Wyoming Winter. Diana Palmer

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      “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted liquor,” she confessed.

      “Just as well.” He bent and brushed his mouth gently over hers. “I enjoyed tonight.”

      “I did, too.”

      He drew back all too soon. He put his hands on her shoulders and just looked at her. “I’m going to be out of town for several days.” His mouth pulled to one side. “Ren signed me up for a gadget convention—new toys for ranch security. I have to go.”

      “Where?”

      “Just Denver,” he said. “Not too far away. Stay out of trouble until I get back.”

      She laughed. Her eyes lit up when she did that. “Okay.”

      “Not that you ever get in trouble in the first place,” he mused.

      “I wouldn’t dare,” she said in a stage whisper, indicating the house behind her.

      He smiled. “We might see a movie when I come back.”

      “There’s that new science fiction one opening next week,” she pointed out. They’d discussed it on the way to Lander.

      “We’ll go, then. See you.”

      “See you.”

      He walked away. She noticed that he never looked back. She wondered why. It seemed to be a long-standing habit.

      She went inside and put up her coat and purse. She tapped on the door of her father’s study and opened it.

      He looked up from his notes. He smiled. “Did you have a good time?”

      “I did. I won enough to catch up the bills.” She grinned at his expression. “I know, it’s sinful money. But it will be very useful for the electric bill.” She struck a pose. “If it wasn’t meant to happen, I’d have lost every penny.”

      He laughed. “All right. I won’t say anything.” He was looking at her intently. After a minute he turned his attention back to his notes. “Sleep good.”

      “You, too. Night.”

      She closed the door.

      Her father was wise enough to notice that she hadn’t indulged in any heavy petting with J.C. Such signs were quite visible. It gave him a little hope. J.C. might not turn out to be as bad an influence as he’d feared.

      * * *

      THE WEEK DRAGGED BY. Colie typed up briefs, printed them out, took dictation, scheduled clients, helped open mail and generally buried herself in work to keep J.C. out of her mind.

      “You’re daydreaming, girl,” Lucy, her coworker teased. “It’s that handsome man from the Yukon, isn’t it?”

      She didn’t deny it. “Small towns,” she laughed, shaking her head.

      “Well, my cousin runs the filling station where J.C. buys gas and he mentioned he was going to Lander with a friend. Since he doesn’t have any friends...” Lucy trailed off.

      “He does so. He has me.”

      Lucy grinned at Colie’s mischievous expression. “Anyway, we figured he was taking you over to the casino. Win much?”

      “I won enough to pay the light bill,” Colie said. “And get a few extra minutes a month on my phone. It was nice.”

      “I know what you mean. I had to give up bowling for two nights because I blew a tire and had to replace it,” the other woman sighed. “Ben’s so understanding. I ran over a piece of metal in the road. I wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t even blink. He just kissed me and said he was grateful that I didn’t get hurt. That’s what I call a nice husband.”

      “You two really are great together,” Colie said. “You’re the same kind of people. You come from similar backgrounds.”

      “And we’ve known each other since kindergarten,” was the droll reply.

      “Did you ever think of just living together?” Colie asked, trying not to sound as curious as she was. She was thinking ahead, in case J.C. ever brought it up.

      “Not really,” Lucy confided. “My dad’s a pharmacist. Good luck trying to get birth control in Catelow without him finding out. Besides that, he’s a deacon in your father’s church. People around here are clannish, and they don’t move with the times. Maybe we have couples who sneak around at night to motels over near Jackson Hole, but we really don’t have many who just live together. They get married and raise kids.”

      “I’d love to have kids,” Colie said softly. “I can’t think of anything in the world I want more.”

      “So do Ben and I,” Lucy said. “But we’re just starting out. We figure we’ll have a couple of years to grow together better before we start on a family.”

      “That’s wise.”

      “We think so.” She cocked her head. “What about you and J.C.?” she asked. “I’m not prying.”

      “I know.” She hesitated. “I don’t know, Lucy,” she said honestly. “He’s already said he’s not the pipe-and-slippers type, and he doesn’t really want children.” She bit her lower lip. “You can’t change people. You have to just accept them the way they are.” Her face was drawn with pain. “I keep thinking, if I’d refused to go out with him...”

      “It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Lucy said wisely. “People fall in love. I don’t think they get a choice about who they fall in love with.”

      Colie laughed. “No. It’s like your family. You don’t get to choose them, either.”

      Lucy grimaced. “Your father would give you a real hard time if you tried to move in with J.C. To say nothing of the rest of the community. There’s barely a thousand people who live in and around Catelow. You couldn’t hide it.”

      “I’ve worried about that. I’d like to think I’d say no. But...”

      “He might turn out to be conventional,” Lucy ventured. “He knows how your father feels.”

      “It wouldn’t matter. I don’t think J.C. had much of a home life,” she confided. “He was more or less orphaned in grammar school.”

      “That’s tough.”

      “You mustn’t repeat that,” Colie said.

      “You know me. I work for lawyers,” she whispered, pointing down the hall. “They’d barbecue me on the front steps if I ever talked about what I know!”

      “Same here,” Colie said, laughing. The smile faded as she shuffled papers on her desk, across from Lucy’s. “He doesn’t know what it’s like to have a settled, СКАЧАТЬ