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“Which you apparently didn’t find.”
She nodded. “Which I definitely didn’t find.” She met his gaze. “What about you? How’d you end up in Winding River? I know you’re not from around here, or I’d have remembered you.”
“Oh? Why is that?” The wink of a dimple taunted her. “Am I that memorable?”
“You are, but then this is a small place. I remember everyone, especially the men who are the most annoying.”
He winced. “Ouch. A direct hit.”
He reached for the untouched half of her sandwich, but she moved it out of his reach. “Oh, no, at least not till I get an answer to my question.”
“I seem to have forgotten it.”
“How sad that a man of your tender years is losing his short-term memory,” she said. “How did you end up working for Grady?”
“I was working at a ranch a couple of hundred miles from here. I didn’t like the way things were going, and someone told me Grady was looking for a wrangler. We talked. I got the job.”
“Do you come and go a lot?”
That chill returned to his eyes, turning them as dark as a sky threatening snow. “What is it you really want to know, Lauren? Are you asking if I’m reliable? Grady’s already interviewed me. He’s satisfied with my past and my performance.”
“So he says,” she agreed. “But that doesn’t keep me from wanting to make sure you’re not going to bolt on my friends at the worst possible time.”
“As long as things are working out, I won’t bolt,” he said. “Satisfied?”
“Not really. Who gets to decide if things are working out?”
“Me and Grady.”
“I notice which one of you came first.”
“How’s that any different from you deciding to take off from whatever you were doing in California? Or did you get fired and come crawling back here with your tail tucked between your legs?”
“Hardly,” she retorted. Unwilling to elaborate, though, she forced a smile. “And you’re right. It’s no different, except that in your case my friends are involved, and nobody hurts them without taking me on in the process.”
He gave an exaggerated shudder clearly meant to mock her. “I’m trembling in my boots.”
“You should be. Believe it or not, you’ve seen me on my best behavior. Once I get riled up, a tornado seems tame by comparison. If you doubt that, I can give you a long list of testimonials.”
His lips twitched. “Is that so?”
“Yep,” she said, then rose gracefully to her feet. “If you don’t believe it, just try me.”
As she walked off to get her horse, she was almost certain she heard him put his own twist on her words from the day before.
“I just might do that, Miss Lauren,” he murmured, but then he drew his Stetson down over his eyes and leaned back against the tree as if he didn’t have another thought to spare for her.
Lauren cast one last scathing look in Wade’s direction, mounted her horse and headed back to the ranch.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before that man gets a chance to try,” she muttered as she rubbed down her horse, checked his feed and then stalked into the house.
For a few fleeting moments, she and Wade Owens had actually seemed to be on the road to a peaceful coexistence. It hadn’t taken much to shatter that illusion, though.
Oh, well, she had dealt with her share of pigheaded men over time. It was just too darn bad that this one was sexy as sin.
4
As soon as he heard the sound of pounding hooves, Wade lifted the Stetson shading his eyes and watched Lauren race away. The woman could ride, no doubt about that. He’d deliberately set a tough pace for her earlier, but she hadn’t been the least bit fazed by it. In fact, she’d come darn close to beating him at his own game. Okay, for a few minutes there, she had beat him. If he hadn’t been so impressed, he might have found it annoying.
More important from his perspective, there was no question that she knew how to get to Midnight. The horse was skittish as could be around him and had been from the beginning, with no evidence of improvement. But in twenty-four hours, Lauren had the stallion literally eating out of her hand. If she could accomplish a miracle with Midnight, he had no quarrel with her sticking around. He had big plans for that horse. He couldn’t help wondering, though, if Lauren knew about them.
More important, he wondered if she really would be here long enough to finish the job or if this was some temporary lark. Something told him she had the same capacity for restlessness that he had. He hadn’t bought that stuff about the allure of California fading. He had a hunch she was just the type who moved on whenever the mood struck her. Though they hadn’t gotten into what kind of work she’d been doing out there, for all he knew she’d changed jobs once a year or even more frequently.
That was yet another reason to steer clear of her, he warned himself. Why invest any emotion in a female who wouldn’t be here long enough for him to learn much more than her name...which, come to think of it, he didn’t actually know. Just Lauren, she’d told him. What was that all about? Didn’t she see any point in full disclosure with the hired help?
“Don’t be a jerk, Wade,” he muttered as he mounted his horse and headed farther up into the hills to see if he could spot the wild horses that had eluded them earlier. It wasn’t as if Lauren whoever-she-was was important in the overall scheme of his life. Why should he give two hoots what sort of secrets she was keeping hidden or what kind of snob she was? As long as she did what Grady asked of her and stayed out of Wade’s way, the rest didn’t matter, right?
But Wade hadn’t reached the age of thirty without developing at least a modicum of honesty and self-awareness. He cared—especially about that uppity streak—because the woman got to him. She’d been turning his perceptions inside out from the moment they’d met. That ability she had to take him by surprise was more intriguing than it should be. He had a hunch it could get him into trouble before all was said and done.
Which meant just one thing...for his own peace of mind, he needed to stay the hell away from her.
* * *
Lauren was dusty, hot and tired, yet surprisingly exhilarated, by the time she walked back into the house to find Karen pouring two glasses of lemonade.
“I saw you coming,” Karen said, holding one of the glasses out. “Judging from the sour expression on your face, I thought you might need something cool and equally tart to drink.”
Lauren ignored the comment on her apparent mood, accepted the ice-cold glass and drank thirstily. “Just what the doctor ordered.”
Karen sipped her own lemonade and studied Lauren over the rim of her glass. “Good day?” she inquired eventually.
“Productive,” Lauren responded.
“In what way?”
She grinned. “I beat Wade’s butt in an impromptu race he set up to try to show off.”
Karen chuckled. “Haven’t you learned anything? Beating a man at his own game is no way to win his heart.”
“I’m not going for Wade’s heart.”
“Oh? What are you after?”
“His respect,” she said at once, surprised to find that it was true. If that morning’s ride had been meant to test her, it had also shown her that Wade was as skilled a rider as she was and then some. After dealing with him the last couple of days and seeing him in action, she had a feeling he gave his respect grudgingly, and she wanted to earn it.
Karen grinned at her response. “I see. Even more fascinating.”
Lauren scowled. “Why?”
“Because there’s no reason to want a man’s respect unless you think he’s worthy of your own.”
“Yes, well, that remains to be seen,” Lauren said, not prepared to make that kind of admission, even to one of her best friends. “He’s still too full of himself.”
And yet there had been those moments—brief though they had been—when she and Wade had connected on some level. It wasn’t just chemistry, she told herself. It was something more, something with potential.
“As if,” she muttered.
“As if what?” Karen asked, looking intrigued.
“Nothing.”
Karen chuckled, her expression knowing. “There it is again. Oh, this is going to be fun.”
“What?”
“Watching you fall like a ton of bricks. I can hardly wait to tell Emma and the others. They’ve been placing bets lately on when your turn would come. Now that you’re actually right here under their noses, they’re each going to be doing everything they possibly can to be the one who sets you up with the right man. I love it that I’m already in the lead on that and they don’t even know it.”
Lauren frowned. “Don’t be so smug. Gina suspects. She was out here after you and Grady went to bed. She picked up on some things I said and got all sorts of crazy ideas into her head.”
“Oh, really? Such as?”
“Never mind. I am not playing this game. My turn has already rolled around twice—with disastrous results,” Lauren reminded her. “I don’t intend to go that route again.”
“Oh, piddle,” Karen responded. “Those men weren’t worthy enough to shine your shoes. As for Wade, I think he’s a man of real substance.”
“And you know that how? He hasn’t even been here a month.”
“Sometimes you just know these things,” Karen said loftily.
“Yeah, like you knew it the first time you looked into Grady’s eyes,” Lauren retorted. “You thought he was a thieving scoundrel.”
Karen shrugged off that little reminder. “We did have a few issues to iron out, you’re right, but that just made things a little livelier. And don’t try to change the subject. I can hardly wait to share this good news with the rest of the Calamity Janes.”
“Don’t you dare,” Lauren said, annoyed because she hadn’t been able to convince Karen that there was no news to spread. Sweet heaven, once people started talking, it would be no time at all before the news somehow reached the tabloids, and that would be the end of her anonymity. There was always someone willing to leak gossip about a celebrity for the right price.
“Or what?” Karen taunted, much as she had when they were girls.
“I’ll have a little talk with Grady,” Lauren responded, deciding that a very personal threat was better than trying to explain to the uninitiated Karen about the hot market for gossip. Karen hadn’t had her life dissected on the front pages of newspapers for years, but she did care what Grady thought of her. In fact, Karen was already looking a little pale.
“About?” Karen asked suspiciously.
“Oh, I’m sure there are a lot of things he doesn’t know about the Calamity Janes in their prime,” Lauren said blithely. “I seem to recall one particular incident in which his beloved, honorable, sedate wife was caught mooning the school principal.”
“I never did that,” Karen protested, her cheeks turning red. “Not intentionally anyway. I had no idea he was anywhere around.”
“The point is, you did it, and I have witnesses.”
“Okay, okay, I won’t say a word about you and Wade.”
“There is no ‘me and Wade,’” Lauren reminded her.
“No, of course not,” Karen said dutifully, though she couldn’t quite mask the twinkle in her eyes. “I’ll try to remember that when your expression goes all soft and mushy every time his name is mentioned.”
“It does not,” Lauren said, horrified. “Does it?”
“If you don’t believe me, ask Grady.”
“I am not asking Grady anything of the kind,” Lauren said. “In fact, I think I’ll avoid you two altogether and drive over to Winding River. Maybe I can find somebody who’s actually nice to me and buy them an expensive steak dinner at Stella’s.”
“Not tonight you won’t,” Karen said, her expression smug. “It’s meat-loaf night at Stella’s, which means that’s where Grady and I are headed as soon as he gets back. Care to join us?”
Lauren sighed. Why bother trying to fight the inevitable? “I suppose, but I’m buying.”
“I’ll let you and Grady fight that battle,” Karen said. “Oh, and just so you know, Wade usually turns up for Stella’s meat loaf, too.”
* * *
Wade had gotten into the habit of driving to Winding River for his evening meals when he first started working for Grady. Though his boss invited him to share meals at the main house, watching Grady and Karen make eyes at each other had given Wade a strange feeling. If he hadn’t known better, he would have said it was envy. He’d never seen two people any crazier in love or less reticent about public displays of affection.
At any rate, he’d started by going to the Heartbreak, having a few beers and a sandwich, but the place was too smoky for his taste and the food was lousy. After a couple of nights, even the music began to grate on his nerves. All that love-gone-wrong stuff was too depressing given his own unattached state.
Now he alternated between Tony’s, where he could get a decent pizza or some filling pasta, and Stella’s, where the nightly special was guaranteed to remind him of the kind of meal a man’s mother should have made. Of course, his never had. He’d been lucky to get a frozen dinner that had been nuked beyond recognition. Cooking hadn’t been Arlene’s forte, and most nights she’d been at work anyway. He’d been left to his own devices. Learning to cook had been a matter of self-preservation, but he hadn’t taken to it. Now that he had decent options a few miles away, he was eating a whole lot better.
Of course, he had quickly discovered that his new routine wouldn’t guarantee him much privacy. Karen and Grady had a lot of friends, and most of them turned up at one restaurant or another every night of the week, especially since Karen’s pal Gina had taken over the kitchen at Tony’s.
He’d also discovered that he could count on bumping into Grady and Karen themselves on meat-loaf night at Stella’s. Unfortunately, the food was too good to sacrifice just so he could avoid spending time with the newlyweds.
What he hadn’t expected when he’d walked through the door tonight was to find Lauren sitting in a booth with the Blackhawks. Grady promptly beckoned him over.
“Have a seat,” Grady said. He seemed oblivious to the satisfied smirk on his wife’s face.
Wade hesitated, his gaze on Lauren. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, sit down,” she grumbled ungraciously. “I’m sure we can manage to be civil for an hour or so.” She turned a sour look on Karen and added, “If we can’t, we’ll never hear the end of it.”
Wade grinned. “If it gets to be too much of a trial, I’ll eat fast.”
Karen chuckled, then quickly covered her grin.
“What?” Grady said, looking from his wife to Wade, and then at Lauren. “Did I miss something?”
“No, my darling man, you are as astute as ever,” Lauren assured him. “Your wife’s just being an annoying meddler.”
Wade slid into the booth next to Lauren just as the words crossed her lips. When his thigh brushed against hers, color flamed in her cheeks and her mouth snapped shut. Satisfied with her telling reaction, he regarded her innocently. “Anything wrong?”
“Not a thing,” she said, her jaw clenched tight.
He patted her hand. “Good. Now stop picking on Karen.”
Grady was still regarding them all with confusion, but his wife looked as if she was about to burst into laughter at any second. Given Lauren’s obviously unpredictable mood, Wade decided he’d better try to forestall that by getting their waitress over and their order placed.
As luck would have it, Cassie was working tonight. Her eyes widened, then turned speculative when she spotted Wade crowded into the booth next to Lauren.
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