Quinn followed her down the hall.“That’s where I live.”
Emmy Lou stopped in front of a doorway and turned to him.“Well, there you go.It’s the too-many-rats-in-a-cage theory.They start eating their young or stripping their celebrities, whatever is handy.Out here we have room to stretch out.We’re not so snappish.”
“You just admitted you wanted one of my buttons!”
“Well, not now!Who wants the button off the shirt of an investment banker?”
Quinn was irritated.He couldn’t decide which was worse, the loss of privacy when he was mistaken for Hastings or the blow to his ego when women finally accepted that he was only Quinn Monroe, investment banker.“I don’t understand what women want with those trophies, anyway.Do they mount that button and shine a spotlight on it?Do they frame that piece of sleeve?Do they arrange my back pocket in a vase on the coffee table?I don’t get it.”
Emmy Lou cleared her throat and glanced at the ceiling.“Some might sew the button on a piece of velvet and embroider the person’s name under it and frame it.If that someone really had a button from Brian Hastings’ shirt, that is.”
“Like you, for instance?I suppose your wall is full of framed buttons.”
“No, it isn’t.We don’t get many celebrities out this way.And it was just dumb luck that Georgina Mason was in the ice cream parlor when Robert Redford came in.She claims he gave her the button, but it would be like her to pop it right off his shirt when he wasn’t looking.”
Quinn couldn’t help smiling.“That’d be hard to do.”
“Not for Georgina.She’s the sneaky type.And she’s such a showoff — has that framed button over the fireplace, where the whole world can see it.”Emmy Lou gestured toward the doorway.“So here’s your room, Benedict Arnold.”
“Emmy Lou, nobody would believe me after the first five minutes!In New York it’s different, because there are no horses for me to fall off of or cows for me not to rope.”
“Cattle.Brian Hastings wouldn’t say cows.”
“That’s my point!”
“We could teach you.Jo and I could whip you into shape in no time.”
“Forgive me if I don’t relish the sound of that.”
“Okay.Be a coward.Bathroom’s across the hall.If you were staying I’d hunt you up a change of clothes down at the bunkhouse, but I guess that won’t be necessary.”
Quinn vowed he wouldn’t be baited into saying something he’d deeply regret.“Why couldn’t you just take one of my buttons and claim it came from Brian Hastings’ shirt?”
Emmy Lou looked shocked.“Because it would be dishonest!”
“Dishonest?You and Jo want to tell the entire town of Ugly Bug that I’m Brian Hastings, and you’re worried about fudging on a button?”
Emmy Lou clucked her tongue in disapproval.“It’s not worth lying just to spite Georgina Mason.But I’d lie from now until doomsday to save the Bar None for Jo.”Her pointed stare indicated that she thought he should have the same missionary zeal.“Why, I—” She paused and cocked her head.“Somebody’s downstairs with Jo.”
Quinn heard the voices, too.Jo was talking to a guy, and from the sound of her voice, she wasn’t too happy about the conversation.
“It’s that Dick!”Emmy Lou said, almost spitting out the words.
“Would that be a first name or a description?”
Emmy Lou’s eyes twinkled at him.“I do like you, Quinn.”
“I like you, too.”
“Dick Cassidy is Jo’s ex.One of the worst things she ever did was marry him, and one of the best was to divorce him.All he wanted, besides the obvious, was access to Ugly Bug Creek so he could water his cattle.”
Quinn didn’t like thinking about some guy enjoying the obvious with Jo.“The creek the town’s named after is on this ranch?”
“Yep.At least the best stretch of it, and none of it runs across the Cassidy ranch next door.He put her through hell during the divorce proceedings while he tried to hang on to that water.We can’t prove it, but we think Dick had something to do with so many of the cattle dying last winter.I think he was stealing the hay she put out for them.Besides that, he might have made off with some money, but Jo’s not the best bookkeeper in the world, so she’s not sure.”
Quinn’s protective instincts surged to the fore.He tried to tamp them down, knowing they’d get him into trouble.“So why did she even let him in the door?”
“Oh, he always has some good reason he has to be let in.Last time, he came to report a break in her fence line, which I think he created.The time before that, his truck had broken down on the main road.The code of the west says you help out your neighbors, so Jo helped him.I say he’s finding excuses to nose around and see how bad Jo’s hurting.He’s already offered her a lowball figure for the ranch.”
