Sherryl Woods - Courting the Enemy

Gina came stalking out of the kitchen on Grady’s heels and followed him straight to the table. Her indignant gaze came to rest on Karen. “Are you okay with this?”

“He’s not going away,” Karen said with an air of resignation. “I guess I’ll have to make the best of it.”

“I can kick him out,” Gina offered.

“You and who else?” Grady demanded, regarding Gina with amusement.

Gina’s gaze strayed to her mysterious man. “I can muster up some help if I need it,” she declared.

“No need,” Karen said. “Grady will be on his good behavior.” She looked at him. “Won’t you?”

He winked. “The best. And I’m a really big tipper.”

Gina grinned then, apparently satisfied that there would be no fireworks. “I’m counting on it.”

After she’d gone, Grady looked at Karen. “She’s very protective of you.”

“As you’ve figured out by now, I’m sure, there are five of us who grew up together. We’ve been best friends ever since. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do if one of us needed something.”

“And these are the friends who are willing to bankroll your vacation?”

“Some of them, yes.”

“It must be nice to have a circle of friends you can count on.”

Her gaze narrowed at that. “Don’t you?”

“I have acquaintances,” he said with no trace of self-pity. “And I have my grandfather. That’s always been enough.”

She thought she detected a rare note of wistfulness in his voice. “It has been? Not now?”

His gaze met hers. “No,” he said quietly. “Not now.”

Deep inside, she felt something give way. It was the last of her defenses crumbling…and for the life of her, she couldn’t seem to regret it.

Even though she’d been anticipating-no, dreading-the call, hearing Anna Hanson’s voice on the phone first thing the next morning would have been disconcerting enough for Karen under any conditions. But Grady had arrived not five minutes earlier. He was standing right next to her. That was enough to fill her with guilt. Added to the discovery she’d made the night before about just how vulnerable she was to this man and the guilt tripled.

“Anna,” she said with forced enthusiasm. “How good to hear your voice.”

“Is it?” Anna said in that dire tone that meant she had plenty to say to Karen, none of it good.

Anna Hanson hadn’t entirely approved of her son’s choice of a wife for reasons that had never been clear. Maybe she would have resented any woman chosen by her only son.

And when Caleb had died, Anna had all but said she believed Karen was responsible in some way. Had she known that Karen, in fact, blamed herself, she would have thrown it in her face at every opportunity. Even as it was, the tension between them had been thick ever since the funeral. Anna called only when she felt duty-bound to check in on the condition of the ranch, and seemed to have no concern about how Karen was managing with her grief.

“Of course it’s good to hear from you,” Karen said, scowling at Grady, who rolled his eyes, clearly aware of the reason for this call. “How’s everything in Arizona? Is Carl doing okay?”

“He’d be much better if we hadn’t been hearing certain things,” Anna said, her tone grim.

Karen barely contained a sigh. At least the woman hadn’t wasted any time getting to the point. “What things?”

“That you and that terrible Grady Blackhawk have been carrying on.”

“Excuse me?” Karen said, though she was less stunned by the accusation than she would have been if Gina hadn’t warned her that rumors were circulating about the night of the storm. She was only surprised that they’d taken so long to reach her in-laws.

“The first time I heard it, I dismissed it,” Anna claimed, sounding self-righteous. “But we’ve had three calls this morning alone. Apparently everyone in the entire region knows that he’s spending every single day at the ranch with you. That was bad enough, but then he was there overnight. Was he sleeping with you in my son’s bed?”

Karen had always tried to ignore her mother-in-law’s attitude for Caleb’s sake. She had wanted a smooth co-existence, if a friendship was impossible. But Caleb was no longer a consideration. She no longer had to bite her tongue. Years of pent-up anger roared through her.

“How dare you,” she said sharply, aware that Grady had moved closer and laid a supportive hand on her shoulder. She shuddered at the contact, especially given the context of the conversation, but she didn’t move away.

“I loved your son,” she told Anna emphatically. “I never gave him or you any reason to doubt that. I certainly wouldn’t do anything disrespectful of his memory under his roof.”

“Then why is that man there every single day? Why did he spend the night? And how could you be seen in public with him last night, flaunting your affair in front of our friends?”

Karen wasn’t exactly certain how to answer that. “He stayed the night because he was stranded by the storm. And whether you want to believe me or not, there is no affair.”

“If you say so,” Anna said skeptically. “But that doesn’t explain what he’s been doing there in the first place.”

“He’s been helping out.”

“You surely don’t need the help of the likes of Grady Blackhawk. Or are you running the ranch into the ground?” Anna asked bitterly.

Karen restrained her temper. Another outburst would solve nothing. “Any time you and Carl would like to come back and take over running this place, you’re more than welcome to. In fact, I’d be delighted to sell it back to you,” she said to remind the woman of the fact that she and Caleb had taken out a mortgage of their own to pay his parents the money they needed to retire. It was the size of that mortgage that had kept them in debt, but Caleb had insisted it was only fair.

“Well, I never…” Anna said. “I’m going to put Carl on. Maybe he can get through to you.”

Karen’s relationship with Caleb’s father had always been more cordial. He had been as hardworking as his son. In fact, if it had been up to Carl, he would have stayed on after the funeral to help out, but Anna had been insistent that they needed to get back to Arizona where she had a brisk social calendar lined up, now that she was happily ensconced in a fancy retirement village.

“Don’t mind Anna,” he said the minute he got on the line. “She just took Caleb’s death real hard. She doesn’t mean half of what she says.”

“But the other half, she does,” Karen pointed out wryly. “I’ve never known which half to listen to.”

“Neither, would be my advice,” he said. “You doing okay, Karen? Hank and Dooley giving you enough help?”

“We’re managing.”

“What about this Blackhawk fellow? Has he been hanging around, like Anna hears?”

Karen sighed, glancing over at the man in question. “He wants the ranch. He’s made an incredible offer.”

Maybe Carl would tell her to go ahead and sell. If she had his permission, maybe this wouldn’t continue to eat away at her, and she could get away from the ranch and from Grady, finally escaping all the memories that haunted her here, good and bad.

“I don’t want that ranch in Blackhawk hands,” Carl said flatly. “If you want to get out, I can understand that. Nobody knows better than I do what a thankless task it is trying to keep a small ranch running in the black. Just promise me you’ll sell to anybody but him. Why should that man be rewarded after all the sneaky, conniving things he and his family have done to us through the years?”

Karen didn’t have an argument for that. Grady had been working hard to prove that she’d misjudged him, but he hadn’t offered any proof at all that he hadn’t been behind the sabotage of their herd. Someone had infected those animals and set fire to that pasture. If not Grady, then who? Until she knew for certain, Carl was right. She couldn’t sell to Grady.