Wyoming Winter. Diana Palmer

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      “No woman can resist him, if he wants her,” he said. He caught himself and clenched his teeth.

      “It’s okay,” she said, forcing a smile. “He likes variety, they say.”

      “He does, now,” he replied. “Before, that guy told me, he was Mr. Conventional. That changed after the call girl took him for the ride of his life.”

      “Somebody should give her a taste of her own medicine.”

      “Women like that don’t feel anything, honey,” Rodney told her. “They’re cold as ice inside. A woman who prostitutes herself usually does it because it’s easy money. Maybe there are control issues, as well. It gives a woman power over a man, when she sells a service.”

      She just nodded. It was a world she’d never seen.

      “Maybe you’ll change J.C. back to the way he was,” he said gently. “Who knows?”

      She smiled. “Right. Who knows?” She sniffed him. “Honestly, Rod, you reek of smoke...!”

      “My buddy from Jackson Hole came up to visit. He’s staying at a local motel. I have to go see him tonight, so I’ll be late. Very late. We’re talking to another man he knows, from the West Coast.”

      She frowned. It sounded odd.

      “Hardware store business,” he said quickly. “It’s samples of tools.”

      “Oh! I see.” She laughed and turned away. She missed Rodney’s quickly erased look of guilt.

      * * *

      J.C., AS SHE’D SUSPECTED, was wearing jeans with hand-tooled boots and a long-sleeved blue plaid shirt and a shepherd’s coat. He smiled when he saw her pretty but casual clothing.

      “I hoped you’d realize it isn’t a formal date,” he chuckled. “I should have said so.”

      “Oh, it’s okay,” she assured him. “I read minds.”

      His dark eyebrows arched.

      “Really,” she said, green eyes sparkling.

      “If you say so,” he returned. “Ready to go?”

      “Oh, yes.”

      Her father came out into the hall, glanced at J.C. and smiled. He had a book in his hands. “Have fun. Don’t be too late, Colie, please?”

      “I won’t, Daddy.” She kissed him. Even though he smiled, there was concern in his whole look as he turned back to his study. He hadn’t said a word to J.C.

      “Daddy’s not comfortable with people,” Colie defended him when they were settled in J.C.’s big black SUV headed for town. “It’s funny, for a minister, because he has to be available to his congregation when they need counseling or comfort.”

      “I noticed.”

      “It isn’t that he doesn’t like you.” She was trying valiantly to explain something that wasn’t really explainable.

      He glanced at her and smiled. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “Don’t sweat it.”

      She smiled. “Okay.”

      “Do you like fish?”

      “Oh, yes. Fried, poached, grilled, any way at all. Do you?”

      He chuckled. “I grew up in the Yukon. There are lakes and rivers everywhere. My grandfather taught me to fish when I was about four years old.”

      She noticed that he didn’t speak of his father, and she recalled what Rodney had told her. “My grandfathers were both dead when I was born,” she said. “I only had one grandmother living, and she died when I was in grammar school.”

      “That’s sad. I had my grandfather until my mother died. He was a grand old fellow. Blackfoot,” he added with a smile. “His family came from Calgary.” He noticed her puzzlement. “It’s in Alberta. Western Canada. Have you ever heard of the Calgary Stampede? It’s a rodeo they hold every year. My granddad rode in it.”

      “Gosh! Yes, I’ve heard of that.”

      “My father didn’t care much for rodeo, but he was bulldogging with grandad when he saw a pretty little redheaded Irish woman in the stands, cheering him on. He found her after the event and started talking to her. He was fascinated with her coloring. She was an anthropology student, and she was fascinated with First Nation people, like my father. They dated for a week and got married.”

      “It fascinates me that you had a redheaded mother,” she said, staring at him. His hair was coal black, his eyes that odd, beautiful shade of pale silver.

      He chuckled. “It doesn’t show, does it?”

      “Not really.”

      “I get my eyes from her. They were pale gray, like mine.”

      “You loved her.”

      He stared ahead at the snow-lined road. “Very much. She was always there for me. She took terrible chances to keep me safe.” He drew in a long breath. He’d never spoken of these things, even to Rodney. There was something about Colie that drew his confidence. “I lost her when I was ten. I went to live with an adoptive family.” He forced a smile. “They were good, kind people. They had no kids of their own, so I was pretty much spoiled rotten.” His face hardened. “They died in a fire. I was just getting home from school. I got there just before the ambulances and fire trucks did.” He averted his eyes. The memory still hurt. “I couldn’t get them out. The whole structure was involved by then.”

      “I’m so sorry,” she said gently.

      The sympathy twisted something inside him, something he’d hidden for years. “I couldn’t get past the flames at the front door,” he gritted. “I tried. A neighbor pulled me back and sat on me until the fire trucks got the hoses going. They were good people.”

      Her face contorted. She could only imagine standing helplessly by while people she loved died.

      He glanced at her, saw the sympathy that wasn’t feigned. “You don’t push, do you?” he asked after a few seconds, his attention turning back to the road. “You just let people talk when they want to.”

      She smiled sadly. “I’m not interesting,” she said. “I listen more than I talk.”

      “I noticed that about you, when I first met you, that you listen more than most people do. Rod used to talk about his kid sister who sat and daydreamed and played guitar. You still play?”

      “Not often. I don’t practice as much as I used to. I have a full-time job and I’m taking night courses in business two days a week.”

      “You work for Wentworth and Tartaglia, don’t you?” he asked, naming a well-known law firm in Catelow.

      “I do. I went to work for them just out of high school.”

      “That СКАЧАТЬ