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He laughed. “It was a compliment.”
“Okay.”
He glanced at her curiously. “I’ve never talked about her. Or about my parents.”
“I never repeat anything I’m told. I work as a legal administrative assistant,” she added. “Even though I just basically answer the phone and take dictation, I’ve been trained to keep my mouth shut. I guess it carries over to my private life.”
“I guess.” He smiled. “You’re a good listener.”
“Sometimes people just need to talk. That’s what Daddy says. He went to see a man who was suicidal. The man put down the gun he was holding and walked out of the room with Daddy. The place was surrounded with police, even a SWAT team. They all just gawked. They asked Daddy how he talked the man out of it, and he said he didn’t say a word. He just listened. That was all the poor soul needed, somebody to just listen. He’d lost his wife and child in a wreck and he didn’t think he could go on. He had nobody to talk to. So Daddy just listened.”
“You listen, too, Colie. It’s a bigger help than you realize.” His mouth pulled to one side. “I don’t have anyone of my own,” he added quietly.
“Yes, you do,” she said boldly, and curled her fingers around his, without looking at him.
He couldn’t have imagined anyone getting a hold on his heart this quickly, but she’d managed it. She’d become the color in his life, in a space of only weeks. For her own sake, he should let her go. But he couldn’t.
* * *
HE WALKED HER to her door. The porch light was on. There was still a light burning in her father’s study. He’d be working on Sunday’s sermon, she knew. He spent days putting just the right words together.
“Your dad’s waiting up for you,” he mused.
She laughed. “Not really. He works on his Sunday sermon a little every night, until he has it the way he wants it.”
“He looks out for you, too, though.” He touched her short, wavy hair. “I’ll bet he’s never taken a drink in his life,” he said, with more bitterness than he realized.
“No,” she agreed. “He doesn’t drink or smoke. He says addictions are much too dangerous. It’s better not to acquire them.”
“He has a point.” He bent and rested his forehead against hers. “I don’t drink or smoke, either. Well, I have a beer occasionally. Never any hard liquor.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever tasted liquor,” she confessed.
“Just as well.” He bent and brushed his mouth gently over hers. “I enjoyed tonight.”
“I did, too.”
He drew back all too soon. He put his hands on her shoulders and just looked at her. “I’m going to be out of town for several days.” His mouth pulled to one side. “Ren signed me up for a gadget convention—new toys for ranch security. I have to go.”
“Where?”
“Just Denver,” he said. “Not too far away. Stay out of trouble until I get back.”
She laughed. Her eyes lit up when she did that. “Okay.”
“Not that you ever get in trouble in the first place,” he mused.
“I wouldn’t dare,” she said in a stage whisper, indicating the house behind her.
He smiled. “We might see a movie when I come back.”
“There’s that new science fiction one opening next week,” she pointed out. They’d discussed it on the way to Lander.
“We’ll go, then. See you.”
“See you.”
He walked away. She noticed that he never looked back. She wondered why. It seemed to be a long-standing habit.
She went inside and put up her coat and purse. She tapped on the door of her father’s study and opened it.
He looked up from his notes. He smiled. “Did you have a good time?”
“I did. I won enough to catch up the bills.” She grinned at his expression. “I know, it’s sinful money. But it will be very useful for the electric bill.” She struck a pose. “If it wasn’t meant to happen, I’d have lost every penny.”
He laughed. “All right. I won’t say anything.” He was looking at her intently. After a minute he turned his attention back to his notes. “Sleep good.”
“You, too. Night.”
She closed the door.
Her father was wise enough to notice that she hadn’t indulged in any heavy petting with J.C. Such signs were quite visible. It gave him a little hope. J.C. might not turn out to be as bad an influence as he’d feared.
* * *
THE WEEK DRAGGED BY. Colie typed up briefs, printed them out, took dictation, scheduled clients, helped open mail and generally buried herself in work to keep J.C. out of her mind.
“You’re daydreaming, girl,” Lucy, her coworker teased. “It’s that handsome man from the Yukon, isn’t it?”
She didn’t deny it. “Small towns,” she laughed, shaking her head.
“Well, my cousin runs the filling station where J.C. buys gas and he mentioned he was going to Lander with a friend. Since he doesn’t have any friends...” Lucy trailed off.
“He does so. He has me.”
Lucy grinned at Colie’s mischievous expression. “Anyway, we figured he was taking you over to the casino. Win much?”
“I won enough to pay the light bill,” Colie said. “And get a few extra minutes a month on my phone. It was nice.”
“I know what you mean. I had to give up bowling for two nights because I blew a tire and had to replace it,” the other woman sighed. “Ben’s so understanding. I ran over a piece of metal in the road. I wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t even blink. He just kissed me and said he was grateful that I didn’t get hurt. That’s what I call a nice husband.”
“You two really are great together,” Colie said. “You’re the same kind of people. You come from similar backgrounds.”
“And we’ve known each other since kindergarten,” was the droll reply.
“Did you ever think of just living together?” Colie asked, trying not to sound as curious as she was. She was thinking ahead, in case J.C. ever brought it up.
“Not really,” Lucy confided. “My dad’s a pharmacist. Good luck trying to get birth control in Catelow without him finding out. Besides that, he’s a deacon in your father’s church. People around here are clannish, and they don’t move with the times. Maybe we have couples who sneak around at night to motels over near Jackson Hole, but we really don’t have many who just live together. They get married and raise kids.”
“I’d love to have kids,” Colie said softly. “I can’t think of anything in the world I want more.”
“So do Ben and I,” Lucy said. “But we’re just starting out. We figure we’ll have a couple of years to grow together better before we start on a family.”
“That’s wise.”
“We think so.” She cocked her head. “What about you and J.C.?” she asked. “I’m not prying.”
“I know.” She hesitated. “I don’t know, Lucy,” she said honestly. “He’s already said he’s not the pipe-and-slippers type, and he doesn’t really want children.” She bit her lower lip. “You can’t change people. You have to just accept them the way they are.” Her face was drawn with pain. “I keep thinking, if I’d refused to go out with him...”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Lucy said wisely. “People fall in love. I don’t think they get a choice about who they fall in love with.”
Colie laughed. “No. It’s like your family. You don’t get to choose them, either.”
Lucy grimaced. “Your father would give you a real hard time if you tried to move in with J.C. To say nothing of the rest of the community. There’s barely a thousand people who live in and around Catelow. You couldn’t hide it.”
“I’ve worried about that. I’d like to think I’d say no. But...”
“He might turn out to be conventional,” Lucy ventured. “He knows how your father feels.”
“It wouldn’t matter. I don’t think J.C. had much of a home life,” she confided. “He was more or less orphaned in grammar school.”
“That’s tough.”
“You mustn’t repeat that,” Colie said.
“You know me. I work for lawyers,” she whispered, pointing down the hall. “They’d barbecue me on the front steps if I ever talked about what I know!”
“Same here,” Colie said, laughing. The smile faded as she shuffled papers on her desk, across from Lucy’s. “He doesn’t know what it’s like to have a settled, happy home. That might explain the way he is. He doesn’t like attachments.”
“He’s obviously attached to you,” her friend said.
“So far,” Colie sighed. “I don’t know how long it will last. We’re very different.”
“May I make a suggestion? Stop trying to control your life and just live it.”
Colie drew in a long breath. “That’s what I keep telling myself. Then I remember how Daddy looked when I said I was going out with J.C. and I feel guilty all over again. He reminded me that J.C. isn’t a person of faith. In some circumstances, that can be a huge drawback.”
“People compromise,” Lucy said. “Ben and I have. You and J.C. will find a way to be together that works for both of you.”
“I hope so.” She lowered her eyes. “I can’t give him up, Lucy,” she whispered. “I love him too much, already.”
“If you ever need to talk, I’m here. And I’m not judgmental,” Lucy reminded her.
Colie smiled. “Thanks.”
CHAPTER FOUR (#u4be75a9b-e96f-5ee4-8e4d-abbe8ff4d729)
COLIE HAD NOTICED that Rodney was acting oddly. He stayed out until all hours. Once, she was up getting a drink of water when he came in. His face was flushed and his eyes looked strange.
“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.
“What? Okay? Sure, I’m okay,” he replied. But he seemed foggy. “I’ve just had a long drive, all the way from Jackson Hole. I’m tired.”
“You spend a lot of time over there lately,” she pointed out.
He blinked. “Well, yes. There are some presentations on new gadgets and appliances and tools. I go to get familiar with them, for work.”
He worked at the local hardware store as a clerk. She did wonder why a clerk would need to know about appliances, but perhaps that had become part of his duties. So she just smiled and took him at his word.
But the next day, he had company. Colie’s father had gone to visit a member of his congregation who was at the hospital. It was Saturday, and Colie was working in the kitchen when the front door opened.
“Can you make us some coffee, sis?” Rod called from the doorway. “We’ve had a long drive. This is my friend, Barry Todd,” he added, introducing a taciturn man in a gray suit. The man was impeccably groomed, but there was something disturbing about him. Colie, who often got vivid impressions about people, distrusted him on sight.
“Of course,” she told her brother.
He and his friend went into the living room. She heard muffled conversation. It sounded like arguing. Rod raised his voice once, and the other man replied in a sharp, condescending tone.
Colie filled two mugs with coffee and started to take them in, but Rod met her at the door, thanked her and nudged the door closed behind him.
She went back to the kitchen, puzzled and uneasy.
* * *
LATER, WHEN THE visitor left, Colie asked about him, trying not to sound as suspicious as she felt.
“Barry’s a salesman for a tool company,” Rod told her, but he averted his eyes. “We do business together. He’s opening up sales in this territory and I’m going to be his representative.”
“Oh, I see,” she said. “Like moonlighting.”
He hesitated. “That’s it,” he agreed quickly. “Moonlighting.”
“Your boss at the hardware store won’t mind, will he?” She worried.
“Of course not,” he huffed. “He doesn’t tell me what to do on my own time.”
“Your friend dresses nicely.”
“Yes. He’s loaded. Did you see the car he drives? It’s a Mercedes!” He made a face. “All I’ve got is that old Ford. It looks shabby by comparison.”
“Hey, it runs,” she pointed out. “And it’s worlds nicer than my truck!”
“Your truck belongs in a junkyard,” he scoffed. “I’m amazed that they had the gall to actually sell it to you.”
“Now, now, I can’t walk to work,” she teased.
He didn’t smile. In the past, Rod had been happy and joking and fun to be around. More and more, he was short-tempered, impatient and morose.
“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.
