Page 58 of Wyoming Heart

He chuckled. “We’re friends. Just friends. So. Next Saturday?”

She grinned. “Okay.”

“I’ll pick you up about nine in the morning and we’ll make a day of it. How’s that?”

She just nodded, her face almost glowing with delight. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. No woman had ever looked at him in that particular way. It made him glow inside. He smiled and couldn’t stop.

“Okay, then. It’s a date.”

“WELL,YOUAREBEAMING,” Bart teased as she was getting ready to drive home.

“Your cousin is taking me over to the Wind River Reservation next Saturday,” she said.

He frowned. “Mina, I don’t want to interfere. But Cort, well, he’s something of a rounder.”

“I know,” she said gently. She made an awkward gesture with her shoulder. “I know he is. But it’s been so long since...well, I’ve never had a real date.”

“You went out with Jake McGuire,” he reminded her with a smile. “Twice, in fact.”

“Yes, but I don’t... I’m not...he isn’t...” She scrambled for words.

“But you aren’t attracted to Jake, and you are to Cort,” he translated.

She went scarlet, aware that Cort was glancing in their direction and smiling at her. She was visibly disconcerted.

“Just take it easy, okay?” he asked, and he smiled. “He’s a good man. But he likes woman a tad too much.”

She laughed. “I like him a lot. But I’m not blind.”

He laughed, too, but without humor. He had to hide how worried he really was. Cort was dangerous to a green girl, and that’s what Mina was. Well, if worse came to worst, at least he’d be there to pick up the pieces.

MINAWENTTOchurch the next morning and sat next to Bill McAllister and her new full-time hire, Jerry Fender. They stood talking to the minister when she walked out, but they left him to join her as she went to her car.

“Bart says you’re going to that casino with his cousin next Saturday,” Bill began.

She flushed and glared at both of them. “I’m twenty-four years old. I’ve only ever really dated one man up until now. Cort isn’t likely to put me out on the side of the road with a note in my mouth and leave me there.”

Fender sighed. “It’s your life, boss lady,” he said gently. “But the man has a bad reputation locally. Sometimes people who get notorious like that can give you a bad one just by being seen with them.”

“I don’t believe you two,” she said, exasperated.

“We worry,” Bill said gently.

Fender just nodded.

She glowered. But after a minute, when she realized how genuinely concerned they were, she backed down.

“I’m not going into any dark rooms with him alone,” she said in a stage whisper. “And I won’t have a single drink in the bar. We’re going to tour the reservation, not participate in any orgies.”

They laughed. It was outrageous, the way she said it.

She grinned at them. “But thanks for the concern,” she added, and meant it. “You guys are pretty cool.”

They thanked her, tipped their hats and went off to Fender’s truck, where his big dog, Sagebrush, was occupying the passenger seat. They spoke for a minute or two before Bill went to his own car. By the time Mina got into her little car, they were both long gone.

SHEDEBATEDFORthe rest of the week about her decision to go out with Cort. Yes, he was a rounder. Yes, he was dating a notorious local woman. Yes, it might damage her reputation to be seen with him.

But he’d been tender with her. Protective of her. She remembered helplessly that hard, beautiful mouth pressed so hungrily to her lips. She tingled all over at just the memory. She’d had so little joy in her life, outside her career. Was it too much to ask to spend an innocent evening with a man to whom she was violently attracted?

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