Cowboys and Cabernet. Margot Dalton

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СКАЧАТЬ Holden. Tyler moved uncertainly out into the lounge, hat in hand, wondering what could have happened to her.

      Likely, he told himself with a wry grin, she was already in the washroom doing preliminary tests on pH levels in the Texas water.

      While he was enjoying this uncharitable thought, he noticed a young woman near the luggage carousel who stood gazing at him with shy intensity. Tyler caught his breath and stared.

      The woman was lovely. She wore a fitted suit of winter white with a cropped jacket and short skirt that showed off a slim, well-proportioned body and a pair of fantastic legs. Her brown hair, cut quite short, was casually windblown, and she had a beautiful complexion, creamy and warm, with the biggest, sweetest brown eyes he’d ever seen.

      She paused uncertainly, a tan leather bag slung over her shoulder and another at her feet.

      When Tyler gave her a startled grin of admiration she smiled back, an engaging nervous smile that tilted up on one side, causing a dimple to appear in her cheek. Tyler swallowed hard and found himself battling a crazy masculine urge to stride across the room, gather her into his arms and kiss that dimpled face.

      To his astonishment, this lovely apparition lifted the bag at her feet and came toward him, extending a small hand. Tyler shook it, still surprised by her approach, and was further amazed by how hard and firm her hand was. The rest of her looked so deliciously soft, but she had a palm almost as callused as those of the Double C ranch hands.

      “You must be Tyler,” she said in a low husky voice. “You look just like your father.”

      Tyler, who heard this observation all the time, merely nodded and stared at her, his mind slowly absorbing the wonder of this situation.

      “My God,” he said at last. “You’re not…you can’t be…”

      “I’m Ruth Holden. Sorry the flight was so late,” the woman added cheerfully while Tyler stood gazing at her like a schoolboy. “They couldn’t leave Abilene because they were waiting for some kind of delivery, and apparently nobody could find it. They kept running back and forth from the terminal to the…excuse me, Tyler, are you all right?”

      Tyler gathered himself hastily in hand and bent to lift the case at her feet. “Sorry,” he said, smiling down at her. “You’re just not quite what I expected, Ruth. Where’s the rest of your luggage?”

      “This is it,” she said, surprising him further. “I’m only staying a week or so,” she added casually, “and Dad assured me that you people don’t dress for dinner. Mostly I just brought some jeans and shirts. I hope that’s all right.”

      “That’s fine,” Tyler said, still feeling dizzied by her smile. “That’s just fine. Everybody wears jeans most all the time.”

      In fact, Cynthia had made a few attempts to initiate the habit of dressing for dinner at the ranch, but the suggestion had been met with general indifference from the rest of the family, and such caustic scorn from old Hank that she’d backed off, at least for the moment.

      “So, what did you expect?” Ruth asked, walking beside him to the entrance door.

      “Beg pardon?” Tyler fitted his Stetson on his head and held the door for her, moving behind her into the pale sunshine.

      “You said I wasn’t what you expected. I wondered how you’d pictured me.”

      Tyler hesitated, his tanned cheeks flushing a little as he remembered the dowdy woman he’d visualized. “Just…different,” he said lamely. “More like a scientist, I guess.”

      Ruth chuckled. “Well, it’s been a long time since we saw each other, and back then,” she added, giving him a cheerful yet pointed glance, “I’m not sure you even knew what I looked like. You spent the whole time drooling over my friend.”

      Tyler grinned. “Yeah,” he said, reminiscing fondly. “What was her name? Milly?”

      “Mimsy,” Ruth said dryly. “Mimsy Muldoon.”

      Tyler chuckled and gazed with narrowed eyes across the parking lot, trying to bring his dazzled mind back to earth and remember where he’d left the car. “Mimsy,” he echoed. “Whatever happened to that girl?”

      “Oh, Mimsy came to a bad end,” Ruth said, walking beside him. “She married an older man for his money, and now she lives a captive existence in Bel Air with a dozen fur coats and two Porsches and diamonds the size of hazelnuts.”

      “But no real happiness,” Tyler said solemnly.

      “No real happiness,” Ruth agreed. “Poor thing,” she added soulfully, sparkling a glance up at Tyler that made him burst into laughter.

      They paused beside the car and he opened the trunk to put her suitcase inside, fighting another powerful and irrational urge to take this delectable woman into his arms and kiss her, right there in broad daylight.

      “Wow,” Ruth said thoughtfully, gazing at the gleaming Cadillac. “Is this what cowboys drive around in down here?”

      “They made me bring it,” Tyler said. “Mostly to impress you, I guess. Usually I just drive one of the pickup trucks.”

      “Well, that would have been more my choice, too,” Ruth said, her tomboy expression belying the stylish elegance of her suit. “I’ve spent most of my life riding around in pickup trucks.”

      Tyler hesitated, wondering what to do. The prospect of filling in an hour or so with this visitor didn’t seem nearly as awful as it had just a short time ago, but he couldn’t decide where to take her.

      “Are you hungry, Ruth?” he asked.

      Ruth shook her head. “They served lunch on the plane, and it was really good. Besides, the lady in the next seat gave me all her peanuts.”

      Tyler nodded, moving slowly around to let her in the car. Ruth glanced up at him. “You seem thoughtful,” she said. “Is something the matter?”

      “I’m not supposed to take you home yet,” Tyler confessed, pausing with his hand on the passenger door. “The women said they’d kill me if we arrived before four o’clock.”

      “Kill you? That seems a little harsh.”

      Tyler grinned. “Yeah, well, they’re a harsh bunch, those women.”

      “But I don’t understand. Why can’t you go home?”

      “They’re doing a whole lot of renovations out at the house. It’s a real mess these days, and they don’t want you to get there till they’ve had time to tidy away some of the painting stuff.”

      Ruth smiled. “I see. Lucky the plane was late.” She glanced at her watch. “How long does it take to get to Crystal Creek, Tyler?”

      Tyler grinned back at her. “Depends who’s driving. For my brother, Cal, about half an hour. For most everybody else in the world, forty-five minutes or so.”

      “Well, it’s just after two o’clock now,” Ruth said. “How about if we drive out there and have a cup of coffee somewhere in Crystal Creek before we go to the house? Is there a restaurant in the town?”

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