Cowgirl Makes Three / Her Secret Rival. Myrna Mackenzie

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СКАЧАТЬ woman kept talking about how much she’d always wanted to live on a ranch. She kept giggling, which made Noah walk faster.

      Still, when he found Ivy cleaning out the horses’ stalls, the whole ordeal of listening to Mary Sue giggle was totally worth it. Ivy looked at her dirty clothes and at Mary Sue’s slinky dress. Her perfect model’s blue-violet eyes widened. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting this.

      Noah performed the introductions—Ivy didn’t seem to have a clue who Mary Sue was—and then he leaned against a nearby railing to see what happened next. He remembered what Ivy had said about the women of the town not liking her, and despite her protestations that he shouldn’t interfere, he wasn’t leaving until he was sure that Mary Sue would behave herself.

      “Well…here you are,” Mary Sue said.

      “Here I am,” Ivy agreed, her brow furrowed in concentration. “Can I help you?” she asked the woman.

      For a second Mary Sue looked flustered. “You’ve been away awhile. I thought we might get reacquainted.”

      By rights Noah should be upset that Mary Sue was interrupting the work day, but his curiosity about why the woman was here when Ivy had intimated that no one liked her trumped his irritation.

      “It’s break time. Go. Talk,” Noah said, even though work time hadn’t started that long ago.

      His comment sent Ivy’s eyebrows arching, but it brought a look of relief to Mary Sue’s face. “Maybe we could talk at the house. It’s such a nice house,” she said, looking at Noah.

      He glowered.

      “No,” Ivy said quickly. “I don’t live there.”

      Noah knew that Ivy’s objection had as much to do with Lily as it did with her status and the fact that she had never been inside the house. He also knew that Lily and Marta were playing behind the house.

      “It’s okay, Ivy,” he said, and she got his meaning right away. She still didn’t look comfortable, but she went.

      That was that, except…for the next few days women kept showing up at odd times. Noah considered barring them from the ranch during work hours, but something stopped him. In his mind, he saw Ivy prepared to stand outside until dawn throwing a rope so that she wouldn’t be a burden on the roundup. He remembered that her father had tied her to the ranch and…she had lost her child. She was alone in the world, while he still had his little girl. Trying to put himself in her place…losing Lily…he knew the pain would kill him. Nothing would stop it.

      But maybe something new, some female friendships would help a little. So, much as he hated this flood of women invading his world, Noah made sure that Ivy’s breaks coincided with their visits, and if the visitor stayed a few minutes longer than usual, he didn’t say anything.

      Ivy, however, protested. “Make sure you yell at me when fifteen minutes is up. I have work. You’re paying me,” she whispered when she passed him on her way to escort another woman to the house.

      “What exactly do they talk about, if you don’t mind me asking?”

      She shook her head. “Nothing. The weather. The ranch, and…nothing.”

      But there was an evasive, almost angry look in her eyes. Noah remembered how Mary Sue and the others smiled at him so brilliantly. All of them were, he realized, single. An unpleasant suspicion began to form, one that grew even more the day Sandra Penway came to visit.

      “It’s good to see you, Noah.”

      He glanced toward Ivy.

      “And Ivy,” Sandra said, but she wasn’t smiling.

      “Sandra.” Ivy nodded. She didn’t look any happier than Sandra.

      “How is Lily? Where is that little cutie? She’s just a doll. She’s just an angel,” Sandra cooed. “Let’s go see her together, Noah.”

      “She’s napping.”

      “Oh.” Sandra looked perturbed. “Okay. Will she be up soon? I really want to see her. And, of course, she’ll want to see her daddy right away.” She held out her hand to Noah as if to lead him to the house. “You and I will just talk until your little girl wakes up.”

      Suddenly Ivy banged her shovel onto the ground. “I apologize, Sandra, but Mr. Ballenger told me that we need to rebuild the floodgate that washed out after the rain. You know how it is. It’s a job that won’t wait.”

      “You and Darrell and Brody can do it,” Sandra said.

      Okay, that was just wrong, Noah thought. “I don’t ask my hands to do things that I won’t do,” he said. That was true, but there was only one floodgate affected. It wasn’t enough work for all four of them.

      But Ivy obviously wanted the woman gone. And frankly, so did he. Noah stuck to his guns.

      When Sandra had gone, he turned to Ivy. “Thanks.” But he had to know more. “You don’t like Sandra. Has she been mean to you?”

      Ivy shrugged. “She doesn’t like me.”

      “Why?”

      She frowned.

      “What?” he asked.

      “Basically, I’d say she covets you and she thinks I’m in her way,” Ivy confessed.

      Yeah, he kind of got the coveting part. “That’s pretty disgusting for her to mistreat you because she wants something.”

      “Yes, but on the other hand, I’m not any better. I lied about the floodgate.”

      He shook his head. “You kept me from having to play nice guy to someone who isn’t all that nice. So we’ll make your story true. Brody has plenty of other things he can do.”

      “I didn’t mean to make extra work for you.”

      But work felt curiously like…not work as he and Ivy dived into the messy job of rebuilding the floodgate. They hadn’t spoken much during these days when all the women had been visiting, so as he and Ivy worked in concert, he turned to her. “Are you okay with the women of the town now? Tight?” he asked, twisting his fingers together the way she had the day she had lied and told him that.

      She shook her head. “They’re polite, but I’m not the reason they’re here. I’m just the conduit. They want to know about you. And…they ask a lot of questions about you and Lily. I don’t like that.”

      “Because you’re uncomfortable talking about her.” He hoped he managed not to show how much that bothered him.

      “No, it’s not that. The things they ask…they want to know what you and Lily do together, what you’re like with her, that kind of thing. I remember that day in the store. Some of them, even though they seem entranced by the thought of you peeling off your shirt, were concerned that you weren’t raising Lily right. I don’t like thinking that they might be spying on you. That’s not right. You’re a good father.”

      “How do you know that?” She was never with him when he was СКАЧАТЬ