Lucas rushed in the front door, having heard the scream. “What the—?” He looked between them, taking in the situation, then gave Billy a disgusted frown. “You could at least have put some pants on, Billy, until she got used to you.”
Billy relaxed a little. “It was too hot,” he said, as if that was enough explanation. “What happened to the yellow-haired one?”
“She wasn’t the one,” Lucas answered shortly.
“But you showed me the picture, and you said—”
“It was a mistake,” Lucas ground out warningly. “Now did you two meet, or were you just standing there staring at each other?”
They were both embarrassed, Sharisse doubly so for being reminded of the deception she was playing and for thinking Billy was a savage when he was obviously a friend of Lucas’s.
“I’m Billy Wolf, ma’am, a good friend of Slade Holt’s—and now Lucas’s,” he said with a cocky grin.
“Sharisse Hammond,” she responded, her voice a little stilted.
“Didn’t mean to scare you none,” he added for Lucas’s benefit. “I came in to see if you want anything from town, since I’m heading that way.”
“After you put some clothes on, I hope,” Lucas grunted.
Sharisse spoke up. “As a matter of fact, I have a letter to be posted, if it won’t be too much of a bother. I’ll just get it.”
The moment she stepped into her bedroom, Billy whispered to Lucas, “When you saw how tall she was, why didn’t you send her back?”
Lucas grinned. “She’s not too tall.”
Billy looked him up and down. “Yeah, I guess her height don’t matter much to you. But, Jeez, Luke, she’s so skinny!”
Lucas raised a brow. “You think so?”
“Well, I just didn’t want you disappointed in her, seeing as how she was my idea.”
Sharisse came back into the room and handed the letter to Billy. But Lucas snatched it out of her hand, and she blanched at his arrogance, never having dreamed he might read it before it was safely on its way.
“Trudi Baker?” Lucas read the name aloud, then looked up at her questioningly.
Sharisse imagined his thoughts. When she had said there was no one she could turn to in New York, he must have assumed she had only her father and sister.
“Trudi is a friend of my sister, Mr. Holt. My sister, Stephanie, is only seventeen and still lives at home with my father, so, you see, she was in no position to help me.” She grew uncomfortable speaking of this in front of the curious Billy. “I’m sending the letter to her best friend’s house, because, well, I did explain to you about my father.”
She left the rest unsaid, wondering why it was necessary to explain a letter in the first place. She held her breath while he looked at it again. Finally he shrugged and handed it to Billy.
“See it gets posted, Billy, and don’t forget the cookbook I told you about.”
Billy saluted with the letter and exited jauntily.
Sharisse continued to watch Lucas warily and was surprised when he smiled sheepishly. “That was rather high-handed of me, and I apologize. I’m afraid my curiosity got the better of me. I wasn’t expecting you to be writing to anyone.”
“My sister and I are very close.” Sharisse relented, explaining that much. “Though I can’t correspond with her directly because of my father, she did make me promise to let her know that I’d arrived safely.”
“She knows what you came west for?” His smile widened. “And did she approve?”
Wholeheartedly, Sharisse wanted to say bitterly. And then she felt guilty for even thinking it. She couldn’t blame her sister for all this.
“What could she say, Mr. Holt? Stephanie knows my circumstances.”
He let that pass and said reflectively, “She looked older than seventeen in the picture. But then I took you for older than eighteen.”
“That’s because—”
