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  He noted her posture, her defensive stance. “You weren’t afraid of Judd at all,” he recalled, with narrowing eyes. “But he never touched you, did he?”

  Her face gave him the answer at once.

  He nodded slowly. “So that was it.”

  Her eyes lifted to his, full of surprised curiosity.

  He moved a step closer, torn by conflicting emotions as he watched the pain crawl across her beautiful face.

  She looked like a startled doe, but she didn’t move away. He fascinated her. She couldn’t remember since childhood a man who stood up for her, as he’d stood up to Gary, except for Judd. Policemen had been kind to her, long ago. Cash was wearing a uniform.

  He stepped closer deliberately, towering over her. She could see the black freckles scattered over the bridge of his straight nose, the thickness of the mustache over his sensuous mouth, the tiny triangular goatee under his lower lip. She could see the faint wave in his thick black hair where it was pulled back into a ponytail. He smelled clean and masculine. She liked being close to him. That was a shock, and it filtered into her gaze. But being so close to him made her nervous, and she took a quick step backward.

  Her behavior puzzled him. It was common gossip in the tabloids that she’d lived with a man for six years, a motion picture star twice her age who had an almost obscene reputation for his blatant love affairs with women. She had a reputation in the industry for being sexually aggressive. But how could she be experienced and make a habit of backing away from any man who came too close? She might have been pretending nervousness. But he could tell that she wasn’t. None of this made sense to him.

  His dark eyes narrowed as they searched hers. “He’s not going to bother you again, because you’re not going to let him. Right?”

  She swallowed. Gary made her skin crawl, but she’d never stood up to him. Usually she just made a dead set at men and made them uncomfortable, deliberately making them feel that they could never measure up to her ideal. But Gary was a frog, and he reminded her too much of that man in her past. She couldn’t use her wiles on him. She was afraid of him.

  “Right?” he prompted.

  She nodded, as if a string was attached to her chin.

  “Tippy,” he repeated her name, scowling. “What’s it a nickname for?”

  “Tristina,” she said bitterly. She brushed her hair out of her eyes. “It’s supposed to mean ‘sadness.’ My mother felt that way when she had me, or so the story goes,” she added. “She didn’t like having kids, but she did love to sleep with men. The more the merrier.” She hesitated. “She said she wasn’t sure who my father was.”

  He didn’t look as if it mattered to him. He studied her quietly. “He must have been a good-looking man” was all he said.

  She grimaced. “My mother is a knockout, even now. She has red hair and green eyes, like me, and a figure that even years of alcohol abuse hasn’t fractured. She’s not stupid, either. I had a hard time getting Rory away from her, but money does talk. I have sole custody now, and I’m not giving it up.”

  “Rory?”

  “My brother.”

  He reached out a big hand and moved a strand of red-gold hair out of her mouth. “Why do you have custody?”

  “Because her new live-in boyfriend hated him, and beat him up, bad enough to put him in the hospital, when he was four. A policeman I know called and told me.”

  “What the hell was your mother doing all that time?” he exclaimed.

  She swallowed. Hard. “Holding him down.”

  His sigh was audible. Looking at her, he began to get disturbing images, almost as if they were passing from her mind directly to his. His dark eyes narrowed. He added up her defensive posture, her fear of men, and disregarded the licentious reputation of the man she’d lived with. The solution he got was very disturbing.

  “She’s not getting him back,” she said coldly. “No matter what it costs me.”

  “Including putting up with lizard lips over there?” he said, jerking his head toward Gary.

  She looked up, surprised, and a tinkle of laughter escaped her.

  “Gary can nurse his hand all day and think of me,” he said with narrowed dark eyes. “Come on.”

  He went with her back to the set, at a comfortable distance so that he didn’t make her uneasy. He even smiled at Gary.

  Tippy walked right up to the man, feeling unusually confident. “He says that if you put your hands on me ever again, Gary, I can have you arrested and sue you for harassment.” She smiled prettily. “You do carry insurance, don’t you, darling?”

  Gary went pale. He glanced at Cash and cleared his throat. “All right, people, we’ve wasted enough time. Let’s get back to work!”

  Tippy gave Cash a quick glance and a shy, odd little smile before she went back to work.

  * * *

  Judd’s resolve not to let Christabel suspect he knew about her pregnancy lasted exactly four more days, until he came home from work early and found Christabel on the back of a flatbed with Nick, tossing bales of hay off to the cattle in one of the pastures.

  To say that he raised hell was an understatement. He lifted her off the truck, carried her to his SUV, put her in the seat, and drove her, tight-lipped, straight to Dr. Jebediah Coltrain’s office. He went with her to the desk and told the receptionist that she had to be seen immediately. The waiting room was empty.

  “Copper’s not here,” the girl stammered, “and Lou is just about to leave, too...”

  “Not yet, she’s not.”

  He drew Christabel with him through the door into the hallway. “Lou!” he called.

  Dr. Lou Coltrain came out, first startled and then amused, when she looked at her visitors.

  “Can I help you?” Lou asked Judd.

  His lips made a thin line. “I want a pregnancy test, right now.”

  “OOOOOkay,” Lou replied, trying not to giggle. “When was your last period?”

  “Not me, her!” he ground out, glaring down at an astonished Christabel. “She was tossing bales of hay off a truck, for God’s sake!”

  Lou’s smile faded. “That’s not wise, if you’re pregnant, Crissy,” she said gently.

  Christabel started crying. “You can’t know!” she cried at her husband. “How do you know?!”

  “I’m not blind, am I?” he muttered. “You can’t fasten your slacks and you can’t eat breakfast, either!” He hated himself for not telling the truth.

  “Maude told you!” she accused.

  “Maude didn’t tell me anything,” he defended himself.

  “Let’s take a blood sample, Crissy,” Lou said, intervening. “When was your last period?”

  She had to say, with a smug Judd listening to every word. Lou got Betty and they did the test. It was positive. Lou arranged for an appointment for Christabel to see an ob-gyn specialist in Victoria who also worked at Jacobsville General. Then she prescribed vitamins.

  “No more lifting,” she cautioned. “And eat properly.”

  Christabel agreed meekly. She was relieved at the way Judd was taking the news of impending fatherhood. He wasn’t even upset. It relaxed her.

  Back in the SUV, he couldn’t stop grinning. He reached for her hand and linked her fingers with his.

  “So much for Grier,” he said smugly.

  She studied him intently, watching for signs of unrest. There weren’t any.

  “You aren’t angry?”

  “I’m delighted. I’m also relieved,” he countered. “Now I can sleep nights without worrying that you’ll leave me to run away with Grier.”

  “He likes babies,” she retorted.

  “He can find another woman and make some of his own. This one is mine.” He sighed heavily. “What a Christmas present I’m going to get this year!”
/>   In fact, the baby would be due just before then. She was fascinated by the play of emotions on his dark, lean face. He couldn’t have pretended so much pleasure. She wondered if a woman could faint of pure happiness. She’d never felt so safe, so secure, so cared for in all her life. He was fond of her, of course, and he wanted the baby. Maybe, in time, he might even come to love her. She had so much to look forward to. So much!

  * * *

  The film company said goodbye and left for the airport. Tippy made a wholesale apology to Christabel and Judd about the problems she’d caused and said they’d both be invited to the premiere of the movie in New York when it came out in about seven months. That would be in November, and the baby would be due that month.

  Cash Grier went to the airport just as she finished checking in and started toward the metal detectors.

  “Wait a minute,” he said quietly, pulling her aside. He handed her a business card with his name and phone number on it. “Just in case you have any more trouble over your little brother,” he added. “There’s a private number written on back. If you ever need help, use it.”

  She gasped. “Why would you do that for me?” she asked, all at sea. “You hate me!”

  His dark eyes met her green ones evenly. “Hell, I don’t know! Do you have to question everything?”

  She reached out hesitantly and touched his sleeve, although her hand dropped almost as soon as it made contact. He was wearing his uniform. He looked very neat and clean. “Thank you, for what you did about Gary. For what you made me do. I was so afraid of losing the only job I had.” She smiled shyly. “I’ve had some problems getting work lately. But you were right. Nobody should have to take that, just to keep working.”

  “See that you remember it,” he replied coolly.

  She studied his face, so far above hers, with real interest. “You can come with Judd and Crissy to the premiere of the movie, if you like. I’ll send a ticket anyway.”

  He cocked his head and studied her. “I’ll come,” he said unexpectedly.

  She flushed. Her eyes brightened. She laughed inanely. Around her, men were staring, women were staring, at her startling beauty. She seemed totally unaware of the attention. She had eyes only for the man in front of her.

  “I’d like that,” she said huskily. “Thanks, Mr. Grier.”

  “I’m no more than twelve years your senior,” he pointed out. “You can call me Cash.”

  Her smile lingered. “What’s it short for?”

  He sighed. “Cassius.”

  “Really!”

  He nodded. “My mother was fond of the classics.”

  Her eyes went to his black hair in its neat ponytail, to his mustache and the tiny triangle of hair just below his sensuous mouth. “You loved her.”

  He nodded. “Very much.”

  She sighed and bitter memories pressed the smile from her full lips. “It must be nice.” She glanced toward the metal detector, where the crew was slowly passing through. “I’d better go.” She put the card in her pocket. “Thanks again.”

  He shrugged. “I like movie stars,” he murmured blithely, and grinned at her.

  That grin hit her right in the heart. She smiled again. “I like cops.” Her eyes glanced off his, and she turned and went quickly toward the metal detector. Just before she followed her suitcase and purse into the secure area, she looked back at him. She’d never felt so alone in her life. He was still watching her, too.

  He watched until she was out of sight, for reasons he couldn’t begin to understand.

  As for Christabel, she discovered new things about her own husband in the months that followed. He loved to make things. He had a workshop out in the utility shed, but it had been idle for a long time. Now, he bought some new equipment and lumber and started making baby furniture.

  But just before the baby was due, the tickets came for the New York premiere of Tippy Moore’s movie. Christabel knew that Judd would go, and she was suddenly insecure and frightened of the future. He’d never made any confession of love to Christabel, who had a sneaking suspicion that he’d known about the baby before she ever told him. So what if he went to New York and discovered that he really loved Tippy after all?

  18

  Surprisingly, Cash Grier decided to go along with Judd to New York. Christabel and Maude saw Judd off from the front porch. It was so far along in her pregnancy that he didn’t want her to risk the trip, or even to go to the airport with him. She didn’t want him to go without her, but she was out of excuses.

  “I’ll be back day after tomorrow,” he whispered, bending to kiss her tenderly. “Don’t have the baby until I get back,” he added with outrageous, tender humor.

  “I’ll do my best. Don’t you get...entangled with Tippy again,” she blurted out, and then flushed.

  He scowled. Didn’t she know how he felt?

  “You’re going to miss the plane,” Maude said worriedly. “Don’t speed to get to the airport.”

  “Yes, Mama,” he murmured on a sigh. He gave Christabel one last kiss and jumped into the SUV, speeding up the driveway.

  “He never listens,” Maude muttered.

  “He won’t speed,” she said comfortingly. She smiled. “Come on. Let’s have some nice warm milk and talk about labor.”

  “All right, darlin’, if we must,” Maude said gently.

  * * *

  The premiere was a gala event. Tippy Moore lived up to her publicity, dazzling in a black velvet dress with diamonds dripping from her ears and throat. She went into the theater on the arm of her leading man, Rance Wayne, with the director, Joel, and his wife right with them.

  Cash and Judd had seats near the front, and they watched the movie with real interest and helpless humor as the story came alive on the screen. Laughter echoed along the rows as Tippy and the cowboy bounced dry lines off each other and ended up embracing wildly in a puddle of mud as they discovered their two worlds could meet and merge at last.

  There was a standing ovation. Tippy had tears in her eyes. Her new career was almost a sure thing.

  She met Judd and Cash as they came out of the theater, hugging Judd warmly, but acted reticent and nervous with Cash.

  “You were great,” Judd told her with a grin. “It’s going to be a blockbuster.”

  “Do you really think so?” she asked hopefully.

  “Is your brother here?” Cash asked suddenly.

  “Why...yes,” she faltered. She turned and motioned to a nice-looking young boy with dark hair wearing a neat suit. He had a very conventional haircut and he looked like the product of a military school until he got closer and they could see the twinkle in his dark green eyes.

  “You were pretty good, sis,” he mused, bumping against her playfully. “Didn’t fluff a single line!”

  “Watch your mouth, buster,” she chided, laughing genuinely as she hugged him. “Rory, this is Judd Dunn. He’s a Texas Ranger, and a friend of mine. He and his wife are expecting their first child any day,” she added, to make sure he understood the relationship.

  “Glad to meet you,” Rory said, shaking hands. “I’ve read a lot about the Texas Rangers since Tippy told me about you,” he added excitedly. “There’s even several Web sites about the Rangers, past and present, on the Internet!”

  “They’re educational, all right,” Judd chuckled. “Nice to meet you, too.”

  “This is, uh, Cash Grier,” Tippy said, nodding toward the older man. “He’s assistant police chief in Jacobsville, Texas, where the movie was filmed.”

  Rory looked at the man in the ponytail for a long moment. He seemed subdued. “Tippy told me a lot about you. I, uh, mentioned you to our commanding officer. He knows you. He said you were in Iraq together.” He caught his breath. “He said he never knew anybody as brave as you were. He said, uh, he said
they caught you and tortured you...”

  “Rory!” Tippy exclaimed, horrified.

  Cash’s face had hardened. His eyes were glittering like black diamonds.

  “I’m sorry,” Rory said. He moved closer, uneasy again. “You’re sort of a hero of mine. I’m messing everything up because I can’t talk the way I want to. I think you’re great, sir. A soldier’s soldier.”

  Cash took a sharp breath and averted his eyes. He didn’t like remembering his tour of duty in the middle east, or what he’d done and what had been done to him there. The boy was walking on broken bones and didn’t even realize it.

  “Rory, why don’t you go on to the restaurant with Joel and his wife, and I’ll be right along,” Tippy said quickly, trying to smooth things over.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Rory said, wounded and ashamed.

  But as he turned away, a big, strong hand came down on his shoulder and stayed the movement.

  “Honesty is an underrated virtue,” he told the boy. “You say exactly what you think. I don’t pull my punches, either. I don’t like remembering Desert Storm,” he added quietly. “I survived. The other seven men who went in with me didn’t. They were good men, too.”

  Rory’s breath caught. “I’m glad you aren’t angry, sir.”

  “Cash,” the tall man corrected, and he managed a smile for the boy. “I’m glad we got to talk.”

  “Me, too!” Rory grinned, all boy again, and flushed a little as he glanced at Judd and his sister and took off toward Joel Hunter.

  “He’s all mouth sometimes,” Tippy murmured, worried at the look she’d seen on Cash’s face. “I hope he didn’t offend you.”

  He shrugged. “Everybody offends me, as a rule, but I like a boy with grit. He’ll do,” he added quietly.

  She forced a smile. “Thanks.”

  His chin came up and the look in his eyes was different suddenly. “So you talked about me to him, did you?”

  She went scarlet. It was such an odd reaction for an international model and a newly emerging film star that Judd’s eyebrows met his hairline. Cash’s eyes began to twinkle. He actually laughed.