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married man, would you? Of course he wouldn't want to take me to any retirement party," she
rationalized. "I'm just a kid, like you said. He'd want someone pretty and sophisticated and famous to
show off to his friends, not a country hick of a tomboy who has trouble knowing which utensil to
use."
"You're no country hick," Grier said forcibly. "Listen here, don't you take this personally. I imagine
he thinks he's keeping it from you, that you won't find out." He crossed his long legs and leaned back
in the chair with his coffee. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you. Maybe you wouldn't have known
otherwise."
"You don't think Tippy wouldn't enjoy rubbing it in when she comes back with the film crew next
week?" she mused. "At least now, she won't hit me with it when I'm not expecting it."
"If you'd like to go, I'll take you," he told her with a wicked smile. "I used to work with the guy who's
retiring, and I was invited, too."
She smiled back. It was tempting. But even if he played fast and loose with her heart, Crissy couldn't
embarrass Judd that way, not after all he'd done for her over the years.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't play that sort of game. I'm not really a vindictive person."
"I know that," he said curtly. "It makes it hard to hurt you."
She searched his handsome face with a grin. "You're a nice man, Cash Grier," she said softly.
He lifted both eyebrows and his dark eyes twinkled. "That's a new one. I guess I've been called
everything else at least once."
"Well, anyway, since I'm twenty-one now Judd and I can get a quiet annulment next week, and nobody
will ever know we were married in the first place. I get my half of the ranch," she continued
doggedly, "he keeps his half, and he gets his freedom, so that he can marry his redheaded ideal
woman."
Grier studied her surreptitiously and thought that, in Judd's place, his freedom would be the last thing
he'd want.
This little morsel had a heart as big as all outdoors and she didn't put on airs or play mind games. She
was honest and brave and thoughtful. He was sorry there was such an age difference between them.
"Why do you look so morose?" she teased.
He studied her under narrowed eyelids. "I was wishing I was younger."
She smiled without guile. "Were you? Why?"
He laughed. She didn't have a clue about her own attractions. "Nothing. Just a passing thought." He
checked the complicated watch he wore on his left wrist. "I've got a few things to do be-fore quitting
time at five." He frowned. "You said Maude had gone to her sister's. Who's staying in the house with
you?"
"Nobody, of course. But Maude will be back first thing tomorrow."
He didn't like that. It was careless of Judd, especially after the threats made by Jack Clark.
"You're worried," she said. "Why?"
He was reluctant to tell her, and it showed. "Jack Clark has sworn in front of at least one witness that
he intends to make you pay for pulling a gun on him."
"Wasn't trying to have me arrested enough?" she asked facetiously.
"It isn't funny, Crissy," he replied.
"No, it isn't, but right now, it's just another drop in the mis-ery pool," she told him. "My life isn't
coming up roses, lately."
"I want you to be paranoid about locking doors and windows at night, even when Maude's here. If any
strange vehicle comes up in the yard, make sure you know who's in it before you go rushing out.
Keep that pistol handy.
The film crew's due out here again next week, right?"
"Right. Bright and early Monday morning. I'm sure Tippy Moore can't wait to rub my nose in her
evening out with Judd on my birthday," she said with a heavy sigh.
"You do have ranch hands around here, don't you?"
She felt her knees go weak. She'd never had to worry about intruders before. It was an old Victorian
house with long, low windows and not much security. She eyed the gun on the table. "Right now, we
have three part-time cowboys," she murmured, "and Nick, our foreman. Judd hired him." She looked
up. "He worked for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation just out of college, before he moved to
Texas, and he's a dead shot." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]