Natural Born Trouble

by Sherryl Woods

  The image of his tongue searching out every little trace of sugar and jam slammed into her with the force of a gale. She fumbled badly as she tried to open the glove compartment and retrieve a napkin. Her hand shook as she tried to wipe away any trace of the doughnut she had savored.

  “Too bad,” Duke teased when she was done. “I was looking forward to helping.”

  “I’ll just bet you were,” she said. A change of topic was definitely in order. “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind when it comes to the horses. How much do you want to spend? Is there any particular type of horse you want?”

  He chuckled. “Smooth transition. Don’t tell me I was making you nervous.”

  “You weren’t,” she insisted.

  “Liar.”

  She regarded him impatiently. “Duke, you asked me to come along today to help you buy horses. That’s all I’m doing here.”

  “I know,” he said.

  She didn’t trust that dutiful tone one bit. “I hope you do.”

  He sketched a cross over his heart. “Darlin’, if you made yourself any clearer, I’d have a knot upside my head.”

  “Don’t tempt me.”

  “Damn, but you’re cute when—”

  She scowled at him. “Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it.”

  “You want me to be honest, don’t you?”

  “Of course, but—”

  “That’s all I’m doing. Telling it like it is.”

  Dani sighed heavily. “Why don’t I believe that?”

  “You have a suspicious nature,” he suggested.

  “My nature, as you put it, has been honed by experience.”

  “You’re not comparing me to that Rob person again, are you?” He didn’t wait for her reply. “I’m disappointed. I thought we were way beyond that.”

  “Well, we’re not,” she grumbled. “You’re sneaky and underhanded, just like he was.”

  “Me? Name one single sneaky, underhanded thing I’ve done.”

  Naturally, every one she came up with sounded petty, so she kept her mouth clamped firmly shut.

  “Cat got your tongue?” he inquired.

  “No the cat does not have my tongue,” she snapped. “I’m just trying to be civil. Otherwise this is going to be a very long trip.”

  Duke’s eyes were flashing with humor. “Hey, don’t stand on ceremony on my account. Say whatever’s on your mind and get it out of your system. I can take it.”

  She turned to face him. “Okay, don’t say you didn’t ask for it.”

  “I’m ready,” he said, his expression stoic.

  Suddenly, the list of his so-called sins seemed endless. She couldn’t wait to enumerate them all.

  “From the day we met you have been trying to disrupt my life,” she accused. “You turn up everywhere I go like the proverbial bad penny. You’ve deliberately ingratiated yourself with my family. They all think you hung the moon. They’re plotting and scheming on your behalf without the slightest regard for my feelings.”

  “That’s not the way they see it,” Duke pointed out.

  “Well, of course, it isn’t. They’re a bunch of softhearted romantics. Grandpa Harlan is the worst of all. I thought I could count on my father being on my side, but even he seems to have joined the enemy camp. As for your boys, they have managed to slip past my best defenses.”

  His eyebrows rose at that. “Now there’s a crime.”

  “Lay off. You asked me to say what was on my mind.”

  “So I did. Do go on.”

  “You don’t listen to a word I say.”

  “I listen to every single word you say,” Duke protested. “It’s just that sometimes you and I may disagree on whether or not you mean what you say.”

  “Of course, I mean it,” she practically shouted. “Do you think I’m just wasting my breath for the heck of it?”

  Duke shook his head and regarded her with something she suspected was awfully close to pity. She felt like slugging him.

  “Of course not,” he soothed. “The logical, rational side of your brain means every word. I’m not so dense that I’d miss a thing like that.”

  “Then what’s the problem?” she demanded.

  He reached over and touched a finger lightly to the center of her chest. “That’s the problem,” he said gently. “Your heart and your brain aren’t in sync. Sharon Lynn and Jenny see it. Your father and grandfather see it. Now, I may not understand a lot about women. I may know even less about emotions, but I do get one thing. When push comes to shove, it’s what your heart feels that really matters.”

  Dani felt the very organ in question pump a little faster as if to confirm what he said. She’d been so sure that he couldn’t see through her, so sure that she could keep her secret, forever if she had to. Then, wham, just like that it was all over. The truth was out or would be, if she confirmed his suspicions.

  She just couldn’t do it. She settled for lying, instead, in a valiant attempt to save herself—to save them—from making a terrible mistake.

  “You’re wrong,” she said quietly, but emphatically. “You have it all wrong.”

  It would have been enough to convince any other man. Or at least any other man would have graciously accepted the lie and let things be. Not Duke. He just smiled knowingly.

  “If you say so, darlin’.”

  “Don’t use that patronizing tone with me,” she said, fuming.

  He seemed even more amused by the outburst. “Sorry,” he apologized with a total lack of sincerity.

  Dani shook her head and bit back another sharp retort that he would only find even more unconvincing.

  “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’ll work it out.”

  “We will not work it out,” she said, her teeth clenched.

  “Sure we will. You may be an Adams, but I’m every bit as stubborn.”

  Now there, she thought dispiritedly, was the truth. The realization scared her to death.

  * * *

  Duke thought the drive had gone very well. Dani was so furious steam was practically spewing out of her ears. That was good. It meant he was getting to her, shaking her up, rattling her. Anytime now he would get her to make an honest admission of her feelings toward him. He’d thought for a minute she was about to blurt it out, but then she’d sucked in a deep breath and gone all stiff and silent on him. He could have told her that was every bit as telling, but wisely he didn’t. She was in no mood to appreciate the observation.

  He supposed he ought to feel guilty about backing her into a corner, but he needed her to acknowledge what she felt. So he had to move on to the next stage of his plan: getting her to say yes to a marriage proposal.

  He glanced over at her as they pulled into a parking place behind the barns where the horse sale was being held. Her hands were clenched together so tightly in her lap that her knuckles were white. He had a feeling if he laid his hands on her shoulders, he would find knots of tension as big as Texas…right before she throttled him for touching her.

  “Are you planning on speaking to me ever again?” he inquired lightly. “If not, exactly how are you going to communicate with me when you spot the perfect horse?”

  Her lips twitched ever so slightly. “I was thinking of kicking you real hard in the shins.”

  He grinned. “That would get my attention, that’s for sure.”

  “I wonder,” she said.

  His gaze narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I’m not sure that a baseball bat to the head would get your attention unless you wanted it to.”

  “I am single-minded,” he agreed. “You probably need to remember that.”

  “Believe me, it’s not something I’m likely to forget,” she retorted. “Now are we going to sit here all day or are we going to check out the horses?”

  He went around the car and opened her door with a flourish. “Lead the way, darlin’. There’s nothing I like better than following along behind a pretty woman.”

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nbsp; She scowled at the remark and, he noticed, made darn sure that she was always beside him and not in front of him. With brisk efficiency, she found the listings of the horses for sale and scanned the pages, checking several and crossing off twice as many.

  “Let’s go,” she said, studying the arrangement of the stalls. “There’s a pinto pony in number seventy-six that might be just right.”

  When they found it, Duke took one look at the skittish animal and concluded it had been rounded up wild and half-starved to death before being brought to today’s sale. As Dani approached, fear darkened the horse’s eyes and made them flare dangerously.

  “Dani,” Duke said very softly. “Careful.”

  She nodded, acknowledging the warning. Then she reached in her pocket for a lump of sugar and held it out. The pony shied away from her. Dani eased closer, murmuring nonsense until eventually the pony remained still when she approached. Duke’s heart stayed in his throat the whole time. He was fairly sure he didn’t breathe again until Dani backed out of reach of the horse’s nervous hooves.

  “That horse has been mistreated,” Duke said angrily when she was beside him again. “You’re lucky he didn’t kick you.”

  “He’s malnourished, that’s for sure,” she agreed, her eyes wide and shimmering with tears. “But he’s beautiful, Duke. He’s full of life.”

  “He’s too skittish for the boys.”

  “He wouldn’t be if someone cared for him,” she argued.

  “Dani, he’s the first horse we’ve seen. Hold off on a recommendation until we’ve seen the rest that you’ve marked.”

  She faced him stubbornly. “He’s going to stay on the list,” she insisted. “You’ll see.”

  Duke sighed, relieved that he’d borrowed a horse trailer large enough to carry half a dozen horses. He had a feeling Dani was going to be an easy mark. If he didn’t agree with her selections, she would probably buy the others herself.

  They looked over another eleven horses. Out of the even dozen she’d selected, she found four she thought were both sound and likely to go for the right price. Not counting that blasted pinto, of course. That made five she considered worth bidding on.

  “Which one of us is going to bid?” she asked Duke when it was time for the sale to begin. “You should since it’s your money we’re spending.”

  “I’m sticking with you,” he insisted. “You know the value of these horses better than I do. I’m liable to get carried away.”

  She regarded him doubtfully. “You don’t strike me as the kind of man who’d get carried away at an auction.”

  “Why not?”

  “Too hardheaded,” she said succinctly. “You’d be more likely to set a figure and stick with it, no matter how badly you wanted the horse.”

  To be perfectly truthful, she was right, Duke admitted, but only to himself. At least that’s how he always had been. Today, though, he had the feeling that he could very easily get caught up in Dani’s excitement and lose his head completely. In fact, he was already more than half certain that they would be leaving with that pinto if he had to buy it for her himself. She hadn’t stopped talking about it since they’d first visited the horse’s stall. He had a feeling buying it would be the kind of outrageous gesture no one had ever made for her before. Maybe it would prove to be the clincher in his plan.

  There were two palominos early in the sale, practically mirror images of each other. Duke knew that Dani was leaning toward them for the boys. He’d liked them himself. They appeared gentle enough.

  In the guise of having her show him what she was looking for when she examined them, he’d gone over them himself and confirmed Dani’s view that they were strong and sound. When he’d commented on just that, she’d regarded him with an odd expression on her face. He’d warned himself to be very careful. One more mistake like that would be his downfall. Dani was too smart not to catch on sooner or later that he knew exactly what he was doing. Then there was going to be big trouble. He was resigned to it.

  In the meantime, though, he had her to himself for an entire day. She’d stopped being skittish hours ago. She’d even laughed at a few of his jokes and reached for his hand on one occasion, only to drop it like a branding iron when she realized what she’d done.

  When the first of the palominos came on the block, the bidding was fairly light. Dani picked the horse up for well under the limit Duke had set. She flashed a look of triumph at him at the conclusion of the bidding.

  “This is fun,” she announced. “No wonder Grandpa Harlan loves horse-trading so much. I hope we can get the second one, too.” Her eyes darkened with worry. “Or do you think the boys would rather have horses that don’t look alike? Are they sensitive about the twin thing?”

  Duke had never given the matter much thought. Even though they were identical, they’d never been dressed exactly alike or given the same toys. They had surprisingly individual tastes and interests. Their personalities were a blend of harmony and diversity. At times, they acted as one. At other times, they behaved like any other squabbling, jealous non-twin siblings.

  “My hunch is the only way to avoid conflict might be to give them matching horses,” he told her. “This is a pretty big deal. We don’t want either of them getting the idea that the other’s horse is better in some way you and I don’t get.”

  Dani grinned sympathetically. “Figuring out how eight-year-olds think does have its moments, doesn’t it?”

  “I’m sure it has brought many a parent to his knees,” Duke agreed. “Go for the other palomino.”

  “I agree. Maybe if they both weren’t so beautiful, I’d go a different way, but they’re gorgeous.”

  “You don’t think this second one is going to have a problem with that left front foreleg, do you?”

  She shot him a suspicious look. “What are you talking about?”

  Careful, Duke warned himself. “It seemed to me his gait was a little off. You mentioned it yourself, didn’t you?”

  Dani scanned her notes. “I did write it down,” she agreed, but she was clearly unsettled by his observation. “I don’t think it’s a problem, though. I’ve seen other horses like that do just fine. If it comes to that, it’s a correctible problem with fairly minor surgery. If you wanted more than a riding horse, we should probably reconsider, but for Josh or Zack, the palomino will get along okay.”

  Duke nodded. “I’ll trust your judgment.”

  The bidding for the second palomino was livelier than the first, proving that plenty of others were just as unconcerned as Dani about the horse’s unusual gait. When they neared Duke’s preset limit, Dani glanced over at him.

  “Well?”

  He grinned. “Go up, if you have to. The other one was a steal. It’ll all even out.”

  “All right,” she said and reentered the bidding frenzy with enthusiasm.

  Naturally, she triumphed, Duke was holding his breath on the last round. Not that he couldn’t afford to spend more. He could. He just wasn’t sure the horse was worth it. The beaming smile on Dani’s face, however, was worth every penny.

  “That’s it, then,” he said when the bidding was done. “Mission accomplished.”

  “Not quite,” she said.

  “Let me guess. The pinto.”

  “I have to have him,” she said. “He needs a good home.”

  “Do you have room in your backyard?” Duke inquired dryly.

  She shot him a we-are-not-amused look. “There’s plenty of room at Mom and Dad’s,” she said.

  “And you get out there how often?”

  “Do you really have to be so blasted logical?” she inquired testily.

  Duke threw back his head and laughed at that. She grinned and admitted, “Okay, it’s like the pot calling the kettle black. I want that horse.”

  Duke nodded. “I know. His number won’t be up for a while now. Want to go grab a bite to eat?”

  “Sure.”

  He led the way to a vendor selling hot dogs and soft drinks. Dani slath
ered her hot dog with mustard, relish and was debating over the onions when he caught her eye. She swallowed hard, then left the onions untouched. He figured it was tantamount to an admission that she knew before the day ended they would share at least one kiss, probably more.

  They finished their meal and were about to go back inside, when Duke caught a glimpse of the dab of mustard at the corner of her mouth. All of the desire that had rocketed through him that morning when she’d been eating that doughnut came back now with twice the intensity.

  “Wait,” he said softly and reached for a napkin. Alarm flared in her eyes as he tilted her chin up. His thumb skimmed her lower lip, even as he gently wiped away the mustard with the napkin.

  “Thanks.” It came out as a breathless whisper.

  “No problem,” he said, though it was a lie. There was a very definite problem. He suddenly wanted nothing more than to drag her off somewhere and tumble her into a haystack or a bed or any other place that would be soft and accommodating.

  As if the gods had heard his prayers, a flash of lightning split the sky, followed by a clap of thunder. The skies opened up and rain came down, first in huge, individual drops, then in solid gray sheets. Duke grabbed Dani’s hand, and they made a dash back inside.

  Fortunately, they’d been quick enough to avoid being soaked to the skin. Duke glanced over her. “You okay? We could leave if you’re too wet. There’s no point in catching pneumonia.”

  “Nice try, but I am not leaving without my horse,” she said stubbornly.

  Quite a few of the other serious bidders caught a glimpse of the storm and decided to flee before it got any worse. When the pinto’s number was called, the hall was half-empty. Dani had only one competitor for the horse, and he was bidding with lackluster enthusiasm. He dropped out after only four rounds.

  Eyes shining, Dani turned to Duke. “I stole him. I virtually stole him.”

  “I just hope the payback for your thievery isn’t a broken neck,” Duke retorted.

  “A lot you know,” she countered. “That horse is going to be the best investment I ever made.”