Running a hand around the back of his neck, he forced his gaze up to her face. “Oh, I’d say adult parties would be more your style.”
Disdain pursed her lips. “Actually, I don’t go to parties. Unless they’re a necessary part of my work.”
His eyes narrowed. “And what is tonight?”
The flare of her nostrils told him that his question had angered her. But that was nothing new. Everything he said or did seemed to cause her to bristle.
“I’m here tonight as a friend to Gracia. Nothing more. It’s an honor to help her celebrate becoming a teenager. It’s an important time for her. I hope you realize that.”
He sipped his coffee and recognized it had cooled during all this talking. It wasn’t like him to be distracted for more than two minutes by a woman and he wondered if something was happening to his body now that he was nearing forty. Maybe his libido was hearing the old clock, warning him that time was ticking by and so was his life.
“I didn’t become a father yesterday, Ms. Madsen,” he drawled. “I do know a little about raising a child. Do you?”
Hot color suddenly marked her cheeks and throat.
“If you mean do I have any experience raising children, then the answer is no. I haven’t had the honor of being a mother yet. And I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to care for.”
“Then where do you get the idea that you know so much about Gracia?”
She turned her gaze on the group of dancing teenagers and swallowed. “I was her age once, you know. I remember how it feels—how it hurts not to have a mother.”
He studied her solemn profile and wondered why he was thinking more about her, rather than his dead wife.
“I suppose Gracia told you all about Erica.”
She glanced at him with a stunned expression. “Not really. Only that she was a model and died suddenly when Gracia was six years old.”
Leaning forward, he placed his cup on the plate he’d left on the floor. “My wife fell from a horse and it—broke her neck.”
His blunt statement shocked her and she stared at him as though he must have said it wrong or that he could somehow change the facts. The idea made him sigh wearily.
“There’s no easy way to say it. She shouldn’t have been on a horse. She was a fragile, city woman. She didn’t know a thing about riding, but she wanted to please me. I guess you could say I killed her. Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”
Her expression suddenly softened and Matt was shocked at how much he wanted to reach over and touch her hand, to feel the female contact he’d avoided for so many years.
“I’m thinking,” she said softly, “that an accident happened. And it was just meant to be. That’s all.”
He let out a long breath, then nodded briefly. “Yeah. Just meant to be,” he quietly echoed.
Juliet’s mind was spinning, wondering what she could possibly say to him next when a pair of jeans-clad legs and lug-soled boots suddenly came to a screeching halt in front of them.
She looked up to see Gracia smiling broadly at the two of them.
“Hi, Daddy! How do ya like the party? Neat, huh?”
Reaching up with one hand, he patted her cheek. “Very nice, honey. Are you enjoying yourself?”
“Yeah! This is great! All my friends are here. Especially Juliet!” With a perplexed frown, she tilted her head and studied her father. “Why don’t you dance with her, Daddy? That would be the polite thing to do.”
He looked at his daughter dumbly, then finally said, “That’s not my kind of music, Gracia.”
The teenager giggled. “I can fix that. I’ll go tell the DJ to play something just for you!”
Before Matt could protest, Gracia had taken off at a run to the table where the young man hired for the evening was spinning records and CDs. In a matter of seconds, the pop song ended and a slow country ballad filled the loft.
From across the room, Gracia waved happily to them and Juliet looked helplessly at Matt. “I think your daughter wants us to dance.”
One corner of his lips curved into a semblance of a smile and he rose to his feet and offered his hand down to her.
“Then we’d better not disappoint her. After all, you said this was a special night for her.”
Juliet was so shocked she wondered if she should pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. But the moment she placed her hand in Matt’s, the sizzle along her palm told her she was very much awake and the man drawing his arm around her waist was all too real.
“You’ll have to forgive me if I step on your toes. I haven’t done this sort of thing in—a long time,” he said as he began to slowly move her around the floor.
“Don’t worry. I won’t yelp very loud if you smash one or two,” she said.
He actually smiled at that and Juliet felt her insides turn as gooey as chocolate pudding. The man was lethal without even trying, she thought helplessly.
“And I’ll just bet you can get loud—if you want to,” he remarked.
The sway of their bodies and the warm change in his attitude was lulling her, urging her to think of him as just any man. But he wasn’t just any man. He was Matt Sanchez, the manager of this multimillion dollar ranch, and the widower of a beautiful model. Juliet didn’t fit in with a man like him, but for the next few minutes she could dream.
“I guess you’ve already figured out that I’m opinionated, but I don’t get loud—unless someone makes me really mad,” she added with a little laugh.
“Hmm. Guess I haven’t made you really mad yet. I haven’t heard any yelling from you.”
How could a woman yell when she was being kissed, Juliet thought wryly.
They danced a few more steps in silence and then he said, “A while ago you said something about not having a mother. Is your mother deceased?”
Juliet nodded. “She passed away from cancer when I was eight—that’s why I understand some of the things Gracia feels.”
After a moment, he said, “I see.”
Dear Lord, but it was something to have this man touching her, Juliet thought languidly. To have his hard chest brushing against her breasts, his strong legs moving next to hers. She wanted to move closer, to wrap her arms around his neck and see if his kiss was as wild and delicious as she remembered.
“Do you really?” she asked.
“I’m a cowboy. Not a total dunce.”
I’m a cowboy. With those three words he’d described himself perfectly. He had that wild, free cowboy spirit. That Wyatt Earp, shoot-’em-down swagger that would intimidate almost any man that got in his way. And as for the women, she could only wonder how helpless one would be if he should set his sights on her.
She sighed. “Gracia is a wonderful child. You should be very proud of her.”
“I am.” He looked down at her. “But I’m worried about her.”
His green eyes were darker than a field of alfalfa, she thought, and the lines fanning out from the corners only seemed to make him sexier. She realized her heart was thumping out of control and had been from the moment he’d taken her into his arms. She tried to tell it to calm itself. This was only a dance and a few civil words with the man, nothing to get excited about.
“Why?” she asked.
“I’m worried about this affection she’s placing on you. I don’t want her to get attached and then have you leave her.”
Juliet thought about Gilbert’s threat to fire her if she didn’t write the piece about Matt’s grandparents. The problem was not a minor one, but for tonight, she wasn’t going to allow herself to dwell on it.
Tilting her head back, she looked at him with resolution. “I’m not going anywhere. Goliad is my home now.”
His brief smile was a picture of doubt. “You say that now. But eventually Dallas will call you back.”
She frowned at him. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you’re here to get away from something back there.”
How could he possibly know that, she wondered
. Could he see her shattered ego or had he tasted it in her kiss? In any case, it irked her that he thought he knew so much about her.
Deliberately evading his comment, she said, “I’ll be here. Whenever Gracia needs me, I’ll be here.”
He suddenly stopped the dance and she looked at him, slightly dazed.
“What’s the matter?”
An amused grin touched the corners of his lips. “The song has stopped. And since it’s already played three times, I figure everyone else is tired of it.”
Shocked that she hadn’t noticed, Juliet glanced around them to see that, other than the two of them, no one else was on the dance floor. The idea that everyone had been watching them make intimate circles around the room was enough to splash bright pink color across her cheeks.
“Why didn’t you stop before now?” she asked in dismay.
“Because I thought I needed the practice,” he answered with a sly little grin.
Practice? The man was as smooth as glass, she thought, and more dangerous than one of those Brahman bulls he raised. Angry or charming, he had enough presence to almost, almost make her forget her vow to never fall in love again.
Chapter Four
Once they reached the edge of the dance floor, Matt dropped his hand away from Juliet’s back and inclined his head toward a group of adults standing near the refreshment table.
“I see an old friend I need to speak to,” he told her. “Thank you for the dance.”
“You’re welcome,” she murmured.
He walked away and Juliet felt a long breath of air slowly pouring from her lungs. Being in the man’s arms had shaken her badly and she told herself she was glad he’d moved on to another guest. She needed to smooth her ruffled senses and remind herself that he was off-limits. Way off-limits.
She was making her way back to the hay bale where she’d first been sitting when a cowboy near her age approached her for a dance. At first she started to politely decline, but at the last moment decided to accept the man’s offer. After all, she didn’t want to seem unfriendly to any of the folks here on the Sandbur and besides, dancing with another man might help her get her mind off the complex ranch manager.
The dance turned out to be one of many as several other male guests invited her to take a spin on the dance floor. Juliet visited with each of them and truly tried to keep her attention focused on what each one had to say, but in the back of her mind, she kept thinking about the way Matt had touched her, the words he’d said to her. Just being near him excited her in ways she’d never felt before and made her other dance partners pale in comparison.
Nearly an hour passed before she found herself alone again. By then she was thirsty and damp with sweat from the exertion of stomping out several Texas two-steps. At the refreshment table, she poured herself a glass of fruit punch then took herself to a spot in the room that was empty and a bit quieter.
She was sipping her drink with one hand and fanning her face with the other when Matt slipped up beside her.
The sight of him startled her. While she’d circled the dance floor, she’d covertly searched for him in the fringe of crowd. She’d not spotted him anywhere and had decided he’d left the party to the younger people. Apparently he’d been nearby the whole time.
“You’ve been busy,” he said with a wry quirk to his lips.
Her heart fluttered and she forced herself to glance away from his face. “I’ve never believed in being a wallflower.”
The lines around his mouth deepened with something like amusement. “I’m sure you were never one of those,” he said, suddenly raising his voice to be heard above the music.
The DJ had decided to give the young people a treat and the sound of a pop tune was now rattling off the barn rafters. As Gracia and her friends crowded onto the dance floor to enjoy themselves, Matt stepped closer and curled his fingers around her upper arm.
“This is killing my ears,” he mouthed close to her ear. “Want to go down and get some fresh air?”
Was he serious? She looked at him, but his expression was too smooth to read anything. His motives weren’t the real issue. Juliet knew to spend one minute alone with this man in the moonlight was as dangerous as dancing around a rattlesnake. Still, she was too charmed and too curious to refuse the invitation.
“All right. It would be nice to cool off a bit,” she agreed.
With his hand at her back, the two of them made their way to the end of the room where the wooden ladder would take them to the ground. Matt allowed her to go first and when she was safely at the bottom, she stood to one side and waited for him to descend.
Once he reached her side, she commented, “The night is beautiful. I’m surprised there’re no kids down here running around.”
“It’s because of the rule,” he explained. “Gracia made it clear to all the kids she invited that once they go up, they aren’t allowed to come down until the party is over and everyone is going home. There’re too many dangers around a ranch to have young people running loose. Especially when some of them are just itching to get into mischief.”
Juliet nodded. “You’re probably right. And it would be awful for Gracia’s birthday party to be marred with an accident.”
“Yeah. There’ve been enough of them around this ranch already.”
She didn’t know if he was talking about his wife’s accident in particular or other incidents. Maybe he even considered the death of his grandfather an accident. Yet from what Juliet had researched on the subject, all evidence pointed to a cold-blooded murder committed by someone who’d been an enemy to Nate Ketchum. But she didn’t want to think about that story now or Gilbert’s demand that she write about it.
Matt reached for her arm and turned her away from the entrance of the barn. “Let’s walk,” he suggested.
He took her on a path that led to the shed row where Gracia’s horse was stalled. The night air was mild enough to make her comfortable in her sweater. The sky was clear and stretched a carpet of stars for as far as the eye could see. As they ambled away from the loud music in the barn, she could hear cows bawling softly in the distance and a breeze tinkling the leaves of a nearby cottonwood. She tried to concentrate on the soothing sounds rather than the hot sizzle Matt’s hand was sending throughout her arm.
With his free hand he gestured to the area to the left of them. “That’s the holding pens over there. That’s where we put the cattle when we’re getting ready to ship them out.” He motioned to the shed row just up ahead. “And that’s where we keep a few of our horses stalled. Usually the ones that are in training for cutting or reining.”
“Gracia brought me out here earlier to show me her horse, Traveler,” Juliet told him. “He’s gorgeous.”
He let out a heavy breath. “She’s fixated on that damn horse,” he said with frustration. “I’ve tried getting her interested in other things like ballet lessons, piano, violin, soccer, but she won’t have any of it. If she had things her way, she’d spend all of her spare time with him.”
There were always two sides to everything, Juliet thought, and she was hearing Matt’s now. “It’s not unusual for a young girl to be horse crazy,” she told him. “Plenty of them are. I was that way, even though I didn’t have a horse. I constantly dreamed of having one and competing in the show ring. I think it’s a healthy interest. But I can see you don’t.”
He glanced at her sharply. “No. I don’t think it’s healthy. In fact, horses are extremely dangerous. Every time she gets on Traveler, all I can see is Erica lying lifeless in the dirt. It’s not something I want to live over and over every day.”
His wife had been dead for several years now, but it was obvious that even now he was dealing with her death. Apparently he was still carrying love in his heart for the woman and that idea made Juliet very uncomfortable. For one thing, she envied the late Erica Sanchez for having this man love her that much. For another, the idea that this tough man walking along beside her could feel that much, hurt that much, made him f
ar more appealing than she wanted to admit.
They walked along in silence for a few moments and Juliet realized the very masculine scent of him was competing with the dirt and hay and livestock around them. For one brief moment she closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
“You ride, don’t you, Matt? And I’m sure your brother and cousins do, too. I’d even bet that your Aunt Geraldine still climbs in the saddle.”
“We men ride out of necessity, Juliet. As for Aunt Geraldine, she’s an excellent horsewoman. I don’t have to worry about her.”
Juliet glanced at him as she said tactfully, “Well, Gracia will be an excellent horsewoman, too, with practice.”
“Hmph. You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
Why did she want to cuddle herself against his side? Why did she want to feel his arms around her, when she knew he could be nothing but a heartbreaker to her? Was she destined to be attracted to men who would ultimately hurt her?
“Not really. I just know that Gracia needs you. She needs your attention and admiration.”
Incredulous, he paused to look at her. “She told you this?”
Careful now, she said, “Not in so many words. It’s just obvious that—she adores you and wants you to be proud of her.”
The tense line of his shoulders relaxed and he shook his head with wonder. “It wouldn’t be possible for me to be more proud of her than I already am. She’s growing into a beautiful girl. And she’s very bright and ambitious. She’s in the top five percent of her class. I don’t have to push her to study or do her chores. I couldn’t ask for a better daughter.”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “But you would ask that she give up her horse—the most important thing to her?”
His lips formed a grim line as he urged her forward. “I’m not demanding that she give up Traveler. Even though I’d like to,” he admitted.
Thank goodness he understood his daughter that much, Juliet thought. With a sigh, she said, “I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m trying to tell you how to raise Gracia. I’m not—I just want to make sure you understand her from a—woman’s perspective.”
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