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“That’s sweet,” she said with a sigh.
The tall man stood looking down at her with a frown. “Are you all right?”
“Sure,” she said. “I’m just dandy. Thanks for your help.”
She wasn’t forthcoming, and he had no right to expect it. He nodded and moved out of the trailer.
Tim came after him. “Thanks for your help, stranger,” he said. “I’d never have got her here by myself.”
They shook hands. “My pleasure.” He paused. “What happened to her?” he added abruptly.
“Her daddy wrecked the car,” he said simply. “He was killed instantly, but Jane was pinned in there with him for three hours or more. They thought she’d broken her back,” he concluded.
There was a harsh intake of breath.
“Oh, it was a herniated disk instead. It’s painful and slow to heal, and she’ll most always have some pain with it. But they can work miracles these days. She couldn’t walk right away, though, and we weren’t sure if she’d be paralyzed. But she got up out of that bed and started working on herself. Stayed in physical therapy until even the doctors grinned. Never knew a girl like her,” he mused. “This thing has taken some of the fight out of her, of course, but she’s no quitter. Her dad would have been proud. Sad about her career, though. She’ll never ride in competition again.”
“What in hell was she doing on that horse this morning?”
“Showing everybody that nothing short of death will ever keep her down,” Tim said simply. “Never did catch your name, stranger.”
“Burke. Todd Burke.”
“I’m Tim Harley. I’m proud to meet you.”
“Same here.” He hesitated for just a minute before he turned and went back along the aisles. He felt odd. He’d never felt so odd in his life before. Perhaps, he thought, it was that he wasn’t used to proud women. She’d surprised him with the extent of her grit and stubbornness. She wasn’t a quitter, in spite of impossible circumstances. He didn’t doubt that she’d ride again, either, even if she didn’t get back into competition. God, she was game! He was sorry he’d managed to get off on the wrong foot with her. He’d been irritated by the remarks she’d made about his daughter. Now he realized that she was trying to help, and he’d taken it the wrong way.
He was sensitive about Cherry. His daughter had taken more vicious criticism from her own mother than she was ever likely to get from a stranger. He’d over-reacted. Now he was left with a case of badly bruised pride and a wounded ego. He smiled a little bitterly at his own embarrassment. He deserved it, being so cruel to a woman in that condition. It had been a long time since he’d made a mistake of such magnitude.
He wandered back down the lane to join his daughter, who was excitedly talking to one of the rodeo clowns.
“Dad, did you see her, that blonde lady who accepted the plaque?” she asked when he was within earshot. “That was Jane Parker herself!”
“I saw her.” He glanced at the young cowboy, who flushed and grinned at Cherry, and then quickly made himself scarce.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Cherry said on a sigh. “Honestly, Dad, I’m fourteen!”
“And I’m an old bear. I know.” He threw an affectionate arm around her. “You did fine, partner. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks! Where did you disappear to?”
“I helped your idol into her motor home,” he said.
“My idol…Miss Parker?”
“The very same. She’s got a bad back, that’s why she doesn’t ride anymore. She’s game, though.”
“She’s the best barrel racer I ever saw,” Cherry said. “I have a video of last year’s rodeo and she’s on it. The reason I begged to come to this rodeo was so that I could meet her, but she isn’t riding this time. Gosh, I was disappointed when they said she’d retired. I didn’t know she had a bad back.”
“Neither did I,” he murmured. He put an arm around her and hugged her close. She was precious to him, but he tended to busy himself too deeply in his work, especially in the years since her mother had walked out on them. “We haven’t had much time together, have we? I’ll make it up to you while we’re on vacation.”
“How about right now?” She grinned at him. “You could introduce me to Miss Parker.”
He cleared his throat. How was he going to tell her that her idol thought he was about as low as a snake?
“She’s so pretty,” Cherry added without waiting for his answer. “Mother’s pretty, too, but not like that.” She grimaced. “Mother doesn’t want me to come up next week, did she tell you?”
“Yes.” He didn’t add that they’d argued about it. Marie didn’t spend any more time with Cherry than she had to. She’d walked out on the two of them for another man six years ago, declaring that Cherry was just too much for her to handle. It had devastated the young girl and left Todd Burke in the odd position of having to forego board meetings of his corporation to take care of his daughter. He hadn’t minded, though. He was proud of the girl, and he’d encouraged her in everything she wanted to do, including rodeo. Marie had a fit over that. She didn’t approve of her daughter riding rodeo, but Todd had put his foot down.
“What does she see in him?” Cherry asked, her gray eyes flashing and her blond pigtail swinging as she threw her hands up in a temper. “He’s so picky about everything, especially his clothes. He doesn’t like pets and he doesn’t like children.”
“He’s brilliant. He has a national bestseller. It’s number one on the New York Times list. It’s been there for weeks,” Todd replied.
“You’re smart, too. And you’re rich,” she argued.
“Yes, but I’m not in his class. I’m a self-made man. I don’t have a Harvard degree.”
“Neither does he,” Cherry said with a giggle. “He hasn’t graduated. I heard Mama say so—not so that he could hear her, though.”
He chuckled. “Never you mind. If she’s happy, that’s fine.”
“Don’t you love her anymore?” she asked.
His arm contracted. “Not the way I should to be married to her,” he said honestly. “Marriage takes two people working to make each other happy. Your mother got tired of the long hours I had to spend at work.”
“She got tired of me, too.”
“She loves you, in her way,” he replied. “Don’t ever doubt that. But she and I found less in common the longer we lived together. Eventually we didn’t have enough to sustain a marriage.”
“You need someone to look after you,” she told him. “I’ll get married one day, you know, and then where will you be?”
He chuckled. “Alone.”
“Sure,” she agreed, “except for those women you never bring home.”
He cleared his throat. “Cherry…”
“Never mind, I’m not stupid.” She looked around at the dwindling crowd. “But you need someone to come home to, besides me. You work late at the office and go on business trips all over the place, and you’re never home. So I can’t go home, either. I want to go to school in Victoria in the fall. I hate boarding school.”
“You never told me that,” he said, surprised.
“I didn’t want to,” she admitted reluctantly. “But it’s just awful lately. I’m glad I’m out for the summer.” She looked up at him with gray eyes so similar to his own. “I’m glad you took this vacation. We can do some things together, just you and me.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” he confessed. “I’m looking forward to having a few weeks off,” he lied convincingly, and wondered how he was going to survive the lack of anything challenging to do.
She grinned. “Good! You can help me work on those turns in barrel racing. I don’t guess you noticed, but I’m having a real hard time with them.”
He recalled what Jane Parker had said about Cherry, and he allowed himself to wonder if it might not do both women good to spend a little time talking together.
“You know,” he mused aloud, “I think I may have some ideas about that.”
“Really? What are they?”
“Wait and see.” He led her toward their car. “Let’s get something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved!”
“Me, too. How about Chinese?”
“My favorite.”
He put her into the old Ford he’d borrowed while his Ferrari was being serviced, and drove her back into Jacobsville.
They had lunch at the single Chinese restaurant that was nestled among half a dozen barbecue, steak and fast-food restaurants. When they finished, they went back out to the arena to watch the rest of the afternoon’s competitions. Cherry was only in one other event. She did poorly again, though, trying to go around the barrels. When she rode out of the arena, she was in tears.
“Now, now.” Todd comforted her. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“They didn’t have barrel racing in Rome!” she wailed.
“Probably not, but the sentiment is the same.” He hugged her gently. “Perk up, now. This is only the first rodeo in a whole string of them. You’ll get better.”
“It’s a waste of time,” she said, wiping her tears. “I might as well quit right now.”
“Nobody ever got anywhere by quitting after one loss,” he chided. “Where would I be if I’d given up when my first computer program didn’t sell?”
“Not where you are today, that’s for sure,” she admitted. “Nobody does software like you do, Dad. That newest word processor is just radical! Everyone at school loves it. It makes term papers so easy!”
“I’m glad to hear that all those late hours we put into developing it were worth the effort,” he said. He grinned at her. “We’re working on a new accounting package right now.”
“Oh, accounting,” she muttered. “Who wants any boring old stuff like that?”
“Plenty of small businesses,” he said on a chuckle. “And thank your lucky stars or we’d be in the hole.”
Cherry was looking around while he spoke. Her face lit up and her eyes began to sparkle. “It’s Miss Parker!” The smile faded. “Oh, my…”
He turned and the somber expression on his daughter’s face was mirrored in his own. Jane was in the wheelchair, wearing jeans and a beige T-shirt and sneakers, looking fragile and depressed as Tim pushed her toward the motor home with the horse trailer hitched behind it.
Unless he missed his guess, they were about to leave. He couldn’t let her get away, not before he had a chance to ask her about working with Cherry. It had occurred to him that they might kill two birds with one stone—give Miss Parker a new interest, and Cherry some badly needed help.
Chapter Two
“Miss Parker!” Todd called.
She glanced in his direction, aware that he and a young girl with fair hair in a pigtail were moving toward her. The wheelchair made her feel vulnerable and she bit down hard on her lip. She was in a bad temper because she didn’t want that rude, unpleasant man to see her this way.
“Yes?” she asked through her teeth.
“This is my daughter, Cherry,” he said, pulling the young girl forward. “She wanted to meet you.”
Regardless, apparently, of whether Jane wanted the meeting or not. “How do you do,” she said through numb lips.
“What happened to you?” Cherry spluttered.
Jane’s face contorted.
“She was in a wreck,” her father said shortly, “and it was rude of you to ask.”
Cherry flushed. “I’m sorry, really I am.” She went to the wheelchair, totally uninhibited, and squatted beside it. “I’ve watched all the videos you were on. You were just the best in the world,” she said enthusiastically. “I couldn’t get to the rodeos, but I had Dad buy me the videos from people who taped the events. I’m having a lot of trouble on the turns. Dad can ride, but he’s just hopeless on rodeo, aren’t you, Dad?” She put a gentle hand over Jane’s arm. “Will you be able to ride again?”
“Cherry!” Todd raged.
“It’s all right,” Jane said quietly. She looked into the girl’s clear, gray eyes, seeing no pity there, only honest concern and curiosity. The rigidity in her began to subside. She smiled. “No,” she said honestly. “I don’t think I’ll be able to ride again. Not in competition, at least.”
“I wish I could help you,” Cherry said. “I’m going to be a surgeon when I grow up. I make straight A’s in science and math, and Dad’s already said I could go to Johns Hopkins when I’m old enough. That’s the best school of medicine anywhere!”
“A surgeon,” Jane echoed, surprised. She smiled. “I’ve never known anyone who wanted to be a surgeon before.”
Cherry beamed. “Now you do. I wish you didn’t have to leave so soon,” she said wistfully. “I was going to pick your brain for ways to get over this fear of turns. Silly, isn’t it, when the sight of blood doesn’t bother me at all.”
Jane was aware of an emptiness in herself as she stared into the young face. It was like seeing herself at that age. She lowered her eyes. “Yes, well, I’m sorry, but it’s been a long day and I’m in a good deal of pain. And we’re interviewing today.”
“Interviewing?” Cherry asked with open curiosity.
“For a business manager,” Jane said sadly, glancing at Tim, who winced. “Tim can’t manage the books. He’s willing to keep on as foreman, but we’re losing money hand over fist since Dad’s death because neither one of us can handle the books.”
“Gosh, my dad would be perfect for that,” Cherry said innocently. “He’s a wizard with money. He keeps the books for his compu—”
“For the small computer company I work for in Victoria,” Todd said quickly, with a speaking glance that his intelligent daughter interpreted immediately. She shut up, grinning.
Tim stepped forward. “Can you balance books?”
“Sure.”
Tim looked at Jane. “There’s the foreman’s cabin empty, since Meg and I are living in the house with you,” he remarked. “They could live there. And you could help the girl with her turns. It would give you something to do besides brooding around the house all day.”
“Tim!” Jane burst out angrily. She glanced apprehensively at Todd Burke, who was watching her with unconcealed amusement. “I’m sure he has a job already.”
“I do. Keeping books for my…the computer company,” he lied. “But it doesn’t take up all my time. In fact, I think I’d enjoy doing something different for a while.” He pursed his lips. “If you’re interested, that is,” he added with practiced indifference.
Jane’s eyes fell to her lap.
“I’d love to learn how to win at barrel racing,” Cherry said with a sigh. “I guess I’ll have to give it up, though. I mean, I’m so bad that it’s a waste of Dad’s money to keep paying my entrance fees and all.”
Jane glowered at her. She glowered at him, too, standing there like a movie cowboy with his firm lips pursed and his steely gray eyes twinkling with amusement. Laughing at her.
“She won’t hire you,” Tim said with a glare at her. “She’s too proud to admit that you’re just what she needs. She’d rather let the ranch go under while she sits on the porch and feels sorry for herself.”
“Damn you!” She spat the words at Tim.
He chuckled. “See them eyes?” he asked Todd. “Like wet sapphires. She may look like a fashion doll, but she’s all fur and claws when things get next to her, and she’s no quitter.”
