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Her beauty stemmed from the easy way she fit into her world, accepted its problems and refused to moan about it. He’d heard enough talk to know she’d inherited trouble.
“Yes, I do love the Double D. I just hope I can hang onto it.”
Luc wasn’t sure how to answer that. He’d got the impression she was sensitive about gossip, but he also had a hunch she needed someone to talk to. Listening was something his profession had made him fairly good at, and Dani DeWitt’s low melodic voice was easy to listen to.
“I’m sure it’s a lot of work for one person.”
She glanced at him, then shifted her eyes away. “I have— I had help. I had to let most of them go. Now I share a hand with Gray McGonigle. He does most of the heavy work, so it’s not too bad.”
Luc glanced down at her fingers, saw the calluses that covered her small palms and felt a pang of sympathy for the chores she’d undertaken. She was so young to be saddled with such a demanding task.
“I’ll soon have to get rid of the rest of the stock,” she murmured, her eyes on a herd grazing a quarter of a mile away.
He understood she was thinking out loud, so Luc leaned back in his chair and sipped his lemonade.
“They’re too much for me to handle and I can’t afford to feed them come winter. Besides, I need the money they’ll bring.” Her voice dropped until it emerged a faint whisper. “I wish he’d told me about the loan. I didn’t have to go to college. I would have been quite happy to stay right here.” She peered up at Luc, her eyes glassy with tears.
“I’m sure your father wanted his daughter to experience college life, Dani. I didn’t know him well, but I don’t think he would have begrudged you the opportunity, no matter what it cost. Let me tell you something I’ve learned, just from watching Joshua Darling. Nothing is too much for a man’s daughters.” He kept his eyes straight ahead, pretended he wasn’t paying attention to her soft sniffles as she struggled for control.
“Daddy insisted I go. At first we even argued about it. But I never could disobey him. Still, I should have refused. I didn’t realize he was so short of cash. He shouldn’t have taken out a loan to send me on that overseas study trip last summer. He should have told me. I’d have come home sooner if I’d known.”
“If you’d known he didn’t have long to live, you mean?” Luc did look at her then, touched by her sense of loss. “Dani, your father wouldn’t have wanted you to put your life on hold, waiting for him to die. He was happy living each day. He put the most he could into his time here, and then his heart failed him. Some men suffer for years, but he didn’t. Be glad you had the time you did.”
“I am.” She sighed. “It’s just…hard. You know? I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
“I know.” He met her tear-filled eyes. “I was there, I heard him talking about you. He loved you very much.” Who was he to give advice? Still Luc searched for encouragement. “Try to remember the good times you shared. And if you need a friend, I’ll be here.”
“Thanks. I might take you up on that.” She nodded, took a swipe at her tears. “Do you have a family?”
“One sister, two brothers.” He remembered suddenly that he hadn’t written any of them in ages. E-mail wasn’t that difficult to send. He chided himself for not keeping better touch.
“That must have been fun.” A wistful longing filled her voice. “I would have loved a sister.”
“Not mine, you wouldn’t. She was a pain.” Tracy’s stubbornness had not abated in the years since her pre-school temper tantrums, though Luc had never told her that outright. He preferred a hassle-free existence.
“Did you argue?” Dani’s face lit up with interest, green eyes sparkling.
“All the time. She always knew what was right and, unless you did it her way, she nagged you like a festering boil.”
“Doc!” Dani’s laughter bubbled out in spite of her shocked look. “That’s not very flattering.”
“Tracy’s not the kind of sister you flatter. I’m just glad I was never a patient under her care.” He made a face. “You’d get well just so you could escape.”
“She’s a doctor or a nurse?”
“A bossy, cantankerous nurse who always knows what’s best for everyone. Believe me, it wasn’t any hardship to give her away when she got married.” He strove for a lighthearted tone, hoping to ease her sad memories—while hoping Tracy would forgive him for enhancing his characterization of her managerial ways.
“Stubborn? Oh, she’s like you, then.” Dani giggled at his frown, held up her hands. “Teasing, just teasing. I have no basis for comparison. I haven’t even been in your office. I don’t get sick very often.”
No, she glowed like a beacon of good health, her youth and vitality making Luc feel far older than his thirty-three years.
“What about your brothers? Are they stubborn too?”
“Of course.” He nodded. “But you can reason with them, if you can understand them.” He caught her puzzled stare. “They speak an unknown language—at least to me. Computer mumbo jumbo. They’re partners in a tech company in Arizona. I love them both, but a lot of the time I don’t understand a thing they’re saying. Mostly I just nod and slap them on the shoulder.” He shrugged. “Works for me.”
She giggled at his silliness. “And your parents?”
He blinked up at her. “Hey, what is this? Twenty questions?”
“Just curious. But if you have something to hide, then—”
“I never said that.” Luc knew perfectly well that one whisper of a secret in Blessing and he’d be under the microscope of every busybody in town. He resigned himself to explaining.
“It’s just that I don’t talk about my family much. My parents died when we were young. We lived with my grandparents.” He decided that was enough information. “Okay, herein endeth the history lesson. Maybe we should get started memorizing those lines.”
“If I’d known you were so eager, I would have suggested that ten minutes ago.” Dani whipped out her copy of the play and grinned. “Where do you want to begin?”
“Truthfully? I don’t want to begin at all. That’s why I’m here. I was hoping you’d found someone else. You’re sure there is no one?” His heart sank when she shook her head.
“I’m sure, Doc. There’s no one else. It’s up to you.” Dani looked at him through her lashes. “The first line goes…”
He gave in then, reconciled himself to the torture of embarrassment that could not be avoided.
“Doc!” she squealed for the fifth time, ten minutes later. “Think about what you’re saying. You can’t ‘pry the tattles.’ It’s ‘try the paddles.’ Say it again.”
Luc tried, he truly did. But as time went on, and he thought more and more about standing in front of a bunch of people he knew mostly from their presence in his very private examining room, he simply got worse. His tongue twisted into knots that not even Dani’s soft coaching could undo.
“Face it, I’m lousy at this. You have to find someone else.” He lurched up from his chair and paced across the faded boards. “I’m simply no good when it comes to public speaking.”
“Anyone can be good at it. You just need the right method.” She tapped one finger against her bottom lip. “How about singing your lines.”
He groaned. How much could one man take? “I don’t think singing is going to help,” he mumbled.
“It might help you loosen up if you focus on something else. Try this.” She repeated the first of his lines in a catchy little melody.
Luc repeated the notes and words as best he could.
“Again.”
She repeated that word nine times, but by the time he made it that far, she had both ears covered and was curled up in a tight little ball.
“Stop, Doc. Please, have pity on me and stop.”
He stopped, immediately forgetting what he was supposed to say next.
Dani unwound herself, pulled her fingers from her ears and stood. Her eyes were huge.
“Look, Doc, no offense, but I think the singing is out. You are tone deaf.” She blinked at him. “Come on, I’m hungry. Maybe eating will help.”
She didn’t sound hopeful. Luc didn’t feel hopeful. He felt defeated and at the end of his rope as he followed her into the house.
“Why don’t you just let Big Ed do it?” he mumbled, watching her bend over to peer into the fridge. The jeans she wore had a jagged tear just above her knee. All her clothes seemed to be in tatters. He wondered why.
She twisted to glare at him. “We can’t have a cowboy English detective. It won’t work.” The fridge door slammed closed. Now she stood on tiptoe, stabbed one finger at something in the freezer. “Are you hungry?”
He shrugged, then nodded. Breakfast seemed a distant memory. Lunch—had he eaten lunch?
“What if we put some steaks on to grill while we try to think of another method. I studied acting in college. One course, anyway. I should be able to come up with something.” She didn’t wait for his agreement, but thrust a package into the microwave and set the timer. “Can you make a salad, Doc?”
“Are you kidding? I’m a genius at salad making. Piece of cake.”
He accepted the ingredients she handed him and set to work slicing and dicing, hesitating only when he remembered the comment about her cooking. Just how bad was she? Surely no one could mess up steaks….
“I’ll get some potatoes.” Dani was gone for three minutes and returned with two fat potatoes. She lifted the meat out of the microwave, put the potatoes in, then glanced at him. “What if we recorded the words on a tape and you listened to them while you were sleeping at night?”
Luc shook his head, turned back to his work.
“It’s a nice thought, Dani, but I’d be hesitant about wearing a headset at night. I’m usually on call. Besides, I freeze up in front of groups. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can find someone else.” He spread tomatoes over the salad.
She butted his arm, forcing him to face her.
“If you think your sister is stubborn, Doc, you’re in for a surprise. I do not give up. Not ever. Not with this ranch, and not on that play. There is a way around everything. We just have to find it.” She nudged a piece of tomato to the edge of the bowl with one fingertip. “Tomatoes on the side, not in, please,” she ordered.
“I like them in.” He pushed the tomato back. “And since I’m the salad maker, I get to say.”
“Do not.”
“Do so.”
She smacked her hands on her hips. “For a doctor, you are very immature,” she informed him, her green eyes dancing with fun. Then she snatched the steaks from the counter and stalked outside.
“Am not,” he called after her, then grinned at his foolishness. Being with Dani DeWitt made him feel young, expectant, as if life might just have a surprise or two left to show him.
Which was crazy. Dani was a kid, barely out of college. He’d buried his grandparents, pushed his siblings through school, put his own life on hold until theirs were settled, and then finished his own training. In terms of life experience, he was Methuselah and Dani DeWitt was in kindergarten.
But knowing that didn’t stop him from glancing over one shoulder before he picked up a wedge of tomato and, with a little snicker of delight, buried it under half a dozen lettuce leaves.
It had been a long time since he’d relaxed long enough to tease and joke. Maybe Dani was young, but she was also fun—and she was grilling the juiciest steaks he’d ever seen.
Luc could use a friend like Dani.
Chapter Three
“L ucas, my boy. What brings you into my bakery again today?” Miss Winifred peered at him over the rim of her bifocals.
She hated those glasses, he remembered. Complained that they made her nose stuffy. Luc wondered if she remembered she was still wearing them.
“I, uh, well…I need some help,” he muttered, feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“Help? With what?” She deftly rearranged the doughnuts into a more attractive display, her fingers nimbly moving from there to the next tray in the glass case. “Well?” She stopped what she was doing to glare at him.
“Is something wrong, Miss Winifred? You look frazzled.” It was true. It was also shocking. During the months he’d been in Blessing, Luc had never seen Winifred look anything less than calm and competent.
“If you’re trying to flatter her, it isn’t working.” Dani DeWitt stood behind him in the doorway. “Most women don’t like to be told they look frazzled, Doc.” She took a second look at the little baker. “Though I have to admit, it is true. Hey, Miss Win. What’s up?”
To Luc’s utter dismay, Winifred Blessing burst into tears. He hated tears. He scanned the room hopefully. Shucks. Dani was blocking the doorway. He was stuck here.
“If you must know, Furly and I had an argument.”
He opened his mouth to ask a question, but Dani nudged him with her elbow, shook her head, her green-gold eyes flashing a warning.
“I’m so sorry. Here, why don’t you come and sit down for a minute on one of these dainty little chairs. You need a break.”
“What I need is to apologize.” Miss Blessing allowed herself to be shepherded to one of the four café tables she’d installed last year. She sat down, dabbing at her eyes. “Furly Bowes and I have run this place together for thirty years. We’ve never argued even once, not until today. I yelled at her. She quit.” She burst into a paroxysm of new tears.
Luc stared over her head at Dani, hoping he’d find some answers there. She shrugged her slim shoulders, pushed one fat black curl behind her ear and gnawed on her bottom lip, thinking. He hoped she would come up with something soon. Those sobs were getting to him.
“Miss Winifred, Furly loves you and she knows you love her. I’m sure she’s hurting as badly as you are. Why don’t you run over to her house and make up. Doc and I will watch things here for you.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but Dani’s black-fringed eyes flashed a warning he couldn’t misinterpret: Be quiet!
“Would you?” Miss Winifred smiled. “Oh, you are such dears. Yes, that’s exactly what I will do. Poor Furly. It wasn’t her fault at all. It’s just that dratted oven. I should have replaced it years ago, but I thought I’d be retired by now, you see.”
“You can’t retire. Blessing needs you too much.” Dani frowned as Miss Winifred burst into new tears. “There’s something else wrong, isn’t there.”
The gray head bobbed once, twice. “I didn’t want to admit it, Dani, but this dinner theater thing has me tied in knots.”
Now this he could empathize with. Luc knew how she felt.
“What, exactly, is the problem?” Dani sat down beside her and waited.
“Well, you see, to seat that many people is a strain on our church fellowship hall. Getting waiters to and from the tables will be almost impossible in the short time between acts, and the limited space only makes it worse.” She sniffed pathetically.
“So we’ll find a new hall,” Dani said. “No big deal.”
“But the seniors’ hall won’t be ready in time. That fire was bad.”
“Miss Win, you’ve been worrying about this too much. Doc and I will check into things, see if we can come up with an alternative. But you are not to worry about it.”
Luc sat up straight. How had he gotten roped into this?
Dani wrapped an arm around the slumped shoulders and hugged. He couldn’t help noticing how frayed her cuff was, or that she’d been less than successful at repairing a tear on the arm.
“Promise me there will be no more of this, Miss Win. You tell me what you need and I’ll see to it. I don’t want you taking on the cares and woes of that project. You do enough.”
“Well, thank you, dear. That’s very kind of you to say.” Winifred stood, removed her spotted white apron and patted her hair. “Now I must go see Furly. I’m ashamed of myself.” She bustled out the door without a backward look, her steps firm and determined.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, Doc.” Dani grinned. “Ever worked in a bakery before?”
