Page 8 of The Honorable Texan
He explained the process to her and smiled.“You’re a diplomat, Violet.I’m glad you needed a job.”
“Me, too, Mr.Wright,” she replied, smiling.
He pulled his hat down over his eyes.“Well, I’ve played hooky as long as I can,” he said with a grimace.“I’ll get back to work before Lance comes in here and lassos me and drags me back out to the pasture.You go home at five regardless of the phone, okay?”he added.“I know you worry about your mother.You don’t need to do overtime.”
“Thanks,” she said, and meant it.“It’s hard for her to be alone in the evening.She gets scared.”
“I don’t doubt it.Oh, if you get a minute,” he added from the door, “call Calhoun Ballenger and tell him I’m sending him a donation for his campaign.”
She grinned.“I’ll be happy to do that!I’m voting for him, too.”
“Good for you.”He closed the door carefully behind him.
Violet made the call, finished up her work, and left on time.She had to run by the post office on the way home to put Duke’s correspondence into the mail.
* * *
As luck wouldhave it, Kemp was in the lobby when she walked in the door, having just put a last-minute letter into the outgoing post.
He stopped short when he saw her, his pale blue eyes narrow and accusing.She was keenly aware that her lipstick was long gone, that her hair was sticking out in comic angles from her once-neat braid, that one leg of her panty hose was laddered.She couldn’t run intohim when she looked neat and pretty, she thought miserably.To top it all off, she was wearing white jeans that were too tight and a red overblouse with ruffles that made her look vaguely clownish.She ground her teeth as she glared back at him.
“Mr.Kemp,” she said politely, and started to go around him.
He stepped right into her path.“What’s Wright been doing to you?”he asked.“You look worn to the bone.”
Her thin eyebrows arched as she registered genuine concern in that narrow gaze.She cleared her throat.“It’s roundup,” she replied.
He nodded understanding.“The Harts are breaking out in hives already,” he mused, and almost smiled.“They’ve had some problems with their exports to Japan as well.I suppose the cattle business is wearing on the nerves.”
She smiled shyly.“Everybody’s rushing to record all the pertinent information for every new calf, and there are a lot of them.”
“He’s opened a meat shop here in town,” he remarked.“It sells organic hams and sausage and bacon.”
“Yes.His employees run a Web site, too, so that he can sell his pork on the Internet.”She hesitated.Her heart was racing like mad and she felt her knees weakening just from the long, shared looks.She missed him so much.“How…how are Libby and Mabel?”
“Missing you.”He made it sound as if she’d left him in a bind.
She shifted to the other foot.If they’d been alone, she’d have had more to say about the accusing look he was giving her.But people were coming and going allaround them.“Thank you.For the recommendation, I mean.”
He shrugged.“I didn’t think Wright would take you on,” he said honestly.“It’s no secret that he hates having women around the ranch since the divorce.”
“Delene Crane works with him,” she replied, curious.“She’s a woman.”
“He’s known Delene since they were in college together,” he told her.“He doesn’t think of her as a woman.”
Interesting, she mused, because Delene wasn’t a bad-looking woman.She had red hair and green eyes and a milky complexion with a few freckles.She froze out the cowboys who gave her flirting glances, though.She was also strictly business with Duke, so maybe it was true that he didn’t think of her as a romantic prospect.She wondered why Delene didn’t feel comfortable around men…
“How’s your mother?”Kemp asked abruptly.
She grimaced.“She does things they told her not to do,” she lamented.“Especially lifting heavy stuff.The doctors said that she still has a tendency toward clots, despite the blood thinners they give her.They didn’t say, but I know that once a person has one or two strokes, they’re almost predisposed to have more.”
He nodded slowly.“But there are drugs to treat that, now.I’m sure your doctor is taking good care of her.”
“He is,” she had to agree.
“Your mother is special.”
She smiled.“Yes.I think so, too.”
