A Willing Wife. Jackie Merritt
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Название: A Willing Wife
Автор: Jackie Merritt
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
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Dallas ignored her frostily stated declaration of independence and stayed right behind her. Just outside the barn he asked, “Have you checked the equipment sheds?”
Maggie turned with blazing eyes, fully intending to give him yet another piece of her mind, when she heard Cruz shouting, “Maggie, I’ve got him! He was playing in a haystack behind one of the barns. He’s fine, and we’re going back to the house.”
She heaved a relieved sigh. Forgetting how much she despised Dallas, she said, “It looks as though keeping Travis on the ranch is a mistake. I have no idea why he started leaving the yard, but he keeps doing it, no matter how often I threaten, beg or cajole him.”
“Have you tried explaining the dangers he could run into on a ranch?” Dallas asked quietly, then quickly switched gears. “Maggie, you have to let me explain what happened earlier today.”
She was instantly angry again. “Have you forgotten I was there? What possible explanation could there be for your treating me like a tramp?”
Dallas groaned. “My God, I don’t think of you as a tramp.”
“Well, you certainly fooled me,” she snapped, and turned to leave.
Dallas rushed to keep stride with her. “Maggie, don’t go off like this. Talk to me, please. Everyone deserves a second chance, even a man who made a horse’s ass of himself.”
“We’re single-minded on that, at least,” she said with heavy sarcasm. She kept walking, and it irritated her that Dallas kept pace beside her. “Will you please stop following me? I’m not the least bit interested in anything you might have to say, and if I said what I’ve been thinking, your ears would get scorched black!”
“A red face and black ears,” Dallas said. “Paints a pretty picture, don’t you think?”
“Stop trying to be funny,” she snapped.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Maggie, just stop and talk to me for a minute. Please.”
“I will stop, just long enough to ask you why you even want to talk to me.”
He wiped his hands on the legs of his jeans. “I’m not sure I can explain it. What is it that happens when a man meets a woman and immediately knows that she’s special? It’s not something that a person chooses to happen—it just does.”
Maggie’s lip curled. “Yeah, I’m so special that it’s a wonder you didn’t offer me money for sex!”
“Oh, my God! Maggie, how can I make you understand that it wasn’t like that? For some stupid reason I thought you would, uh, appreciate honesty. I wanted you to like me so much that I…I…” Dallas wished the earth would just open up and swallow him whole. He had never in his life talked to a woman as he had to Maggie, but in defense of his apparently unforgivable faux pas, he had said nothing that wasn’t in his heart.
He looked so miserable that Maggie suddenly felt sorry for him. Wearily she said, “Just forget it happened, okay?”
“Can you forget it happened?” Dallas asked hopefully.
She walked away from him with one final comment. “The only answer I have for that question is, I’ll think about it.”
Three
Maggie greeted her mother when Rosita got home from work that evening, then watched Rosita suppress laughter over the huge hat on her small grandson’s head.
“Come here, you rascal, and talk to me,” Rosita said, sitting on a kitchen chair and pulling the boy onto her lap. “Now, tell your grandmother where you got that, uh, wonderful hat.”
“Dallas gave it to me, Grandma. Didn’t he, Mama?” Travis looked to his mother for confirmation. Rosita also looked at Maggie, only her eyes contained a suspect twinkle that made Maggie feel like squirming. She hastened to relate the only explanation that wouldn’t cause trouble between the Perezes and the Fortunes.
“He came by to see Travis,” she told her mother.
“And maybe to see you, too?” Rosita said with unabashed relish.
Travis slid from his grandmother’s lap. “I’m goin’ outside, Mama.”
Maggie instantly became all mother. “No, you are not going outside. I told you before that you will play inside the house until I can trust you not to leave the yard. Go and wash up for supper.”
“Aw, heck,” Travis groused as he left the kitchen dragging his feet.
“What was that all about?” Rosita asked.
“He left the yard again today. Cruz came by, and we both went looking for Travis. Cruz found him playing in a haystack behind one of the barns. Mama, I just don’t know what to do with my son. He will not obey me.”
“He obeys you most of the time, Maggie. He’s just so fascinated with the ranch. Try to see it through his eyes. He’s always lived in a city, and out here there are so many exciting things for a boy to explore.”
“There are also many dangers for a young child.”
“That’s true, but he has to learn, Maggie. Do you think I didn’t worry about you and Cruz and your sisters when you were growing up?”
“We were different, Mama. We were always ranch kids.”
Ruben came in and, as was his habit each evening, he kissed his wife’s cheek. To Maggie he said, “Something smells good in here.”
“It’s beef stew, Papa.”
Getting to her feet, Rosita said, “It’s so good of you to make supper, Maggie. And the house is so clean, and you even did the laundry. I don’t have to do a thing when I come home. You’re spoiling me.”
Maggie smiled but had pensive thoughts. Her mother was sixty years old and was still working as hard as a young woman. True, it didn’t seem to bother Rosita, Maggie had to admit. Other than one lovely white streak, Rosita’s hair was as black as it had always been, and her skin glowed from good health. She’d grown a bit plump over the years, true, but the beauty she had possessed in her youth was still visible, especially when she smiled.
“Wash up, Papa,” Maggie said. “Supper will be on the table in five minutes.”
“Bossy, just like your mama,” Ruben said, but he smiled at his daughter and went to do as she’d asked.
Rosita eyed her daughter. “So, Dallas Fortune came by today.”
Maggie winced. She should have realized what that oversize hat on her son’s head would do to Rosita’s curiosity. “We’ll talk after supper, Mama. Everyone’s hungry now.”
While the Perezes enjoyed their fine СКАЧАТЬ