Into Dust. B.J. Daniels

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      CASSIDY LICKED GUACAMOLE off her fingertips as she studied the man sitting across from her. Jack had taken her to a small Mexican restaurant in a funky neighborhood that went well with the clothing he’d bought her. She felt downright Bohemian. Her stomach had been growling by the time the waitress slid a huge plate of enchiladas, chiles rellenos, and beans and rice in front of her.

      Earlier, he’d left her at the hotel, but only long enough to get his vehicle. He’d returned with a ranch truck. At first she’d thought he’d stolen it.

      “I live on a ranch outside of Houston,” he’d told her. “I have use of the vehicles.”

      “So what do you know about this company, T.D. Enterprises Inc.?” she now asked between bites.

      “I gather it’s an import/export business.”

      “What does that mean?”

      “They buy and sell based on surplus, bringing in what Americans want and sending out what other countries want from us.” He shrugged.

      “Hmm,” she said thoughtfully. “What would someone in the import/export business want with me?”

      He shook his head.

      She took another bite. Accidentally catching her reflection in a mirror across the room, she was momentarily startled.

      “What?” Jack asked, sounding worried as he glanced over his shoulder.

      “I just can’t get over how I look. I’m shocked when I see my reflection, but not in a bad way. I think I look more...interesting.” She touched her short hair, wondering why she’d never cut it. She and her twin, Harper, had had the same exact hairstyle since they were kids—long straight blond hair. “I like the clothes, too. I should shop flea markets more often.”

      He laughed at that. “You’d look good in anything, even rags.”

      She smiled at the compliment. Jack, however, seemed embarrassed, as if afraid it hadn’t come out the way he’d meant it. As she studied him, she realized something. “You know everything about me, but I don’t know anything about you.”

      “There isn’t much to tell.” He seemed to concentrate on the food on his plate, as if embarrassed to have the topic turned on him. “I’m an only child.”

      “I can’t imagine how wonderful that would be,” she said, only half joking. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters, but it’s hard being one of the youngest and having five sisters bossing you around.”

      “It must have been fun growing up, though,” he said as if truly interested. “You grew up on a ranch?”

      Nodding, she said, “It was fun. We rode horses, swam in the creek, camped up in the mountains. The Crazies, at least that’s what people call the Crazy Mountains, are right out our back door. But there were drawbacks, too. I’m sure you’ve read in the papers about my mother, who supposedly died when I was just a few months old. She returned over a year ago after being dead for twenty-two years.” Cassidy shook her head, realizing that he’d turned the conversation back on her. “I bet your family is completely normal, right?”

      He nodded. “Boringly normal. I was raised on a ranch, where I tried to ride any animal that would hold still long enough.”

      “You rodeoed?” she asked. He had the look of a bronc rider.

      Jack seemed to relax as he grinned and nodded. “There wasn’t a bucking horse on the circuit that didn’t leave me in the dust. I realized finally that I wasn’t born to rodeo. About then my father bought a ranch and I began to run it. It was my twenty-first birthday present. Don’t look so impressed. It was a tax write-off for him.”

      “Still, nice present,” she said. “So what do your parents do?”

      “My father is a businessman. My mother was a homemaker.”

      “Was?”

      “She died. A car accident.”

      “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

      “I miss her.” He grew silent. “It’s been a few years.”

      She could see that the years hadn’t lessened the pain. She picked at her food.

      “My oldest sister, Ainsley, pretty much raised us girls,” she said into the silence that followed. “Dad was always involved in politics. When he became a senator, he was gone a lot.”

      “But you had a stepmother?”

      “Angelina, the ice queen.”

      Jack laughed and she laughed with him. “I take it you didn’t get along?”

      “She ignored us, we ignored her. The only time we had to deal with her was when we got into trouble.” She mugged a face. “Then we’d have to hear about how we were ruining our father’s career with our selfish behavior,” she said in a stern voice.

      “What kind of trouble did you get into?” he asked.

      “Kid stuff. You know, caught СКАЧАТЬ