And The Winner--Weds!. Robin Wells

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СКАЧАТЬ shapeless sweaters, like the baggy gray one she was wearing now, on evenings and weekends.

      When it came to her appearance, Frannie didn’t kid herself. She was plain, and she knew it. She’d made peace with that fact years ago, and now, at twenty-six, she knew there was no point in pretending to be some thing she wasn’t.

      “So what do you think?” Jasmine prompted. She waved her hand toward Summer’s hair as if she were Vanna White pointing to a grand prize. “Am I a maestro with a curling iron, or what?”

      “You are the Queen of Coif.” Frannie leaned back in the rolling chair and gazed approvingly at Summer. “You look great. But what’s the special occasion? You and Gavin haven’t been married long enough to be celebrating an anniversary.”

      Summer lifted a shoulder. “No occasion. Just a Saturday night date with my husband.”

      “Who’s baby-sitting?” Frannie asked. “Isn’t it the nanny’s night off?”

      “She switched to accommodate our schedules. It isn’t often Gavin and I are off on the same Saturday night.” The nanny took wonderful care of their toddler Alyssa.

      “So where are you going?”

      “To dinner at the country club—if he ever finishes up at the hospital. I told him I’d change here instead of driving all the way home.” Summer sighed. “I love living in the country, but as many hours as we spend at work, sometimes I think we just ought to live in a room at the hospital.”

      Frannie nodded sympathetically. Gavin was a general surgeon at the Whitehorn Hospital, the same place where Summer practiced as an immunologist. Both of them spent most of their waking hours there or at the clinic on the reservation. Since their home was twenty miles away, Summer often used the bed-and-breakfast to change clothes, wait for Gavin, or simply relax between shifts.

      “So if there’s no special occasion, what’s with the snazzy dress and new hairstyle?” Frannie asked.

      Summer shrugged. “I just think it’s good for a husband to see his wife looking different every now and then. I want to keep the magic in my marriage.”

      Jasmine and Frannie looked at each other, then simultaneously burst into laughter.

      Summer put her hands on her hips and eyed them indignantly. “And what, pray tell, is so funny about that?”

      “Summer, your entire life is magic,” Jasmine said.

      “Yeah,” Frannie seconded. “You’re beautiful, you have a fantastic career, a beautiful daughter, and you’re married to a successful surgeon who worships the ground you walk on.”

      Summer’s hands fell to her sides. “Well, you know the old saying—familiarity breeds contempt. I don’t want Gavin to get bored with me.”

      Jasmine rolled her eyes. “As if that could ever happen.”

      “Yeah, Summer. Gavin’s not fickle like Jasmine here.” Frannie grinned at her pixie-faced cousin. Jasmine was hotly pursued by all the local bachelors, but she had yet to get seriously interested in any of them. “Who’s the lucky guy you’re going out with tonight?” Jasmine looked down at her neatly buffed nails. “Bill Richards. You know—one of the architectural engineers of the new resort and casino. He stayed here a few weeks ago.”

      “Oh, I remember him! Broad shoulders, dark hair…” Summer frowned. “But I thought he left town when the construction halted.”

      The construction of a casino on the Laughing Horse Reservation and a resort on adjacent private land was the biggest thing to ever hit Whitehorn. The development was supposed to boost the local economy, become a major revenue source for the Northern Cheyenne tribe, and create several hundred jobs for the citizens of Whitehorn. The ground had barely been broken for the project, however, when a skeleton with a bullet in its rib had been unearthed at the construction site.

      And it wasn’t just any old skeleton, either. Dental records had revealed that the remains belonged to Summer’s father, Raven Hunter. Fortunately—well, it wasn’t exactly fortunate, Frannie mentally amended, but in view of the discovery of his body, it certainly made the situation less emotionally painful—Summer had never known her father.

      The police were conducting a murder investigation, and to the distress of the citizens of Whitehorn, the construction project had been put on hold until the investigation was completed. Rumor had it that the police probe could take months. If it lasted until the onset of winter weather, the grand opening could be delayed for a full year.

      “I thought the engineers weren’t going to return until construction resumed,” Frannie remarked.

      Jasmine nodded. “Evidently it has. When Bill called to ask me out, he said they’ve decided to build the resort’s sports complex first. It’s being built further to the east, on Garrett Kincaid’s property.”

      “So the project is back on track,” Summer said. “Well, that’s good news for Whitehorn’s economy.”

      “Not to mention Whitehorn’s single women.” Jasmine gave a mischievous smile. “The town’s probably filling up right now with hunky engineers and contractors and heavy-equipment operators.”

      “That’s right.” Summer’s gaze fastened on Frannie, one eyebrow arching in mock reproach. “But in order for a gal to meet any of them, she’d have to get out there and mingle.”

      Frannie winced, knowing she was in for another round of the old familiar lecture.

      Jasmine quickly picked up on Summer’s theme. “Are you going out tonight, Frannie, or are you going to hole up here like you usually do?”

      Frannie swiveled her chair back to face the computer. “The books are a mess. You know how hopeless Aunt Celeste is with finances, and she’s been doing all the purchasing since Mom’s been gone.”

      “But it’s Saturday night,” Summer scolded. “Don’t you know all work and no play makes you a dull girl?”

      Frannie made a face. “I’m already dull. It’s too late to worry about it.”

      Summer wagged a finger at her. “It’s never too late to get a life, Frannie. You need to go out and meet some men.”

      “It’s not as if they’re eagerly lining up for an introduction.”

      “That’s because you’re always hiding away here,” Jasmine insisted.

      “That’s right.” Summer nodded. “You’ll never meet anyone if you don’t get out and circulate.”

      “You two do enough circulating for all of us.” Desperate for a change of subject, Frannie glanced at her watch. “Speaking of circulating, when are your guys arriving?”

      “Gavin should be here any minute.”

      Jasmine glanced at the grandfather clock in the entryway alcove, then clasped a hand to the lapels of her white terrycloth robe. “Oh, dear. Bill will be here in ten minutes and I’m not even dressed! Summer, come help me figure out what to wear.”

      “Okay—if you’ll let me borrow your new necklace.”

      “Deal.”

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