“Oh, yes, you will.”
“Give it a rest, Dex.”Freddy sighed and opened her door.“Roll down your window to let in the breeze.I’ll be back in no time.”
Inside the front door of the Buckle Barn, she breathed in the new-leather scent and looked around for Ry.
Connie Davis, the owner and Duane’s steady girlfriend for the past two years, rushed up to her and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper.“Is he the one from New York?”She tilted her head toward the back of the store.“The one you were so worried about?”
A giant cardboard cutout of Brooks and Dunn, a popular singing duo, blocked Freddy’s view.“I guess.Tall guy, light brown hair, mid-thirties?”
“Beautiful blue eyes and shoulders that fill out a Western shirt?”
Freddy’s breath hitched.She’d rather not think of Ry in those terms.“I suppose.”
“You don’t have a thing to worry about,” Connie said.
“You’re probably right.After tomorrow, he’ll be back in New York and he can’t very well dictate what goes on at the True Love from that distance.”
“Going back?”Connie looked confused.“He told me he needed some clothes because he planned to be here at least another week.”
Freddy’s heart stilled momentarily.“Maybe you were talking to somebody else.Mr.McGuinnes made reservations at the ranch for three nights only.”
“We can sure find out.Come on back.This fellow is making a final decision on a hat.”
Freddy rounded the Brooks and Dunn display with Connie just as Ry pulled the brim of a black hat low over his eyes.He turned and gave her an easy smile.“Ready?”
She struggled to find a response.Outfitted in borrowed clothes, he’d looked pretty darn good, but nothing compared to the picture he made in jeans that hugged his thighs, supple cotton that moved with each shrug of his broad shoulders and a hat that shadowed his blue eyes, imbuing them with compelling mystery.
She wanted him out of town.“I thought you were leaving tomorrow,” she said.
“Freddy!”Connie shot her a glance.“That wasn’t very nice.”
He regarded her steadily.“I’ve changed my mind.”
“But your reservation?—”
“You have available rooms.You said this was the slow season.”
And the hot season, she thought, noticing how his chest hair peeked from the open neck of his shirt.“Don’t you need to get back?To Wall Street and everything?”
A corner of his mouth tilted up.“No, not as long as the phone lines work.Of course, I suppose you could go out with your wire cutters tonight and force that issue.”
She gasped.“I would never do such a thing.”
“Wouldn’t you?You’ve resorted to just about everything else to get rid of me.”He turned to pick up the rest of his clothes from a chair by the dressing room door.“But it isn’t going to work, so you might as well get used to having me around.”
ChapterTwelve
At about six-thirty that night, Freddy nudged Maureen into a trot as she and Ry rode along a trail near the southern boundary of the ranch.Freddy knew that Ry’s mount, a dark bay named Destiny, would mimic her horse’s pace, and she hoped the jouncing would knock some sense into Ry’s thick skull.She wondered what he hoped to accomplish by staying on another week.Surely he recognized the volatile situation between them.
To their right, the sun sat like a bronze paperweight anchoring the horizon.Then, as if melting from its own heat, it gradually flattened and slipped out of sight.Above them the sky was clear except for a towering pile of white clouds that looked like a huge serving of vanilla ice cream.As the sun sank, the vanilla turned to strawberry, then raspberry, and finally orange sherbet.
It was Freddy’s favorite time of day, when the heat had left the desert air yet there was still enough soft light for a rider to see the trail.A fierce love of this land surged within her as she glanced over at Ry, the interloper.Did he imagine he could really own the True Love?Money wasn’t enough to claim ownership.
“When does the real estate agent expect an answer on your offer?”she asked.
“Soon.”Despite the trot, he sat on his horse easily, the reins held loosely in one hand, his denim-clad thighs gripping leather as he moved in rhythm with his mount.He pulled his hat brim lower to shade his eyes from the setting sun.“Duane asked me today about reinstating the rodeo.”
“And what did you say?”
