herself too, at Carol’s request. Though there’d been a look in her aunt’s eyes at the time, a look that had been entirely too knowing. Were her feelings for Harlan so obvious to everyone? Maybe she was lucky her uncle was still off in Wyoming on a cattle buy.
She felt herself blush and then burst out laughing. She was so foolish, blushing out here in the darkness with no one around, like a shy girl, too young to know better.
The sound of boots crunching on the driveway gravel startled her. She turned and caught sight of Harlan walking toward his camper trailer that nestled in a little copse of evergreen trees near the paddock. She smiled, watching him walk, loving his long gait. Watching him when he hadn’t noticed her made her feel powerful, as if she had a secret hiding place and she could see him, but he had no idea of her…careful observation.
She snorted. Careful observation? More like peeping.
“Hey cowboy,” she called, surprising herself. “Over here.”
Right up until the moment the words had burst out of her mouth she’d believed she’d only wanted peace and solitude. Now her voice echoed, bouncing back from the stables and the house. She bit at her lip, eager for him to stop and sit awhile, but nervous all the same.
He halted and looked toward her. One of the outside floodlights behind him threw his face in shadow, so she couldn’t tell if he was happy or annoyed to see her. But he walked over to her, crossed his arms on the truck bed, and leaned against it.
“So this is how you get out of doing the dishes,” he said. “Devious.”
“Nope. Tonight was your night for dishes, buckeroo. I did last night.”
“Tex. Buckaroo. Guess that’s better than cowpoke.”
She gave a short laugh. A cool, almost-cold breeze came down off the mountain range. Soon it would be too cold to stay out like this for long. She’d better enjoy it while she could. Unless she found someone to keep her warm.
“So what’s on your mind?” He cocked his head to the side, watching her from under the brim of his hat. “You’ve had something you’ve been dying to tell me all during dinner.”
She gaped at him. “How do you figure that?”
“I could see it plain enough. Lots of pauses. Heavy silences. So, out with it then.”
No escape now. She wouldn’t lie to him, either. He deserved the truth.
“I’m leaving Snowbrook,” she said. “I bought land off my uncle, twenty-five acres.”
He nodded. “I had an idea some big deal was going on. Didn’t know it was you.” He pushed his hat farther back on his head and smiled…though she thought she saw a shadow in his eyes. “Congratulations are in order.”
“There’s more. Three weeks and construction starts. I’m going to be living on site, overseeing everything. Helping out.” She shrugged. “I already have a trailer there. A generator. Well water access. I…I didn’t want to say anything until it was final.”
He stayed very still and didn’t reply for a long moment. Her heart beat hard in her chest. She didn’t dare move, though she suddenly felt very cold. Had telling him been a terrible mistake?
“So that’s why you haven’t been around as much,” he finally said, his voice carefully neutral. “Your uncle’s been distracted too. I thought it was just the market. Surprised he didn’t mention it.”
“We agreed to keep it quiet. No…actually I asked him to keep it quiet. The banks…and if it fell through I didn’t want to look…” She shrugged and glanced away, frowning. It sounded stupid to say now, but if the deal had fallen through she hadn’t wanted Harlan to know she had tried and failed. It had seemed so important at the time. Right up there with insisting her uncle charge her a market fair price for the land, not simply give it to her as he’d first wanted. Now that she’d succeeded, deal in place, dream in reach, her reservations seemed foolish and overblown. “Well, I couldn’t have done this without him. But
Gui de Cambrai, Peggy McCracken