Page 22 of Wyoming Heart

SHEWASINVITEDover to the Simpsons’ house later in the week by Pam Simpson, who’d had the party for her.

“You simply have to come,” she told Mina excitedly. “One of your biggest fans is just home from Australia and he wants to meet you. He reads your books while he’s watching over first-time mama cows until they give birth! He says he’ll be doing it at the Catelow ranch for a while. Well, you know that your cousin Rogan is partners with him, and Rogan’s still in Australia managing the station there.”

“Yes, I knew. Is it Mr. McGuire?” she wondered aloud. “I think I met him once a long time ago. When my mother was alive,” she added quietly. She didn’t tell Pam that her mother had made a play for McGuire, who was years her junior, and he’d turned her down. His name was never mentioned at home after that.

“It is,” Pam said. “Jake McGuire. He’s really nice. I’ve had the cook prepare a special meal, just in his honor. Well, in yours, too. So you have to come for lunch.”

Mina laughed. “Okay, then. It will save me from having to cook. Not that I don’t love it, but there are a lot of leftovers when you’re just cooking for one person.”

“I can imagine. So then, we’ll expect you.”

“What time?”

“Eleven sharp.”

“I’ll be there.”

MINAHADN’TSEENJake McGuire in a very long time. She was a little intimidated by him. After all, he was a millionaire many times over and she was just beginning to make her mark as an author.

He’d be used to women who were sophisticated and wore haute couture. All Mina had were clothes off-the-rack. But she was going to wear the best she had. She put on her prettiest spring dress, a pastel floral concoction with a V-neckline and wide sleeves, belted at the waist and midcalf length. She’d left her hair long and experimented, lightly, with the makeup Sassy Callister had given her. She didn’t look half-bad, she thought.

Jake obviously thought she looked very nice, because he just stared at her, smiling, when Pam introduced them.

He was good-looking. Very good-looking. Tall and tanned, with dark hair and light silver eyes, and a physique that would have done a rodeo rider proud. How odd that a man who looked like that, and was rich, wasn’t married. Maybe he was a romantic and wanted that fairy-tale romance that both men and women dreamed of.

“We met a long time ago,” Mina began hesitantly.

“No, we didn’t. We’re just meeting now,” he said gently, and smiled. “Those long-ago, terrible days are done.”

She let out a breath. “Yes, thank God,” she replied, grateful that Pam had gone into the kitchen to check on the progress of lunch. “My mother was my worst enemy, most of my life.”

“I know that. But she’s gone. You’re safe, now.”

The way he said it made her feel warm and comforted. She smiled at him. “Thanks. For not blaming me, for what she did,” she added.

“How could anyone blame you?” he asked. His face tautened. “We all knew what she was. Rogan was furious when he realized what she’d tried to do to you, what she’d let her drunken boyfriend do. Australia is a long way away. We didn’t get any news from back home at all!”

“Cousin Rogan kept the ranch solvent, at least,” she told him. “I don’t know what I’d have done if he hadn’t. He bought me a computer and kept the bills paid until I learned how to buy and sell cattle, and especially until I started selling books. He was my biggest fan. He always believed I could get published.”

“So did I,” he returned. “Your cousin told me aboutSPECTRE. I bought a copy and I was hooked! I couldn’t imagine how a woman could write in almost a man’s style about mercs and cops and soldiers. You even know about weapons.”

She grinned. “I have a commando group that adopted me years ago,” she confessed. “They take me out on missions occasionally, so that I get a real feel for what I’m writing about. That’s how I came up with the idea forSPECTRE. I dedicated it to the guys.”

“I did wonder about the dedication,” he teased.

She laughed. “I also pumped Bart’s cousin Cody for information. He’s been sheriff of Carne County for years and years.”

“He has, indeed. He’s a good man. Shame about his wife.”

“Yes, it was. He tried to help me, before my mother died. He just couldn’t ever get anything on Henry that he could use to put him away.” Her face hardened. “Henry was a bottom-feeder.”

“I could think of some better adjectives.” He smiled at her. “You came through it, though. What doesn’t kill us...”

“...makes us stronger,” she finished, and laughed. “Cousin Rogan’s favorite slogan,” she recalled.

“And a true one.”

“Cook has lunch ready,” Pam called from the dining room. “Come and get it!”

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