He turned, staring at the fax machine on the desk near the window, facing the fact that while he knew just about everything there was to know about ranching, the age of computers had him hanging in air.It was humiliating to know that a three-year-old could do what he had yet to accomplish, but this concerned Ryder, and it was no time to get macho about a damned old machine.
He headed for the back door at a fast clip.“Hey, Maddie,” he yelled.“Come help me fax something to Uncle Roman.”
CHAPTER 10
By Labor Day, Miles had become Eudora’s fair-haired boy.Somehow, the fact that he was gainfully employed had become his idea and Casey’s ultimatum had never happened.She couldn’t have cared less who took the credit.His streak of ambition had even rubbed off on Erica.She kept making noises about pursuing a career of her own and spent hours each day pouring overFortune 500magazines in search of ideas.
At night when it was time to go to bed, Ryder no longer wandered in and out of the bedroom in various stages of undress.Casey had her bathroom all to herself and began to realize why Ryder had become so upset when she’d moved him out of her life.The routine they’d been in had become normal, even comforting, and it was over.Because of the new bedroom, whatever connection they’d made between themselves was gone.In an odd sort of way, it was like being divorced.
But the awareness between them kept growing.It was there in the way Ryder watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking—and the way his hand lingered on her arm long after the need for keeping her balance had come and gone—even the brief, sibling-like kisses they left on each other’s cheek before saying good-night.They were wanna-be lovers, playing at being friends.And always, in the back of their minds, was the knowledge that the marriage they shared was a farce and the lie they were living was the very wedge that kept them apart.
* * *
It was just past noon when Casey turned off the highway and accelerated up the driveway into the Ruban estate, gunning the engine of her new car and taking the curve in a near skid.She pulled up to the garage and stopped just as Ryder slid out from beneath the Lincoln.His black hair was windblown and the grin on his face was too devil-may-care to ignore.His jeans were oil-slicked, his chest brown and bare.He was wiping his hands on a rag as he headed her way.
“Where’s the fire?”
She wanted to throw her arms around his neck and beg him to crawl back under that car and take her with him, but she couldn’t.At least, not today.
She bolted for the stairs.“I know, I was driving a little too fast, but I’m in a hurry.”She hiked up her skirt and began to run up the steps, two at a time.
“Take off those damned high heels if you’re going to run like that,” Ryder yelled.When she didn’t oblige, he threw down the grease rag.“Hardheaded woman,” he muttered, and followed her inside.
She was in the bedroom.A suitcase was open and she was yanking clothes from a hanger and tossing them on the bed with abandon.Anxiety seized him.She was packing to travel.
“What’s the rush?”
“I’ve got to be in Chicago by morning.I have less than an hour and a half to get packed and get to the airport..”She turned in a helpless circle, then dived back into the bottom of her closet, muttering as shoes came flying out behind her.“I can’t find my black heels.”
Ryder bent down and picked up a pair from the pile in the floor.“Like these?”
She straightened.A smile creased her face as she yanked them from his hands.“Yes!You’re a magician.Thanks a bunch.”
His belly was starting to turn.He kept telling himself it was going to be okay, that the only reason this was bothering him was because the news was so sudden.
“So, what’s in Chicago?”
“Digidyne Industries.We’ve been after them for years.Once before, Delaney had the deal all but done and they backed out.I just got a call that the CEO had a heart attack and died.The heirs are going to put it on the auction block and I want first dibs.”
Ryder started to pace, sidestepping her trips from the closet and back as she packed what she needed to wear.“So, it’s a big deal, huh?”
“Very!I’m lucky that Delaney’s old contact even thought to make the call and let me know.Otherwise, we would have been out in the cold.”
“Yeah, that was lucky all right.”He sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at the toes of his boots.
Casey glanced up.“You need to hurry and clean up.We’re going to have to drive like mad to make my plane.”Then she grinned.“However, that should pose no problem for you.”It was a joke within the household that the family chauffeur drove, as Eudora had put it, “Like a bat coming out of hell with its wings on fire.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Ryder said, and walked out.
A few minutes later, Casey burst into his room, her face flushed with energy, her eyes alight with excitement.“I’m ready.”
Ryder walked out of the bathroom, buttoning a clean shirt.He didn’t stop to analyze the wisdom of what he was about to do, he just knew that if he let her get on that damned plane without a piece of his heart, he wouldn’t make it until she got back.
Casey went willingly as he took her in his arms and crushed her against his chest in a smothering embrace.
“Just be careful, okay?”
She laughed.“Tell that to the pilot.I’m afraid it’s out of my hands.”
