Page 78 of Wyoming Heart

“He was cheating on her.” He laughed hollowly. “He cheated on my mother when she was dying. He’s cheated on all his female companions. It’s the only way of life he knows.”

She felt her face go numb. They always said, look at the father and that’s the son in twenty years.

He could see the indecision in her face. “Our stepmother cheated on him, so he threw her out. It’s the only time he really got it back. Until last week, anyway.” He smiled sadly. “His new wife is an upright, moral woman. I liked her.”

“Doesn’t he love her?”

“Honey, I don’t think he really knows what love is,” he said softly. “Maybe he loved our mother, at first, but that wore off when she had the first baby and stopped giving all her affection to him.” He studied his coffee cup. “Apparently, when he feels he isn’t the center of attention, he does every bad thing he can think of to get noticed. He fired my foreman. I had a hell of a time persuading him to come back. And Dad’s still at the ranch. I can’t really leave him alone there for long, or I’ll be replacing everybody. He’s climbed into the bottle to drown his sorrows, and he’s a hell of a pain when he drinks.”

“And I thought I had problems with my little herd,” she mused. She sipped coffee and peered at him over the rim. “So you have to go home soon, I guess,” she added, and tried not to sound as sad as she felt.

He searched her dark eyes. It was like coming home. “I hoped you might go with me,” he said after a minute. His heart raced. It was the first time he’d really tried to commit himself to a long-term relationship and he was uneasy. It didn’t show.

“And stay until you get tired of me, like all the others?” she asked on a long sigh.

“Try to remember that tabloids run on gossip. The more lurid the story, the more people buy it. The real culprit was the starlet. Her series is ending and she needs publicity so that she can get another job.” His smile was pure cynicism. “I never even slept with her, Mina,” he added, his voice deep and very quiet. “She was just somebody pretty to take around town while I was there.” He lowered his eyes. “I never thought you’d find out about it.”

“Would you have told me?” she asked, with some of his same cynicism.

He drew in a long breath. “Probably,” he conceded. “But not until you were more sure of me than you are right now. You don’t know whether to believe me or not, do you?”

“Look, I live in a small town. I’ve been here all my life. The only thing I’ve really learned about men in all that time is that you can’t trust them. Maybe I trust Bart, but that’s a different sort of relationship.”

“It is. Bart’s just a friend. But you love me,” he said bluntly, watching her color.

She really wanted to deny it. She couldn’t.

“You’d like Latigo,” he said hesitantly. “It’s big and sprawling. We’re surrounded by thousands of acres of land. But if you want city life, El Paso’s not that far away. Hell, nowhere is that far away. We own a jet and two light aircraft.”

She was weakening. He sounded as if he really wanted her there. But he wasn’t talking about marriage. That worried her.

He slid his fingers over hers. “Okay. What’s that sad face about?”

She looked up at him. “It would cause a scandal...”

His eyebrows arched. “How so?”

“I’m not worldly,” she began, flushing. “People around here are mostly conservative, and I’m still trying to live down my mother’s reputation.”

“Oh.” His eyes twinkled. “I see. You think I’m asking you to come to Texas and live in sin with me,” he teased.

She went red. She jerked her hand away from his. “You stop that!”

He chuckled, but his eyes were soft with affection. “Actually, I want to make amends, for what happened in Lander,” he added quietly. “I rushed my fences. I feel guilty about that. You should have had the gown, the minister, the whole works. But there’s still time.” He pulled a box out of his pocket and pushed it toward her.

It was a jeweler’s box. She looked at him with curious interest.

“Open it,” he prodded.

She flipped open the lid and caught her breath. It was a canary diamond, a huge one, at least two carats, in a yellow gold setting. Beside it was a wedding band, also studded with canary diamonds.

“I thought it needed to be something that told a story,” he began slowly. “You glow. You’re like sunlight. It had to be canary diamonds.”

“This is a wedding set,” she said, her voice soft with wonder.

He nodded. “It comes with a jaded rancher and a lot of cattle.” He shrugged. “But there’s a lot of emotion behind it.”

Her brown eyes glowed with the love she felt for him.

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