Christmas with the Rancher: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ her smile. She’d come home to find a stranger, a man she didn’t know. Her beauty hadn’t interested the voice trainer; her voice hadn’t really impressed him. She’d come home with a damaged ego and wanted Cort to fix it by catering to her. That hadn’t happened. She’d invited him over today for lunch and he’d eaten it in a fog. He actually seemed to not want to be with her, and that was new and scary.

      “Well, she’s plain as toast,” Odalie said haughtily. “She has no talent and she’s not educated.”

      He cocked his head. “And you think those are the most important character traits?”

      She didn’t like the way he was looking at her. “None of my friends had anything to do with her in school,” she muttered.

      “You had plenty to do with that, didn’t you?” Cort asked with a cold smile. “I believe attorneys were involved…?”

      “Cort!” She went flaming red. She turned her head. “That was a terrible misunderstanding. And it was Millie who put me up to it. That’s the truth. I didn’t like Maddie, but I’d never have done it if I’d realized what that boy might do.” She bit her lip. She’d thought about that a lot in recent weeks, she didn’t know why. “He could have killed her. I’d have had it on my conscience forever,” she added in a strange, absent tone.

      Cort was not impressed. This was the first time he’d heard Odalie say anything about the other woman that didn’t have a barb in it, and even this comment was self-centered. Though it was small, he still took her words as a sign that maybe she was changing and becoming more tolerant…

      “Deep thoughts,” he told her.

      She glanced at him and smiled. “Yes. I’ve become introspective. Enjoy it while it lasts.” She laughed, and she was so beautiful that he was really confused.

      “I love your car,” she said, glancing out the window. “Would you let me drive it?”

      He hesitated. She was the worst driver he’d ever known. “As long as I’m in it,” he said firmly.

      She laughed. “I didn’t mean I wanted to go alone,” she teased.

      She knew where she wanted to drive it, too. Right past Maddie Lane’s house, so that she’d see Odalie with Cort. So she’d know that he was no longer available. Odalie seemed to have lost her chance at a career in opera, but here was Cort, who’d always loved her. Maybe she’d settle down, maybe she wouldn’t, but Cort was hers. She wanted Maddie to know it.

      She’d never driven a Jaguar before. This was a very fast, very powerful, very expensive two-seater. Cort handed her the key.

      She clicked it to open the door. She frowned. “Where’s the key?” she asked.

      “You don’t need a key. It’s a smart key. You just keep it in your pocket or lay it in the cup holder.”

      “Oh.”

      She climbed into the car and put the smart key in the cup holder.

      “Seat belt,” he emphasized.

      She glared at him. “It will wrinkle my dress,” she said fussily, because it was delicate silk, pink and very pretty.

      “Seat belt or the car doesn’t move,” he repeated.

      She sighed. He was very forceful. She liked that. She smiled at him prettily. “Okay.”

      She put it on, grimacing as it wrinkled the delicate fabric. Oh, well, the dry cleaners could fix it. She didn’t want to make Cort mad. She pushed the button Cort showed her, the button that would start the car, but nothing happened.

      “Brake,” he said.

      She glared at him. “I’m not going fast enough to brake!”

      “You have to put your foot on the brake or it won’t start,” he explained patiently.

      “Oh.”

      She put her foot on the brake and it started. The air vents opened and the touch screen came on. “It’s like something out of a science-fiction movie,” she said, impressed.

      “Isn’t it, though?” He chuckled.

      She glanced at him, her face radiant. “I have got to have Daddy get me one of these!” she exclaimed.

      Cort hoped her father wouldn’t murder him when he saw what they cost.

      Odalie pulled the car out of the driveway in short jerks. She grimaced. “I haven’t driven in a while, but it will come back to me, honest.”

      “Okay. I’m not worried.” He was petrified, but he wasn’t showing it. He hoped he could grab the wheel if he had to.

      She smoothed out the motions when she got onto the highway. “There, better?” she teased, looking at him.

      “Eyes on the road,” he cautioned.

      She sighed. “Cort, you’re no fun.”

      “It’s a powerful machine. You have to respect it. That means keeping your eyes on the road and paying attention to your surroundings.”

      “I’m doing that,” she argued, looking at him again.

      He prayed silently that they’d get home again.

      She pulled off on a side road and he began to worry.

      “Why are we going this way?” he asked suspiciously.

      “Isn’t this the way to Catelow?” she asked in all innocence.

      “No, it’s not,” he said. “It’s the road that leads to the Lane ranch.”

      “Oh, dear, I don’t want to go there. But there’s no place to turn off,” she worried. “Anyway, the ranch is just ahead, I’ll turn around there.”

      Cort had to bite his lip to keep from saying something.

      Maddie was out in the yard with her garbage can lid. This time Pumpkin had gotten out of the pen when she was looking. He’d jumped a seven-foot-high fence. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she’d never have believed it.

      “Pumpkin, you fool!” she yelled at him. “Why can’t you stay where I put you? Get back in there!”

      But he ran around her. This time he wasn’t even trying to spur her. He ran toward the road. It was his favorite place, for some reason, despite the heat that made the ribbon of black asphalt hotter than a frying pan.

      “You come back here!” she yelled.

      Just as she started after him, Odalie’s foot hit the accelerator pedal too hard, Cort called out, Odalie looked at him instead of the road…

      Maddie heard screaming. She was numb. She opened her eyes and there was Cort, his face contorted with horror. Beside him, Odalie was screaming and crying.

      “Just lie still,” Cort said hoarsely. СКАЧАТЬ