Freddy swallowed.“How do you know that, Dexter?”
“He said.”
“He told you his wife died on May 24?”
“Ye?.”
Somehow Freddy made it through the rest of her duties that day.Ry ate in the dining room, but he’d been appropriated by the couple now sleeping in the John Wayne Room, and Freddy spent most of the meal counseling the young woman with the allergies about not going outside during the early morning and late afternoon, when the pollen count was highest.
Then the sunset-ride crowd came in, and Freddy got caught up in their stories of seeing a pack of coyotes chasing down a rabbit.Some of the riders seemed to think Freddy should do something about protecting the cute little bunnies, so she spent another hour convincing them that they were looking at real nature, not something created as a theme park.
It was almost nine before she broke free.She looked around for Ry, but he was gone.She checked the porch, even asked the couple who had spent most of the evening with him, but nobody could tell her where he was.At last, she decided to try the cottage.
The John Wayne Room couple had blown it, she thought as she approached the small building, which was a miniature of the main house, complete with red-tiled roof, whitewashed adobe and a front porch shaded with a sweet-smelling jasmine vine.Freddy always gave the cottage to honeymooning couples, but none had presented themselves in the German group, so she’d picked at random, thinking she’d offered them a treat.
Ry wasn’t sitting on one of the Adirondack chairs occupying the front porch, but a light shone from the window.Freddy tapped on the door.
“Come in,” he called, and she opened the carved door, wondering why he hadn’t bothered to get up to answer the knock.
He was sitting on the bed talking on the phone, his briefcase open beside him and papers spread over the white comforter.He glanced up, his eyes widening.He covered the mouthpiece.“I’ll just be a minute.”
She half turned toward the door.“I could come back?—”
“No.I’ll be through soon.”
She pulled out one of the captain’s chairs next to a small table in the corner and sat down.She hadn’t been in here for a while and had forgotten the charm of the decor.She automatically checked for cobwebs in the beamed ceiling or any yellowing of the Battenburg lace trimming the white comforter and the curtains at the windows.Like most of the beds at the ranch, the one in the cottage was an antique four-poster paired with a dark wood dresser and end table.Ry’s hat hung on a post at the foot of the bed, in typical cowboy fashion.His boots were propped in a corner, and his shirt was unsnapped almost to his waist.It was warm in the room, and Freddy wondered if the air conditioner was broken.She’d have to ask.
Everything else looked in good shape.From what she could see of the bathroom, the clawfoot tub looked clean and the towels neatly arranged.The bathroom’s tile floor gleamed in the light from the bedroom, and the pine floors of the bedroom looked recently oiled.No stains marred the geometric-patterned Indian rugs on the floors.As Freddy might have expected, Rosa ran a tight ship.Everything was perfect.
“No, I want to get into Eurodollars now,” Ry said, running his fingers through his hair.“I know that’s risky but I think it’ll pay off.I appreciate your handling this for me.”He paused and looked over at Freddy.“It’s great.Riding bucking broncos and everything.”He winked at Freddy.“You bet!Bring Susie and the kids.Okay.Talk to you tomorrow.”
He hung up the phone and started gathering up the papers.“To what do I owe this honor?”
Freddy’s grip tightened on the arm of the chair.She’d been practicing her apology ever since Dexter had dropped his bombshell.But now words deserted her.She didn’t know where to begin.“Isn’t your air conditioner working?”she asked instead.
“It’s working.”He tapped the papers together and tucked them into his briefcase.“I’m just getting used to the heat, I guess.I decided not to turn it on.”He snapped the case closed and put it beside the bed.
“So I see.”
He glanced down at his unbuttoned shirt.“Does this offend you, ma’am?”he asked with a deadpan expression.
No, it excited her.She took refuge in a bored tone of voice.“Of course not.I work around a ranch full of men who sometimes, believe it or not, take off their shirts in my presence.”
“Funny, but my experience around you has had more to do with pants than shirts.”
She flushed, or maybe it was just the heat affecting her.But if he could live without air-conditioning, so could she.After all, she was the one raised in this country.He’d been here less than two weeks.“I didn’t mean to interrupt your work,” she said, gesturing toward the briefcase.“It must be difficult keeping up with Wall Street when you’re this far away.”
“It’s been difficult, but possible, which is something I wanted to find out.I’ll definitely need to spend time in New York, but not as much as I thought at first.”
She stared at him.“You sound as if you’re planning to take up residence at the True Love.”
His gaze was steady.“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because I like it here.”
She hadn’t counted on this.Not by a long shot.“You’d uproot yourself just like that?Change your whole life?”
