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  It wasn’t until later in the morning, when Dwight told her about his meeting with Allison, that his behavior registered.

  “You mean, he looked at her and put the shot glass down?” Marie asked, all eyes.

  “He certainly did,” Dwight replied. Gene had gone out to check on the branding. Considering the size of the ranch and the number of new calves, it was much more than a couple of days’ work. “He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her.”

  “Is she pretty?” Marie asked.

  He shook his head. “Nice. Very sweet. And a passable figure. But no, she’s no beauty. Odd, isn’t it, for Gene to even notice a woman like that? His tastes run to those brassy, experienced women he meets at rodeos. But Allison seemed to captivate him.”

  “If she influenced him enough to keep him sober on a Friday night, I take my hat off to her,” Marie said with genuine feeling. “He was like his old self last night. It was nice, seeing him that way. He’s been so different for the past few months.”

  “Yes. I know it’s hurt him. I never realized how much until I saw him coming apart in front of my eyes. Knowing about his real father has driven him half-mad.”

  “We can’t help who our parents are,” Marie said. “And Gene wouldn’t be like that man in a million years. Surely he knows it?”

  “He mumbled something about never having kids of his own because of his bad blood, one night when he was drinking,” Dwight confided. He sighed and finished his coffee. “I wish we could find some way to cope with it. He has no peace.”

  Marie fingered her coffee cup thoughtfully. “Maybe he can find it with our Miss Hathoway,” she mused, her eyes twinkling as they met his. “If she had that effect from a distance, imagine what it could be like at close range?”

  “Except that she isn’t Gene’s kind of woman,” he replied, and began to tell her all about the quiet Miss Hathoway.

  Marie whistled. “My gosh. Poor kid.”

  “She’s an amazing lady,” he said, smiling. “Winnie’s very fond of her. So fond that she’ll discourage her from even looking at Gene, much less anything else.”

  “I can see why. The angel and the outlaw,” she murmured, and smiled gently. “I guess I was daydreaming.”

  “Nothing wrong with dreams,” he told her as he got up from the table. “But they won’t run a ranch.”

  “Or organize a barbecue,” Marie said, smiling. “Good luck with the books.”

  He groaned. “I’ll have us in the poorhouse in another few months. If Gene was more approachable, I’d ask him to switch duties with me.”

  “Could you do that?”

  “No reason why not,” he said. “But he hasn’t been in a listening mood.”

  “Don’t give up. There’s always tomorrow.”

  He laughed. “Tell him.” He left her sitting there, still looking thoughtful.

  Chapter Two

  “Are you sure this looks all right on me?” Allison asked worriedly as she stared into the mirror at the low neckline of the strapless sundress Winnie had loaned her for the barbecue. They’d spent a lazy day at home, and now it was almost time to leave for the Nelsons’ Triple N Ranch.

  “Will you stop fussing? You look fine,” Winnie assured her. “You’ve been out of touch with fashion for a while. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly proper. Even for Pryor, Wyoming,” she added with a mischievous grin.

  Allison sighed at her reflection in the fulllength mirror. The young woman staring back at her looked like a stranger. Her long, dark hair was loose and wavy, framing her lovely oval face to its best advantage. She’d used mascara to emphasize her hazel eyes and she’d applied foundation and lipstick much more liberally than usual. Too, the off-the-shoulder sundress with its form-fitting bodice certainly did make her appear sophisticated. Its daring green, white and black pattern was exotic and somehow suited her tall, full-figured body. The strappy white sandals Winnie had loaned her completed the outfit.

  Winnie modeled dresses for a local department store, so she was able to buy clothes at a considerable discount. She knew all sorts of beauty secrets, ways of making the most of her assets and downplaying the minor flaws of face and figure. She’d used them to advantage on her houseguest. Allison hardly recognized herself.

  “I always knew you’d be a knockout if you were dressed and made up properly.” Winnie nodded, approving her handiwork. “I’m glad you finally gave in and let me do my thing. You’ll have the bachelors flitting around you like bees around clover. Dwight has a friend who’d be perfect for you, if he just shows up. He’ll be bowled over.”

  “That’ll be the day.” Allison laughed softly, but she was secretly hoping that one particular bachelor named Gene might give her at least a second glance. She didn’t know what kind of problems he had, but knowing that he’d been hurt, too, gave her a fellow feeling for him. It wasn’t good to be alone when you were in pain.

  “You’re a late bloomer. Trust me.” Winnie dragged her out of the bedroom and down the hall to the living room, where her mother was waiting. “Mom, look what I did to Allie,” she called.

  Mrs. Manley, a tall, graying woman, smiled as she turned to greet the two young women. “My, what a change,” she said. “You look lovely, Allie. I wish your parents could see you.”

  Allie sobered. “Yes. So do I, Mrs. Manley.”

  “Forgive me,” the older woman said. “Your mother and I were best friends for thirty years. But as hard as it is for me, I know it must be ten times harder for you.”

  “Life goes on,” Allie said. She sighed, spreading her long, elegant fingers over the full skirt of the dress. “Isn’t this a dream? I don’t know how to thank you and Winnie for letting me stay with you. I really had nowhere else to go.”

  “I’m sure you have plenty of friends besides us, even if they are spread around the world a bit,” Winnie chided. She hugged Allison. “But I’m still your best one. Remember when we were in seventh grade together back in Bisbee and we had to climb the mountain every day after school to get to our houses?”

  “I miss Arizona sometimes,” Allison said absently.

  “I don’t,” Mrs. Manley said, shaking her head. “I used to have nightmares about falling into the Lavender Pit.” She shuddered delicately. “It suited me when Winnie’s father changed jobs and we moved here. Of course, if I’d known he was going to have to travel all over the world, I might have had second thoughts. He’s gone almost all the time lately.”

  “He’ll retire next year,” Winnie reminded her.

  “Yes, so he will.” Mrs. Manley smiled and changed the subject. “You two had better get going, or you’ll be late. The barbecue’s at the Nelsons’?”

  “Yes. Dwight invited us.” Winnie grinned. “I’ll have to make sure he doesn’t toss me into the corral with those wild horses and ride off with Allie.”

  “Small chance when you’re engaged.” Allison grinned.

  Winnie drove them to the Nelson place in her small Japanese car, a sporty model that suited her. Allison could drive, but she didn’t have a current license. Where she’d been for the past two years, she hadn’t needed one.

  “Before we get there,” Winnie said with a worried glance at Allison, “remember what I said and don’t get too close to Gene. I don’t think he’d let you get near him anyway—he’s pretty standoffish around shy little innocents. But I wasn’t kidding when I told you he was a dangerous customer. Even his brother and sister walk wide around him lately.”

  “He can’t be that bad,” Allison said gently and smiled.

  “Don’t you believe it.” Winnie wasn’t convinced. She scowled. “You watch yourself.”

  “All right. I will,” she promised, but she had her fingers crossed beside her. “Is he by chance a jilted man, embittered by the faithlessness of some jaded woman, or was he treated horribly by his mother?” she added dryly.

  “Gene doesn’t get jilted by women, and his mother was a saint, according to Dwight,” Winnie recalled. “A really wonderful woman who wa
s loved by the whole community. She died about ten years ago. His father was a small-time rancher with a big heart. They were happily married. His…father died about six months ago.”

  Allison wondered at the hesitation in Winnie’s voice when she talked about the late Mr. Nelson. “Do you know what’s wrong with Gene, then?” she persisted.

  “Yes. But I can’t tell you,” was the quiet reply. “It’s not really any of my business, and Dwight’s already been asked too many questions by the whole community. I don’t mean to sound rude, and I trust you with my life,” Winnie added, “but it’s Gene’s business.”

  “I understand.”

  “No, you don’t, but Dwight may tell you one day. Or Marie.”

  “Is Marie like Gene or Dwight?”

  “In coloring, she’s like Dwight, blond and blue-eyed. Gene’s…different. More hardheaded. Fiery.”

  “I gathered that. Doesn’t he ever smile?”

  “Sometimes,” Winnie said. “Usually when he’s about to hit somebody. He isn’t an easygoing man. He’s arrogant and proud and just a little too quick on the trigger to be good company. You’ll find all that out. I just don’t want you to find it out at close range, the hard way.”

  “I can take care of myself, you know,” Allison mused. “I’ve been doing it in some pretty rough places for a long time.”

  “I know. But there’s a big difference in what you’ve been doing and a man-woman relationship.” She glanced at Allison as she turned into a long, graveled driveway. “Honestly, for a twenty-five-year-old woman, you’re just hopelessly backward, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. It isn’t as if you’ve had the opportunity to lead a wild life. But you’ve been criminally exposed in some ways and criminally sheltered in others. I don’t think your parents ever really considered you when they made their plans.”

  Allison laughed gently. “Yes, they did. I’m just like them, Winnie. I loved every minute of what we all did together, and I’ll miss it terribly, even now.” Her eyes clouded. “Things happen as God means them to. I can cope.”

  “It was such a waste, though….”

  “Oh, no,” Allison said, remembering the glowing faces she’d seen, the purpose and peace in the dark eyes. “No, it was never a waste. They’re still alive, in the work they did, in the lives they changed.”

  “I won’t argue with you,” Winnie said gently. “We’ve kept in touch and remained friends all these long years since we were in school together in Bisbee. You’re still the sister I never had. You’ll have a home as long as I’m alive.”

  Tears sprang to Allison’s big eyes. She hurriedly dashed them away. “If the circumstances were reversed, I hope you know that I’d do the same thing for you.”

  “I know,” Winnie said. She wiped away a tear of her own.

  There was a crowd of cars in the front driveway at the Nelsons’ after they’d wound their way up past the towering lodgepole pines and aspen trees to the big stone house, backed by jagged high mountains.

  “Isn’t it just heaven?” Allison sighed involuntarily. “Wyoming is beautiful.”

  “Yes, it certainly is. I can happily spend the rest of my life here. Now, Allie, you aren’t planning to sit behind bushes all night, are you?” she muttered. “The whole idea of this party is to meet people.”

  “For you to meet people,” Allison emphasized. “You’re the one who’s getting married, not me.”

  “You can take advantage of it, all the same. These are interesting people, too. Most of them are rodeo folks, and the rest are cattlemen or horse breeders.”

  “You’re making me nervous,” Allison said, fidgeting in her seat as Winnie parked the car behind a silver-gray Lincoln. “I don’t know anything about rodeo or horses or cattle.”

  “No time like the present to learn,” Winnie said easily. “Come on. Out of there.”

  “Is this trip really necessary?” Allison murmured, swinging her long, elegant legs out of the car. “I could stay in the car and make sure it doesn’t roll down the hill.”

  “Not a chance, my friend. After all the work I’ve put in on you today, I want to show you off.”

  “Gloating over your artistry, I gather?” Allison primped. “Well, let’s spread me among the peasants, then.”

  “I’d forgotten your Auntie Mame impersonation,” Winnie winced. “You really have to stop watching those old movies. Don’t lay it on too thick, now.”

  “Cross my heart and hope to die,” Allison agreed. She drew an imaginary line across her stomach.

  “Your heart isn’t down there,” Winnie said worriedly.

  “Yes, it is. The only thing I really love is food, so that’s where my heart is. Right?”

  “I give up.”

  Allison followed her friend up the wide stone steps to where Dwight Nelson waited on the porch, his blond hair gleaming in the fading sunlight.

  “There you are!” he chuckled, and swung a beaming Winnie up in his arms to kiss her soundly. “Hello, Allie, glad you could come,” he told the other woman and suddenly stopped, his eyes widening as he stared at her. “Allie? That is you, isn’t it?”

  Allison sent a dry look in her friend’s direction. “Go ahead. Gloat,” she dared.

  “I did it all,” Winnie said, smiling haughtily. “Just look. Isn’t she hot?”

  “Indeed she is, and if I hadn’t seen you first…” Dwight began.

  Winnie stomped on his big foot through his boot. “Hold it right there, buster, before you talk yourself into a broken leg. You’re all mine, and don’t you forget it.”

  “As if I could.” Dwight winced, flexing his booted foot. “You look gorgeous, Allie, now will you tell her I was kidding?”

  “He was kidding,” Allie told Winnie.

  “All right. You’re safe, this time.” Winnie slid her arm around Dwight’s lean waist. “Where’s Marie?”

  “Around back,” he said, grimacing as he glanced toward the sound of a local band beyond the arch in the surrounding wall. “Gene’s out there.”

  “Gene and Marie don’t get along,” Winnie told Allison.

  “That’s like saying old-time cowboys and old-time Indians don’t get along.” Dwight sighed. “Fortunately the guests will keep them from killing each other in public. Mother used to spend her life separating them. It was fine while Gene was abroad for a year on a selling trip. We actually had peaceful meals. Now we have indigestion and a new cook every month.” He pursed his lips. “Speaking of food, let’s go see if there’s any left.” Dwight glanced over their heads toward the driveway. “I think you two are the last people we expected.”

  “The best always are, darling,” Winnie said, smiling up at him with sparkling affection.

  Allison had to fight her inclination to be jealous, but if anyone ever deserved happiness, Winnie did. She had a heart as big as the whole world.

  She followed the engaged couple through the stone arch to the tents that had been set up with tables and chairs positioned underneath it to seat guests. A huge steer carcass was roasting over an open fire while a man basted it with sauce, smiling and nodding as two women, one of whom Winnie whispered was Marie Nelson, carried off platters of it to the tables.

  Other pots contained baked beans and Brunswick stew, which were being served as well, along with what had to be homemade rolls.

  “It smells heavenly,” Allison sighed, closing her eyes to inhale the sweet aroma.

  “It tastes heavenly, too,” Dwight said. “I grabbed a sample on my way around the house. Here, sit down and dig in.”

  He herded them toward the first tent, where there were several vacant seats, but he and Winnie were waylaid by a couple they knew and Allison was left to make her own way to the long table.

  She took a plate and utensils from the end of the table, along with a glass of iced tea, and sat down. Platters of barbecue and rolls, and bowls of baked beans and Brunswick stew, were strategically placed all along the table. Allison filled her plate with small portions. It had been
a long time since she’d felt comfortable eating her fill, and she had difficulty now with the sheer volume of food facing her.

  Gene Nelson was standing nearby talking to a visiting cattleman when he saw Allison sit down alone at the table. His eyes had found her instantly, as if he’d known the second she’d arrived. He didn’t understand his fierce attraction to her, even if she did look good enough to eat tonight. Her dress was blatantly sexy, and she seemed much more sophisticated than she had in the bar with Dwight and Winnie. Winnie was a model, and he knew she had some liberated friends. He’d even dated Winnie once, which was why Dwight’s fiancée had such a bad opinion of him. Not that he’d gotten very far. Dwight had cut him out about the second date, and women were so thick on the ground that he’d never given Dwight’s appropriation of his date a second thought. That might have added to Winnie’s disapproval, he mused, the fact that he hadn’t wanted her enough to fight for her. It was nothing personal. He’d simply never wanted any woman enough to fight for her. They were all alike. Well, most all alike, he thought, staring helplessly at Allison, with her long, dark hair almost down to her narrow waist.

  He sighed heavily as he watched her. It had been a while since he’d had a woman. His body ached for sensual oblivion, for something to ease the emotional pain he’d been through. Not that he remembered much about that supposedly wild night with Dale Branigan that had kept her hounding him. In fact, he hardly remembered it at all. Maybe that was why his body ached so when he looked at Allison. These dry spells were hell on the nerves.

  Allison felt his gaze and lifted her hazel eyes to seek his across the space that separated them. Oh, but he was handsome, she thought dizzily. He was dressed in designer jeans and a neat white Western shirt with pearl snaps instead of buttons. He wore a burgundy bandanna around his neck and hand-tooled leather boots. His head was bare, his hair almost black and faintly damp, as if he’d just come from a shower. He was more masculine and threatening than any man Allison had ever known, and the way he looked at her made her tingle all over.