Whose Number Is Up, Anyway?. Stevi Mittman

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СКАЧАТЬ me give you some advice,” Josie said. “Real love doesn’t come around that often. And neither does a good man, as I very well know. So if you want Reed and you get a shot at him, take it. If you don’t, you’ll always wonder what might have been.”

      Josie had a point when it came to the good man part. But, as to her getting a shot at Reed…

      The man barely knew she existed.

      REUNITED WITH HIS FAMILY, Reed kept taking in Pa with disbelief. Emmett Quarrels was smaller than Reed remembered—they were about the same height now—and he’d lost weight in the past year. The shock of white hair and faded blue eyes were nothing new, but the sunken cheeks and sagging skin were, and they made him look older than his seventy years.

      “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Son.” Pa’s declaration was followed by a dry cough that set Reed on edge.

      “Hey, I thought this was my wedding,” Chance complained.

      “Don’t be getting on your high horse here, Boy,” Pa said. “You know what I mean.”

      If Chance was angry, he wasn’t showing it. He and Pru were beaming in their happiness.

      “I meant to be at the church,” Reed told them both apologetically. “I really did. But there was something I had to take care of at the last minute on the Evergreen, so I started off late, and then I ran into a problem on the road.”

      “You’re here now, Reed,” Pru said. “That’s all that counts, right, sweetheart?”

      Chance flashed his teeth in a sincere-looking smile. “You bet, darlin’, that’s good enough for me.”

      The brothers threw their arms around each other in a manly hug. Reed was relieved that Chance accepted his regrets without questioning him about his actual situation.

      “Congratulations, Chance. Do I get to kiss the bride now?”

      “Only if you keep it short and sweet.”

      “Pru, welcome to the family,” Reed said, hugging her and giving her a quick kiss. “Finally.”

      Which was all he would say on the matter. Considering their daughter was nearly two years old, it was about time his brother made an honest woman of Pru.

      “Good to see you, Reed,” Bart said, slapping him on the back. “And it’ll be good working together again.”

      Together? Or would he be working for Bart?

      Another thing that ate at Reed, though he kept that to himself, as well.

      A few minutes of catch-up and his niece Lainey was agitating for photographs of the three brothers together.

      “Better be careful,” Reed’s sixteen-year-old nephew Daniel warned them. “Lainey thinks she’s an artist. She might make you do some weird stuff.”

      “You’re the weirdo,” Lainey told her brother.

      Reed grinned. The siblings reminded him of Chance and Bart when they’d been kids.

      As Lainey painstakingly photographed them in several different poses, Reed’s attention wandered a bit. He kept musing on Alcina’s whereabouts.

      Always the proper lady with every hair in place, she’d shown him a new side of herself today. A side that had intrigued him. He’d remembered her as being prissy—actually, she’d gotten a little prissy earlier when he’d laughed at her. She’d been so natural with Hope, though, not worrying about her own finery. Seeing her like that had roused his curiosity.

      “Uncle Reed, you’re not paying attention!” Lainey complained. “You’ve got to smile.”

      Reed did his best to please her.

      One more photograph and Chance said, “Okay, that’s it for now, Lainey. We’d best get to the grub quick, before all those old bachelor cowboys who are normally deprived of good home-cooking get in line for seconds. Then we’ll starve to death.”

      Having noted the huge quantity of food laid out, Reed thought that was a gross exaggeration. And, even though the brothers were the last to reach the buffet table, none of them would go hungry.

      Undoubtedly Chance was anxious to get back to his new bride and daughter, and Reed could hardly blame him.

      He admitted to a bit of healthy jealousy as he watched Chance rejoin Pru and kiss her as if they’d been apart for years instead of mere minutes. Somehow that kind of love had never come his way. Working six or seven days a week as he usually did, Reed doubted that he would ever have time to look for it, either. Maybe he was destined to be another old bachelor cowboy.

      The band started up as he filled his plate with Felice’s finest. Reed dipped his head in time to the music. He looked over to the dance floor as Pru and Chance stepped up, followed by two other couples. So much for his brother’s appetite, Reed thought, grinning to himself.

      His plate in hand, Reed was leaving the buffet, when he felt as if he was being watched. The short hairs at the back of his neck shot to attention. Warily, he turned to meet the gaze of a burly man with pale eyes and a white buzz cut. Then Reed realized the man was standing behind the makeshift bar. It was only the bartender, for pity’s sake.

      The man waved him over with one hand, lifted an empty glass with the other.

      Feeling foolish, Reed complied.

      “You must be brother number three. Hugh Ruskin—I tend bar over at the Silver Slipper.”

      Ruskin held out a hand heavy with expensive rings that Reed wouldn’t expect to see on a bartender. He gave the man a quick shake.

      “Reed Quarrels. That old saloon is still going, huh?”

      “A man’s got to have a place to quench his thirst, even in a small town like Silver Springs,” Ruskin said. “So what’s your pleasure?”

      “Whatever’s on tap will do.”

      Ruskin filled a mug. “I hear you’ve been working up in Colorado, running the show on some spread ten times the size of this one.”

      “For the past few years,” Reed agreed, wondering why he should be the focus of town gossip. “Though someone exaggerated the size of the Evergreen.”

      “Still, when you’re used to running a major operation like that one…”

      Ruskin was peering at him closely as if waiting for him to spill his guts. Say how unhappy he was to be back or something. Reed figured the bartender got some kick out of keeping his finger on the pulse of the town, having juicy tidbits to spread around to his patrons.

      Could the man really know about his hesitancy at returning? About the problematic dynamics between him and Bart? Or was he just fishing?

      Not about to fuel any gossip, Reed picked up his mug and sipped the head off the beer. “You know what they say…nothing like home.”

      Something flashed through the other man’s pale eyes. Something that unsettled Reed.

      And СКАЧАТЬ