Page 52 of Mistletoe Cowboy

She smiled sadly as she thought what a high intelligence he had, and he’d let Ron treat him like a vagrant. She couldn’t imagine why. Or maybe she could. He wasn’t even going to try to compete with the society attorney. He’d witnessed that impassioned kiss and he was probably convinced that Katy had chosen Ron over him. It wasn’t the truth. But what did it matter? They all hated her.

Tomorrow was Sunday. She’d have to drive over to the Dentons to bring a furious Teddie home and discuss Bart’s future. Ron would certainly arrive after lunch, to complicate matters. She hadn’t felt such impotent sorrow since her husband’s death.

She missed her late husband. She felt guilty that she’d started seeing Parker, because it was like betraying her husband’s memory. But it wasn’t at all. Teddie loved Parker. He was larger than life, a strong and capable man with a stunning intellect and a big heart. He never ran from a fight. Ron did. It was why he negotiated settlements out of court for most of his cases. He wasn’t a stand-up fighter and he didn’t like confrontation. Well, not unless he considered his adversary inferior to him. That was why he’d been so condescending with Parker. Pity, she thought, that Parker hadn’t aired his views on theoretical physics. But Parker wasn’t competing, because he didn’t think Katy was worth the competition. That thought was like a knife in her heart. She hadn’t realized how important Parker was to her until she’d alienated him. She’d alienated her daughter as well. Somehow, she was going to have to make amends, if she could.

She went back to bed and turned off the light, but she knew she wasn’t going to sleep. Her life was in turmoil all over again because she’d gone nuts and invited Ron down to aid her in the struggle for possession of Bartholomew. He hadn’t aided her at all. He’d helped lose part of her family.

So she closed her eyes on welling anger and considered her next course of action. Tomorrow, after she got her daughter back, she was going to have a long and very hot conversation with one eastern attorney.

* * *

The Dentons were already up when she pulled up at their front door, after calling and asking if it was all right to come fetch her daughter. She didn’t want to make J.L. any madder than he already was.

Teddie was sitting at the breakfast table with Cassie and J.L. and the baby, in his high chair, when she walked in.

“Good morning,” Katy said hesitantly.

“Good morning,” Cassie greeted. “Won’t you have something to eat? Or at least coffee?”

J.L. didn’t speak. He glared.

Katy flushed. She took a deep breath and put her hands in her pockets. “I’m going into town tomorrow to see an attorney and have Bartholomew signed over to you, Mr. Denton. I’ll be very grateful, and so will Teddie, for any help you can give us. I don’t want him put down and I don’t want his former owner to get him.” She shifted her feet restlessly. “Ron is very logical. He helped me settle my husband’s affairs after he was killed overseas. He seemed like a capable, trustworthy man, but he’s not. He’s a snake. I just didn’t know it until yesterday, when he almost convinced me that I was being stupid and unrealistic.”

Teddie was looking at her mother, not glaring. J.L.’s hard face softened just a little.

“Anybody can be taken in by a fast-talking lawyer,” Cassie said. “My poor father was the victim of one, who helped his shady client ruin my father’s reputation so they could get his position for her. The uproar caused my mother to commit suicide.”

“Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry!” Katy exclaimed.

“We were very close,” Cassie confided. “It took a long time to get over it. In fact, I haven’t yet.”

“Teddie and I haven’t really been close,” Katy said, not looking at the sad little girl at the table. “My fault. My parents married to combine two ranching properties. I think they wanted me, at first, but neither knew how to show affection. I was raised with almost no touching, no sharing, no affection.” She smiled. “It’s hard to show love when you haven’t been shown it.” She glanced at her daughter. “I’m in the learning stages about that.”

Teddie flushed. She squirmed in her chair.

“Coffee?” Cassie asked again.

“Thanks, anyway. But we’d better go,” Katy said. Her face tautened. “I have a lawyer to parboil after lunch.”

J.L. chuckled helplessly. Teddie’s face lightened.

“He’ll be leaving very soon, I believe,” Katy added with a glance at Teddie. “And I’m not listening to anything else he says. I’ll have those papers for you tomorrow afternoon, Mr. Denton. I’ll see the lawyer first thing after I dismiss my class.”

“Wait and let my attorneys draw up the papers,” J.L. replied. “They’ll be here by noon tomorrow. I’ll have Parker drop the papers off at your place when you get home.”

She bit her lower lip. “Parker isn’t speaking to me at the moment.”

J.L. cocked his head, his eyebrows arching in a question.

“He’s mad at me about the horse. He thinks I sold out my daughter. It looks that way.” She searched Teddie’s eyes. “When I flub up, I do a super job of it, don’t I, baby?” she asked.

Teddie got up from the table. “Me, too,” she confessed.

“So we’ll go home and get our ducks in a row,” Katy continued. She grimaced. “But it might be kinder to ask somebody besides Parker to hand over the paperwork. Kinder to him, anyway.”

He shrugged.

“You’ll take good care of Bart, won’t you, Mr. Denton?” Teddie asked worriedly. “You won’t let that awful man come and take him?”

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