Page 36 of Dark Side of the River

“Was it really all that long ago that my calls were met with more enthusiasm?” he asked.

She felt a little guilty. He was right. The times they’d gone out, she’d had fun with him. He could let his hair down and be quite entertaining. “I’m sorry. I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“Haven’t we all,” he said. “Do you know if your sister was dating Pickett Hanson?”

“Pickett?”He was one of the McKenna ranch hands. While good-looking in a rough-edged kind of way, she couldn’t imagine Oakley with the good-natured, not terribly ambitious Pickett. “I highly doubt it.”

“Well, sometimes there is no accounting for taste or good sense,” Stuart said, and she knew he was no longer talking about her sister and the ranch hand.

“Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t help,” she said, looking around the room. “I have no idea what Oakley’s been up to lately.” She thought about mentioning the flyer she’d found, but Stuart had already made it clear that he wasn’t that interested in CH4 or anything to do with the controversy over methane gas drilling. Like he said, he was following other leads. Did he now think Pickett had something to do with shooting her sister?

“I’ll track down Pickett. Maybe he can shed some light on it.” His tone changed. “How are you doing? I’m so glad Oakley is awake and in stable condition. Good that you were with her when she regained consciousness.”

Tilly thought about what she’d been telling her sister at the time and flushed with embarrassment. “Did she say anything to you about me?”

Silence, then, “Why would she say something to me about you?”

She skipped over the question. “I didn’t ask her about the shooting. I was just so glad that she was all right.”

“Tilly.” He cleared his throat. “I’d like to see you. I was thinking we could go into Miles City for a movie, dinner, make a night of it. Get out and forget about all this for a while?”

She looked down at the flyer in her hand and let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I can’t tonight. I’m sorry.” She could hear ice fill the line even before Stuart spoke.

“Maybe some other time.” He disconnected, leaving her holding the phone and feeling worse. Should she have told him about Dirty Business and the meeting tonight? Probably, even if he didn’t think it was important.

The one thing she couldn’t do was put off talking to him. The problem was that he wouldn’t want to believe why she was making this decision. He would blame Cooper. The irony of that didn’t escape her. Cooper McKenna wanted nothing to do with her. She wasn’t even sure he would call her back—let alone help her find out who had shot her sister.

Not that it was going to stop her, though, Tilly told herself as she tried to ignore the ache in her chest. How long had she felt this way about Cooper? A lot longer than she wanted to admit.

“THATYOURGIRLFRIEND?” Holly Jo had asked as Cooper pocketed his phone.

“No. Nor is it any of your business. Pay attention to what you’re doing.”

She’d groaned, the brush in her hand. “I now know the parts of a horse, and that horses have to be brushed and fed and their stalls cleaned out. Are you ever going to show me how to saddle one?”

Now he studied the girl as she hauled feed and water for the other horses in the stable. She was cute, hardheaded and mouthy. He figured she’d fit in just fine around here. “Okay, go get that small saddle. I’ll show you.” It was the first real enthusiasm he’d seen in the girl. Also, she actually seemed to be paying attention as he went through the steps.

“Okay, now I get to ride,” she said when he had the horse saddled.

“Nope,” he said as he began removing the saddle and bridle.

“What?”

“Now you get to do it.” He put the saddle and tack down. “Let’s see if you were paying attention.”

“You can’t be serious,” she cried. “You had the horse saddled.”

“Ihad it saddled. Now it’s your turn.” He sat down on a stool near the stall, stretched out his long legs and tipped his hat down as if he was about to take a nap.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her lift the saddle that wasn’t all that much smaller than her, but to her credit, she managed, then realized there was no way she could throw it up on the horse’s back.

“Excuse me,” she said pointedly. “I need that stool.”

He grinned as he rose and handed her the stool. He thought for sure that once she picked up the saddle and stepped on the stool, she’d be on her backside. To his surprise, she got the saddle onto the mare’s back. His father had picked one of their smaller, more docile horses for her.

The mare turned to look at her as she started to cinch the saddle down. “What are you looking at?” she demanded of the horse.

Cooper shook his head, wondering again if his father had any idea what he was getting into. “I’d check that cinch. Remember what I told you—”

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