by Janet Dailey
“She says that,” Alan inserted, “but it’s all talk. Since we left the kids at her mother’s this morning, Peg has called twice to see how they are. If she would tell the truth, she’d rather be with them right now.”
“I would not. I enjoy having you all to myself without one of the kids tugging at me, wanting this or that.” She hugged his arm.
“Alan! Why, you old son of a gun!” A male voice exclaimed in delighted greeting. “I haven’t seen you since— Hell! I can’t remember when it was!”
An older man came up to the booth, clamping a hand on Alan’s shoulder and vigorously shaking hands with him. Diana had a vague recollection of the man, a former rancher in the area who had sold out and retired. A turquoise nugget decorated his string tie, and an equally elaborate silver belt buckle was studded with turquoise. Alan introduced the man as Ed Bennett.
“You’re the Major’s daughter.” His broad grin was turned to Diana. “My, you sure have grown. The last time I saw you, you weren’t knee-high. Miss”—he motioned to the waitress—“bring me some coffee.” The jovial man took it for granted that it was all right to join them. When he sat down beside Diana, she was forced to slide closer to Holt to make room for him. “How is your father? I heard he wasn’t well. Heart trouble?”
“Yes, He’s much better now.”
Her pulse was running away with itself. The imprint of Holt’s muscled thigh was being branded into hers. Her shoulder was pressed against his arm, until he lifted it to rest it on the back of the seat. Instead of providing more space, the action seemed to nestle Diana against him. He smelled clean and fresh with that slightly musky male scent that disturbed her so.
The rancher returned his attention to Alan and Peggy, making Diana feel even more isolated in the comer with Holt. “Why are you in town?” Her voice was low, edged with a thin anger. She turned slightly to look at him, her gaze lifting no higher than his smoothly shaven jaw.
“The stallion I bought will be arriving this afternoon. I’m waiting to pick him up.” His reply, too, was low, letting the other three at the booth continue their conversation. Holt sipped at his coffee, apparently indifferent to her forced closeness.
“Why here?” Diana heard the faintly haughty note in her voice, as if she was attempting to put him in his place. It was purely defensive. “Why not—”
“I’m having the stallion flown in,” he interrupted. “The pilot is to call me from the airport when they arrive.”
He set the cup down and, figuratively, set Diana down at the same time. Moisture had collected on the outside of her iced-tea glass. It cooled her fingers when she wrapped them around the glass, but it didn’t cool the heat rushing through her veins.
Diana could hear the others talking, but their words didn’t seem to penetrate. Good Lord, what were they saying? She tried to concentrate. It was no use. She was much too conscious of the even rise and fall of Holt’s chest against her arm. The warmth of his body heat was drugging her mind, but she had to keep cool.
Her breathing was shallow. She was afraid to move. Through the upward sweep of her lashes, Diana glanced at his face, so male and craggy, full of aloof, virile charm. Masked gray eyes were studying the shadowy cleft between her breasts, exposed by the scooped neckline only because he was looking down. Holt must have felt the faint tremor that went through her because his gaze lifted to her lips. There was a dizzying sensation of possession, his animal magnetism making her weak.
“Diana, there’s Guy.” Peggy’s voice broke through the haze, her message snapping the spell. “Guy!” Diana turned as Peggy waved to Guy, searching the room. “Over here!”
“Hi, Peg, Alan.” Guy walked to the booth. “I was looking for . . . Diana.” The pause came when he saw her and lengthened at the sight of Holt.
“Pull up a chair and sit down at the end,” Alan invited.
“Thanks, but I think this booth has more people than it can handle now. Diana and I will find a table.” The look in Guy’s face was that of a man coming to the rescue. The worst of it was that Diana wasn’t certain she wanted to be rescued. Where Holt was concerned, she seemed to be without pride.
“Lots of luck, Guy.” Alan laughed. “The place is packed. There isn’t a free table to be had. Besides, there’s plenty of room here. Steal a chair from somewhere and join us.”
“Well, I . . .” Guy tried to think of an excuse.
Their waitress was at the next booth and Alan turned in his seat. “We have another one joining us. Will you find him a chair? We’ll be ready to order when you do.”
The decision was taken out of Guy’s hands. Diana felt a twinge of guilt for not greeting him, especially when Guy became sullen and uncommunicative, answering in monosyllables during the meal, sulking like a child. With his gaze rarely leaving the two of them for long, Diana took care to ignore Holt while literally rubbing elbows with him.
The waitress came back to refill their coffee cups and carry away the luncheon plates. Holt covered the top of his cup with his hand.
“No more for me,” he said. His gaze slid over Diana to the man seated on the outside end of the booth. “Would you mind letting me out? I want to check at the desk to see if there have been any calls for me.”
The retired rancher stood up and Diana slid out so Holt could leave. She had become so accustomed to the lean, hard strength of his body against hers that it felt strange sitting in the booth without Holt beside her.
“It doesn’t look like Holt’s coming back,” Peggy observed after several minutes had passed.
“Probably not,” Alan agreed. “I saw him paying his check at the register before he left the restaurant.”
“What was he doing here, anyway?” Guy demanded with near belligerence.
Diana explained about the new stallion that had been purchased. “Holt probably had a message that the plane had arrived.”
“I guess.” But there was still irritation in Guy’s tone. He glanced at his watch. “It’s time we were going back to the ranch.”
“Not yet!” Peggy protested. “Diana and I have barely had a chance to talk. Can’t you stay a little while longer?”
“We’d like to, but I have to get back to work.” Guy tried to make his refusal polite and firm.
“Diana doesn’t have to go back. Do you, Diana?” Peggy turned to her. “Alan and I can take you home. We go right by your ranch, so it isn’t out of our way. We can have a long talk. And I have some shopping to do. You can come along with me. It’s been ages since I’ve been shopping with a girl friend. Alan has some errands to do. So, please, say yes.”
There wasn’t any other answer Diana wanted to give. The prospect of a long ride with Guy in his present mood was definitely not appealing. And she, too, wanted to spend a few hours with her friend.
“Of course I’ll stay. It sounds like fun.” She turned to Guy, ignoring his resentful look. “Tell the Major that I’m staying in town with Peggy and Alan.”
There was a fleeting second when Diana thought he was going to insist she accompany him. Then Guy was nodding curtly and turning to leave.
Chapter XIV
The retired rancher, Ed Bennett, had spotted another old acquaintance and had gone over to talk to him. Alan had decided it was time to start running his errands. When Peggy suggested a visit to the hotel’s powder room, Diana agreed.
She stood in front of the mirror, brushing out the snarls the wind had made in her hair. Peggy was retouching her lipstick, a necessary bit of color in her pale face. She caught the reflection of Diana’s gaze in the mirror.
“Guy sure seemed jealous of you and Holt.”
The brush in Diana’s hand stopped in mid-stroke, then continued with new vigor. “What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Diana. He has always had a crush on you. You are woman enough to know that. What started out as a bad case of puppy love seems to have grown into the real thing—green-eyed jealousy and all.”
“Guy thinks he’s in love with me.” There w
as no point in denying that. “But you are wrong about there being anything between Holt and me. We never have been able to stand each other.”
“Funny, I had the impression—” Peggy stopped in mid-sentence and shrugged. “Alan always tells me that I have a very vivid imagination.”
“You must.”
Peggy put the tube of lipstick back in her purse and turned away from the mirror. “Ready?”
Diana paused to fluff the sides of her hair with her fingertips, then nodded. The powder room was on the second floor of the hotel. As they came down the steps, Diana saw Holt standing behind one of the players at the blackjack table near the foot of the stairs. Her heart did a little somersault. He hadn’t left, after all.
As if aware of her approach, Holt turned, metal-gray eyes pinning hers. The floor seemed to roll beneath her feet, but it was only the trembling of her knees. He stepped forward to intercept them.
“Holt,” Peggy said with some surprise, “we thought you’d left.”
Diana picked up on the comment. “Hasn’t the plane arrived?”
“Not yet. Where’s Guy?”
“He’s gone back to the ranch. I’m riding home with Peggy and Alan.”
“Yes. We’re off to do some shopping. It will be a first for Diana, since I’m going to be dragging her through all the children’s departments. She’ll be an expert on rompers and playsuits after she follows me around.”
“Since you are staying in town for a while, you might as well ride back to the ranch with me. It will save Alan a stop.” The glint in his eye challenged her to refuse.
“We don’t mind,” Peggy insisted.
“Besides,” Diana added, “you don’t know when you’ll be leaving.”
“According to the flight plan the pilot filed, the plane won’t be arriving for a couple of hours. You can give me a hand with the stallion.”
Why was he suddenly seeking her company? Diana couldn’t help being skeptical. She wanted his, but she doubted that the reverse was true. So why was he asking her? Not because of the new stallion.
Curiosity, if nothing else, made her say, “We are supposed to meet Alan here at the hotel when we’re through shopping. If you haven’t left to pick up the stallion, I’ll ride back with you.” Diana made certain that she didn’t sound eager for his company.
“All right.”
“See you later, maybe,” Peggy said and turned to walk away.
Diana started to follow her, but Holt caught her hand. She stopped, feeling something hard and metallic being pressed into her palm. A light glittered in his eyes, challenging and cold, as he released her hand. Her fingers curled around the object. Heat burned her cheeks as Diana’s sense of touch recognized it as a key, a room key. She would have hurled it at his face, but Peggy turned around.
“Aren’t you coming, Diana?”
She held his gaze for another full second, outraged anger choking her. “Yes.” Finally she turned, slipping the key into her purse before Peggy noticed it. “Yes, I’m coming.”
The key seemed to add twenty pounds to the weight of her purse. Diana felt it growing heavier and heavier with each passing minute that brought them closer to the time when they were due to return to the hotel.
As Peggy had warned, their shopping tour was limited to the children’s departments. Diana, who had previously had no interest and no reason to be interested in children’s clothes, found herself surrounded by miniature garments.
“Sara is so hard on clothes. By the time Amy gets them, they are almost in rags. Brian, of course, gets hand-me-downs from both girls. And I never realized how many of their baby clothes had ruffles and lace and all pastel colors—which upsets Alan to no end when he sees Brian dressed in them.” Peggy flipped through the clothes hanging on tiny hangers. She held out a tiny denim overall outfit. “Isn’t that cute?”
“It’s darling,” Diana agreed.
Peggy looked at the tag and rolled her eyes. “The price is a crime. You just can’t pay that much for clothes they’ll outgrow in a few months. I am simply going to have to learn how to sew.”
“When would you have time?” From what Diana had seen, Peggy had her hands full twenty-four hours a day.
“At night when they’re all asleep.” Peggy seemed to consider the idea. “I think I’ll talk to Alan about buying a good secondhand machine. It would be practical since I take all my patching to my mother’s and do it on her machine.
Peggy looked through the rest of the little outfits and ultimately purchased some inexpensive little T-shirts and shorts. As they left the children’s department, they passed the ladies’ clothes. A jersey dress patterned in green and gold caught Diana’s eye.
“Look, Peggy. With your coloring, that dress would be perfect on you.” Diana instinctively knew she was right. The material would soften the bony thinness of Peggy’s figure, and the colors would bring out the rich auburn shade of her hair.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Try it on,” Diana urged.
“No.” Her laugh was just faintly self-conscious. “The children are the ones who need clothes, not me. I have a closet full of skirts and dresses from when I was teaching school.”
Which was almost ten years ago. “They’re out of style by now.” The flush that crept into Peggy’s cheeks made Diana wish she had bitten off her tongue.
“They’ll come back in style. In a couple of years I’ll be the best-dressed woman around.”
“Every woman needs a new dress now and then. It’s good for her ego.”
“Maybe, but I’ll pass on this one.”
Diana suddenly became determined that her friend, who had so little, should have this dress. “It was made for you, Peggy. If it’s the money that’s bothering you, I’ll buy it as an advance Christmas present.”
“I know your heart is in the right place, but I can’t let you do it. Alan would guess and his pride would be hurt. Besides, where would I ever wear a dress like that? With the kids, we hardly ever go out. And that dress is too bold for Sunday church. Thanks just the same, Diana.”
Damn Alan and his pride, Diana thought as she left the store with Peggy. Damn him for asking Peggy to scratch out a living with him on that two-bit ranch. They couldn’t afford the first child, and damn him for getting her pregnant with two more. Her hand closed over the flap of her purse, aware of the key that burned inside. Damn all men!
“Alan is probably waiting for us at the hotel.” Peggy was oblivious to the anger that had whitened Diana’s face. “Shall we head back?”
Alan mustn’t be kept waiting, Diana added bitterly in her mind. “Yes, we might as well,” she agreed with almost deadly calm.
At the crosswalk opposite the hotel, a smile lighted Peggy’s face. “See? I told you he would be waiting for me.”
Alan Thornton was standing at the hotel entrance. The frown that had been on his face cleared when he saw them across the street with the light.
“Is your shopping all done?” He took the packages from Peggy’s arms and crammed them in his own.
“All done. Have you been waiting long?”
“Not long.” He turned to Diana. “I saw Holt in the hotel about twenty minutes ago. He said you were riding home with him.”
“Yes. I’d better go see if he’s ready to leave.”
“I’m glad you stayed, Diana. It was fun. Come over to the ranch sometime soon and visit me, okay?”
“Soon, Peggy,” she promised.
With a wave to the departing couple, Diana entered the hotel. A search of the casino and restaurant found no sign of Holt. She hadn’t expected it would. She knew where he would be waiting for her.
Anger seethed inside her like a bubbling volcano before an eruption. Opening her purse, her fingers closed around the room key. Furtively, she stole a glance at the number before hiding the key in her closed fist.
Climbing the stairs to the second floor, Diana walked past the ladies’ powder room, entering the corridor of hotel rooms. The ha
llway was blessedly empty. No one was about to see her glancing at the numbers on the doors.
When she found the right room, she knocked once and waited. No sound came from inside. Diana hesitated only a second before inserting the key into the lock and turning it. She opened the door and saw Holt standing at a window, staring out the panes through a veil of smoke curling from the cigarette in his hand. She swept into the room with contained fury, her skirt whirling about her legs.
At the click of the closing door, Holt gave her a sidelong look without turning from the window. “Somehow, I didn’t think you’d show up.”
“Didn’t you?” she fumed. “What did you think I would do?”
“You’d better keep your voice down unless you want someone complaining to the management.” He walked to an ashtray and calmly crushed out his cigarette.
“What do you suppose the management is thinking now?” Diana hissed. “Do you think they aren’t speculating about why you rented a hotel room?”
“They know why.” Holt smiled without humor. “As a matter of fact, I rented three rooms: one for the pilot, one for the co-pilot, and one for the handler who’s accompanying the stallion. They will be staying over for the night and flying back to California in the morning.”
“And whose is this?”
“Does it matter? I’m making temporary use of it until the switchboard relays the message that the plane has arrived. It’s better than standing around downstairs waiting for the call.”
Wary, still not completely believing what he said, anger sparkling in her eyes, Diana questioned, “How much longer before the plane arrives?”
“A couple of hours.”
“That’s what you said the last time.”
“So I did.” He was regarding her lazily through his masked expression, a coiled alertness in his indolent stance. “Weather delayed their takeoff.”
“And you expect me to wait here for two hours?” she demanded.