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Actually, that made sense. He wasn’t supposed to think about her and he sure wasn’t supposed seek her out. They’d agreed on that.
Yet here he was standing in the parking lot of the business she owned, aching for her, even though getting involved with her could be dangerous.
What the hell was wrong with him?
Chapter Three
Lana made a practice of responding to TLD emails by the end of the same day she received them. She usually took care of that chore before leaving work, but thanks to Sly, today she’d been too rattled.
If that wasn’t enough, her father had called to say that Cousin Tim was being sued by his neighbor. No one in the family had ever been sued, and they all were upset and banding around Cousin Tim. They offered to be character witnesses, lend him money for an attorney and whatever else he needed. Cousin Tim was too proud to accept their money, but said he’d let them know if character witnesses would help.
Still a little flummoxed, Lana stood in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to whistle so that she could make a cup of herbal tea. For days now, she’d tried to push the night with Sly from her mind, without much success. She assured herself that she’d eventually forget the handsome cowboy who dominated her waking thoughts. She certainly hadn’t expected to see him again, and had been both surprised and elated when he’d shown up at the day care.
But her feelings had quickly turned to disappointment. Sly hadn’t asked for her phone number or a date. He hadn’t asked her a single question or said more than a sentence or two. In fact, he hadn’t seemed interested in getting to know her at all, or wanting her to know anything about him. Instead, his heavy-lidded expression had told her exactly what he wanted.
More of what they’d shared on that wild night.
Against Lana’s better judgment, she’d wanted that, too. The attraction between them was more potent than anything she’d ever experienced, even during her honeymoon days with Brent. To the point that when Sly had moved close to her, her mind had all but emptied.
She frowned. How could she feel so strongly about a man she’d just met? She had no idea what his last name was or whether he really was a rancher, where he worked or anything about his family. Although she had a hunch that Amy would fill her in tomorrow when she picked up Courtney after work.
At last the kettle whistled, and Lana pushed Sly from her mind. Tonight she had better things to do than fantasize about the sexy cowboy. She carried her steaming mug to her home office, which doubled as the den.
The only positive thing about his visit this afternoon was that he’d distracted her from dwelling on the lack of interest her profile had generated at AdoptionOption.com. With input from the social worker, Lana had carefully created the online profile with her photo and other information. Although many girls had contacted her, nothing had stuck.
Lana wished she could figure out why. Was it because she was single, or something else? The lack of any serious interest was discouraging, and she wished she’d waited to share her decision with her family until she’d formed a promising relationship with an expectant mother.
Not about to give up, she decided tonight she’d check the website after she checked her email. She sat down and scrolled through her inbox. There were ten—ten!—inquiries from parents who’d read the profile in the paper and wanted to visit TLD. Her friend Kate had also emailed, whining about an upcoming blind date her mother had orchestrated. Several other friends had sent the usual jokes and gossip.
But one email stood out. “Baby,” the subject line read, from Sophie@AdoptionOption.com. Hardly daring to breathe, Lana opened the email.
I got your name from the AdoptionOption website. I’m Sophie and I’m four months pregnant. I’m looking for the right person to adopt my baby. When I saw the article about you in the paper today and read your online profile at the website, I couldn’t believe it. You seem to really care about kids, and I would like to meet you. Text me at 406-555-2223.
This was the chance Lana had waited, hoped and prayed for. Sucking in an excited breath, she jotted down the number with shaky hands.
Yet as badly as she longed for a baby, she had to admit that she was also a little scared. Raising a child without a partner was going to be a huge job.
Too antsy to sit, she paced to the window and looked out. Despite the lights from the other town houses and the shade tree in her yard, she could see the crescent moon and the stars studding the sky like diamonds. Tonight they seemed especially bright. Lana took that as a good omen.
Regardless of the challenges ahead, she wanted a child with all her heart. She wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass by. She grabbed her cell phone and texted the girl.
Hi, I would love to get together. How about Big Mama’s—my treat. Tell me when and I’ll be there. Looking forward to meeting you,
Lana
She’d chosen Big Mama’s Café because everyone loved the restaurant’s food. Less than a minute later, Sophie texted back. Saturday @ 10?
Gleeful, Lana replied. Sounds perfect. I’m 5’6” and have longish blond hair.
Sophie texted. I know what u look like from yr profile and the pic in the paper. CU.
A baby of her own!
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Lana cautioned out loud.
Sophie might decide she wasn’t the right person to raise her child, and allowing herself to imagine otherwise would only set her up for heartache.
Still, she was too excited to worry about that now, or to read the other emails. She logged in to AdoptionOption.com and checked Sophie’s profile. The girl was sixteen and a junior at Jupiter High School on the far side of town. She had short hair, dyed white-blond with neon-pink streaks and bangs that fell into big, soulful eyes lined in thick eye pencil. Despite the alternative look, she was very pretty, and Lana guessed that the baby would be beautiful.
“She’s not the mother of my child yet,” she reminded herself.
Not that it calmed her down. Laughing, she danced around the room while she speed-dialed Kate. After three rings, her friend answered.
“It’s happened,” Lana said, skipping the usual pleasantries.
“You have a blind date, too? Ugh. You know that sewing circle my mom belongs to? That’s where it happened. I cannot believe she went behind my back and fixed me up with her friend’s sister’s son. That sounds like a really bad joke, doesn’t it? Too bad it’s real. Save me, please.”
The whole thing did sound awful. Lana’s mother had her faults, but she wouldn’t set up a blind date without first checking with Lana. Bonus points for her. “You never know,” Lana said. “It could work out.”
“With the son of the sister of some woman in my mom’s sewing circle? Puh-leeze. You said it happened. Don’t tell me Sly finally found you.”
“He did, but this is about a baby. Tonight I got an email from a pregnant girl who saw the article on TLD in the paper.” Lana squeezed her eyes shut and squealed. “She wants to meet me.”
“Wow, that’s great. But back up a minute. Did you say that Sly found you? I knew he would! Why didn’t you phone me?” Kate sounded hurt.
“Because it happened late this afternoon, and I haven’t had a chance to call until now.”
“I want details.”
“Okay, but first let me fill you in about Sophie—the pregnant girl.”
“Believe me, I want to hear all about her. After you spill on what happened with Sly.”
Realizing Kate wouldn’t let up until she got the information she wanted, Lana threw up her hand. “All right, but there isn’t much to say. He read my business profile in the paper. That’s how he learned where I work.”
“That piece was terrific, by the way, and look at the results you’re already seeing. A pregnant girl contacts you and Sly shows up at the day care. Why can’t they run an article about me in the paper?”
“Start your own business and it just might happen.”
“I like managing the Treasures Gift Shop at Prosperity Falls just fine, thanks. Back to Sly. What did he say, and what did you say?”
“He apologized for leaving the morning after without a goodbye.” He’d seemed so sincere and contrite that Lana had almost melted. “And he brought me a copy of the newspaper article.”
“What a sweetheart. When are you two going out?”
“He didn’t ask me out,” Lana said. “I never had a chance to find out his last name or anything else about him. He was only interested in kissing me.”
“Ooh. Did you let him?”
“Of course not.” But Lana had wanted to. Badly.
“Are you crazy? If you don’t want to kiss Sly Whatever-his-last-name-is, send him my way.”
“Ha, ha, ha. I didn’t let him kiss me because he’s only interested in one thing.”
“I thought you liked doing that one thing with him.”
Lana gritted her teeth. “You’re not helping, Kate. I don’t want a sex-only relationship. I want more than that.” Especially now, when she just might have a chance at a baby....
She wanted a relationship based on shared mutual interests and honest conversation, things that formed a basis for something that lasted. True, those very things had failed to hold her marriage together, but that was because Brent had found her lacking.
“But he’s so darned hot,” Kate said. “And he seemed very into you that night....”
She was right on both counts. Sly had seemed just as into Lana today, but not in the way she wanted. “If he was that interested, he’d have at least asked for my phone number.”
“You mean, he didn’t?”
“Nope. Unfortunately, his attraction to me is purely sexual.”
“Bummer,” Kate said. “Just once, I’d like to meet a man interested in getting to know me before he tries to jump my bones. You keep saying he’s out there. If he is, I sure haven’t met him.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t found my Mr. Right, either.” Lana had thought she had with Brent, but he’d turned out to be Mr. Wrong instead. “Wouldn’t it be funny if your blind date turns out to be ‘the one’?”
Kate snorted. “Don’t hold your breath. Now tell me about the pregnant girl.”
“Her name is Sophie, and we’re meeting Saturday at Big Mama’s. I’m treating her to brunch.”
“How exciting! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. Good luck.”
“Do you think I need luck?” Lana bit her lip.
“It’s just a figure of speech. Be yourself, and Sophie will love you, like everyone else who knows you.”
More than anything in the world, Lana hoped her friend was right.
* * *
“SO, LANA, HOW long have you and Sly been dating?” Amy asked when she arrived to pick up Courtney on Wednesday afternoon.
Amy was a great mom, but as Sly had pointed out the other day, she was also a big gossip. Lana was glad that her two assistants had gone home for the day and that only she, Amy and another mom named Sheila were at the day care. “Actually, we’re not dating,” she said.
Amy lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “Sly sure didn’t stop by yesterday to pick up a child. He doesn’t have kids of his own, or any nieces or nephews that I’m aware of. He said he was here to see you.”
In the act of helping her four-year-old son with his jacket, Sheila widened her eyes. “You must be talking about Sly Pettit. He was here?”
Amy grinned. “In the flesh.”
Wait. Sly Pettit—the rancher who was suing Cousin Tim? Lana tried not to show her shock.
“What’s wrong, Lana?” Sheila asked.
“I’m just surprised that you both know him.”
“We certainly do,” Amy said with a smirk. “We both used to date him, though not at the same time. I haven’t seen him in a good four years, and he’s still as gorgeous as ever,” she told Sheila. “I’m guessing he’s still a heartbreaker, too.”
Sheila zipped her son’s jacket and directed him to get his lunch box. “We dated about six years ago. By our second or third date I was head over heels for him. I was sure I’d be the one to snag him.” She gave her head a sad shake. “Unfortunately he didn’t feel the same way about me. I couldn’t even get him to show me his ranch. After a few months, we broke up.”
Amy nodded. “My story is similar. Sly showed me the ranch, but only because I asked. I’d heard that his bedroom was off-limits to the women he dated, but I always hoped I’d be the one he fell for, the one he’d invite to his bed. He never did—we always ended up at my place. I tried everything to make him love me, but no luck.” She let out a sigh, followed by a shrug. “I guess I ended up lucky after all. I met and married Jon, and we’re so happy.”
“Sly has dated a lot of women and broken a lot of hearts,” Sheila said. “Be careful, Lana.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Lana said, but she wasn’t worried. She and Sly weren’t dating, and now they never would.
Not with him suing her cousin.
* * *
SLY AND HIS sister, Dani, were close, and as busy as they both were with their jobs, they made sure they got together a couple times a month. On Wednesday night they met at Clancy’s, a bar and pool hall south of town. Clancy’s was always crowded, but boasted a dozen pool tables—enough so that he and Dani were usually able to snag one.
“I met a woman,” Sly told his sister over the loud country-and-western music adding to the noise. He hadn’t planned on saying anything and wasn’t sure why he’d made the confession. Especially when lately, he hadn’t dated much and she’d been bugging him about it. Now she’d really bug him.
But Lana... Sly was still thinking about her, even though she’d shut him down. There was something about her, and he needed to tell somebody.
In the middle of placing the balls, Dani swiveled her head his way. “Oh?” Her eyes, the same silver-blue as Sly’s and Seth’s, sparked with curiosity.
Not wanting to make a big deal out of what he’d said, he tugged on her ponytail like he had when she was four. Before life had knocked them both upside the head.
“Stop that.” Hiding a smile, she batted his hand away. “I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m twenty-eight years old.”
Dani was seven years younger than him, and one of the few people he trusted. He flashed a grin. “You’ll always be my baby sister, even when you’re fifty.”
“By then you’ll be an old man, and probably too frail to pull my hair.”
Sly scowled, but Dani thought that was real funny. “I’ll take solid, you take the stripes,” she said.
While she eyeballed the table, aimed her cue and broke the balls, Sly thought about how far they’d come since he was eleven and their mother had died. Two years later their father had followed her, leaving them orphans. Sly had wanted to take care of his siblings, but he’d been too young.
Their only family had been an uncle Sly and his siblings had never met, a man who lived in Iowa. Uncle George had grudgingly taken in Sly and his younger brother, Seth, who was ten at the time, but he hadn’t wanted Dani.
She’d entered the foster-care system in Prosperity. Sly had worried about her constantly and vowed that someday he would reunite their little family.
But it turned out that he and Seth had gotten the raw end of that stick. Their uncle had disliked kids and had mostly ignored him and Seth, which was better than the alternative. His idea of attention had been to yell and raise his hand. Sly and his brother had quickly learned to steer clear of him.
Sly had become his brother’s caretaker and parent of sorts, raising Seth as best he could. His best hadn’t been so great, though. A kid with an independent streak, Seth had fought him on everything. By the time Uncle George had died just before Sly’s eighteenth birthday, his relationship with his brother had deteriorated badly. Hoping that returning home and reuniting with Dani would help mend the damages, Sly had brought his brother back to Prosperity. Unfortunately, nothing had changed. After several minor scrapes with the law, Seth had dropped out of high school and left town. A few months later, Sly and Dani had received a postcard letting them know he’d settled in California. He’d failed to provide the name of the city, and the postal stamp had been impossible to decipher. Seth hadn’t spoken to or contacted them since.
Dani had ended up with a much better deal. Big Mama, her foster mom, had loved her from the start and eventually had adopted her.
Dani hit the ball into a side pocket. Another ball slid into a different pocket. She did a little dance. “Dang, I’m good.”
