Marilee had plenty of advice, things Leo had mentioned that he didn’t like about Janie, and Janie was trying her best to improve in the areas he’d mentioned. She was even out on the ranch for the first time in her life, trying to get used to horses and cattle and dust and dirt. But if she couldn’t get Leo to the house to show him her new skills, she didn’t have a lot of hope.

“Who was that on the phone?” Hettie, their housekeeper, called from the staircase. “Was it Mr. Fred?”

“No. It was Leo. He can’t come Saturday night. He’s got a date.”

“Oh.” Hettie smiled sympathetically. “There will be other dinners, darlin’.”

“Of course there will,” Janie said and smiled back. She got out of the chair. “Well, I’ll just make it for you and me and Dad,” she said, with disappointment plain in her voice.

“It isn’t as if Leo has any obligation to spend his weekends with us, just because he does a lot of business with Mr. Fred,” Hettie reminded her gently. “He’s a good man. A little old for you, though,” she added hesitantly.

Janie didn’t answer her. She just smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

Leo showered, shaved, dressed to the hilt and got into the new black Lincoln sports car he’d just bought. Next year’s model, and fast as lightning. He was due for a night on the town. And missing Janie’s famous rubber chicken wasn’t going to disappoint him one bit.

His conscience did nag him, though, oddly. Maybe it was just hearing Janie’s friend, Marilee, harp on the girl all the time. In the past week, she’d started telling him some disturbing things that Janie had said about him. He was going to have to be more careful around Janie. He didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. He had no interest in her at all. She was just a kid.

He glanced in the lighted mirror over the steering wheel before he left the sprawling Hart Ranch. He had thick blond-streaked brown hair, a broad forehead, a slightly crooked nose and high cheekbones. But his teeth were good and strong, and he had a square jaw and a nice wide mouth. He wasn’t all that handsome, but compared to most of his brothers, he was a hunk. He chuckled at that rare conceit and closed the mirror. He was rich enough that his looks didn’t matter.

He didn’t fool himself that Marilee would have found him all that attractive without his bankroll. But she was pretty and he didn’t mind taking her to Houston and showing her off, like the fishing trophies he displayed on the walls of his study. A man had to have his little vanities, he told himself. But he thought about Janie’s disappointment when he didn’t show up for supper, her pain if she ever found out her best friend was stabbing her in the back, and he hated the guilt he felt.

He put on his seat belt, put the car in gear, and took off down the long driveway. He didn’t have any reason to feel guilty, he told himself firmly. He was a bachelor, and he’d never done one single thing to give Janie Brewster the impression that he wanted to be the man in her life. Besides, he’d been on his own too long. A cultural evening in Houston was just the thing to cure the blues.

Chapter One

Leo Hart was half out of humor. It had been a long week as it was, and now he was faced with trying to comfort his neighbor, Fred Brewster, who’d just lost the prize young Salers bull that Leo had wanted to buy. The bull was the offspring of a grand champion whose purchase had figured largely in Leo’s improved cross-breeding program. He felt as sad as Fred seemed to.

“He was fine yesterday,” Fred said heavily, wiping sweat off his narrow brow as the two men surveyed the bull in the pasture. The huge creature was lying dead on its side, not a mark on it. “I’m not the only rancher who’s ever lost a prize bull, but these are damned suspicious circumstances.”

“They are,” Leo agreed grimly, his dark eyes surveying the bull. “It’s just a thought, but you haven’t had a problem with an employee, have you? Christabel Gaines said they just had a bull die of unknown causes. This happened after they fired a man named Jack Clark a couple of weeks ago. He’s working for Duke Wright now, driving a cattle truck.”

“Judd Dunn said it wasn’t unknown causes that killed the bull, it was bloat. Judd’s a Texas Ranger,” Fred reminded him. ''If there was sabotage on the ranch he co-owns with Christabel, I think he’d know it. No, Christabel had that young bull in a pasture with a lot of clover and she hadn’t primed him on hay or tannin-containing forage beforehand. She won’t use antibiotics, either, which would have helped prevent trouble. Even so, you can treat bloat if you catch it in time. It was bad luck that they didn’t check that pasture, but Christabel’s shorthanded and she’s back at the vocational school full-time, too. Not much time to check on livestock.”

“They had four other bulls that were still alive,” Leo pointed out, scowling.

Fred shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t like clover, or weren’t in the same pasture.” He shook his head. “I’m fairly sure their bull died of bloat. That’s what Judd thinks, anyway. He says Christabel’s unsettled by having those movie people coming next month to work out a shooting schedule on the ranch and she’s the only one who thinks there was foul play.” Fred rubbed a hand through his silver hair. “But to answer your question—yes, I did wonder about a disgruntled ex-employee, but I haven’t fired anybody in over two years. So you can count out vengeance. And it wasn’t bloat. My stock gets antibiotics.”

“Don’t say that out loud,” Leo chuckled. “If the Tremaynes hear you, there’ll be a fight.”

“It’s my ranch. I run it my way.” Fred looked sadly toward the bull again. He was having financial woes the likes of which he’d never faced. He was too proud to tell Leo the extent of it. “This bull is a hell of a loss right now, too, with my breeding program under way. He wasn’t insured, so I can’t afford to replace him. Well, not just yet,” he amended, because he didn’t want Leo to think he was nearly broke.

“That’s one problem we can solve,” Leo replied. “I’ve got that beautiful Salers bull I bought two years ago, but it’s time I replaced him. I’d have loved to have had yours, but while I’m looking for a replacement, you can borrow mine for your breeding season.”

“Leo, I can’t let you do that,” Fred began, overwhelmed by the offer. He knew very well what that bull’s services cost.

Leo held up a big hand and grinned. “Sure you can. I’ve got an angle. I get first pick of your young bulls next spring.”

“You devil, you,” Fred said, chuckling. “All right, all right. On that condition, I’ll take him and be much obliged. But I’d feel better if there was a man sitting up with him at night to guard him.”

Leo stretched sore muscles, pushing his Stetson back over his blond-streaked brown hair. It was late September, but still very hot in Jacobsville, which was in southeastern Texas. He’d been helping move bulls all morning, and he was tired. “We can take care of security for him,” Leo said easily. “I’ve got two cowboys banged up in accidents who can’t work cattle. They’re still on my payroll, so they can sit over here and guard my bull while they recuperate.”

“And we’ll feed them,” Fred said.

Leo chuckled. “Now that’s what I call a real nice solution. One of them,” he confided, “eats for three men.”

“I won’t mind.” His eyes went back to the still bull one more time. “He was the best bull, Leo. I had so many hopes for him.”

“I know. But there are other champion-sired Salers bulls,” Leo said.

“Sure. But not one like that one,” he gestured toward the animal. “He had such beautiful conformation—” He broke off as a movement to one side caught his attention. He turned, leaned forward and then gaped at his approaching daughter. “Janie?” he asked, as if he wasn’t sure of her identity.

Janie Brewster had light brown hair and green eyes. She’d tried going blond once, but these days her hair was its natural color. Straight, thick and sleek, it hung to her waist. She had a nice figure, a little on the slender side, and pretty little pert breasts. She even had nice legs. But anyone looking at her right now could be forgiven for mistaking her for a young bull rider.

She was covered with mud from head to toe. Even her hair was caked with it. She had a saddle over one thin shoulder, leaning forward to take its weight. The separation between her boots and jeans was imperceptible. Her blouse and arms were likewise. Only her eyes were visible, her eyebrows streaked where the mud had been haphazardly wiped away.

“Hi, Daddy,” she muttered as she walked past them with a forced smile. “Hi, Leo. Nice day.”

Leo’s dark eyes were wide-open, like Fred’s. He couldn’t even manage words. He nodded, and kept gaping at the mud doll walking past.

“What have you been doing?” Fred shouted after his only child.

“Just riding around,” she said gaily.

“Riding around,” Fred murmured to himself as she trailed mud onto the porch and stopped there, calling for their housekeeper. “I can’t remember the last time I saw her on a horse,” he added.

“Neither can I,” Leo was forced to admit.

Fred shook his head. “She has these spells lately,” he said absently. “First it was baling hay. She went out with four of the hands and came home covered in dust and thorns. Then she took up dipping cattle.” He cleared his throat. “Better to forget that altogether. Now it’s riding. I don’t know what the hell’s got into her. She was all geared up to transfer to a four-year college and get on with her psychology degree. Then all of a sudden, she announces that she’s going to learn ranching.” He threw up his hands. “I’ll never understand children. Will you?” he asked Leo.

Leo chuckled. “Don’t ask me. Fatherhood is one role in life I have no desire to play. Listen, about my bull,” he continued. “I’ll have him trucked right over, and the men will come with him. If you have any more problems, you just let me know.”

Fred was relieved. The Harts owned five ranches. Nobody had more clout than they did, politically and financially. The loan of that bull would help him recoup his losses and get back on his feet. Leo was a gentleman. “I’m damned grateful, Leo. We’ve been having hard times lately.”

Leo only smiled. He knew that the Brewsters were having a bad time financially. He and Fred had swapped and traded bulls for years—although less expensive ones than Fred’s dead Salers bull—and they frequently did business together. He was glad he could help.

He did wonder about Janie’s odd behavior. She’d spent weeks trying to vamp him with low-cut blouses and dresses. She was always around when he came to see Fred on business, waiting in the living room in a seductive pose. Not that Janie even knew how to be seductive, he told himself amusedly. She was twenty-one, but hardly in the class with her friend Marilee Morgan, who was only four years older than Janie but could give Mata Hari lessons in seduction.

He wondered if Marilee had been coaching her in tomboyish antics. That would be amusing, because lately Marilee had been using Janie’s tactics on him. The former tom-boy-turned-debutante had even finagled him into taking her out to eat in Houston. He wondered if Janie knew. Sometimes friends could become your worst enemy, he thought. Luckily Janie only had a crush on him, which would wear itself out all the faster once she knew he had gone out with her best friend. Janie was far too young for him, and not only in age. The sooner she realized it, the better. Besides, he didn’t like her new competitive spirit. Why was she trying to compete with her father in ranch management all of a sudden? Was it a liberation thing? She’d never shown any such inclination before, and her new appearance was appalling. The one thing Leo had admired about her was the elegance and sophistication with which she dressed. Janie in muddy jeans was a complete turnoff.

He left Fred at the pasture and drove back to the ranch, his mind already on ways and means to find out what had caused that healthy bull’s sudden demise.

Janie was listening to their housekeeper’s tirade through the bathroom door.

“I’ll clean it all up, Hettie,” she promised. “It’s just dirt. It will come out.”

“It’s red mud! It will never come out!” Hettie was grumbling. “You’ll be red from head to toe forever! People will mistake you for that nineteenth-century Kiowa, Satanta, who painted everything he owned red, even his horse!”

Janie laughed as she stripped off the rest of her clothes and stepped into the shower. Besides being a keen student of Western history, Hettie was all fire and wind, and she’d blow out soon. She was such a sweetheart. Janie’s mother had died years ago, leaving behind Janie and her father and Hettie—and Aunt Lydia who lived in Jacobsville. Fortunately, Aunt Lydia only visited infrequently. She was so very house-proud, so clothes conscious, so debutante! She was just like Janie’s late mother, in fact, who had raised Janie to be a little flower blossom in a world of independent, strong women. She spared a thought for her mother’s horror if she could have lived long enough to see what her daughter had worn at college. There, where she could be herself, Janie didn’t wear designer dresses and hang out with the right social group. Janie studied anthropology, as well as the psychology her aunt Lydia had insisted on—and felt free to insist, since she helped pay Janie’s tuition. But Janie spent most of her weekends and afternoons buried in mud, learning how to dig out fragile pieces of ancient pottery and projectile points.

But she’d gone on with the pretense when she was home—when Aunt Lydia was visiting, of course—proving her worth at psychology. Sadly, it had gone awry when she psychoanalyzed Leo’s brother Callaghan last year over the asparagus. She’d gone to her room howling with laughter after Aunt Lydia had hung on every word approvingly. She was sorry she’d embarrassed Cag, but the impulse had been irresistible. Her aunt was so gullible. She’d felt guilty afterward, though, for not telling Aunt Lydia her true interests.

She finished her shower, dried off, and changed into new clothes so that she could start cleaning up the floors where she’d tracked mud. Despite her complaints, Hettie would help. She didn’t really mind housework. Neither did Janie, although her late mother would be horrified if she could see her only child on the floor with a scrub brush alongside Hettie’s ample figure.

Janie helped with everything, except cooking. Her expertise in the kitchen was, to put it mildly, nonexistent. But, she thought, brightening, that was the next thing on her list of projects. She was undergoing a major self-improvement. First she was going to learn ranching—even if it killed her—and then she was going to learn to cook.

She wished this transformation had been her idea, but actually, it had been Marilee’s. The other girl had told her, in confidence, that she’d been talking to Leo and Leo had told her flatly that the reason he didn’t notice Janie was that she didn’t know anything about ranching. She was too well-dressed, too chic, too sophisticated. And the worst thing was that she didn’t know anything about cooking, either, Marilee claimed. So if Janie wanted to land that big, hunky fish, she was going to have to make some major changes.

It sounded like a good plan, and Marilee had been her friend since grammar school, when the Morgan family had moved next door. So Janie accepted Marilee’s advice with great pleasure, knowing that her best friend would never steer her wrong. She was going to stay home—not go back to college—and she was going to show Leo Hart that she could be the sort of woman who appealed to him. She’d work so hard at it, she’d have to succeed!

Not that her attempts at riding a horse were anything to write home about, she had to admit as she mopped her way down the long wooden floor of the hall. But she was a rancher’s daughter. She’d get better with practice.

She did keep trying. A week later, she was making biscuits in the kitchen—or trying to learn how—when she dropped the paper flour bag hard on the counter and was dusted from head to toe with the white substance.

It would have to be just that minute that her father came in the back door with Leo in tow.

“Janie?” her father exclaimed, wide-eyed.

“Hi, Dad!” she said with a big grin. “Hi, Leo.”

“What in blazes are you doing?” her father demanded.

“Putting the flour in a canister,” she lied, still smiling.

“Where’s Hettie?” he asked.

Their housekeeper was hiding in the bedroom, supposedly making beds, and trying not to howl at Janie’s pitiful efforts. “Cleaning, I believe,” she said.

“Aunt Lydia not around?”

“Playing bridge with the Harrisons,” she said.

“Bridge!” her father scoffed. “If it isn’t bridge, it’s golf. If it isn’t golf, it’s tennis… Is she coming over today to go over those stocks with me or not?” he persisted, because they jointly owned some of his late wife’s shares and couldn’t sell them without Lydia’s permission. If he could ever find the blasted woman!

“She said she wasn’t coming over until Saturday, Dad,” Janie reminded him.

He let out an angry sigh. “Well, come on, Leo, I’ll show you the ones I want to sell and let you advise me. They’re in my desk… damn bridge! I can’t do a thing until Lydia makes up her mind.”

Leo gave Janie a curious glance but he kept walking and didn’t say another word to her. Minutes later, he left—out the front door, not the back.

Janie’s self-improvement campaign continued into the following week with calf roping, which old John was teaching her out in the corral. Since she could now loop the rope around a practice wooden cow with horns, she was progressing to livestock.

She followed John’s careful instruction and tossed her loop over the head of the calf, but she’d forgotten to dig her heels in. The calf hadn’t. He jerked her off her feet and proceeded to run around the ring like a wild thing, trying to get away from the human slithering after him at a breakneck pace.

Of course, Leo would drive up next to the corral in time to see John catch and throw the calf, leaving Janie covered in mud. She looked like a road disaster.

This time Leo didn’t speak. He was too busy laughing. Janie couldn’t speak, either, her mouth was full of mud. She gave both men a glare and stomped off toward the back door of the house, trailing mud and unspeakable stuff, fuming the whole while.

A bath and change of clothes improved her looks and her smell. She was resigned to finding Leo gone when she got out, so she didn’t bother to dress up or put on makeup. She wandered out to the kitchen in jeans and a loose long-sleeved denim shirt, with her hair in a lopsided ponytail and her feet bare.

“You’ll step on something sharp and cripple yourself,” Hettie warned, turning from the counter where she was making rolls, her ample arms up the elbows in flour.

“I have tough feet,” Janie protested with a warm smile. She went up and hugged Hettie hard from behind, loving the familiar smells of freshly washed cotton and flour that seemed to cling to her. Hettie had been around since Janie was six. She couldn’t imagine life without the gray-haired, blue-eyed treasure with her constantly disheveled hair and worried expression. “Oh, Hettie, what would we do without you?” she asked on a sigh, and closed her eyes.

“Get away, you pest,” Hettie muttered, “I know what you’re up to… Janie Brewster, I’ll whack you!”

But Janie was already out of reach, dangling Hettie’s apron from one hand, her green eyes dancing with mischief.

“You put that back on me or you’ll get no rolls tonight!” Hettie raged at her.

“All right, all right, I was only kidding,” Janie chuckled. She replaced the apron around Hettie’s girth and was fastening it when she heard the door open behind her.

“You stop teaching her these tricks!” Hettie growled at the newcomer.

“Who, me?” Leo exclaimed with total innocence.

Janie’s hands fumbled with the apron. Her heart ran wild. He hadn’t left. She’d thought he was gone, and she hadn’t bothered with her appearance. He was still here, and she looked like last year’s roast!

“You’ll drop that apron, Janie,” Leo scolded playfully.

Janie glanced at him as she retied the apron. “You can talk,” she chided. “I hear your housekeepers keep quitting because you untie aprons constantly! One kept a broom handle!”

“She broke it on my hard head,” he said smugly. “What are you making, Hettie?”

“Rolls,” she said. She glanced warily at Leo. “I can’t make biscuits. Sorry.”

He gave her a hard glare. “Just because I did something a little offbeat…”

“Carried that little chef right out of his restaurant, with him kicking and screaming all the way, I heard,” Hettie mused, eyes twinkling.

“He said he could bake biscuits. I was only taking him home with me to let him prove it,” Leo said belligerently.

“That’s not what he thought,” Hettie chuckled. “I hear he dropped the charges…?”

“Nervous little guy,” Leo said, shaking his head. “He’d never have worked out, anyway.” He gave her a long look. “You sure you can’t bake a biscuit? Have you ever tried?”

“No, and I won’t. I like working here,” she said firmly.

He sighed. “Just checking.” He peered over her shoulder fondly. “Rolls, huh? I can’t remember when I’ve had a homemade roll.”

“Tell Fred to invite you to supper,” Hettie suggested.

He glanced at Janie. “Why can’t she do it?”

Janie was tongue-tied. She couldn’t think at all.

The lack of response from her dumbfounded Leo. To have Janie hesitate about inviting him for a meal was shocking. Leo scowled and just stared at her openly, which only made her more nervous and uncertain. She knew she looked terrible. Leo wanted a woman who could do ranch work and cook, but surely he wanted one who looked pretty, too. Right now, Janie could have qualified for the Frump of the Year award.

She bit her lower lip, hard, and looked as if she were about to cry.

“Hey,” he said softly, in a tone he’d never used with her before, “what’s wrong?”

“Have to let this rise,” Hettie was murmuring after she’d covered the dough and washed her hands, oblivious to what was happening behind her. “Meanwhile I’m going to put another load of clothes in the washer, darlin’,” she called to Janie over her shoulder.

The door into the dining room closed, but they didn’t notice.

Leo moved closer to Janie, and suddenly his big, lean hands were on her thin shoulders, resting heavily over the soft denim. They were warm and very strong.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat while she looked up into black eyes that weren’t teasing or playful. They were intent, narrow, faintly glittering. There was no expression on his handsome face at all. He looked into her eyes as if he’d never seen them, or her, before—and she looked terrible!

“Come on,” he coaxed. “Tell me what’s wrong. If it’s something I can fix, I will.”

Her lips trembled. Surely, she could make up something, quick, before he moved away!

“I got hurt,” she whispered in a shameful lie. “When the calf dragged me around the corral.”

“Did you?” He was only half listening. His eyes were on her mouth. It was the prettiest little mouth, like a pink bow, full and soft, just barely parted over perfect, white teeth. He wondered if she’d been kissed, and how often. She never seemed to date, or at least, he didn’t know about her boyfriends. He shouldn’t be curious, either, but Marilee had hinted that Janie had more boyfriends than other local girls, that she was a real rounder.

Janie was melting. Her knees were weak. Any minute, she was going to be a little puddle of love looking up at his knees.

He felt her quiver under his hands, and his scowl grew darker. If she was as sophisticated as Marilee said she was, why was she trembling now? An experienced woman would be winding her arms around his neck already, offering her mouth, curving her body into his…

His fingers tightened involuntarily on her soft arms. “Come here,” he said huskily, and tugged her right up against his tall, muscular body. Of all the Harts, he was the tallest, and the most powerfully built. Janie’s breasts pressed into his diaphragm. She felt him tauten at the contact, felt his curiosity as he looked down into her wide, soft, dazed eyes. Her hands lightly touched his shirtfront, but hesitantly, as if it embarrassed her to touch him at all.

He let out a soft breath. His head was spinning with forbidden longings. Janie was barely twenty-one. She was the daughter of a man he did business with. She was off-limits. So why was he looking at her mouth and feeling his body swell sensuously at just the brush of her small breasts against him?

“Don’t pick at my shirt,” he said quietly. His voice was unusually deep and soft, its tone unfamiliar. “Flatten your hands on my chest.”

She did that, slowly, as if she were just learning how to walk. Her hands were cold and nervous, but they warmed on his body. She stood very still, hoping against hope that he wasn’t going to regain the senses she was certain he’d momentarily lost. She didn’t even want to breathe, to do anything that would distract him. He seemed to be in a trance, and she was feeling dreams come true in the most unexpected and delightful way.

He smiled quizzically. “Don’t you know how?”

Her lips were dry. She moistened them with just the tip of her tongue. He seemed to find that little movement fascinating. He watched her mouth almost hungrily. “How… to… do what?” she choked.

His hand went to her cheek and his thumb suddenly ran roughly over her lips, parting them in a whip of urgent, shocking emotion. “How to do this,” he murmured as his head bent.

She saw the faint smile on his hard mouth as his lips parted. They brushed against hers in tiny little whispers of contact that weren’t nearly enough to feed the hunger he was coaxing out of her.

Her nails curled into his shirt and he tensed. She felt thick hair over the warm, hard muscles of his chest. Closer, she felt the hard, heavy thunder of his pulse there, under her searching hands.

“Nice,” he whispered. His voice was taut now, like his body against her.

She felt his big hands slide down her waist to her hips while he was playing with her mouth in the most arousing way. She couldn’t breathe. Did he know? Could he tell that she was shaking with desire?

Her lips parted more with every sensuous brush of his mouth against them. At the same time, his hands moved to her narrow hips and teased against her lower spine. She’d never felt such strange sensations. She felt her body swell, as if it had been stung all over by bees, but the sensation produced pleasure instead of pain.

He nibbled at her upper lip, feeling it quiver tentatively as his tongue slid under it and began to explore. One lean hand slid around to the base of her hips and slowly gathered them into his, in a lazy movement that made her suddenly aware of the changing contours of his body.

She gasped and pulled against his hand.

He lifted his head and searched her wide, shocked green eyes. “Plenty of boyfriends, hmm?” he murmured sarcastically, almost to himself.

“Boy… friends?” Her voice sounded as if she were being strangled.

His hand moved back to her waist, the other one moved to her round chin and his thumb tugged gently at her lower lip. “Leave it like this,” he whispered. His mouth hovered over hers just as it parted, and she found herself going on tiptoe, leaning toward him, almost begging for his mouth to come down and cover hers.

But he was still nibbling at her upper lip, gently toying with it, until he tilted her chin and his teeth tugged softly at the lower lip. His mouth brushed roughly over hers, teaching it to follow, to plead, then to demand something more urgent, more thorough than this slow torment.

Her nails bit into his chest and she moaned.

As if he’d been waiting patiently for that tiny little sound, his arms swallowed her up whole and his eyes, when they met hers, glittered like candlelight from deep in a cave.

His hand was in her ponytail, ripping away the rubber band so that he could catch strands of it in his strong fingers and angle her face just where he wanted it.

“Maybe you are old enough…” he breathed just before his mouth plunged deeply into hers.

She tautened all over with heated pleasure. Her body arched against him, no longer protesting the sudden hardness of him against her. She reached up to hold him, to keep that tormenting, hungry mouth against her lips. It was every dream she’d ever dreamed, coming true. She could hardly believe it was happening here, in broad daylight, in the kitchen where she’d been trying so hard to learn to make things that would please him. But he seemed to be pleased, just the same. He groaned against her lips, and his arms were bruising now, as if he wasn’t quite in control. That was exciting. She threw caution to the winds and opened her mouth deliberately under the crush of his, inviting him in.

She felt his tongue go deep into the soft darkness, and she shivered as his mouth devoured hers.

Only the sound of a door slamming penetrated the thick sensual fog that held them both in thrall.

Leo lifted his head, slowly, and looked down into a face he didn’t recognize. Janie’s green eyes were like wet emeralds in her flushed face. Her lips were swollen, soft, sensual. Her body was clinging to his. He had her off the floor in his hungry embrace, and his body was throbbing with desire.

He knew that she could feel him, that she knew he was aroused. It was a secret thing, that only the two of them knew. It had to stay that way. He had to stop. This was wrong…!

He let go of her slowly, easing her back, while he sucked in a long, hard breath and shivered with a hunger he couldn’t satisfy. He became aware of the rough grip he had on her upper arms and he relaxed it at once. He’d never meant to hurt her.

He fought for control, reciting multiplication tables silently in his mind until he felt his body unclench and relax.

It troubled him that he’d lost control so abruptly, and with a woman he should never have touched. He hadn’t meant to touch her in the first place. He couldn’t understand why he’d gone headfirst at her like that. He was usually cool with women, especially with Janie.

The way she was looking at him was disturbing. He was going to have a lot of explaining to do, and he didn’t know how to begin. Janie was years too young for him, only his body didn’t think so. Now he had to make his mind get himself out of this predicament.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” he said through his teeth.

She was hanging on every word, deaf to meanings, deaf to denials. Her body throbbed. “It’s like the flu,” she said, dazed, staring up at him. “It makes you… ache.”

He shook her gently. “You’re too young to have aches,” he said flatly. “And I’m old enough to know better than to do something this stupid. Are you listening to me? This shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry.”

Belatedly, she realized that he was backtracking. Of course he hadn’t meant to kiss her. He’d made his opinion of her clear for years, and even if he liked kissing her, it didn’t mean that he was ready to rush out and buy a ring. Quite the opposite.

She stepped away from him, her face still flushed, her eyes full of dreams she had to hide from him.

“I… I’m sorry, too,” she stammered.

“Hell,” he growled, ramming his hands into his pockets. “It was my fault. I started it.”

She moved one shoulder. “No harm done.” She cleared her throat and fought for inspiration. It came unexpectedly. Her eyes began to twinkle wickedly. “I have to take lessons when they’re offered.”

His eyebrows shot up. Had he heard her say that, or was he delusional?

“I’m not the prom queen,” she pointed out. “Men aren’t thick on the ground around here, except old bachelors who chew tobacco and don’t bathe.”

“I call that prejudice,” he said, relaxing into humor.

“I’ll bet you don’t hang out with women who smell like dirty horses,” she said.

He pursed his lips. Like hers, they were faintly swollen. “I don’t know about that. The last time I saw you, I recall, you were neck-deep in mud and sh—”

“You can stop right there!” she interrupted, flushing.

His dark eyes studied her long hair, liking its thick waves and its light brown color. “Pity your name isn’t Jeanie,” he murmured. “Stephen Foster wrote a song about her hair.”

She smiled. He liked her hair, at least. Maybe he liked her a little, too.

She was pretty when she smiled like that, he thought, observing her. “Do I get invited to supper?” he drawled, lost in that soft, hungry look she was giving him. “If you say yes, I might consider giving you a few more lessons. Beginner class only, of course,” he added with a grin.

Chapter Two

Janie was sure she hadn’t heard him say that, but he was still smiling. She smiled back. She felt pretty. No makeup, no shoes, disheveled—and Leo had kissed her anyway. She beamed. At least, she beamed until she remembered the Hart bread mania. Any of them would do anything for a biscuit. Did that extend to homemade rolls?

“You’re looking suspicious,” he pointed out.

“A man who would kidnap a poor little pastry chef might do anything for a homemade roll,” she reminded him.

He sighed. “Hettie makes wonderful rolls,” he had to admit.

“Oh, you!” She hit him gently and then laughed. He was impossible. “Okay, you can come to supper.”

He beamed. “You’re a nice girl.”

Nice. Well, at least he liked her. It was a start. It didn’t occur to her, then, that a man who was seriously interested in her wouldn’t think of her as just “nice.”

Hettie came back into the room, still oblivious to the undercurrents, and got out a plastic bowl. She filled it with English peas from the crisper. “All right, my girl, sit down here and shell these. You staying?” she asked Leo.

“She said I could,” he told Hettie.

“Then you can go away while we get it cooked.”

“I’ll visit my bull. Fred’s got him in the pasture.”

Leo didn’t say another word. But the look he gave Janie before he left the kitchen was positively wicked.

But if she thought the little interlude had made any permanent difference in her relationship with Leo, Janie was doomed to disappointment. He came to supper, but he spent the whole time talking genetic breeding with Fred, and although he was polite to Janie, she might as well have been on the moon.

He didn’t stay long after supper, either, making his excuses and praising Hettie for her wonderful cooking. He smiled at Janie, but not the way he had when they were alone in the kitchen. It was as if he’d put the kisses out of his mind forever, and expected her to act as if he’d never touched her. It was disheartening. It was heartbreaking. It was just like old times, except that now Leo had kissed her and she wanted him to do it again. Judging by his attitude over supper, she had a better chance of landing a movie role.

She spent the next few weeks remembering Leo’s hungry kisses and aching for more of them. When she wasn’t daydreaming, she was practicing biscuit-making. Hettie muttered about the amount of flour she was going through.

“Janie, you’re going to bankrupt us in the kitchen!” the older woman moaned when Janie’s fifth batch of biscuits came out looking like skeet pigeons. “That’s your second bag of flour today!”

Janie was glowering at her latest effort on the baking sheet. “Something’s wrong, and I can’t decide what. I mean, I put in salt and baking powder, just like the recipe said…”

Hettie picked up the empty flour bag and read the label. Her eyes twinkled. “Janie, darlin’, you bought self-rising flour.”

“Yes. So?” she asked obliviously.

“If it’s self-rising, it already has the salt and baking powder in it, doesn’t it?”

Janie burst out laughing. “So that’s what I’m doing wrong! Hand me another bag of flour, could you?”

“This is the last one,” Hettie said mournfully.

“No problem. I’ll just drive to the store and get some more. Need anything?”

“Milk and eggs,” Hettie said at once.

“We’ve got four chickens,” Janie exclaimed, turning, “and you have to buy eggs?”

“The chickens are molting.”

Janie smiled. “And when they molt, they don’t lay. Sorry. I forgot. I’ll be back in a jiffy,” she added, peeling off her apron.

She paused just long enough to brush her hair out, leaving it long, and put on a little makeup. She thrust her arms into her nice fringed leather jacket, because it was seasonably cool outside as well as raining, and popped into her red sports car. You never could tell when you might run into Leo, because he frequently dashed into the supermarket for frozen biscuits and butter when he was between cooks.

Sure enough, as she started for the checkout counter with her milk, eggs and flour, she spotted Leo, head and shoulders above most of the men present. He was wearing that long brown Australian drover’s coat he favored in wet weather, and he was smiling in a funny sort of way.

That was when Janie noticed his companion. He was bending down toward a pretty little brunette who was chattering away at his side. Janie frowned, because that dark wavy hair was familiar. And then she realized who it was. Leo was talking to Marilee Morgan!

She relaxed. Marilee was her friend. Surely, she was talking her up to Leo. She almost rushed forward to say hello, but what if she interrupted at a crucial moment? There was, after all, the annual Jacobsville Cattleman’s Ball in two weeks, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was very likely that Marilee was dropping hints right and left that Janie would love Leo to escort her.

She chuckled to herself. She was lucky to have a friend like Marilee.

If Janie had known what Marilee was actually saying to Leo, she might have changed her mind about the other woman’s friendship and a lot of other things.

“It was so nice of you to drive me to the store, Leo,” Marilee was cooing at Leo as they walked out. “My wrist is really sore from that fall I took.”

“No problem,” he murmured with a smile.

“The Cattleman’s Ball is week after next,” Marilee added coyly. “I would really love to go, but nobody’s asked me. I won’t be able to drive by then, either, I’m sure. It was a bad sprain. They take almost as long as a broken bone to heal.” She glanced up at him, weighing her chances. “Of course, Janie’s told everybody that you’re taking her. She said you’re over there all the time now, that it’s just a matter of time before you buy her a ring. Everybody knows.”

He scowled fiercely. He’d only kissed Janie, he hadn’t proposed marriage, for God’s sake! Surely the girl wasn’t going to get possessive because of a kiss? He hated gossip, especially about himself. Well, Janie could forget any invitations of that sort. He didn’t like aggressive women who told lies around town. Not one bit!

“You can go with me,” he told Marilee nonchalantly. “Despite what Janie told you, I am no woman’s property, and I’m damned sure not booked for the dance!”

Marilee beamed. “Thanks, Leo!”

He shrugged. She was pretty and he liked her company. She wasn’t one of those women who felt the need to constantly compete with men. He’d made his opinion about that pretty clear to Marilee in recent weeks. It occurred to him that Janie was suddenly trying to do just that, what with calf roping and ranch work and hard riding. Odd, when she’d never shown any such inclination before. But her self-assured talk about being his date for the ball set him off and stopped his mind from further reasoning about her sudden change of attitude.

He smiled down at Marilee. “Thanks for telling me about the gossip,” he added. “Best way to curb it is to disprove it publicly.”

“Of course it is. You mustn’t blame Janie too much,” she added with just the right amount of affection. “She’s very young. Compared to me, I mean. If we hadn’t been neighbors, we probably wouldn’t be friends at all. She seems so… well, so juvenile at times, doesn’t she?”

Leo frowned. He’d forgotten that Marilee was older than Janie. He thought back to those hard, hungry kisses he’d shared with Janie and could have cursed himself for his weakness. She was immature. She was building a whole affair on a kiss or two. Then he remembered something unexpectedly.

He glanced down at Marilee. “You said she had more boyfriends than anybody else in town.”

Marilee cleared her throat. “Well, yes, boy friends. Not men friends, though,” she added, covering her bases. It was hard to make Janie look juvenile if she was also a heartbreaking rounder.

Leo felt placated, God knew why. “There’s a difference.”

Marilee agreed. A tiny voice in her mind chided her for being so mean to her best friend, but Leo was a real hunk, and she was as infatuated with him as Janie was. All was fair in love and war, didn’t they say? Besides, it was highly unlikely that Leo would ever ask Janie out—but, just in case, Marilee had planted a nice little suspicion in his mind to prevent that. She smiled as she walked beside him to his truck, dreaming of the first of many dances and being in Leo’s arms. One day, she thought ecstatically, he might even want to marry her!

Janie went through two more bags of flour with attempts at biscuits that became better with each failed try. Finally, after several days’ work, she had produced an edible batch that impressed even Hettie.

In between cooking, she was getting much better on horseback. Now, mounted on her black-and-white quarter horse, Blackie, she could cut out a calf and drive it into the makeshift corral used for doctoring sick animals. She could throw a calf, too, with something like professionalism, despite sore muscles and frequent bruises. She could rope, after a fashion, and she was riding better all the time. At least the chafing of her thighs against the saddle had stopped, and the muscles had acclimatized to the new stress being placed on them.

Saturday night loomed. It was only four days until the Cattleman’s Ball, and she had a beautiful spaghetti-strapped lacy oyster-white dress to wear. It came to her ankles and was low-cut in front, leaving the creamy skin of her shoulders bare. There was a side-slit that went up her thigh, exposing her beautiful long legs. She paired the dress with white spiked high heels sporting ankle straps which she thought were extremely sexy, and she had a black velvet coat with a white silk lining to defend against the cold evening air. Now all she lacked was a date.

She’d expected Leo to ask her to the ball after those hungry kisses, despite his coolness later that day. But he hadn’t been near the ranch since he’d had supper with her and her father. What made it even more peculiar was that he’d talked with her father out on the ranch several times. He just didn’t come to the house. Janie assumed that he was regretting those hard kisses, and was afraid that she was taking him too seriously. He was avoiding her. He couldn’t have made it plainer.

That made it a pretty good bet that he wasn’t planning to take her to any Cattleman’s Ball. She phoned Marilee in desperation.

The other woman sounded uneasy when she heard Janie’s voice, and she was quick to ask why Janie had phoned.

“I saw you with Leo in the grocery store week before last,” Janie began, “and I didn’t interfere, because I was sure you were trying to talk him into taking me to the ball. But he didn’t want to, did he?” she added sadly.

There was a sound like someone swallowing, on the other end of the phone. “Well, actually, no. I’m sorry.” Marilee sounded as if she were strangling on the words.

“Don’t feel bad,” Janie said gently. “It’s not your fault. You’re my best friend in the whole world. I know you tried.”

“Janie…”

“I had this beautiful white dress that I bought specially,” Janie added on a sigh. “Well, that’s that. Are you going?”

There was a tense pause. “Yes.”

“Good! Anybody I know?”

“N… no,” Marilee stammered.

“You have fun,” Janie said.

“You… uh… aren’t going, are you?” Marilee added.

Her friend certainly was acting funny, Janie thought. “No, I don’t have a date,” Janie chuckled. “There’ll be other dances, I guess. Maybe Leo will ask me another time.” After he’s got over being afraid of me, she added silently. “If you see him,” she said quickly, “you might mention that I can now cut out cattle and throw a calf. And I can make a biscuit that doesn’t go through the floor when dropped!”

She was laughing, but Marilee didn’t.

“I have to get to the hairdresser, Janie,” Marilee said. “I’m really sorry… about the ball.”

“Not your fault,” Janie repeated. “Just have enough fun for both of us, okay?”

“Okay. See you.”

The line went dead and Janie frowned. Something must be very wrong with Marilee. She wished she’d been more persistent and asked what was the matter. Well, she’d go over to Marilee’s house after the dance to pump her for all the latest gossip, and then she could find out what was troubling her friend.

She put the ball to the back of her mind, despite the disappointment, and went out to greet her father as he rode in from the pasture with two of his men.

He swung out of the saddle at the barn and grinned at her. “Just the girl I wanted to see,” he said at once. He pulled out his wallet. “I’ve got to have some more work gloves, just tore the last pair I had apart on barbed wire. How about going by the hardware store and get me another pair of those suede-palmed ones, extra large?”

“My pleasure,” Janie said at once. Leo often went to the hardware store, and she might accidentally run into him there. “Be back in a jiffy!”

“Don’t speed!” her father called to her.

She only chuckled, diving into her sports car. She remembered belatedly that she didn’t have either purse or car keys, or her face fixed, and jumped right back out again to rectify those omissions.

Ten minutes later, she was parking her car in front of the Jacobsville Hardware Store. With a wildly beating heart, she noticed one of the black double-cabbed Hart Ranch trucks parked nearby. Leo! She was certain it was Leo!

With her heart pounding, she checked her makeup in the rearview mirror and tugged her hair gently away from her cheeks. She’d left it down today deliberately, remembering that Leo had something of a weakness for long hair. It was thick and clean, shining like a soft brown curtain. She was wearing a long beige skirt with riding boots, and a gold satin blouse. She looked pretty good, even if she did say so herself! Now if Leo would just notice her…

She walked into the hardware store with her breath catching in her throat as she anticipated Leo’s big smile at her approach. He was the handsomest of the Hart brothers, and really, the most personable. He was kindness itself. She remembered his soft voice in her kitchen, asking what was wrong. Oh, to have that soft voice in her ear forever!

There was nobody at the counter. That wasn’t unusual, the clerks were probably waiting on customers. She walked back to where the gloves were kept and suddenly heard Leo’s deep voice on the other side of the high aisle, unseen.

“Don’t forget to add that roll of hog wire to the order,” he was telling one of the clerks.

“I won’t forget,” Joe Howland’s pleasant voice replied. “Are you going to the Cattleman’s Ball?” Joe added just as Janie was about to raise her voice and call to Leo over the aisle.

“I guess I am,” Leo replied. “I didn’t plan to, but a pretty friend needed a ride and I’m obliging.”

Janie’s heart skipped and fell flat. Leo already had a date? Who? She moved around the aisle and in sight of Leo and Joe. Leo had his back to her, but Joe noticed her and smiled.

“That friend wouldn’t be Janie Brewster, by any chance?” Joe teased loudly.

The question made Leo unreasonably angry. “Listen, just because she caught the bouquet at Micah Steele’s wedding is no reason to start linking her with me,” he said shortly. “She may have a good family background, she may be easy on the eyes, she may even learn to cook someday—miracles still happen. But no matter what she does, or how well, she is never going to appeal to me as a woman!” he added. “Having her spreading ludicrous gossip about our relationship all over town isn’t making her any more attractive to me, either. It’s a dead turnoff!”

Janie felt a shock like an electric jolt go through her. She couldn’t even move for the pain.

Joe, horrified, opened his mouth to speak.

Leo made a rough gesture with one lean hand, burning with pent-up anger. “She looks like the rough side of a corncob lately, anyway,” Leo continued, warming to his subject. “The only thing she ever had going for her were her looks, and she’s spent the last few weeks covered in mud or dust or bread flour. She’s out all hours proving she can compete with any man on the place and she can’t stop bragging about what a great catch she’s made with me. She’s already told half the town that I’m a kiss short of buying her an engagement ring. That is, when she isn’t putting it around that I’m taking her to the Cattleman’s Ball, when I haven’t even damned well asked her! Well, she’s got her eye on the wrong man. I don’t want some half-baked kid with a figure like a boy and an ego the size of my boots! I wouldn’t have Janie Brewster for a wife if she came complete with a stable of purebred Salers bulls, and that’s saying something. She makes me sick to my stomach!”

Joe had gone pale and he was grimacing. Curious, Leo turned… and there was Janie Brewster, staring at him down the aisle with a face as tragic as if he’d just taken a whittling knife to her heart.

“Janie,” he said slowly.

She took a deep, steadying breath and managed to drag her eyes away from his face. “Hi, Joe,” she said with a wan little smile. Her voice sounded choked. She couldn’t possibly look for gloves, she had to get away! “Just wanted to check and see if you’d gotten in that tack Dad ordered last week,” she improvised.

“Not just yet, Janie,” Joe told her in a gentle tone. “I’m real sorry.”

“No problem. No problem at all. Thanks, Joe. Hello, Mr. Hart,” she said, without really meeting Leo’s eyes, and she even managed a smile through her tattered dignity. “Nice day out, isn’t it? Looks like we might even get that rain we need so badly. See you.”

She went out the door with her head high, as proudly as a conquering army, leaving Leo sick to his stomach for real.

“Why the hell didn’t you say something?” Leo asked Joe furiously.

“Didn’t know how,” Joe replied miserably.

“How long had she been standing there?” Leo persisted.

“The whole time, Leo,” came the dreaded reply. “She heard every word.”

As if to punctuate the statement, from outside came the sudden raucous squeal of tires on pavement as Janie took off toward the highway in a burst of speed. She was driving her little sports car, and Leo’s heart stopped as he realized how upset she was.

He jerked his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the police department. “Is that Grier?” he said at once when the call was answered, recognizing Jacobsville’s new assistant police chief’s deep voice. “Listen, Janie Brewster just lit out of town like a scalded cat in her sports car. She’s upset and it’s my fault, but she could kill herself. Have you got somebody out on the Victoria road who could pull her over and give her a warning? Yeah. Thanks, Grier. I owe you one.”

He hung up, cursing harshly under his breath. “She’ll be spitting fire if anybody tells her I sent the police after her, but I can’t let her get hurt.”

“Thought she looked just a mite too calm when she walked out the door,” Joe admitted. He glanced at Leo and grimaced. “No secret around town that she’s been sweet on you for the past year or so.”

“If she was, I’ve just cured her,” Leo said, and felt his heart sink. “Call me when that order comes in, will you?”

“Sure thing.”

Leo climbed into his truck and just sat there for a minute, getting his bearings. He could only imagine how Janie felt right now. What he’d said was cruel. He’d let his other irritations burst out as if Janie were to blame for them all. What Marilee had been telling him about Janie had finally bubbled over, that was all. She’d never done anything to hurt him before. Her only crime, if there was one, was thinking the moon rose and set on Leo Hart and taking too much for granted on the basis of one long kiss.

He laughed hollowly. Chances were good that she wouldn’t be thinking it after this. Part of him couldn’t help blaming her, because she’d gone around bragging about how he was going to marry her, and how lucky he was to have a girl like her in his life. Not to mention telling everybody he was taking her to the Cattleman’s Ball.

But Janie had never been one to brag about her accomplishments, or chase men. The only time she’d tried to vamp Leo, in fact, had been in her own home, when her father was present. She’d never come on to him when they were alone, or away from her home. She’d been old-fashioned in her attitudes, probably due to the strict way she’d been raised. So why should she suddenly depart from a lifetime’s habits and start spreading gossip about Leo all over Jacobsville? He remembered at least once when she’d stopped another woman from talking about a girl in trouble, adding that she hated gossip because it was like spreading poison.

He wiped his sweaty brow with the sleeve of his shirt and put his hat on the seat beside him. He hated what he’d said. Maybe he didn’t want Janie to get any ideas about him in a serious way, but there would have been kinder methods of accomplishing it. He didn’t think he was ever going to forget the look on her face when she heard what he was saying to Joe. It would haunt him forever.

Meanwhile, Janie was setting new speed records out on the Victoria Road. She’d already missed the turnoff that led back toward Jacobsville and her father’s ranch. She was seething, hurting, miserable and confused. How could Leo think such things about her? She’d never told anybody how she felt about him, except Marilee, and she hadn’t been spreading gossip. She hated gossip. Why did he know so little about her, when they’d known each other for years? What hurt the most was that he obviously believed those lies about her.

She wondered who could have told him such a thing. Her thoughts went at once to Marilee, but she chided herself for thinking ill of her only friend, her best friend. Certainly it had to be an enemy who’d been filling Leo’s head full of lies. But… she didn’t have any enemies that she knew of.

Tears were blurring her eyes. She knew she was going too fast. She should slow down before she wrecked the car or ran it into a fence. She was just thinking about that when she heard sirens and saw blue lights in her rearview mirror.

Great, she thought. Just what I need. I’m going to be arrested and I’ll spend the night in the local jail….

She stopped and rolled down her window, trying unobtrusively to wipe away the tears while waiting for the uniformed officer to bend down and speak to her.

He came as a surprise. It wasn’t a patrolman she knew, and she knew most of them by sight at least. This one had black eyes and thick black hair, which he wore in a ponytail. He had a no-nonsense look about him, and he was wearing a badge that denoted him as the assistant chief.

“Miss Brewster?” he asked quietly.

“Y… yes.”

“I’m Cash Grier,” he introduced himself. “I’m the new assistant police chief here.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said with a watery smile. “Sorry it has to be under these circumstances.” She held out both wrists with a sigh. “Want to handcuff me?”

He pursed his lips and his black eyes twinkled unexpectedly. He didn’t look like a man who knew what humor was. “Isn’t that a little kinky for a conversation? What sort of men are you used to?”

She hesitated for just a second before she burst out laughing. He wasn’t at all the man he appeared to be. She put her hands down.

“I was speeding,” she reminded him.

“Yes, you were. But since you don’t have a rap sheet, you can have a warning, just this once,” he added firmly. “The speed limit is posted. It’s fifty on all county roads.”

She peered up at him. “This is a county road?” she emphasized, which meant that he was out of his enforcement area.

Nodding, he grinned. “And you’re right, I don’t have any jurisdiction out here, so that’s why you’re getting a warning and a smile.” The smile faded. “In town, you’ll get a ticket and a heavy scowl. Remember that.”

“I will. Honest.” She wiped at her eyes again. “I got a little upset, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on the road. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“See that you don’t.” His dark eyes narrowed as if in memory. “Accidents are messy. Very messy.”

“Thanks for being so nice.”

He shrugged. “Everybody slips once in a while.”

“That’s exactly what I did…”

“I didn’t mean you,” he interrupted. His lean face took on a faintly dangerous cast. “I’m not nice. Not ever.”

She was intimidated by that expression. “Oh.”

He wagged a finger at her nose. “Don’t speed.”

She put a hand over her heart. “Never again. I promise.”

He nodded, walked elegantly to his squad car and drove toward town. Janie sat quietly for a minute, getting herself back together. Then she started the car and went home, making up an apology for her father about his gloves without telling him the real reason she’d come home without them. He said he’d get a new pair the next day himself, no problem.

Janie cried herself to sleep in a miserable cocoon of shattered dreams.

As luck would have it, Harley Fowler, Cy Parks’s foreman, came by in one of the ranch pickup trucks the very next morning and pulled up to the back door when he saw Janie walk out dressed for riding and wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Harley’s boss Cy did business with Fred Brewster, and Harley was a frequent visitor to the ranch. He and Janie were friendly. They teased and played like two kids when they were together.

“I’ve been looking for you,” Harley said with a grin as he paused just in front of her. “The Cattleman’s Ball is Saturday night and I want to go, but I don’t have a date. I know it’s late to be asking, but how about going with me? Unless you’ve got a date or you’re going with your dad…?” he added.

She grinned back. “I haven’t got a date, and Dad’s away on business and has to miss the ball this year. But I do have a pretty new dress that I’m dying to wear! I’d love to go with you, Harley!”

“Really?” His lean face lit up. He knew Janie was sweet on Leo Hart, but it was rumored that he was avoiding her like measles these days. Harley wasn’t in love with Janie, but he genuinely liked her.

“Really,” Janie replied. “What time will you pick me up?”

“About six-thirty,” he said. “It doesn’t start until seven, but I like to be on time.”

“That makes two of us. I’ll be ready. Thanks, Harley!”

“Thank you!” he said. “See you Saturday.”

He was off in a cloud of dust, waving his hand out the window as he pulled out of the yard. Janie sighed with relief. She wanted nothing more in the world than to go to that dance and show Leo Hart how wrong he was about her chasing him. Harley was young and nice looking. She liked him. She would go and have a good time. Leo would be able to see for himself that he was off the endangered list, and he could make a safe bet that Janie would never go near him again without a weapon! As she considered it, she smiled coldly. Revenge was petty, but after the hurt she’d endured at Leo’s hands, she felt entitled to a little of it. He was never going to forget this party. Never, as long as he lived.

Chapter Three

The annual Jacobsville Cattleman’s Ball was one of the newer social events of the year. It took place the Saturday before Thanksgiving like clockwork. Every cattleman for miles around made it a point to attend, even if he avoided all other social events for the year. The Ballenger brothers, Calhoun and Justin, had just added another facility to their growing feedlot enterprise, and they looked prosperous with their wives in gala attire beside them. The Tremayne brothers, Connal, Evan, Harden, and Donald, and their wives were also in attendance, as were the Hart boys; well, Corrigan, Callaghan, Rey and Leo at least, and their wives. Simon and Tira didn’t attend many local events except the brothers’ annual Christmas party on the ranch.

Also at the ball were Micah Steele, Eb Scott, J. D. Langley, Emmett Deverell, Luke Craig, Guy Fenton, Ted Regan, Jobe Dodd, Tom Walker and their wives. The guest list read like a who’s who of Jacobsville, and there were so many people that the organizers had rented the community center for it. There was a live country-western band, a buffet table that could have fed a platoon of starving men, and enough liquor to drown a herd of horses.

Leo had a highball. Since he hadn’t done much drinking in recent years, his four brothers were giving him strange looks. He didn’t notice. He was feeling so miserable that even a hangover would have been an improvement.

Beside him, Marilee was staring around the room with wide, wary eyes.

“Looking for somebody?” Leo asked absently.

“Yes,” she replied. “Janie said she wasn’t coming, but that isn’t what your sister-in-law Tess just told me.”

“What did she say?”

Marilee looked worried. “Harley Fowler told her he was bringing Janie.”

“Harley?” Leo scowled. Harley Fowler was a courageous young man who’d actually backed up the town’s infamous mercenaries—Eb Scott, Cy Parks and Micah Steele—when they helped law enforcement face down a gang of drug dealers the year before. Harley’s name hadn’t been coupled with any of the local belles, and he was only a working-class cowboy. Janie’s father might be financially pressed at the moment, but his was a founding family of Jacobsville, and the family had plenty of prestige. Fred and his sister-in-law Lydia would be picky about who Janie married. Not, he thought firmly, that Janie was going to be marrying Harley….

“Harley’s nice,” Marilee murmured. “He’s Cy Parks’s head foreman now, and everybody says he’s got what it takes to run a business of his own.” What Marilee didn’t add was that Harley had asked her out several times before his raid on the drug lord with the local mercenaries, and she’d turned him down flat. She’d thought he bragged and strutted a little too much, that he was too immature for her. She’d even told him so. It had made her a bitter enemy of his.

Now she was rather sorry that she hadn’t given him a chance. He really was different these days, much more mature and very attractive. Not that Leo wasn’t a dish. But she felt so guilty about Janie that she couldn’t even enjoy his company, much less the party. If Janie showed up and saw her with Leo, she was going to know everything. It wasn’t conducive to a happy evening at all.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asked when he saw her expression. “Janie’s never going to get over it if she shows up and sees me with you,” she replied honestly. “I didn’t think how it would look…”

“I don’t belong to anybody,” Leo said angrily. “It’s just as well to let Janie know that. So what if she does show up? Who cares?”

“I do,” Marilee sighed.

Just as she spoke, Janie came in the door with a tall, good-looking, dark-haired man in a dark suit with a ruffled white shirt and black bow tie. Janie had just taken off her black velvet coat and hung it on the rack near the door. Under it, she was wearing a sexy white silk gown that fell softly down her slender figure to her shapely ankles. The spaghetti strips left her soft shoulders almost completely bare, and dipped low enough to draw any man’s eyes. She was wearing her thick, light brown hair down. It reached almost to her waist in back in a beautiful, glossy display. She wore just enough makeup to enhance her face, and she was clinging to Harley’s arm with obvious pleasure as they greeted the Ballengers and their wives.

Leo had forgotten how pretty Janie could look when she worked at it. Lately, he’d only seen her covered in mud and flour. Tonight, her figure drew eyes in that dress. He remembered the feel of her in his arms, the eager innocence of her mouth under his, and he suddenly felt uneasy at the way she was clinging to Harley’s arm.

If he was uncomfortable, Marilee was even more so. She stood beside Leo and looked as if she hated herself. He took another long sip of his drink before he guided her toward Harley and Janie.

“No sense hiding, is there?” he asked belligerently.

Marilee sighed miserably. “No sense at all, I guess.”

They moved forward together. Janie noticed them and her eyes widened and darkened with pain for an instant. Leo’s harsh monologue at the hardware store had been enough to wound her, but now she was seeing that she’d been shafted by her best friend, as well. Marilee said Janie didn’t know her date, but all along, apparently, she’d planned to come with Leo. No wonder she’d been so curious about whether or not Janie was going to show up.

Everything suddenly made perfect sense. Marilee had filled Leo up with lies about Janie gossiping about him, so that she could get him herself. Janie felt like an utter fool. Her chin lifted, but she didn’t smile. Her green eyes were like emerald shards as they met Marilee’s.

“H… hi, Janie,” Marilee stammered, forcing a smile. “You said you weren’t coming tonight.”

“I wasn’t,” Janie replied curtly. “But Harley was at a loose end and didn’t have a date, so he asked me.” She looked up at the tall, lean man beside her, who was some years younger than Leo, and she smiled at him with genuine affection even through her misery. “I haven’t danced in years.”

“You’ll dance tonight, darlin’,” Harley drawled, smiling warmly as he gripped her long fingers in his. He looked elegant in his dinner jacket, and there was a faint arrogance in his manner now that hadn’t been apparent before. He glanced at Marilee and there was barely veiled contempt in the look.

Marilee swallowed hard and avoided his piercing gaze.

“I didn’t know you could dance, Harley,” Marilee murmured, embarrassed.

He actually ignored her, his narrow gaze going to Leo. “Nice turnout, isn’t it?” he asked the older man.

“Nice,” Leo said, but he didn’t smile. “I haven’t seen your boss tonight.”

“The baby had a cold,” Harley said. “He and Lisa don’t leave him when he’s sick.” He looked down at Janie deliberately. “Considering how happy the two of them are, I guess marriage isn’t such a bad vocation after all,” he mused.

“For some, maybe,” Leo said coldly. He was openly glaring at Harley.

“Let’s get on the dance floor,” Harley told Janie with a grin. “I’m anxious to try out that waltz pattern I’ve been learning.”

“You’ll excuse us, I’m sure,” Janie told the woman who was supposed to be her best friend. Her eyes were icy as she realized how she’d been betrayed by Marilee’s supposed “help” with Leo.

Marilee grimaced. “Oh, Janie,” she groaned. “Let me explain….”

But Janie wasn’t staying to listen to any halfhearted explanations. “Nice to see you, Marilee. You, too, Mr. Hart,” she added with coldly formal emphasis, not quite meeting Leo’s eyes. But she noted the quick firming of his chiseled lips with some satisfaction at the way she’d addressed him.

“Why do you call him Mr. Hart?” Harley asked as they moved away.

“He’s much older than we are, Harley,” she replied, just loudly enough for Leo to hear her and stiffen with irritation. “Almost another generation.”

“I guess he is.”

Leo took a big swallow of his drink and glared after them.

“She’ll never speak to me again,” Marilee said in a subdued tone.

He glared at her. “I’m not her personal property,” he said flatly. “I never was. It isn’t your fault that she’s been gossiping and spreading lies all over town.”

Marilee winced.

He turned his attention back to Janie, who was headed onto the dance floor with damned Harley. “I don’t want her. What the hell do I care if she likes Harley?”

The music changed to a quick, throbbing Latin beat. Matt Caldwell and his wife, Leslie, were out on the dance floor already, making everybody else look like rank beginners. Everybody clapped to the rhythm until the very end, when the couple left the dance floor. Leo thought nobody could top that display until Harley walked to the bandleader, and the band suddenly broke into a Strauss waltz. That was when Harley and Janie took the floor. Then, even Matt and Leslie stood watching with admiration.

Leo stared at the couple as if he didn’t recognize them. Involuntarily, he moved closer to the dance floor to watch. He’d never seen two people move like that to music besides Matt and Leslie.

The rhythm was sweet, and the music had a sweeping beauty that Janie mirrored with such grace that it was like watching ballet. Harley turned and Janie followed every nuance of movement, her steps matching his exactly. Her eyes were laughing, like her pretty mouth, as they whirled around the dance floor in perfect unison.

Harley was laughing, too, enjoying her skill as much as she enjoyed his. They looked breathless, happy—young.

Leo finished his drink, wishing he’d added more whiskey and less soda. His dark eyes narrowed as they followed the couple around the dance floor as they kept time to the music. “Aren’t they wonderful?” Marilee asked wistfully. “I don’t guess you dance?”

He did. But he wasn’t getting on that floor and making a fool of himself with Marilee, who had two left feet and the sense of rhythm of a possum.

“I don’t dance much,” Leo replied tersely.

She sighed. “It’s just as well, I suppose. That would be a hard act to follow.”

“Yes.”

The music wound to a peak and suddenly ended, with Janie draped down Harley’s side like a bolt of satin. His mouth was almost touching hers, and Leo had to fight not to go onto the floor and throw a punch at the younger man.

He blinked, surprised by his unexpected reaction. Janie was nothing to him. Why should he care what she did? Hadn’t she bragged to everyone that he was taking her to this very dance? Hadn’t she made it sound as if they were involved?

Janie and Harley left the dance floor to furious, genuine applause. Even Matt Caldwell and Leslie congratulated them on the exquisite piece of dancing. Apparently, Harley had been taking lessons, but Janie seemed to be a natural.

But the evening was still young, as the Latin music started up again and another unexpected couple took the floor. It was Cash Grier, the new assistant police chief, with young Christabel Gaines in his arms. Only a few people knew that Christabel had been married to Texas Ranger Judd Dunn since she was sixteen—a marriage on paper, only, to keep herself and her invalid mother from losing their family ranch. But she was twenty-one now, and the marriage must have been annulled, because there she was with Cash Grier, like a blond flame in his arms as he spun her around to the throbbing rhythm and she matched her steps to his expert ones.

Unexpectedly, as the crowd clapped and kept time for them, handsome dark-eyed Judd Dunn himself turned up in evening dress with a spectacular redhead on his arm. Men’s heads turned. The woman was a supermodel, internationally famous, who was involved at a film shoot out at Judd and Christabel’s ranch. Gossip flew. Judd watched Christabel with Grier and glowered. The redhead said something to him, but he didn’t appear to be listening. He watched the two dancers with a rigid posture and an expression more appropriate for a duel than a dance. Christabel ignored him.

“Who is that man with Christabel Gaines?” Marilee asked Leo.

“Cash Grier. He used to be a Texas Ranger some years ago. They say he was in government service as well.”

Leo recalled that Grier had been working in San Antonio with the district attorney’s office before he took the position of assistant police chief in Jacobsville. There was a lot of talk about Grier’s mysterious past. The man was an enigma, and people walked wide around him in Jacobsville.

“He’s dishy, isn’t he? He dances a paso doble even better than Matt, imagine that!” Marilee said aloud. “Of course, Harley does a magnificent waltz. Who would ever have thought he’d turn out to be such a sexy, mature man…”

Leo turned on his heel and left Marilee standing by herself, stunned. He walked back to the drinks table with eyes that didn’t really see. The dance floor had filled up again, this time with a slow dance. Harley was holding Janie far too close, and she was letting him. Leo remembered what he’d said about her in the hardware store, and her wounded expression, and he filled another glass with whiskey. This time he didn’t add soda. He shouldn’t have felt bad, of course. Janie shouldn’t have been so possessive. She shouldn’t have gossiped about him…

“Hi, Leo,” his sister-in-law Tess, said with a smile as she joined him, reaching for a clear soft drink.

“No booze, huh?” he asked with a grin, noting her choice.

“I don’t want to set a bad example for my son,” she teased, because she and Cag had a little boy now. “Actually, I can’t hold liquor. But don’t tell anybody,” she added. “I’m the wife of a tough ex-Special Forces guy. I’m supposed to be a real hell-raiser.”

He smiled genuinely. “You are,” he teased. “A lesser woman could never have managed my big brother and an albino python all at once.”

“Herman the python’s living with his own mate these days,” she reminded him with a grin, “and just between us, I don’t really miss him!” She glanced toward her husband and sighed. “I’m one lucky woman.”

“He’s one lucky man.” He took a sip of his drink and she frowned.

“Didn’t you bring Marilee?” she asked.

He nodded. “Her wrist was still bothering her too much to drive, so I let her come with me. I’ve been chauffeuring her around ever since she sprained it.”

Boy, men were dense, Tess was thinking. As if a woman couldn’t drive with only one hand. She glanced past him at Marilee, who was standing by herself watching as a new rhythm began and Janie moved onto the floor with Harley Fowler. “I thought she was Janie’s best friend,” she mentioned absently. “You can never tell about people.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I overheard her telling someone that Janie had been spreading gossip about you and her all over town.” She shook her head. “That’s not true. Janie’s so shy, it’s hard for her to even talk to most men. I’ve never heard her gossip about anyone, even people she dislikes. I can’t imagine why Marilee would tell lies about her.”

“Janie told everybody I was bringing her to the ball,” he insisted with a scowl.

“Marilee told people that Janie said that,” Tess corrected. “You really don’t know, do you? Marilee’s crazy about you. She had to cut Janie out of the picture before she could get close to you. I guess she found the perfect way to do it.”

Leo started to speak, but he hesitated. That couldn’t be true.

Tess read his disbelief and just smiled. “You don’t believe me, do you? It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out the truth sooner or later, whether you want to or not. I’ve got to find Cag. See you later!”

Leo watched her walk away with conflicting emotions. He didn’t want to believe—he wouldn’t believe—that he’d been played for a sucker. He’d seen Janie trying to become a cattleman with his own eyes, trying to compete with him. He knew that she wanted him because she’d tried continually to tempt him when he went to visit her father. She flirted shamelessly with him. She’d melted in his arms, melted under the heat of his kisses. She hadn’t made a single protest at the intimate way he’d held her. She felt possessive of him, and he couldn’t really blame her, because it was his own lapse of self-control that had given her the idea that he wanted her. Maybe he did, physically, but Janie was a novice and he didn’t seduce innocents. Her father was a business associate. It certainly wouldn’t be good business to cut his own throat with Fred by making a casual lover of Janie.

He finished the whiskey and put the glass down. He felt light-headed. That was what came of drinking when he hadn’t done it in a long time. This was stupid. He had to stop behaving like an idiot just because Fred Brewster’s little girl had cut him dead in the receiving line and treated him like an old man. He forced himself to walk normally, but he almost tripped over Cag on the way.

His brother caught him by the shoulders. “Whoa, there,” he said with a grin. “You’re wobbling.”

Leo pulled himself up. “That whiskey must be 200 proof,” he said defensively.

“No. You’re just not used to it. Leave your car here when it’s time to go,” he added firmly. “Tess and I will drop Marilee off and take you home. You’re in no fit state to drive.”

Leo sighed heavily. “I guess not. Stupid thing to do.”

“What, drinking or helping Marilee stab Janie in the back?”

Leo’s eyes narrowed on his older brother’s lean, hard face. “Does Tess tell you everything?”

He shrugged. “We’re married.”

“If I ever get married,” Leo told him, “my wife isn’t going to tell anybody anything. She’s going to keep her mouth shut.”

“Not much danger of your getting married, with that attitude,” Cag mused.

Leo squared his shoulders. “Marilee looks really great tonight,” he pointed out.

“She looks pretty sick to me,” Cag countered, eyeing the object of their conversation, who was standing alone against the opposite wall, trying to look invisible. “She should, too, after spreading that gossip around town about Janie chasing you.”

“Janie did that, not Marilee,” Leo said belligerently. “She didn’t have any reason to make it sound like we were engaged, just because I kissed her.”

Cag’s eyebrows lifted. “You kissed her?”

“It wasn’t much of a kiss,” Leo muttered gruffly. “She’s so green, it’s pathetic!”

“She won’t stay that way long around Harley,” Cag chuckled. “He’s no playboy, but women love him since he helped our local mercs take on that drug lord Manuel Lopez and won. I imagine he’ll educate Janie.”

Leo’s dark eyes narrowed angrily. He hated the thought of Harley kissing her. He really should do something about that. He blinked, trying to focus his mind on the problem.

“Don’t trip over the punch bowl,” Cag cautioned dryly. “And for God’s sake, don’t try to dance. The gossips would have a field day for sure!”

“I could dance if I wanted to,” Leo informed him.

Cag leaned down close to his brother’s ear. “Don’t ‘want to.’ Trust me.” He turned and went back to Tess, smiling as he led her onto the dance floor.

Leo joined Marilee against the wall.

She glanced at him and grimaced. “I’ve just become the Bubonic Plague,” she said with a miserable sigh. “Joe Howland from the hardware store is here with his wife,” she added uncomfortably. “He’s telling people what you said to Janie and that I was responsible for her getting the rough side of your tongue.”

He glanced down at her. “How is it your fault?”

She looked at her shoes instead of at him. She felt guilty and hurt and ashamed. “I sort of told Janie that you said you’d like her better if she could ride and rope and make biscuits, and stop dressing up all the time.”

He stiffened. He felt the jolt all the way to his toes. “You told her that?”

“I did.” She folded her arms over her breasts and stared toward Janie, who was dancing with Harley and apparently having a great time. “There’s more,” she added, steeling herself to admit it. “It wasn’t exactly true that she was telling people you were taking her to this dance.”

“Marilee, for God’s sake! Why did you lie?” he demanded. “She’s just a kid, Leo,” she murmured uneasily. “She doesn’t know beans about men or real life, she’s been protected and pampered, she’s got money, she’s pretty….” She moved restlessly. “I like you a lot. I’m older, more mature. I thought, if she was just out of the picture for a little bit, you… you might start to like me.”

Now he understood the look on Janie’s face when he’d made those accusations. Tess was right. Marilee had lied. She’d stabbed her best friend in the back, and he’d helped her do it. He felt terrible.

“You don’t have to tell me what a rat I am,” she continued, without looking up at him. “I must have been crazy to think Janie wouldn’t eventually find out that I was lying about her.” She managed to meet his angry eyes. “She never gossiped about you, Leo. She wanted you to take her to this party so much that it was all she talked about for weeks. But she never told anybody you were going to. She thought I was helping her by hinting that she’d like you to ask her.” She laughed coldly. “She was the best friend I ever had, and I’ve stabbed her in the back. She’ll never speak to me again after tonight, and I deserve whatever I get. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry.”

Leo was still trying to adjust to the truth. He could talk himself blue in the face, but Janie would never listen to him now. He was going to be about as welcome as a fly at her house from now on, especially if Fred found out what Leo had said to and about her. It would damage their friendship. It had already killed whatever feeling Janie had for him. He knew that without the wounded, angry glances she sent his way from time to time.

“You said you didn’t want her chasing you,” Marilee reminded him weakly, trying to find one good thing to say.

“No danger of that from now on, is there?” he agreed, biting off the words.

“None at all. So a little good came out of it.”

He looked down at her with barely contained anger. “How could you do that to her?”

“I don’t even know.” She sighed raggedly. “I must have been temporarily out of my mind.” She moved away from the wall. “I wonder if you’d mind driving me home? I… I really don’t want to stay any longer.”

“I can’t drive. Cag’s taking us home.”

“You can’t drive? Why?” she exclaimed.

“I think the polite way of saying it is that I’m stinking drunk,” he said with glittery eyes blazing down at her.

She grimaced. No need to ask why he’d gotten that way. “Sorry,” she said inadequately.

“You’re sorry. I’m sorry. It doesn’t change anything.” He looked toward Janie, conscious of new and painful regrets. It all made sense now, her self-improvement campaign. She’d been dragged through mud, thrown from horses, bruised and battered in a valiant effort to become what she thought Leo wanted her to be.

He winced. “She could have killed herself,” he said huskily. “She hadn’t been on a horse in ages or worked around cattle.” He looked down at Marilee with a black scowl. “Didn’t you realize that?”

“I wasn’t thinking at the time,” Marilee replied. “I’ve always worked around the ranch, because I had to. I never thought of Janie being in any danger. But I guess she was, at that. At least she didn’t get hurt.”

“That’s what you think,” Leo muttered, remembering how she’d looked at the hardware store.

Marilee shrugged and suddenly burst into tears. She dashed toward the ladies’ room to hide them.

At the same time, Harley left Janie at the buffet table and went toward the rest rooms himself.

Leo didn’t even think. He walked straight up to Janie and caught her by the hand, pulling her along with him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she raged. “Let go of me!”

He ignored her. He led her right out the side door and onto the stone patio surrounded by towering plants that, in spring, were glorious in blossom. He pulled the glass door closed behind him and moved Janie off behind one of the plants.

“I want to talk to you,” he began, trying to get his muddled mind to work.

She pulled against his hands. “I don’t want to talk to you!” she snapped. “You go right back in there to your date, Leo Hart! You brought Marilee, not me!”

“I want to tell you…” he tried again.

She aimed a kick at his shin that almost connected.

He sidestepped, overbalancing her so that she fell heavily against him. She felt good in his arms, warm, delicate and sweetly scented. His breath caught at the feel of her soft skin under his hands where the dress was low-cut in back.

“Harley will… be missing me!” she choked.

“Damn Harley,” he murmured huskily and the words went into her mouth as he bent and took it hungrily.

His arms swallowed her, warm under the dark evening suit, where her hands rested just at his rib cage. His mouth was ardent, insistent, on her parted lips.

He forced them apart, nipping the upper one with his teeth while his hands explored the softness of her skin. He was getting drunk on her perfume. He felt himself going taut as he registered the hunger he was feeling to get her even closer. It wasn’t enough….

His hands went to her hips and jerked them hard into the thrust of his big body, so that she could feel how aroused he was.

She stiffened and then tried to twist away, frantic at the weakness he was making her feel. He couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let him do it. He was only making a point, showing her that she couldn’t resist him. He didn’t even like her anymore. He’d brought her best friend to the most talked-about event in town!

“You… let me go!” she sobbed, tearing her mouth from his. “I hate you, Leo Hart!”

He was barely able to breathe, much less think, but he wasn’t letting go. His eyes glittered down at her. “You don’t hate me,” he denied. “You want me. You tremble every time I get within a foot of you. It’s so noticeable a blind man couldn’t mistake it.” He pulled her close, watching her face as her thighs touched his. “A woman’s passion arouses a man’s,” he whispered roughly. “You made me want you.”

“You said I made you sick,” she replied, her voice choking on the word.

“You do.” His lips touched her ear. “When a man is this aroused, and can’t satisfy the hunger, it makes him sick,” he said huskily, with faint insolence. He dragged her hips against his roughly. “Feel that? You’ve got me so hot I can’t even think…!” Leo broke off abruptly as Janie stomped on his foot.

“Does that help?” she asked while he was hobbling on the foot her spiked heel hadn’t gone into.

She moved back from him, shaking with desire and anger, while he cursed roundly and without inhibition.

“That’s what you get for making nasty remarks to women!” she said furiously. “You don’t want me! You said so! You want Marilee. That’s why you’re taking her around with you. Remember me? I’m that gossiping pest who runs after you everywhere. Except that I’ll never do it again, you can bet your life on that! I wouldn’t have you on ice cream!”

He stood uneasily on both feet, glaring at her. “Sure you would,” he said with a venomous smile. His eyes glittered like a diamondback uncoiling. “Just now, I could have had you in the rosebushes. You’d have done anything I wanted.”

He was right. That was what hurt the most. She pushed back her disheveled hair with a trembling hand. “Not anymore,” she said, feeling sick. “Not when I know what you really think of me.”

“Harley brought you,” he said coldly. “He’s a boy playing at being a man.”

“He’s closer to my age than you are, Mr. Hart!” she shot back.

His face hardened and he took a quick step toward her.

“That’s what you’ve said from the start,” she reminded him, near tears. “I’m just a kid, you said. I’m just a kid with a crush, just your business associate’s pesky daughter.”

He’d said that. He must have been out of his mind. Looking at her now, with that painful maturity in her face, he couldn’t believe he’d said any such thing. She was all woman. And she was with Harley. Damn Harley!

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Dad that you tried to seduce me on the patio with your new girlfriend standing right inside the room,” she assured him. “But if you ever touch me again, I’ll cripple you, so help me God!”

She whirled and jerked open the patio door, slamming it behind her as she moved through the crowd toward the buffet table.

Leo stood alone in the cold darkness with a sore foot, wondering why he hadn’t kept his mouth shut. If a bad situation could get worse, it just had.

Chapter Four

Janie and Harley were back on the dance floor by the time Leo made his way inside, favoring his sore foot.

Marilee was standing at the buffet table, looking as miserable as he felt.

“Harley just gave me hell,” she murmured tightly as he joined her. “He said I was lower than a snake’s belly, and it would serve me right if Janie never spoke to me again.” She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Do you think your brother would mind dropping us off now? He could come right back…”

“I’ll ask him,” Leo said, sounding absolutely fed up.

He found Cag talking to Corrigan and Rey at the buffet table. Their wives were in another circle, talking to each other.

“Could you run Marilee home now and drop me off on the way back?” he asked Cag in a subdued tone.

Corrigan gaped at him. “You’ve never left a dance until the band packed up.”

Leo sighed. “There’s a first time for everything.”

The women joined them. Cag tugged Tess close. “I have to run Leo and Marilee home.”

Tess’s eyebrows went up. “Now? Why so early?”

Leo glared. His brothers cleared their throats.

“Never mind,” Cag said quickly. “I won’t be a minute…” “Rey and I would be glad to do it…” Meredith volunteered, with a nod from her husband.

“No need,” Dorie said with a smile, cuddling close to her husband. “Corrigan can run Leo and Marilee home and come right back. Can’t you, sweetheart?” she added.

“Sure I can,” he agreed, lost in her pretty eyes.

“But you two don’t usually leave until the band does, either,” Leo pointed out. “You’ll miss most of the rest of the dance if you drive us.”

Corrigan pursed his lips. “Oh, we’ve done our dancing for the night. Haven’t we, sweetheart?” he prompted.

Dorie’s eyes twinkled. She nodded. “Indeed we have! I’ll just catch up on talk until he comes back. We can have the last dance together. Don’t give it a thought, Leo.”

Leo was feeling the liquor more with every passing minute, but he was feeling all sorts of undercurrents. The women looked positively gleeful. His brothers were exchanging strange looks.

Corrigan looked past Leo to Cag and Rey. “You can all come by our house after the dance,” he promised.

“What for?” Leo wanted to know, frowning suspiciously. Corrigan hesitated and Cag scowled.

Rey cleared his throat. “Bull problems,” he said finally, with a straight face. “Corrigan’s advising me.”

“He’s advising me, too,” Cag said with a grin. “He’s advising both of us.”

All three of them looked guilty as hell. “I know more about bulls than Corrigan does,” Leo pointed out. “Why don’t you ask me?”

“Because you’re in a hurry to go home,” Corrigan improvised. “Let’s go.”

Leo went to get Marilee. She said a subdued, hurried goodbye to Cag and Rey and then their wives. Leo waited patiently, vaguely aware that Cag and Rey were standing apart, talking in hushed whispers. They were both staring at Leo.

As Marilee joined him, Leo began to get the idea. Corrigan had sacrificed dancing so that he could pump Leo for gossip and report back to the others. They knew he was drinking, which he never did, and they’d probably seen him hobble back into the room. Then he’d wanted to leave early. It didn’t take a mind reader to put all that together. Something had happened, and his brothers—not to mention their wives—couldn’t wait to find out what. He glared at Corrigan, but his brother only grinned.

“Let’s go, Marilee,” Leo said, catching her by the arm.

She gave one last, hopeful glance at Janie, but was pointedly ignored. She followed along with Leo until the music muted to a whisper behind them.

When Marilee had been dropped off, and they were alone in the car, Corrigan glanced toward his brother with mischievous silvery eyes and pursed his lips.

“You’re limping.”

Leo huffed. “You try walking normally when some crazy woman’s tried to put her heel through your damned boot!”

“Marilee stepped on you?” Corrigan said much too carelessly.

“Janie stepped on me, on purpose!”

“What were you doing to her at the time?”

Leo actually flushed. It was visible in the streetlight they stopped under waiting for a red light to change on the highway. “Well!” Corrigan exclaimed with a knowing expression.

“She started it,” he defended himself angrily. “All these months, she’s been dressing to the hilt and waylaying me every time I went to see her father. She damned near seduced me on the cooking table in her kitchen last month, and then she goes and gets on her high horse because I said a few little things I shouldn’t have when she was eaves-dropping!” “You said a lot of little things,” his brother corrected. “And from what I hear, she left town in a dangerous rush and had to be slowed down by our new assistant chief. In fact, you called and asked him to do it. Good thinking.”

“Who told you that?” Leo demanded.

Corrigan grinned. “Our new assistant chief.”

“Grier can keep his nose out of my business or I’ll punch it for him!”

“He’s got problems of his own, or didn’t you notice him step outside with Judd Dunn just before we left?” Corrigan whistled softly. “Christabel may think she’s her own woman, but Judd doesn’t act like any disinterested husband I ever saw.”

“He’s got a world famous model on his arm,” Leo pointed out.

“It didn’t make a speck of difference once he saw Christabel on that dance floor with Grier. He was ready to make a scene right there.” He glanced at Leo. “And he wasn’t drinking,” he emphasized.

“I am not jealous of Janie Brewster,” Leo told him firmly.

“Tell that to Harley. He had to be persuaded not to go after you when Janie came back inside in tears,” Corrigan added, letting slip what he’d overheard.

That made it worse. “Harley can mind his own damned business, too!”

“He is. He likes Janie.”

“Janie’s not going to fall for some wet-behind-the-ears would-be world-saver,” Leo raged.

“He’s kind to her. He teases her and picks at her. He treats her like a princess.” He gave his brother a wry glance. “I’ll bet he wouldn’t try to seduce her in the rosebushes.” “I didn’t! Anyway, there weren’t any damned rosebushes out there.”

“How do you know that?”

Leo sighed heavily. “Because if there had been, I’d be wearing them.”

Corrigan chuckled. Having had his own problems with the course of true love, he could sympathize with his brother. Sadly, Leo had never been in love. He’d had crushes, he’d had brief liaisons, but there had never been a woman who could stand him on his ear. Corrigan was as fascinated as their brothers with the sudden turn of events. Leo had tolerated Janie Brewster, been amused by her, but he’d never been involved enough to start a fight with her, much less sink two large whiskeys when he hardly even touched beer.

“She’s got a temper, fancy that?” Corrigan drawled.

Leo sighed. “Marilee was telling lies,” he murmured. “She said Janie had started all sorts of gossip about us. I’d kissed her, and liked it, and I was feeling trapped. I thought the kiss gave her ideas. And all the time… Damn!” he ground out. “Tess knew. She told me that Marilee had made up the stories, and I wouldn’t listen.”

“Tess is sharp as a tack,” his older brother remarked.

“I’m as dull as a used nail,” Leo replied. “I don’t even know when a woman is chasing me. I thought Janie was. And all the time, it was her best friend Marilee.” He shook his head. “Janie said I was the most conceited man she ever met. Maybe I am.” He glanced out the window at the silhouettes of buildings they passed in the dark. “She likes Harley. That would have been funny a few months ago, but he keeps impressive company these days.”

“Harley’s matured. Janie has, too. I thought she handled herself with dignity tonight, when she saw you with Marilee.” He chuckled. “Tira would have emptied the punch bowl over her head,” he mused, remembering his redheaded sister-in-law’s temper.

“Simon would have been outraged,” he added. “He hates scenes. You’re a lot like him,” he said unexpectedly, glancing at the younger man. “You can cut up, but you’re as somber as a judge when you’re not around us. Especially since we’ve all married.”

“I’m lonely,” Leo said simply. “I’ve had the house to myself since Rey married Meredith and moved out, almost a year ago. Mrs. Lewis retired. I’ve got no biscuits, no company…”

“You’ve got Marilee,” he was reminded.

“Marilee sprained her wrist. She’s needed me to drive her places,” Leo said drowsily.

“Marilee could drive with one hand. I drove with a broken arm once.”

Leo didn’t respond. They were driving up to the main ranch house, into the driveway that made a semicircle around the front steps. The security lights were on, so was the porch light. But even with lights on in the front rooms of the sprawling brick house, it looked empty.

“You could come and stay with any of us, whenever you wanted to,” Corrigan reminded him. “We only live a few miles apart.”

“You’ve all got families. Children. Well, except Meredith and Rey.”

“They’re not in a hurry. Rey’s the youngest. The rest of us are feeling our ages a bit more.”

“Hell,” Leo growled, “you’re only two years older than me.”

“You’re thirty-five,” he was reminded. “I’ll be thirty-eight in a couple of months.”

“You don’t look it.”

“Dorie and the babies keep me young,” Corrigan admitted with a warm smile. “Marriage isn’t as bad as you think it is. You have someone to cook for you, a companion to share your sorrows when the world hits you in the head, and your triumphs when you punch back. Not to mention having a warm bed at night.”

Leo opened the door but hesitated. “I don’t want to get married.”

Corrigan’s pale eyes narrowed. “Dorie was just a little younger than Janie when I said the same thing to her. I mistook her for an experienced woman, made a very heavy pass, and then said some insulting things to her when she pulled back at the last minute. I sent her running for the nearest bus, and my pride stopped me from carrying her right back off it again. She went away. It was eight long years before she came home, before I was able to start over with her.” His face hardened. “You know what those years were like for me.”

Leo did. It was painful even to recall them. “You never told me why she left.”

Corrigan rested his arm over the steering wheel. “She left because I behaved like an idiot.” He glanced at his brother. “I don’t give a damn what Marilee’s told you about Janie, she isn’t any more experienced than Dorie was. Don’t follow in my footsteps.”

Leo wouldn’t meet the older man’s eyes. “Janie’s a kid.”

“She’ll grow up. She’s making a nice start, already.”

Leo brushed back his thick, unruly hair. “I was way out of line with her tonight. She said she never wanted to see me again.”

“Give her time.”

“I don’t care if she doesn’t want to see me,” Leo said belligerently. “What the hell do I want with a mud-covered little tomboy, anyway? She can’t even cook!”

“Neither can Tira,” Corrigan pointed out. “But she’s a knockout in an evening gown. So is our Janie, even if she isn’t as pretty as Marilee.”

Leo shrugged. “Marilee’s lost a good friend.”

“She has. Janie won’t ever trust her again, even if she can forgive her someday.”

Leo glanced back at his older brother. “Isn’t it amazing how easy it is to screw up your whole life in a few unguarded minutes?”

“That’s life, compadre. I’ve got to go. You going to be okay?”

Leo nodded. “Thanks for the ride.” He glowered at Corrigan. “I guess you’re in a hurry to get back, right?”

Corrigan’s eyes twinkled. “I don’t want to miss the last dance!”

Or the chance to tell his brothers everything that had happened. But, what the hell, they were family.

“Drive safely,” Leo told Corrigan as he closed the car door.

“I always do.” Corrigan threw up his hand and drove away.

Leo disarmed the alarm system and unlocked the front door, pausing to relock it and rearm the system. He’d been the victim of a mugging last October in Houston, and it had been Rey’s new wife, Meredith, who had saved him from no worse than a concussion. But now he knew what it was to be a victim of violent crime, and he was much more cautious than he’d ever been before.

He tossed his keys on his chest of drawers and took off his jacket and shoes. Before he could manage the rest, he passed out on his own bed.

Janie Brewster was very quiet on the way home. Harley understood why. He and Janie weren’t an item, but he hated seeing a woman cry. He’d wanted, very badly, to punch Leo Hart for that.

“You should have let me hit him, Janie,” he remarked thoughtfully.

She gave him a sad little smile. “There’s been enough gossip already, although I appreciate the thought.”

“He was drinking pretty heavily,” Harley added. “I noticed that one of his brothers took him and Marilee home early. Nice of him to find a designated driver, in that condition. He looked as if he was barely able to walk without staggering.”

Janie had seen them leave, with mixed emotions. She turned her small evening bag in her lap. “I didn’t know he drank hard liquor at all.”

“He doesn’t,” Harley replied. “Eb Scott said that he’d never known Leo to take anything harder than a beer in company.” He glanced at her. “That must have been some mixer you had with him.”

“He’d been drinking before we argued,” she replied. She looked out the darkened window. “Odd that Marilee left with him.”

“You didn’t see the women snub her, I guess,” he murmured. “Served her right, I thought.” His eyes narrowed angrily as he made the turn that led to her father’s ranch. “It’s low to stab a friend in the back like that. Whatever her feelings for Hart, she should have put your feelings first.”

“I thought you liked her, Harley.”

He stiffened. “I asked her out once, and she laughed.”

“What?”

He stared straight ahead at the road, the center of which was lit by the powerful headlights of the truck he was driving. “She thought it was hilarious that I had the nerve to ask her to go on a date. She said I was too immature.”

Ouch, she thought. A man like Harley would have too much pride to ever go near a woman who’d dented his ego that badly.

He let out a breath. “The hell of it is, she was right,” he conceded with a wry smile. “I had my head in the clouds, bragging about my mercenary training. Then I went up against Lopez with Eb and Cy and Micah.” He grimaced. “I didn’t have a clue.”

“We heard that it was a firefight.”

He nodded. His eyes were haunted. “My only experience of combat was movies and television.” His lean hands gripped the wheel hard. “The real thing is less… comfortable. And that’s all I’ll say.”

“Thank you for taking me to the ball,” she said, changing the subject because he’d looked so tormented.

His face relaxing, he glanced at her. “It was my pleasure. I’m not ready to settle down, but I like you. Anytime you’re at a loose end, we can see a movie or get a burger.”

She chuckled. “I feel the same way. Thanks.”

He pursed his lips and gave her a teasing glance. “We could even go dancing.”

“I liked waltzing.”

“I want to learn those Latin dances, like Caldwell and Grier.” He whistled. “Imagine Grier doing Latin dances! Even Caldwell stood back and stared.”

“Mr. Grier is a conundrum,” she murmured. “Not the man he seems, on the surface.”

“How would you know?” he asked.

She cleared her throat. “He stopped me for speeding out on the Victoria road.”

“Good for him. You drive too fast.”

“Don’t you start!”

He frowned. “What was he doing out there? He doesn’t have jurisdiction outside Jacobsville.”

“I don’t know. But he’s very pleasant.”

He hesitated. “There’s some, shall we say, unsavory gossip about him around town,” he told her.

“Unsavory, how?” she asked, curious.

“It’s probably just talk.”

“Harley!”

He slowed for a turn. “They say he was a government assassin at one point in his life.”

She whistled softly. “You’re kidding!”

He glanced at her. “When I was in the Rangers, I flew overseas with a guy who was dressed all in black, armed to the teeth. He didn’t say a word to the rest of us. I learned later that he was brought over for a very select assignment with the British commandos.”

“What has that got to do with Grier?”

“That’s just the thing. I think it was Grier.”

She felt cold chills running up her arms.

“It was several years ago,” he reiterated, “and I didn’t get a close look, but sometimes you can tell a man just by the way he walks, the way he carries himself.”

“You shouldn’t tell anybody,” she murmured, uneasy, because she liked Grier.

“I never would,” Harley assured her. “I told my boss, but nobody else. Grier isn’t the sort of man you’d ever gossip about, even if half the things they tell are true.”

“There’s more?” she exclaimed.

He chuckled. “He was in the Middle East helping pinpoint the laser-guided bombs, he broke up a spy ring in Manhattan as a company agent, he fought with the freedom fighters in Afghanistan, he foiled an assassination attempt against one of our own leaders under the nose of the agency assigned to protect them… you name it, he’s done it. Including a stint with the Texas Rangers and a long career in law enforcement between overseas work.”

“A very interesting man,” she mused.

“And intimidating to our local law enforcement guys. Interesting that Judd Dunn isn’t afraid of him.”

“He’s protective of Christabel,” Janie told him. “She’s sweet. She was in my high school graduating class.”

“Judd’s too old for her,” Harley drawled. “He’s about Leo Hart’s age, isn’t he, and she’s just a few months older than you.”

He was insinuating that Leo was too old for her. He was probably right, but it hurt to hear someone say it. Nor was she going to admit something else she knew about Christabel, that Judd had married the girl when she was just sixteen so that she wouldn’t lose her home. Christabel was twenty-one and Judd had become her worst enemy.

“Sorry,” Harley said when he noticed her brooding expression.

“About what?” she asked, diverted.

“I guess you think I meant Leo Hart’s too old for you.”

“He is,” she said flatly.

He looked as if he meant to say more, but the sad expression on her face stopped him. He pulled into her driveway and didn’t say another word until he stopped the truck at her front door.

“I know how you feel about the guy, Janie,” he said then. “But you can want something too much. Hart isn’t a marrying man, even if his brothers were. He’s a bad risk.”

She turned to face him, her eyes wide and eloquent. “I’ve told myself that a hundred times. Maybe it will sink in.”

He grimaced. He traced a pattern on her cheek with a lean forefinger. “For what it’s worth, I’m no stranger to unreturned feelings.” He grimaced. “Maybe some of us just don’t have the knack for romance.”

“Speak for yourself,” she said haughtily. “I have the makings of a Don Juanette, as Leo Hart is about to discover!” He tapped her cheek gently. “Stop that. Running wild won’t change anything, except to make you more miserable than you are.”

She drew in a long breath. “You’re right, of course. Oh, Harley, why can’t we make people love us back?”

“Wish I knew,” he said. He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I had fun. I’m sorry you didn’t.”

She smiled. “I did have fun. At least I didn’t end up at the ball by myself, or with Dad, to face Leo and Marilee.”

He nodded, understanding. “Where is your dad?”

“Denver,” she replied on a sigh. “He’s trying to interest a combine in investing in the ranch, but you can’t tell anybody.” He scowled. “I didn’t realize things were that bad.”

She nodded. “They’re pretty bad. Losing his prize bull was a huge financial blow. If Leo hadn’t loaned him that breeding bull, I don’t know what we’d have done. At least he likes Dad,” she added softly.

It was Harley’s opinion that he liked Fred Brewster’s daughter, too, or he wouldn’t have been putting away whiskey like that tonight. But he didn’t say it.

“Can I help?” he asked instead.

She smiled at him. “You’re so sweet, Harley. Thanks. But there’s not much we can do without a huge grubstake. So,” she added heavily, “I’m going to give up school and get a job.”

“Janie!”

“College is expensive,” she said simply. “Dad can’t really afford it right now, and I’m not going to ask him to try. There’s a job going at Shea’s…”

“You can’t work at Shea’s!” Harley exclaimed. “Janie, it’s a roadhouse! They serve liquor, and most nights there’s a fight.”

“They serve pizza and sandwiches, as well, and that’s what the job entails,” she replied. “I can handle it.”

It disturbed Harley to think of an innocent, sweet girl like Janie in that environment. “There are openings at fast-food joints in town,” he said.

“You don’t get good tips at fast-food joints. Stop while you’re ahead, Harley, you won’t change my mind,” she said gently.

“If you take the job, I’ll stop in and check on you from time to time,” he promised.

“You’re a sweetheart, Harley,” she said, and meant it. She kissed him on the cheek, smiled, and got out of the cab. “Thanks for taking me to the ball!”

“No sweat, Cinderella,” he said with a grin. “I enjoyed it, too. Good night!”

“Good night,” she called back.

She went inside slowly, locking the door behind her. Her steps dragging, she felt ten years older. It had been a real bust of an evening all around. She thought about Leo Hart and she hoped he had the king of hangovers the next morning!

The next day, Janie approached the manager of Shea’s, a nice, personable man named Jed Duncan, about the job.

He read over her résumé while she sat in a leather chair across from his desk and bit her fingernails.

“Two years of college,” he mused. “Impressive.” His dark eyes met hers over the pages. “And you want to work in a bar?”

“Let me level with you,” she said earnestly. “We’re in financial trouble. My father can’t afford to send me back to school, and I won’t stand by and let him sink without trying to help. This job doesn’t pay much, but the tips are great, from what Debbie Connor told me.”

Debbie was her predecessor, and had told her about the job in the first place. Be honest with Jed, she’d advised, and lay it on the line about money. So Janie did.

He nodded slowly, studying her. “The tips are great,” he agreed. “But the customers can get rowdy. Forgive me for being blunt, Miss Brewster, but you’ve had a sheltered upbringing. I have to keep a bouncer here now, ever since Calhoun Ballenger had it out with a customer over his ward—now his wife—and busted up the place. Not that Calhoun wasn’t in the right,” he added quickly. “But it became obvious that hot tempers and liquor don’t mix, and you can’t run a roadhouse on good intentions.”

She swallowed. “I can get used to anything, Mr. Duncan. I would really like this job.”

“Can you cook?”

She grinned. “Two months ago, I couldn’t. But I can now. I can even make biscuits!”

He chuckled. “Okay, then, you should be able to make a pizza. We’ll agree that you can work for two weeks and we’ll see how it goes. You’ll waitress and do some cooking. If you can cope, I’ll let you stay. If not, or if you don’t like the work, we’ll call it quits. That suit you?”

She nodded. “It suits me very well. Thank you!”

“Does your father know about this?” he added.

She flushed. “He will, when he gets home from Denver. I don’t hide things from him.”

“It’s not likely that you’ll be able to hide this job from him,” he mused with a chuckle. “A lot of our patrons do business with him. I wouldn’t like to make more enemies than I already have.”

“He won’t mind,” she assured him with a smile. She crossed her fingers silently.

“Then come along and I’ll acquaint you with the job,” Jed said, moving around the desk. “Welcome aboard, Miss Brewster.”

She smiled. “Thanks!”

Chapter Five

Fred Brewster came home from Denver discouraged. “I couldn’t get anybody interested,” he told Janie as he flopped down in his favorite easy chair in the living room. “Everybody’s got money problems, and the market is down. It’s a bad time to fish for partners.”

Janie sat down on the sofa across from him. “I got a job.”

He just stared at her for a minute, as if he didn’t hear her. “You what?”

“I got a job,” she said, and smiled at him. “I’ll make good money in tips. I start tonight.”

“Where?” he asked.

“A restaurant,” she lied. “You can even come and eat there, and I’ll serve you. You won’t have to tip me, either!”

“Janie,” he groaned. “I wanted you to go back and finish your degree.”

She leaned forward. “Dad, let’s be honest. You can’t afford college right now, and if I went, it would have to be on work-study. Let me do this,” she implored. “I’m young and strong and I don’t mind working. You’ll pull out of this, Dad, I know you will!” she added gently. “Everybody has bad times. This is ours.”

He scowled. “It hurts my pride…”

She knelt at his feet and leaned her arms over his thin, bony knees. “You’re my dad,” she said. “I love you. Your problems are my problems. You’ll come up with an angle that will get us out of this. I don’t have a single doubt.”

Those beautiful eyes that were so like his late wife’s weakened his resolve. He smiled and touched her hair gently. “You’re like your mother.”

“Thanks!”

He chuckled. “Okay. Do your waitress bit for a few weeks and I’ll double my efforts on getting us out of hock. But no late hours,” he emphasized. “I want you home by midnight, period.”

That might be a problem. But why bother him with complications right now?

“We’ll see how it goes,” she said easily, getting to her feet. She planted a kiss on his forehead. “I’d better get you some lunch!”

She dashed into the kitchen before he could ask any more questions about her new employment.

But she wasn’t so lucky with Hettie. “I don’t like the idea of you working in a bar,” she told Janie firmly.

“Shhhh!” Janie cautioned, glancing toward the open kitchen door. “Don’t let Dad hear you!”

Hettie grimaced. “Child, you’ll end up in a brawl, sure as God made little green apples!”

“I will not. I’m going to waitress and make pizzas and sandwiches, not get in fights.”

Hettie wasn’t convinced. “Put men and liquor together, and you get a fight every time.”

“Mr. Duncan has a bouncer,” she confided. “I’ll be fine.”

“Mr. Hart won’t like it,” she replied.

“Nothing I do is any of Leo Hart’s business anymore,” Janie said with a glare. “After the things he’s said about me, his opinion wouldn’t get him a cup of coffee around here!”

“What sort of things?” Hettie wanted to know.

She rubbed her hands over the sudden chill of her arms. “That I’m a lying, gossiping, man-chaser who can’t leave him alone,” she said miserably. “He was talking about me to Joe Howland in the hardware store last week. I heard every horrible word.”

Hettie winced. She knew how Janie felt about the last of the unmarried Hart brothers. “Oh, baby. I’m so sorry!”

“Marilee lied,” she added sadly. “My best friend! She was telling me what to do to make Leo notice me, and all the time she was finding ways to cut me out of his life. She was actually at the ball with Leo. He took her…” She swallowed hard and turned to the task at hand. Brooding was not going to help her situation. “Want a sandwich, Hettie?”

“No, darlin’, I’m fine,” the older woman told her. She hugged Janie warmly. “Life’s tangles work themselves out if you just give them enough time,” she said, and went away to let that bit of homespun philosophy sink in.

Janie was unconvinced. Her tangles were bad ones. Maybe her new job would keep Leo out of her thoughts. At least she’d never have to worry about running into him at Shea’s, she told herself. After Saturday night, he was probably off hard liquor for life.

By Saturday night, Janie had four days of work under her belt and she was getting used to the routine. Shea’s opened at lunchtime and closed at eleven. Shea’s served pizza and sandwiches and chips, as well as any sort of liquor a customer could ask for. Janie often had to serve drinks in between cooking chores. She got to recognize some of the customers on sight, but she didn’t make a habit of speaking to them. She didn’t want any trouble.

Her father had, inevitably, found out about her nocturnal activities. Saturday morning, he’d been raging at her for lying to him.

“I do work in a restaurant,” she’d defended herself. “It’s just sort of in a bar.”

“You work in a bar, period!” he returned, furious. “I want you to quit, right now!”

It was now or never, she told herself, as she faced him bravely. “No,” she replied quietly. “I’m not giving notice. Mr. Duncan said I could work two weeks and see if I could handle it, and that’s just what I’m going to do. And don’t you dare talk to him behind my back, Dad,” she told him.

He looked tormented. “Girl, this isn’t necessary!”

“It is, and not only because we need the money,” she’d replied. “I need to feel independent.”

He hadn’t considered that angle. She was determined, and Duncan did have a good bouncer, a huge man called, predictably, Tiny. “We’ll see,” he’d said finally.

Janie had won her first adult argument with her parent. She felt good about it.

Harley showed up two of her five nights on the job, just to check things out. He was back again tonight. She grinned at him as she served him pizza and beer.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

She looked around at the bare wood floors, the no-frills surroundings, the simple wooden tables and chairs and the long counter at which most of the customers—male customers—sat. There were two game machines and a juke-box. There were ceiling fans to circulate the heat, and to cool the place in summer. There was a huge dance floor, where people could dance to live music on Friday and Saturday night. The band was playing now, lazy Western tunes, and a couple was circling the dance floor alone.

“I really like it here,” she told Harley with a smile. “I feel as if I’m standing on my own two feet for the first time in my life.” She leaned closer. “And the tips are really nice!”

He chuckled. “Okay. No more arguments from me.” He glanced toward Tiny, a huge man with tattoos on both arms and a bald head, who’d taken an immediate liking to Janie. He was reassuringly close whenever she spoke to customers or served food and drinks.

“Isn’t he a doll?” Janie asked, smiling toward Tiny, who smiled back a little hesitantly, as if he were afraid his face might crack.

“That’s not a question you should ask a man, Janie,” he teased.

Grinning, she flipped her bar cloth at him, and went back to work.

Leo went looking for Fred Brewster after lunch on Monday. He’d been out of town at a convention, and he’d lost touch with his friend.

Fred was in his study, balancing figures that didn’t want to be balanced. He looked up as Hettie showed Leo in.

“Hello, stranger,” Fred said with a grin. “Sit down. Want some coffee? Hettie, how about…!”

“No need to shout, Mr. Fred, it’s already dripping,” she interrupted him with a chuckle. “I’ll bring it in when it’s done.”

“Cake, too!” he called.

There was a grumble.

“She thinks I eat too many sweets,” Fred told Leo. “Maybe I do. How was the convention?”

“It was pretty good,” Leo told him. “There’s a lot of talk about beef exports to Japan and improved labeling of beef to show country of origin. Some discussion of artificial additives,” he confided with a chuckle. “You can guess where that came from.”

“J. D. Langley and the Tremayne brothers.”

“Got it in one guess.” Leo tossed his white Stetson into a nearby chair and sat down in the one beside it. He ran a hand through his thick gold-streaked brown hair and his dark eyes pinned Fred. “But aside from the convention, I’ve heard some rumors that bother me,” he said, feeling his way.

“Oh?” Fred put aside his keyboard mouse and sat back. He’d heard about Janie’s job, he thought, groaning inwardly. He drew in a long breath. “What rumors?” he asked innocently.

Leo leaned forward, his crossed arms on his knees. “That you’re looking for partners here.”

“Oh. That.” Fred cleared his throat and looked past Leo. “Just a few little setbacks…”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Leo persisted, scowling. “I’d loan you anything you needed on the strength of your signature. You know that.”

Fred swallowed. “I do… know that. But I wouldn’t dare. Under the circumstances.” He avoided Leo’s piercing stare.

“What circumstances?” Leo asked with resignation, when he realized that he was going to have to pry every scrap of information out of his friend.

“Janie.”

Leo’s breath expelled in a rush. He’d wondered if Fred knew about the friction between the two of them. It was apparent that he did. “I see.”

Fred glanced at him and winced. “She won’t hear your name mentioned,” he said apologetically. “I couldn’t go to you behind her back, and she’d find out anyway, sooner or later. Jacobsville is a small town.”

“She wouldn’t be likely to find out when she’s away at college,” Leo assured him. “She has gone back, hasn’t she?”

There was going to be an explosion. Fred knew it without saying a word. “Uh, Leo, she hasn’t gone back, exactly.”

His eyebrows lifted. “She’s not here. I asked Hettie. She flushed and almost dragged me in here without saying anything except Janie wasn’t around. I assumed she’d gone back to school.”

“No. She’s, uh, got a job, Leo. A good job,” he added, trying to reassure himself. “She likes it very much.”

“Doing what, for God’s sake?” Leo demanded. “She has no skills to speak of!”

“She’s cooking. At a restaurant.”

Leo felt his forehead. “No fever,” he murmured to himself. It was a well-known fact that Janie could burn water in a pan. He pinned Fred with his eyes. “Would you like to repeat that?”

“She’s cooking. She can cook,” he added belligerently at Leo’s frank astonishment. “Hettie spent two months with her in the kitchen. She can even make…” he started to say “biscuits” and thought better of it “… pizza.”

Leo whistled softly. “Fred, I didn’t know things were that bad. I’m sorry.”

“The bull dying was nobody’s fault,” Fred said heavily. “But I used money I hoped to recoup to buy him, and there was no insurance. Very few small ranchers could take a loss like that and remain standing. He was a champion’s offspring.”

“I know that. I’d help, if you’d let me,” Leo said earnestly. “I appreciate it. But I can’t.”

There was a long, pregnant pause. “Janie told you about what happened at the ball, I suppose,” Leo added curtly.

“No. She hasn’t said a single word about that,” Fred replied. He frowned. “Why?” He understood, belatedly, Leo’s concerned stare. “She did tell me about what happened in the hardware store,” he added slowly. “There’s more?”

Leo glanced away. “There was some unpleasantness at the ball, as well. We had a major fight.” He studied his big hands. “I’ve made some serious mistakes lately. I believed some gossip about Janie that I should never have credited. I know better now, but it’s too late. She won’t let me close enough to apologize.”

That was news. “When did you see her?” Fred asked, playing for time.

“In town at the bank Friday,” he said. “She snubbed me.” He smiled faintly. It had actually hurt when she’d given him a harsh glare, followed by complete oblivion to his presence. “First time that’s happened to me in my life.”

“Janie isn’t usually rude,” Fred tried to justify her behavior. “Maybe it’s just the new job…”

“It’s what I said to her, Fred,” the younger man replied heavily. “I really hurt her. Looking back, I don’t know why I ever believed what I was told.”

Fred was reading between the lines. “Marilee can be very convincing, Janie said. And she had a case on you.”

“It wasn’t mutual,” Leo said surprisingly. “I didn’t realize what was going on. Then she told me all these things Janie was telling people…” He stopped and cursed harshly. “I thought I could see through lies. I guess I’m more naive than I thought I was.”

“Any man can be taken in,” Fred reassured him. “It was just bad luck. Janie never said a word about you in public. She’s shy, although you might not realize it. She’d never throw herself at a man. Well, not for real,” he amended with a faint smile. “She did dress up and flirt with you. She told Hettie it was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life, and she agonized over it for days afterward. Not the mark of a sophisticated woman, is it?”

Leo understood then how far he’d fallen. No wonder she’d been so upset when she overheard him running down her aggressive behavior. “No,” he replied. “I wish I’d seen through it.” He smiled wryly. “I don’t like aggressive, sophisticated women,” he confessed. “Call it a fatal flaw. I liked Janie the way she was.”

“Harmless?” Fred mused.

Leo flushed. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Wouldn’t you?” Fred leaned back in his chair, smiling at the younger man’s confusion. “I’ve sheltered Janie too much. I wanted her to have a smooth, easy path through life. But I did her no favors. She’s not a dress-up doll, Leo, she’s a woman. She needs to learn independence, self-sufficiency. She has a temper, and she’s learning to use that, too. Last week, she stood up to me for the first time and told me what she was going to do.” He chuckled. “I must confess, it was pretty shocking to realize that my daughter was a woman.”

“She’s going around with Harley,” Leo said curtly.

“Why shouldn’t she? Harley’s a good man—young, but steady and dependable. He, uh, did go up against armed men and held his own, you know.”

Leo did know. It made him furious to know. He didn’t hang out with professional soldiers. He’d been in the service, and briefly in combat, but he’d never fought drug dealers and been written up in newspapers as a local hero.

Fred deduced all that from the look on Leo’s lean face. “It’s not like you think,” he added. “She and Harley are friends. Just friends.”

“Do I care?” came the impassioned reply. He grabbed up his Stetson and got to his feet. He hesitated, turning back to Fred. “I won’t insist, but Janie would never have to know if I took an interest in the ranch,” he added firmly.

Fred was tempted. He sighed and stood up, too. “I’ve worked double shifts for years, trying to keep it solvent. I’ve survived bad markets, drought, unseasonable cold. But this is the worst it’s ever been. I could lose the property so easily.”

“Then don’t take the risk,” Leo insisted. “I can loan you what it takes to get you back in the black. And I promise you, Janie will never know. It will be between the two of us. Don’t lose the ranch out of pride, Fred. It’s been in your family for generations.”

Fred grimaced. “Leo…”

The younger man leaned both hands on the desk and impaled Fred with dark eyes. “Let me help!”

Fred studied the determination, the genuine concern in that piercing stare. “It would have to be a secret,” he said, weakening.

Leo’s eyes softened. “It will be. You have my word. Blake Kemp’s our family attorney. I’ll make an appointment. We can sit down with him and work out the details.”

Fred had to bite down hard on his lower lip to keep the brightness in his eyes in check. “You can’t possibly know how much…” He choked.

Leo held up a hand, embarrassed by his friend’s emotion. “I’m filthy rich,” he said curtly. “What good is money if you can’t use it to help out friends? You’d do the same for me in a heartbeat if our positions were reversed.”

Fred swallowed noticeably. “That goes without saying.” He drew in a shaky breath. “Thanks,” he bit off.

“You’re welcome.” Leo slanted his hat across his eyes. “I’ll phone you. By the way, which restaurant is Janie working at?” he added. “I might stop by for lunch one day.”

“That wouldn’t be a good idea just yet,” Fred said, feeling guilty because Leo still didn’t know what was going on.

Leo considered that. “You could be right,” he had to agree. “I’ll let it ride for a few days, then. Until she cools down a little, at least.” He grinned. “She’s got a hell of a temper, Fred. Who’d have guessed?”

Fred chuckled. “She’s full of surprises lately.”

“That she is. I’ll be in touch.”

Leo was gone and Fred let the emotion out. He hadn’t realized how much his family ranch meant to him until he was faced with the horrible prospect of losing it. Now, it would pass to Janie and her family, her children. God bless Leo Hart for being a friend when he needed one so desperately. He grabbed at a tissue and wiped his eyes. Life was good. Life was very good!

Fred was still up when Janie got home from work. She was tired. It had been a long night. She stopped in the kitchen to say good-night to Hettie before she joined her father in his study.

“Hettie said Leo came by,” she said without her usual greeting. She looked worried. “Why?”

“He wanted to check on his bull,” he lied without meeting her eyes.

She hesitated. “Did he… ask about me?”

“Yes,” he said. “I told him you had a job working in a restaurant.”

She stared at her feet. “Did you tell him which one?”

He looked anxious. “No.”

She met his eyes. “You don’t have to worry, Dad. It’s none of Leo Hart’s business where I work, or whatever else I do.”

“You’re still angry,” he noted. “I understand. But he wants to make peace.”

She swallowed, hearing all over again his voice taunting her, baiting her. She clenched both hands at her sides. “He wants to bury the hatchet? Good. I know exactly where to bury it.”

“Now, daughter, he’s not a bad man.”

“Of course he’s not. He just doesn’t like me,” she bit off. “You can’t blame him, not when he’s got Marilee.”

He winced. “I didn’t think. You lost your only friend.”

“Some friend,” she scoffed. “She’s gone to spend the holidays in Colorado,” she added smugly. “A rushed trip, I heard.”

“I imagine she’s too ashamed to walk down the main street right now,” her father replied. “People have been talking about her, and that’s no lie. But she’s not really a bad woman, Janie. She just made a mistake. People do.”

“You don’t,” she said unexpectedly, and smiled at him. “You’re the only person in the world who wouldn’t stab me in the back.”

He flushed. Guilt overwhelmed him. What would she say when she knew that he was going to let Leo Hart buy into the ranch, and behind her back? It was for a good cause, so that she could eventually inherit her birthright, but he felt suddenly like a traitor. He could only imagine how she’d look at him if she ever found out….

“Why are you brooding?” she teased. “You need to put away those books and go to bed.”

He stared at the columns that wouldn’t balance and thought about having enough money to fix fences, repair the barn, buy extra feed for the winter, buy replacement heifers, afford medicine for his sick cattle and veterinarian’s fees. The temptation was just too much for him. He couldn’t let the ranch go to strangers.

“Do you ever think about down the road,” Fred murmured, “when your children grow up and take over the ranch?”

She blinked. “Well, yes, sometimes,” she confessed. “It’s a wonderful legacy,” she added with a soft smile. “We go back such a long way in Jacobsville. It was one of your great-uncles who was the first foreman of the Jacobs ranch properties when the founder of our town came here and bought cattle, after the Civil War. This ranch was really an offshoot of that one,” she added. “There’s so much history here!”

Fred swallowed. “Too much to let the ranch go down the tube, or end up in the hands of strangers, like the Jacobs place did.” He shook his head. “That was sad, to see Shelby and Ty thrown off their own property. That ranch had been in their family over a hundred years.”

“It wasn’t much of a ranch anymore,” she reminded him. “More of a horse farm. But I understand what you mean. I’m glad we’ll have the ranch to hand down to our descendants.” She gave him a long look. “You aren’t thinking of giving it up without a fight?”

“Heavens, no!”

She relaxed. “Sorry. But the way you were talking…”

“I’d do almost anything to keep it in the family,” Fred assured her. “You, uh, wouldn’t have a problem with me taking on a partner or an investor?”

“Of course not,” she assured him. “So you found someone in Colorado after all?” she added excitedly. “Somebody who’s willing to back us?”

“Yes,” he lied, “but I didn’t hear until today.”

“That’s just great!” she exclaimed.

He gave her a narrow look. “I’m glad you think so. Then you can give up that job and go back to college…”

“No.”

His eyebrows went up. “But, Janie…”

“Dad, even with an investor, we still have the day-to-day operation of the ranch to maintain,” she reminded him gently. “How about groceries? Utilities? How about cattle feed and horse feed and salt blocks and fencing?”

He sighed. “You’re right, of course. I’ll need the investment for the big things.”

“I like my job,” she added. “I really do.”

“It’s a bad place on the weekends,” he worried.

“Tiny likes me,” she assured him. “And Harley comes in at least two or three times a week, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays, to make sure I’m doing all right. I feel as safe at Shea’s as I do right here with you.”

“It’s not that I mind you working,” he said, trying to explain.

“I know that. You’re just worried that I might get in over my head. Tiny doesn’t let anybody have too much to drink before he makes them leave. Mr. Duncan is emphatic about not having drunks on the place.”

Fred sighed. “I know when I’m licked. I may show up for pizza one Saturday night, though.”

She grinned. “You’d be welcome! I could show you off to my customers.”

“Leo wanted to know where you were working,” he said abruptly. “He wanted to come by and see you.”

Her face tautened. “I don’t want to see him.”

“So I heard. He was, uh, pretty vocal about the way you snubbed him.”

She tossed back her hair. “He deserved it. I’m nobody’s doormat. He isn’t going to walk all over me and get away with it!”

“He won’t like you working at Shea’s, no matter what you think.”

“Why do you care?” she asked suspiciously.

He couldn’t tell her that Leo might renege on the loan if he knew Fred was letting her work in such a dive. He felt guilty as sin for not coming clean. But he was so afraid of losing the ranch. It was Janie’s inheritance. He had to do everything he could to keep it solvent.

“He’s my friend,” he said finally.

“I used to think he was mine, too,” she replied. “But friends don’t talk about each other the way he was talking about me. As if I’d ever gossip about him!”

“I think he knows that now, Janie.”

She forced the anger to the back of her mind. “I guess if he knew what I was doing, he’d faint. He doesn’t think I can cook at all.”

“I did tell him you had a cooking job,” he confided.

Her eyes lit up. “You did? What did he say?”

“He was… surprised.”

“He was astonished,” she translated.

“It bothered him that you snubbed him. He said he felt really bad about the things he said, that you overheard. He, uh, told me about the fight you had at the ball, too.”

Her face colored. “What did he tell you?”

“That you’d had a bad argument. Seemed to tickle him that you had a temper,” he added with a chuckle.

“He’ll find out I have a temper if he comes near me again.” She turned. “I’m going to bed, Dad. You sleep good.”

“You, too, sweetheart. Good night.”

He watched her walk away with a silent sigh of relief. So far, he thought, so good.

Chapter Six

The following Wednesday, Leo met with Blake Kemp and Fred Brewster in Kemp’s office, to draw up the instrument of partnership.

“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for this, Leo,” Fred said as they finished a rough draft of the agreement.

“You’d have done it for me,” Leo said simply. “How long will it take until those papers are ready to sign?” he asked Kemp.

“We’ll have them by Monday,” Kemp assured him.

“I’ll make an appointment with your receptionist on the way out,” Leo said, rising. “Thanks, Blake.”

The attorney shook his outstretched hand, and then Fred’s. “All in a day’s work. I wish most of my business was concluded this easily, and amiably,” he added wryly.

Leo checked his watch. “Why don’t we go out to Shea’s and have a beer and some pizza, Fred?” he asked the other man, who, curiously, seemed paler.

Fred was scrambling for a reason that Leo couldn’t go to Shea’s. “Well, because, uh, because Hettie made chili!” he remembered suddenly. “So why don’t you come home and eat with me? We’ve got Mexican corn bread to go with it!”

Leo hesitated. “That does sound pretty good,” he had to admit. Then he remembered. Janie would be there. He was uncomfortable with the idea of rushing in on her unexpectedly, especially in light of recent circumstances. He was still a little embarrassed about his own behavior. He searched for a reason to refuse, and found one. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, I almost forgot!” he added, slapping his forehead. “I’m supposed to have supper with Cag and Tess tonight. We’re going in together on two new Santa Gertrudis bulls. How could I have forgotten… got to run, Fred, or I’ll never make it on time!”

“Sure, of course,” Fred said, and looked relieved. “Have a good time!”

Leo chuckled. “I get to play with my nephew. That’s fun, all right. I like kids.”

“You never seemed the type,” Fred had to admit.

“I’m not talking about having any of my own right away,” Leo assured him. “I don’t want to get married. But I like all my nephews, not to mention my niece.”

Fred only smiled.

“Thanks for the offer of supper, anyway,” he told the older man with a smile. “Sorry I can’t come.”

Fred relaxed. “That’s okay, Leo. More for me,” he teased. “Well, I’ll go home and have my chili. Thanks again. If I can ever do anything for you, anything at all, you only have to ask.”

Leo smiled. “I know that, Fred. See you.”

They parted in the parking lot. Leo got in his double-cabbed pickup and gunned the engine.

Fred got into his own truck and relaxed. At least, he thought, he didn’t have to face Leo’s indignation today. With luck, Leo might never realize what was going on.

Leo, honest to the core, phoned Cag and caged an invitation to supper to discuss the two new bulls the brothers were buying. But he had some time before he was due at his brother’s house. He brooded over Fred’s dead bull, and Christabel’s, and he began to wonder. He had a bull from that same lot, a new lineage of Salers bulls that came from a Victoria breeder. Two related bulls dying in a month’s time seemed just a bit too much for coincidence. He picked up the phone and called information.

Cag and Tess were still like newlyweds, Leo noted as he carried their toddler around the living room after supper, grinning from ear to ear as the little boy, barely a year old, smiled up at him and tried to grab his nose. They sat close together on the sofa and seemed to radiate love. They were watching him with equal interest.

“You do that like a natural,” Cag teased.

Leo shifted the little boy. “Lots of practice,” he chuckled. “Simon’s two boys, then Corrigan’s boy and their new girl, and now your son.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Rey and Meredith are finally expecting, too, I hear.”

“They are,” Cag said with a sigh. He eyed his brother mischievously. “When are you planning to throw in the towel and join up?”

“Me? Never,” Leo said confidently. “I’ve got a big house to myself, all the women I can attract, no responsibilities and plenty of little kids to spoil as they grow.” He gave them an innocent glance. “Why should I want to tie myself down?”

“Just a thought,” Cag replied. “You’ll soon get tired of going all the way to town every morning for a fresh biscuit.” Cag handed the baby back to Tess.

“I’m thinking of taking a cooking course,” Leo remarked. Cag roared.

“I could cook if I wanted to!” Leo said indignantly.

Tess didn’t speak, but her eyes did.

Leo stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Well, I don’t really want to,” he conceded. “And it is a long way to town. But I can manage.” He sprawled in an easy chair. “There’s something I want to talk to you about—besides our new bulls.”

“What?” Cag asked, sensing concern.

“Fred’s big Salers bull that died mysteriously,” Leo said. “Christabel and Judd Dunn lost one, too, a young bull.”

“Judd says it died of bloat.”

“I saw the carcass, he didn’t. He thinks Christabel made it up, God knows why. He wouldn’t even come down from Victoria to take a look at it. It wasn’t bloat. But she didn’t call a vet out, and they didn’t find any marks on Fred’s bull.” He sighed. “Cag, I’ve done a little checking. The bulls are related. The young herd sire of these bulls died recently as well, and the only champion Salers bull left that’s still walking is our two-year-old bull that I loaned to Fred, although it’s not related to the dead ones.”

Cag sat up straight, scowling. “You’re kidding.”

Leo shook his head. “It’s suspicious, isn’t it?”

“You might talk to Jack Handley in Victoria, the rancher we bought our bull from.”

“I did.” He leaned forward intently. “Handley said he fired two men earlier this year for stealing from him. They’re brothers, John and Jack Clark. One of them is a thief, the other has a reputation for vengeance that boggles the mind. When one former employer fired Jack Clark, he lost his prize bull and all four young bulls he’d got from it. No apparent cause of death. Handley checked and found a pattern of theft and retribution with those brothers going back two years. At least four employers reported similar problems with theft and firing. There’s a pattern of bull deaths, too. The brothers were suspects in a recent case in Victoria, but there was never enough evidence to convict anyone. Until now, I don’t imagine anyone’s connected the dots.”

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