Sherryl Woods - Courting the Enemy

Karen sighed. “I don’t know how I feel about him.”

“Is he pressuring you to decide that right this second?”

“No. Actually he hasn’t been around much lately. Not since the morning Cassie saw us together. I think something I said or did upset him, but I can’t imagine what. He’s a very complex man.”

“A break may be exactly what you need. Give it some time. You’re a smart woman. You’ll sort out your feelings when the time is right.” Lauren hesitated, then asked, “Do you want me to come home? I’m a pretty good judge of character.”

“Oh, really? I can list two lousy marriages that say otherwise.”

“Ouch,” Lauren said. “No one can see their own mistakes until it’s too late. Everyone else’s, however, are crystal clear. An outside opinion wouldn’t hurt and I can be there tomorrow.”

“No. You’ve put your career on hold enough for me as it is. I can’t ask you to come running every time I get scared.”

“Scared?” Lauren teased. “Of Grady or yourself?”

“Maybe both,” Karen admitted.

“You listen to me, Karen Hanson. Nobody I know has a better head on her shoulders than you do. Trust your instincts. And any time you want me there for backup, you call. I can drop everything and be there in a few hours. To tell the truth, I like feeling needed for a change. Say the word and I’ll be back there mucking out stalls and working with the horses for as long as you need me.”

Karen was so startled by the heartfelt sincerity of the offer that she was at a loss for words. It wasn’t the first time the offer had been made, but something in her friend’s voice suggested that she was truly hoping to be asked to rush home.

“Stunned into silence?” Lauren asked.

“Truthfully, yes. You’ve hinted around about wanting to come home for good, but that’s the first time you’ve come right out and said it. What’s wrong, Lauren? What haven’t you been telling us?”

“There’s nothing wrong,” her friend assured her. “Nothing I can put my finger on anyway. I’m sure whatever it is, I’ll get over it. But the offer stands, no matter what. If you need me, just say the word.”

“Thank you,” Karen said softly. “And…Lauren?”

“What?”

“If you need to be here, don’t wait for an invitation. I’ve got a room waiting any time you want to come. I mean that. And if it’s hard physical work you’re looking for, I can supply that, too.”

“I know you mean it. and I love you for saying it. Take care, sweetie.”

“You, too.”

Karen had barely hung up when she realized she wasn’t alone. She turned to find Grady standing just outside the screen door. Still troubled by her conversation with Lauren, she barely spared him a glance. And this time, she refused to get her hopes up. His habit of coming and going when she least expected it was too disconcerting.

“Anything wrong?” he asked, his expression concerned as he stepped inside without waiting to be invited.

“Not with me,” she said, injecting a false note of cheer into her voice. She was not going to discuss Lauren’s odd mood with a man she didn’t entirely trust. If it wound up being splashed all over the tabloids, she would never forgive herself.

Even as the thought of Grady pitching such personal information to a tabloid ran through her mind, she scolded herself over the absurdity of it. Why would he do such a thing? He certainly didn’t need the money. And he was trying to prove to her that he was trustworthy. Wouldn’t such a deliberate act of betrayal be counterproductive? It just proved how deep her own distrust ran.

“I thought I’d stop in and let you know that I’ll be out helping Hank and Dooley today. The fence along the highway is down.”

“I know. I spotted it yesterday. They’re out there now. They can handle it.”

“I’m sure they’d be grateful for an extra pair of hands.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Look, it’s been obvious the past few days that you have a life of your own to live. You don’t have to keep doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Pitching in around here. Stay home and take care of your own chores.”

Amusement lurked in the depths of his eyes. “So you did miss me?”

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

She frowned at him. “Is that why you stayed away, so I’d miss you?”

“No,” he said curtly. “Now let me make this clear for the last time. I don’t mind helping out around here. I like the company.”

She regarded him with skepticism. “Hank and Dooley’s?”

“Hardly,” he said, grinning at last. “But the boss lady has a certain way about her that I find intriguing.”

Her heart fluttered at the compliment. “Is that so?”

He nodded. “Besides that, she owes me dinner. Our deal’s not over.”

“I thought you’d forgotten about that. Besides, the two weeks were up long ago.”

“We missed a few nights,” he reminded her.

“I never gave you a rain check.”

“But you wouldn’t renege on a deal, would you? Doesn’t that go against that conscience of yours?”

“I suppose.”

“That’s settled, then. And just so you know, I have a real hankering for apple pie.”

“Stella’s is good,” she told him.

“But I’ll bet yours is better.” His gaze caught hers. “Still warm from the oven with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into all the little crevices.”

Karen swallowed hard. Somehow he had managed to make a perfectly ordinary slice of pie sound like something wickedly sensual. Or was that just her state of mind?

“How about it?” he asked. “Pie for dessert?”

She gave him a resigned look. “I’ll see what I can do.”

He winked at her. “I’ll be counting on it.”

Don’t, she thought to herself after he’d gone. Don’t count on me, Grady.

Because the truth was, if push came to shove, she had no idea which of the men in her life she’d choose…a ghost or the flesh-and-blood man who was tempting her more and more each day, despite his entirely too unpredictable comings and goings.

Grady heard the argument long before he spotted Hank and Dooley.

“I say we’ve got to tell her,” Hank shouted fiercely. “The woman has a right to know that someone deliberately cut this fence.”

“Mrs. Hanson’s got enough on her mind,” Dooley argued. “We’re taking care of it, aren’t we? There’s no harm done. Why get her all worked up about a problem that won’t exist after today?”

Grady crested the hill and spotted the two hands squared off, a section of barbed wire in Hank’s hands.

“I’m telling you she needs to know that somebody’s out to get her,” Hank countered. “She ought to be calling the sheriff. This isn’t right.” His gaze narrowed as he looked at Dooley. “Or is there some particular reason you don’t want the sheriff involved?”

The old man drew back his fist and aimed a punch straight for Hank’s face. It landed solidly, snapping the younger man’s head back.

Grady leaped from the saddle and got between the two men. “Okay, enough. What the hell’s gotten into you two?”

Whatever distrust they felt toward him was apparently less than they were feeling about each other at the moment, because both men started hurling accusations so fast and furiously, Grady could barely keep up.

“Hold it!” he commanded finally. “One at a time. Dooley, you first.”

Hank glared at Grady as a look of satisfaction spread across the old man’s face.

“Like I was trying to tell this pea-brain here, the boss already has too much on her mind,” Dooley said. “There’s no need to worry her with this latest incident, since we’re taking care of it.”