He glowered. "I never did trust the damned things," he muttered while Sandy checked files on the hard drive. "Now see what it's done, it's eaten my damned herd records!"
"It hasn't," Sandy replied. "They've been erased, but I can recover them. Just stop cursing and give me a little time to do it."
“Are you sure you
He made a rough sound, can?"
“Yes." She ran through the files. "How did it happen?"
"Missy was upset and hit the wrong keys, or so Jobe said."
She looked at her brother curiously. "What upset her?"
"I don't know," he replied dryly, "but I think it was because Jobe didn't want to go with her to some party in town. She bought a new dress just for the occasion."
"Why didn't he want to go?"
"Ask him." He perched himself against the desk. "He's been hell to talk to lately. He snaps, no matter what you say to him. Irritable as all hell, since you left that day. Odd, isn't it?" he added with a cool smile and narrow, intent eyes.
Sandy colored in spite of herself. "We both agreed that we're better off with the status quo."
"In other words, you're too scared to take a chance on him, is that right?"
She stopped working with the computer and whirled around in her chair. "We're both scared," she replied. "He doesn't think I can settle for a middle-class life, and I don't think he's capable of any feelings that aren't physical. Does that put things into perspective for you?"
Ted chuckled. "I thought it was something of the sort." He folded his arms across his chest. "But sometimes you have to take a chance," he added gently.
"You'd know," she replied, remembering how hard he'd fought Coreen's influence. Her eyes softened. "I guess you and Coreen had to make adjustments when you decided to get married."
"You don't know the half of it," he replied, tongue-in-cheek. "We were explosive together. Well, we still are, but not quite in the same way."
"I get your meaning." She studied her hands folded neatly in her lap. "I ran."
"I know."
She shifted in the chair and crossed her long legs. "Actually, I think he ran, too. We've spent a long time at each other's throats. It's hard to make peace."
"Especially the sort of peace he wants to make?" Ted probed gently.
She flushed. "Yes."
He took a long breath. "Honey, I can't tell you what to do with your life. I can't promise you that things would work out if you and Jobe put your differences aside. But I've been alone and I've been married. Believe me, married is better."
"I don't think he wants marriage."
His face hardened. "He'd better."
"Now, Ted, don't start playing big brother."
"Don't you start with lectures on modern morality, either," he snapped back. "This is a small town in Texas."
"And you're going to tell me that women don't live with men if they aren't married and that all kids are born in wedlock here."
He made a face. "Of course not. But you're family."
"Yes, I am. I think you're terrific, in case I haven't said so," she murmured. "But I'll live my own life, whether you like it or not."
He glared at her.
She shrugged. "Actually I'm not much on loose relationships, either, which is why I ran. Jobe isn't a marrying man."
"All men are, with the right woman," Ted replied.
"I thought Missy was the right woman."
His eyebrow jerked. "You wouldn't think so if you'd seen her light out of here yesterday, madder than a wet hornet."
"Everybody argues. Usually they make up."
"Why don't you?" Ted returned.
She studied her hands again. "He isn't around."
"Yes, he is."
A soft sound in the hall caught her attention. She turned just as Jobe came in the door. But not the man of her memories. This one was cold-faced and looked as hard as steel. He barely nodded at her before he turned to Ted.
"We've got six horses in the road. The fence broke out on Jasper Road."
"How?" Ted asked, all business as he stood up.
"A truck had a flat going the speed limit and ran through it. I've got men out looking for them."
"I'll go and help. Sandy says she can get the files back for you," he added, nodding toward Sandy. "You can help her while I see about my horses."
He left, and Jobe cursed under his breath.
"I don't like it any better than you do," Sandy said with a speaking glance in his direction. "But we seem to be stuck here together."
He paused by her chair, watching her fingers race across the keys. "What are you doing?" he asked, diverted.
"I'm using a program to recover files. If you wipe something out accidentally, most of the time you can get it back if you know how." She went on to explain about temporary files and the manner of their storage, and the use of the recovery program.
"That's incredible," he said.
"Yes, isn't it?" She smiled. "I grew up watching 'Star Trek' reruns. I wanted to be a computer expert, just like Mr. Spock."
"A lot of kids did," he agreed, smiling back. "You make this look easy. It isn't."
"I've been doing it for a lot of years. Practice improves most things. Look how good you are with horses and cattle," she added, punching more keys. "Because you grew up with it."
He stood behind her, watching the screen. His lean hand touched her hair lightly. "I missed you," he said suddenly.
She caught her breath. "Did you?"
"Ted said he was on the verge of firing me," he continued. "He knew what was wrong, I think, but he wouldn't put it into words." He paused. "How's your temper been, while we're on the subject?"
"Not much better than yours, according to my co-workers."
He drew her up from the chair and pulled her into his arms. "Then I think it's time we made some decisions," he said.
"What sort?"
He smiled and bent his head. "This sort," he whispered against her warm mouth.
It was like coming home. She pressed close, savoring the muscular warmth of his body in the silence that followed. She hadn't a protest left. She followed where he led, eagerly, without reservation.
When he lifted his head, she looked up at him with her heart in her eyes.
He looked oddly hesitant, his gaze intent and a little worried.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
He touched her cheek. "Cold feet," he murmured, chuckling.
"I know how you feel." She sighed. "But I'm miserable, just the same."
"We know each other pretty well by now," he remarked thoughtfully. "God knows, we aren't kids. Let's just take it one day at a time and see how it goes."
She nodded. "Okay."
He bent and kissed her again, lightly this time. "No heavy stuff, either," he murmured against her lips. "We could be in over our heads much too quick."
She sighed and laid her cheek against his chest. It felt familiar, safe. Her eyes opened and she studied the office across his patterned shirt.
"Remember when my puppy died, and you found me crying in the barn so Ted wouldn't see?" she recalled.
He chuckled. "You didn't want me to see, either."
"Nothing ever seemed to bother you and Ted. I felt like a sissy. But you picked me up and held me until the tears stopped. Remember what you said?"
"That tears healed a broken heart," he murmured. "Do they?"
"You wouldn't know. You never cry."
His hands linked behind her waist. "I did when my father killed himself," he replied. "He was a good, decent man, but he wasn't smart enough to suit my mother. She said she needed a man with a proper education, with the mind of a genius."
"Do you know what happened to her?" she asked gently.
He stiffened. "No."
"Sorry."
"It's all right. I didn't mind the question. I lost track of her after he died. I suppose she's still doing research in some top-secret lab somewhere. Maybe she's even found a man smart enough to suit her, but
I don't imagine she stayed with him. You see, if he was too smart, she wouldn't like the competition."
"My mother wasn't all that smart, she was just a rounder," she volunteered. "It warped Ted, really badly. If Coreen hadn't come along, I doubt he'd ever have married."
"She's a peach," he agreed. He looked down at her with a tender smile. "So are you. Under that hard exterior and that computer brain, you're a sweet woman."
"Is that a compliment?"
His mouth brushed hers. "Oh, I think so," he murmured. His breath whispered across her nose. "I've spent years trying to pretend that you were just another career woman like my mother. But when I see you with that little boy of Ted and Coreen's in your arms, you don't look much like a hard-boiled career woman, Sandy."
She searched his pale eyes curiously. "You've never talked about children, except once," she recalled, and looked uncomfortable. "You told Ted that you didn't want a bunch of little computer experts..."
He put a long forefinger over her lips. "We all say things we don't mean," he told her. "I didn't mean that. I've been fighting a losing battle with you for years. It's hard to stop."
"I know. I thought my life was exactly as I wanted it. Then I'd come home and see you..."
He nodded. "I understand perfectly." He drew her closer and bent to kiss her again, softly. "This feels nice."
"Mmm, doesn't it, though?" She chuckled. She closed her eyes. "Eventually I should do something about Ted's files."
"They can wait."
"I suppose so. But..."
The front doorbell rang. They looked toward it. Mrs. Bird went to let a visitor in, and they both frowned when they saw who it was.
Jobe let go of Sandy as Missy approached. She looked very cool and pretty in a yellow sundress. She had her purse and a file folder in both hands.
"I thought you might need these herd records," she said with a sweet smile at Jobe. "I accidentally took them with me when I left." She glanced mutinously toward Sandy. "I guess you came to look for those lost files?"
"I found them," Sandy said smugly.
Missy looked uncomfortable. "I didn't think you could recover lost files."
"Where did you train?" Sandy asked pointedly.
"It's a good school," Missy said defensively, flushing. "They taught us how to recover stuff. I just forgot."
"Bad business," Sandy returned coolly. "Especially when so much depends on stored information. Fortunately for Ted, I knew how to get his herd records back. There's a production sale this month, as I'm sure Jobe must have mentioned."
Missy smiled. "Well, I guess he did, but then we didn't talk about business all the time, did we, honey?" she asked Jobe.
He looked very uncomfortable. He'd made it seem as if he and Missy were involved to protect himself from Sandy, and now it was going to get him in serious trouble. He could tell from the expression on Sandy's face that she still had doubts about him and Missy, and he didn't exactly know how to dispel them.
Chapter 5
Missy saw Jobe's uneasiness and decided to let her remarks sink in for a while. "Well, I'll be off now. See you Monday," she told Jobe with a flash of dark eyes and a secretive smile.
"Sure," he returned.
Missy had left the herd records on the desk. Sandy glanced through them. These were the missing ones that Missy apparently thought she'd successfully deleted. She must have had ideas of spending today inputting them again in lobe's company.
"Too bad," she murmured. "She missed out on a whole day here reinstating them. Shame."
Jobe looked worried. "I didn't encourage her to do that. I know it looks bad..."
She moved toward him, her clear eyes steady and bright. "I've seen Missy in action," she said. "I'm not jealous. Well, not much," she murmured.
He chuckled. "A little?"
She shrugged. "Microscopic."
He bent his head and kissed her slowly. "Do you like Chinese food?"
"I love it," she whispered.
"Good. Get your purse and let's go."
"But Ted's files...!"
"They can wait until you've eaten. Aren't you hungry?"
"Ravenous."
"All right, then. Come on!"
He caught her hand and held it all the way to the black pickup he drove. He put her inside and buckled her in, watching her possessively the whole time.
"Pickup trucks make good bait for catching women," he murmured dryly. "Look what I caught." He bent his head and kissed her.
She traced his upper lip. "Works both ways," she whispered, and kissed him back.
"What the hell...!" Ted exclaimed as he drew up beside them and got out of his car.
"What are you doing? What about my herd records?"
"We're hungry," Jobe explained. "Want to get Coreen and the baby and eat Chinese?"
Ted let out a rough sigh. "I hate Chinese." He glanced from his flushed sister to his smug ranch foreman. "But I guess you have to eat sooner or later. Oh, get out of here," he muttered. "The records can wait a while."
"Thanks, Ted." Sandy grinned at him.
He grinned back. "Problem solved?" he asked.
"Just beginning," Jobe replied before she could. "But we're no sissies, are we?"
"Not us," Sandy agreed.
They waved at Ted and drove away.
For the next few days, life took on a dreamlike quality for Sandy. She didn't go back to Victoria, opting to take a week off-the vacation time she'd never used.
She and Jobe were inseparable, to Missy's irritation. They went riding and one day, he took her to Turner's Lake nearby. It was a popular fishing hole, where customers paid a fee to throw their lines into a lake stocked with game fish.
"Isn't this fun?" he asked, slapping at a mosquito as he adjusted the tension in his line.
She was sitting beside him with her bare feet dangling off the pier. "Heavenly," she agreed, and meant it. She hadn't been fishing since childhood. It was peaceful here, even with other fishermen scattered around, and being with Jobe was sheer joy.
"I've never taken a woman fishing before," he mused, glancing at her from under his bibbed cap. He drew up one long, blue-jeaned leg. "You're pretty good at it."
She glanced at the two fish on her string and the three on his. "Well, I'm a fish behind," she remarked.
"Oh, you're doing fine. It looks better if you let the man catch more fish."
She tossed her pole aside and, laughing, threw herself across him to the ground.
"You chauvinist pig," she murmured.
He linked his arms at her back and grinned up at her, his blond hair disheveled, his hat in the grass. "You might as well get used to it," he reminded her. "I'm consistent as all hell."
"I noticed." She sighed and bent to put her mouth softly over his hard lips.
He held her there, savoring the taste of her in the early afternoon heat. A mosquito stabbed into his wrist and he never noticed.
She felt a surge of joy like an explosion deep in her body and sighed as he turned her in the long grass and his powerful leg eased between both of hers. His mouth became suddenly demanding. She felt her lips part as her heart rocketed under her rib cage. His searching hand found her breast and seconds later, so did his hungry mouth.
She cried out softly.
It wasn't a protest, but it brought him to his senses. He lifted his head, grimacing as he realized where they were.
"Sorry," he murmured, helping her up with a rueful smile. "We came here to fish. I forgot."
"So did I."
He chuckled. "Maybe you'd better wear this, just so people don't get the wrong idea when we do things like that."
He tossed a small, gray velvet-covered box into her hands. "Go on," he coaxed. "Open it."
She hesitated, because she had a pretty good idea what it was. A question came with it, and he was going to expect an answer pretty quickly. She looked up into his eyes and knew what the answer would be. There was, after all, only one possible.
Her hands fumbled an
d she opened the box. Her gasp was audible. "You pig!"
She closed the box over the cartoon character lapel pin and threw it at him. "How could you?"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, it's the wrong box! Here!"
He had to stop laughing before he could dig the right one out of his pocket. "That was for my little cousin...tomorrow's her birthday. Here. This is yours."
He put it into her fingers and pulled it open. His eyes never left her face.
"It isn't the Hope diamond," he said quietly, watching her look at the small diamond engagement ring. "But the sentiment that goes with it is every bit as large. I love you. I want to share my life with you."
She felt the tears rushing down her cheeks, leaving hot, wet tracks behind them. The ring blurred. The way he put the proposal was shattering. Until that moment, it had never occurred to her that he might love her.
She looked up, seeing him through a mist. "Don't you want it?" he asked solemnly.
"Am I totally mistaken about what you feel for me?"
She shook her head. "Oh, no," she whispered. "I love you. I just didn't know that you loved me."
"Blind as a bat," he mused, although relief was in his voice. He took out the ring and slid it on her finger. "If I'd loved you less, I never would have picked on you. We only hurt the ones we love. Don't you listen to old sayings?"
"You must love me terribly..."
"Do shut up..."
He kissed her again, much more possessively this time, and eased her down into the grass, regardless of chiggers and mosquitoes and yellow flies and possible snakes. She didn't notice the wildlife population being potentially crushed beneath her. Every sense was caught up in the feel of lobe's hard mouth on her lips, his caressing hands on her body.
"I like kids," he whispered.
"So do I."
"Good thing," he murmured hungrily, "because I have in mind buying us a big ranch one day, and we'll need lots of kids to help us manage it."
She chuckled. "What about my job?"
“What about it?" he murmured. "Although you might try to spend less time on the road, later on."
She looked at him possessively. "You don't mind if I work?"
He shook his head. "That's up to you, sweetheart. I can support you. Not the way you've been supported," he said firmly, "but adequately."
Books By Diana Palmer Page 177