by Diana Palmer
She searched his eyes. "Moral support."
He smiled. "I asked for that."
"I'm sorry. I really do appreciate your coming over so quickly when I asked."
"You're welcome. I hope you'll do the same for the if I'm ever in a comparable situation. But all you did was postpone the problem, you
know. You didn't solve anything."
"I saved face," she replied. "He'll go back to Victoria and run bis company, and I'll stay down here and breed horses and make money
selling clothes."
"You'll be lonely."
She looked up. "That's nothing new. I was lonely before he came here. But people learn every day how to live with
being lonely. I have a roof over my head, my books are in great shape, my body's healing nicely and I'm going to get this, ranch back on
its feet. It's what Dad would have wanted."
"Your dad would have wanted to see you happy."
She smiled. "Yes, but he was a realist. Todd wouldn't have married the," she said quietly. "You know it, too. I'm not the sort of woman
rich men marry. I've got rustic manners and I don't know how to dress or use six forks for one meal."
"You could learn those things. You're beautiful, and elegant, and you have charm and grace. No woman born with a silver spoon could do
better."
She grinned through her heartbreak. "You're a prince."
He sighed and checked his watch. "I'm done talking. I have to make rounds at the hospital. Call if you need the. But I wish you'd
reconsider. You're not perfect. Why expect it of other people?"
"I never lied to him," she said pointedly. "In fact, I don't think I've ever really lied at all."
"You let him think we were romantically involved. That's lying."
"Implying," she corrected. "The rules don't say you can't imply things."
"I'll keep that in mind. I'll be in touch." He bent and kissed her cheek gently. "Try not to brood too much."
"I will."
She watched him go. The house was suddenly emptier than ever, and when she heard a car door slam minutes later, the whole world seemed
that way. She peered through the curtains just in time to watch Todd and Cherry go down the driveway for the last time. The house they'd
occupied was closed up and dark, like the cold space under her own heart.
Chapter 10
Life became boring and tedious without Todd and Cherry, but the ranch prospered. Jane was a natural organizer. She discovered talents she
hadn't ever realized she possessed, because her father had always taken care of the business end of the ranch. Now, she called breeders, made
contacts, put ads in horse magazines and newspapers, faxed messages back and forth on sales and hired people to create sales catalogs for her. It
was becoming second nature to handle things. Even Tim stood in awe of her.
The clothes licensing was also moving right along. The first of the television commercials had aired, and she was told that sales had shot up
overnight. The commercials helped get her name in front of a larger segment of the public and helped in the stud operation. She was suddenly a
household word. Despite the fact that she didn't like looking at herself on television and in print media ads, she had to admit that it was getting
business.
But it was a lonelv sort of life. She. couldn't ride although,
she'd tried once and ended up in bed for several days with a stiff and painful back. She could keep books, though, by using Todd's figures
and backtracking to see how he'd ar-rived at them. While she was by no means bis equal, she had a good head for figures and she picked up
what was neces-sary very quickly. Life was good, but it was a lonely life. She wondered if Todd was glad to be gone out of her life.
In fact, some of Todd's employees wished that he would go out of their lives! Since his return to Victoria, nothing had been done right in any
department he visited. The desks in the secretarial pool were sloppy. The new products division wasn't designing anything he liked.
Furthermore, people weren't taking proper care of their floppy disks—he found one lying next to a cup of coffee on a desk. The marketing
department wasn't out in the field enough selling new programs. And even Todd's secretary, the highly prized Miss Emory, was admonished
about the state of her filing system when he went looking for a file and couldn't find it where he thought it should be.
It was no better at home. Cherry came in for criticism about the clothes she chose to wear to begin the next school year, her lack of attention
to educational programming, and the certainty that she would end up in prison because she watched episodes of a popular adult cartoon on a
music network. In fact, the first time he saw an episode of the cartoon, he called the cable company and had the channel that carried it taken out
of his cable package.
Cherry was willing to go along with the understandable reaction—after all there was a generation gap. But when he canceled Cherry's
horsemanship magazine after it featured an article on Jane, she felt that he was carrying things a bit too far.
"Dad " she ventured the week of Victoria rodeo in
which she was to compete, "don't you think you're getting just a little loopy lately?"
He glared at her over the top of his Wall Street Journal. "Loopy?"
"Overreacting. You know—canceling stuff." She cleared her throat at the unblinking glower she received. "Honestly, Dad, Miss Emory used a
word I'll bet she never even thought until this week, after you grumbled about a letter she typed. And that's nothing to what Chris said when you
threw his new computer program at him."
He put down the newspaper. "Is it my fault that people around the have suddenly forgotten how to do anything?" he asked curtly. "I have
every right to expect good work from my employees. And you know why I canceled that garbage on television, not to mention that
magazine..."
"Jane was in the magazine in two places," she said. "In a feature article, with color photos, and in a full-page ad. Didn't she look great?"
He averted his eyes. "I didn't notice."
"Really?" she asked. "Then why did you have the magazine open on your desk, where the photo was?"
He flapped the pages of his financial paper noisily. "Don't you have homework to do?"
"Dad, school hasn't started back yet."
He frowned. "Hasn't it?"
She got up out of her chair. "You could call her, you know."
"Call her!" He threw the paper down. His gray eyes flashed fire. "Call her, hell! She wouldn't even listen! She gave the all this toro
excretio about different worlds and how...what are you laughing at?"
"Toro excretio?" she emphasized, giggling as she realized what the slang meant.
"I heard it from the wife of a concrete magnate," he said.
"We sat on a committee together. Best description I ever heard. Anyway, don't change the subject."
"You could have tried to change Jane's mind."
"What would be the point?" he muttered. "She wanted to get married, until she found out who I was."
Cherry smiled. "That sounds nice. She'd certainly look lovely in high fashion, and I can't think of anyone who'd make a better
stepmother."
"You've got a mother," he said harshly.
"We don't speak, haven't you noticed?" she asked coldly. "She hurt Jane."
He avoided her gaze. "Yes. Don't think I didn't give her my two cents' worth as well about that, but she's pregnant, I understand. She was
emotional when she carried you."
"Maybe a new baby will make her happier."
"Ha!"
"Well, it will keep her occupied," Cherry continued. "What about Jane?"
"She's goin
g to marry the cowboy doctor from hell and have little doctors, I guess,'' he muttered.
Cherry grinned. "Fat chance, when she's crazy about you. You're crazy about her, too. You just won't admit it. You'd rather roar around up
here and drive everybody who works for you to using strong language or getting drunk on weekends."
"They don't do that!"
"Chris did, after you threw his program at him," Cherry informed him. "And he said that he was going to move out to California and help
develop a virtual reality program for disgruntled employees so that they could turn their bosses into mud puddles and drop rocks in them."
"Vicious boy." He sighed. "I guess I'll have to give him a raise. God knows, he'd set virtual reality back twenty years."
She laughed. "And what about Jane?"
"Stop asking the that!"
'I'll bet she cries herself to sleep every night, thinking she's not good enough for you."
His face went very still. "What?"
"Well, that's what she thought. When Mom told her you were the head of a company and filmy rich, she went as white as a sheet. Mom made
her feel bad about being a rancher and not reading intellectual magazines and not being upper crust."
"How dare she!" Todd said icily. "Jane's every bit as upper crust as your mother is!"
"Nobody told Jane that. She has a very low self-image."
"Stop talking like a psychologist."
"Merry's going to be one. She says I have a very good self-image."
"Nice of her."
"Anyway, Jane only has a high school education..."
"So do I, for God's sake!"
"...and she doesn't feel comfortable around high society people..."
"You know how I hate parties," he muttered.
"...and she thought you'd probably not want to have somebody like her in your life in a serious way."
"Of all the harebrained, idiotic, half-baked ideas! She's beautiful, doesn't she know that? Beautiful and kind and warm and loving." His
voice grew husky with memory, and his body tingled with sweet memories. "She's everything a woman should be."
"The doctor sure thinks so," Cherry said with a calculating glance. "In fact, it wouldn't surprise the one bit if she didn't marry him on the
rebound. He'd be over the moon. He's crazy about her."
His eyes narrowed. "She doesn't love him."
"Lots of people get married when they don't love each other. He's a good doctor. He can give her everything she
wants, and they've always been good friends. I'll bet they'd make a wonderful marriage."
"Cherry...!"
"Well, Dad, that shouldn't bother you," she said pointedly. "After all, you don't want to marry her."
"The hell I don't!"
Cherry's eyebrows shot up. "You do?"
He hesitated, started to deny the impulsive outburst, and then settled into the chair with a heavy sigh. "Of course I do," he said harshly.
"But it's too late. I wasn't honest with her at the beginning. I've made so many mistakes that I doubt she'd even talk to the now."
"If she loves you, she would."
"Sure," he scoffed. "The minute I call her up, she'll hang up. If she knows I'm coming to the ranch, she'll leave. I didn't spend several
weeks there without learning something about her reactions."
Cherry puzzled over that. He was right. Jane would be like a whipped pup, eager to avoid any more blows.
Then she had a thought. "The rodeo," she said. "I'm going to compete in the rodeo, and Jane knows about it. Do you really think she'd
miss watching the through my paces after all the time she put in on the?"
He pursed his lips, deep in thought. "No. But she'll disguise herself."
"Probably."
"And she'll sit as far away as possible."
"That, too." She grinned. "You could ask Chris to sit in the audience up on the top of the stands and watch out for her."
"Chris would sell the down the river..."
"Not if you give him that raise."
He groaned. "The things I don't do for you!"
"We'll all live happily ever after," Cherry said smugly.
"After you grovel enough to Jane and convince her that you can make her happy.'"
"I'm not groveling."
She grinned. "Have it your way."
"I'm not!"
She left him protesting and went over to Merry's house to watch television.
Tim and Meg had a light supper with Jane the afternoon of the Victoria rodeo. She sat there deep in thought, picking at her food, as usual,
and not talking, also as usual.
"Are you going up to Victoria to watch Cherry compete?" Tim asked her.
She glowered at him. "No. He'll be mere."
"Of course he will, he's her father."
She stabbed a piece of carrot. "I'd like to watch her. But I don't want to run into him."
"You could wear a scarf and dark glasses," Meg advised. "And a dress. You never wear dresses. He wouldn't recognize you. Especially if
you sat way up in the stands. He'll be right down front where Cherry is."
Jane thought about that. Meg was right. That's exactly where he'd be. She dropped the piece of carrot into her mouth and chewed it. "I
guess I could do that. There'll be a huge crowd. Anyway, I doubt if he'll even look for the."
"Well, of course he would..." Tim argued.
Meg kicked him under the table and he winced.
"I mean, of course he wouldn't," Tim amended.
Jane glanced at him and then at Meg. "Are you two up to something?"
"My goodness, no," Meg said easily and smiled. "But it would be nice to know how Cherry did in the competition. We watched her
practice, day after day."
That would explain their interest. "I guess I might go up for the barrel racing, if Tim can drive the," Jane said.
"Sure I can. Meg can come, too."
"I'd love to," Meg agreed. Jane missed the relief on Meg's features that was quickly erased.
"We'd better get a move on, then," Jane said after a glance at her watch. "It will take us a little while to get there, and there's sure to be a
crowd."
She pulled on a simple green-and-white cotton sundress, with sandals and a white cardigan. She put up her long blond hair and tied a scarf
over it and then secured a pair of dark glasses over her eyes.
Meg walked past the door and looked in.
"Will it do?" Jane asked, turning toward her.
"It's perfect," Meg assured her, and went on down the hall.
Jane nodded at her reflection. Nobody would recognize her in this getup, she concluded.
She might not have been so confident if she'd heard Meg on the telephone in her quarters a couple of minutes later, telling Cherry every
detail of Jane's disguise, as they'd already conspired.
"I feel guilty," Meg said.
"Never you mind," Cherry replied. "It's all for a good cause. Think how miserable Jane and Dad are going to be if we don't do
something!"
"Jane's lost weight."
"Dad's lost weight and employees," Cherry murmured dryly. "If he keeps on like this, some of the people in his software development
department are going to stuff him into a computer and ship him overseas. This has just got to work. I'll see you both tonight"
"Good luck, honey," Meg said with genuine affection. "We'll all be rooting for you."
"Thanks. I think I'm going to need all the help I can get.
But knowing that Jane is in the stands will do the more good than anything."
"She'll be there. Don't you worry."
Meg hung up and went to meet Jane in the hall. "Goodness, you certainly do look different!" she said.
"I feel different. Now all I have to do is sit far enough away so that nobody recognizes the."
"Your
own dad, God rest his soul, wouldn't recognize you like that," Meg said dryly.
"Well, hopefully Todd won't," Jane murmured, adjusting the scarf. "I have no wish whatsoever to get into any more arguments with him.
But I can't miss seeing Cherry ride. I hope she wins."
"So do we," Tim agreed.
They drove up to Victoria in the truck. Riding was much easier for Jane since the pain in her back had eased. The damage was repairing
itself and the pain only came now when she did stupid things—like trying to gallop on horseback.
It had been a bitter blow to realize that her rodeo days were over, but she was dealing with that. If only she could deal half as well with the
sorrow that losing Todd had caused her. Not a day went by when she didn't long for him.
He wouldn't feel that way about her, she was certain. A man with so much wealth and status wouldn't want an ordinary rancher from south
Texas. Not when he could have movie actresses or top models or high-powered business executives. Having seen Marie, so poised and capable
and able to run her own business, she had some idea of the sort of woman who appealed to Todd. And Jane was not that type.
It was more than likely that Marie had told the truth: Todd had only taken the job on an impulse because he felt sorry for Jane. He'd been
kind, in his way, but she didn't need his pity. The best thing she could do now was to stay out of his way and not spoil Cherry's big night.
Cherry would be the one to suffer, if they had another argument, and Jane thought the girl had been hurt enough already.
Cherry wrote to her, though, and she wrote back. It wasn't as if they'd parted in anger. But Todd complicated that tenuous friendship. Jane was
fairly certain that he didn't approve of his daughter's friendship with Jane, and it was a fair bet that Marie didn't.
When they arrived at the arena the parking lot was almost full. The floodlights were silhouetted against the dark sky and (he opening
ceremonies had already begun.
They got their tickets and then Jane made her way very carefully to the top rung of the spectator section, leaving Meg and Tim down front. She
sat apart from the other few people, but she noticed a young man giving her covert looks. If he was a masher, she mused, he had a long way
to fall. He'd better keep his distance.
She settled into her seat. The light cardigan felt good, because there was a slight nip in the summer night air. She sighed and worked to keep