Daphne was about to explain the meaning of chi when Stony put a hand on Hiram’s arm, and she had the good sense to shut up.
“Take it from me,” Stony said, “the woman can make your house real pretty. I’m finding out these decorators have all sorts of fancy names for things, names that simple men like us will never understand. Have Gloria give Daphne a call. By the time the kids and their families come home for the Thanksgiving holiday, you’ll have a showplace.”
“I dunno, Stony. I thought the drapes would be about all we’d need.”
“Hiram, trust me. You have no idea what you need until Daphne shows up and tells you. Besides, I’ll bet Gloria would have fun talking to Daphne about all this stuff, and you’d be a hero ’cause you suggested it”
Hiram smiled at that. “You’re probably right, but I have a feeling this is gonna cost me.”
Looking pleased with his success, Stony tipped back his chair and winked at Hiram. “You can’t put a price on having a happy woman around, right?”
Hiram’s smile grew broader. “You tell me. Up until recently, you’ve claimed not to want any woman around, happy or otherwise. Seems like your ‘cousin’ here is domesticating you, son.”
“Uh, well—” Stony’s cocky grin faded.
Daphne rushed to his rescue. “His aunt Thelma, who’s my mother, will be glad to hear you think so, Mr. Connelly.”
“Then you mean you really are his cousin?”
“Why, Mr. Connelly, the family almost begged me to help Stony upgrade his living conditions when I came down here to open my business.”
“Upgrade?” Stony protested.
“Gee, will you look at the time?” Daphne said, consulting her watch. “Agnes Farnsworth will be wondering why I haven’t called.”
“Agnes is gonna have you decorate her place?” Hiram asked.
“That’s the plan,” Daphne said. At least it was her plan. Soon she’d discover if Agnes agreed with her.
“Well, that settles it.” Hiram tugged the brim of his hat down “If Agnes got her house all fixed up with this fung shwazie stuff and Gloria didn’t, I’d never hear the end of it Gloria will be calling you, Daphne. Nice meetin’ you.”
“Same here, Mr. Connelly.” After he left she glanced at Stony and lowered her voice. “Thank you for helping me get the job. I’m sorry about the ‘upgrade’ remark, but it seemed like the sort of thing a cousin would say, and I wanted to convince him that’s all we were to each other. The way you were talking me up he was convinced I was your mistress.”
Stony rubbed his chin. “Yeah, you’re right He was. And I guess you are fixing to upgrade my living conditions, at that Your room is already up about ten notches from where it used to be.”
“But that upgrade comment sounded superior and snooty, and that’s not how I really feel about working on your house or anyone’s. I just love making things look nice. If I can also improve people’s lives through feng shui, so much the better.”
His gaze grew speculative. “According to this philosophy of yours, what sector is your room in?”
She was hoping he wouldn’t ask. “I don’t know if I’ve done enough to substantially change anything for you in that area, so it probably doesn’t matter.”
“Come on, Daphne.” He grinned at her, his expression teasing. “You took a depressing little hole in the wall and made it into a nice room. Don’t you think I deserve to know how my life is going to change as a result? What part is it?”
She pushed back her plate. “We should get going. We have to shop, and I need to call Agnes Farnsworth before Gloria Connelly gets to her.”
“You’re stalling, Daphne. How am I going to know if this stuff works unless you tell me what changes to expect?”
She looked him straight in the eye. “It was the only bedroom I thought I should pick under the circumstances, and I didn’t locate myself there on purpose. I would prefer to have located myself somewhere else, to be honest.”
“So you do believe your changes will make a difference in my life, or you wouldn’t be so skittish about this question. What’s that comer of the house supposed to affect in my life, Daphne?”
She swallowed nervously. “Love and marriage.”
8
STONY WORRIED ABOUT that love-and-marriage sector for the rest of the afternoon.
He thought about it while they stopped at a pay phone so Daphne could call Agnes Farnsworth and her other contact from Jasper, Elmira Wermser. Daphne had success with both Agnes and Elmira after telling them that Gloria Connelly had agreed to have her house feng shuied. She made an appointment to meet with Agnes the following morning and Elmira in the afternoon.
Stony smiled and congratulated her, but the back of his mind was still occupied with that pesky love-and-marriage corn of his house.
He told himself it was just some silly superstition, but he’d lived around superstition all his life as a rodeo man. In his experience, if someone believed in something strong enough, superstition or not, it generally came true.
That meant Daphne expected his life to change in the areas of love and marriage. To top it off, she was living in the house, so wouldn’t the same thing happen to her? Stony didn’t like it, not one bit.
Maybe that was why he picked a fight with Daphne while they were shopping for groceries.
“We got meat, we got potatoes, we got bacon and eggs, bread and beer,” he said as she started toward the vegetable bins. “That’s enough.”
“What about stuff for salads?”
“I don’t eat salads.”
“That’s not true. You ate one with dinner last night.”
“It came with the meal. I don’t like to pay for something and not eat it.”
She folded her arms and gazed at him. “All right. I’ll pay for the vegetables, then.” She started toward the bins again.
“Don’t buy any on my account,” he called after her. He noticed her picking up a bundle of broccoli. “And don’t be buying any of that. I hate the smell of that when it’s cooking almost as much as I hate the taste when the darned stuff is cooked.”
She put it in her basket, anyway. “I happen to love it, and it’s very good for you. I’ll cook it while you’re gone if you’re so fanatical about it.”
“That’s not fanatical. That’s normal common sense. Broccoli is just plain plug ugly from the get-go. I don’t want to even look at it in the refrigerator.”
Her jaw tensed as she moved toward the display of lettuce. “I’ll put it out of sight, okay?”
“I’ll smell it, anyway! I can smell it from here!”
She whirled toward him, eyes blazing. “If you don’t sound like some grumpy old bachelor set in his ways!”
“I suppose you feel obliged to upgrade my diet, too, don’t you? Well, forget it, lady. That green smelly stuff is not my speed.”
She held up the broccoli and shook it in his direction. “It’s only a green plant, for heaven’s sake. You act as if I’d suggested bringing home a live skunk.”
“That’s exactly what it smells like when you cook it! A damned polecat. And I don’t know why you have to go stinking up my kitchen when you could have something else like...like corn!”
She dropped the broccoli into her cart and wheeled it toward him, her chin high, her eyes glittering. “And I’ll have you know that corn’s not a vegetable, Mr. Smarty Pants.”
“Is so.”
“Is not,” she snapped. “It’s a grain, dammit.” She grabbed a chicken out of his cart and threw it into hers. “That’s all I want from your basket. Go buy your food. I’ll be out in a while with my food, which I will cook and eat when you’re nowhere in sight.” Then she wheeled her cart directly toward the broccoli and started loading up on it.
“Fine!” He was almost to the checkout counter before he came to his senses. The whole point of this shopping expedition had been to buy food they could cook together while she was here. If she planned to cook for herself and not include him, he wouldn’t need th
e steaks and potatoes in his cart because he could eat down at the bunkhouse like he usually did. And that would leave her to eat alone every night. It didn’t sit right.
He pulled his cart off to one side and waited for her to come along. Finally she did, and boy, did she have hers piled high with veggies. She could feed a corral full of rabbits for a week on that load.
She caught sight of him and immediately looked in the other direction. Nose in the air, she started to sail right past him.
“Okay, you don’t have to cook it when I’m gone.”
She paused, regal as all get out, and turned her head slowly in his direction. “Did you speak to me?”
“I guess I can stand to have a little broccoli in the kitchen now and then.”
“Really?” She widened her eyes as if in total shock. “Oh, I wouldn’t, if I were you. It’s not manly. The smell will probably make you impotent.”
He choked and glanced around to see if anybody might have heard her. Sure enough, Sarah Rankle, the woman who ran the beauty parlor, was staring at them with a knowing smile on her face. The incident would be all over town by tomorrow.
He sighed. “Let’s just go home, Daphne.”
“Are you quite sure you can ride in the same truck with a bagful of broccoli?”
“If it means we can get out of this store and on down the road, I would ride in the truck with a bagful of road apples. We’re causing a scene.”
“You started it.”
He was having trouble getting that big chunk of pride down his gullet, but he finally managed. “You’re right, I did. I apologize.”
Her smile burst forth like the sun after a rain. “Apology accepted.” She pushed her cart forward and he followed with his.
As they unloaded their baskets onto the conveyor belt at the checkout counter, she turned back to him. “I bought some cheese. I make a wonderful cheese sauce to go on the broccoli. I’ll bet you’ve never had it like that.”
“No.”
“You’ll love it.”
“Look, I’m not planning to eat—” He caught her look of warning and closed his mouth. “I’m sure I will love it,” he said, smiling sweetly at her. “Yum, yum.”
Because he didn’t shop for food, Stony didn’t know the matronly checkout clerk whose name badge read Trudy, but she apparently knew who he was.
“A man should eat his greens, Stony,” she said as she bagged the groceries. “Protects your prostate.”
Daphne pretended great interest in the tabloids near the counter, but Stony could see the grin she was trying so hard to hide.
“Thanks for the advice, Trudy.” Stony paid the bill. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
Daphne must have had some sympathy for him because she kept her laughter contained until they were in the truck. Then she broke up, laughing until the tears came.
“Just knock yourself out,” Stony said. “Doesn’t bother me to be the laughingstock of the whole town. No, ma’am.”
She wiped her eyes and grinned at him. “You deserve it, making such a big deal out of my buying a little broccoli ”
“A little? We could feed the town of Rio Verde on what you bought, if they’d even eat it, which I doubt I’ll bet the store owner was relieved to see you come along and dean him out before the stuff went bad.”
She glanced at him, her eyes still filled with laughter. “Trudy was right, you know. Eating greens is good for you.”
He liked it when she laughed, even if he was the butt of the joke. He liked the flush on her face and the sparkle in her dark eyes. Fighting with her hadn’t solved any of his problems. He still wanted her.
“I’m glad to hear you’re concerned about my prostate, too,” he said casually. He checked her reaction to that before returning his attention to the road. She looked a little nervous. “From what I’ve heard, there are other things that are good for a man’s prostate besides eating his greens. If you’re going to worry about my health, shouldn’t you be tending to all areas of it?”
Let her deal with that, he thought, smiling to himself. But she’d probably have some snappy comeback. He’d sort of enjoyed the way she stood up to him on the broccoli issue.
When she remained silent, he wondered if he’d been too crude. “Hey, it was just a little joke.” He turned his head to look at her. “I—” Whatever he’d been about to say vanished from his mind when he saw desire burning in the depths of her eyes. “Oh, sweetheart.”
In seconds he’d pulled off the road and cut the engine. He flipped off his seat belt and turned toward her.
“No,” she said in a throaty whisper. “I bought ice cream. It’ll melt”
“Let it melt.” He combed his fingers through her hair and cupped the back of her head. “And don’t tell me you’ve wiped the other night out of your mind. It’s driving you crazy, too.”
The answer was in her eyes. With a muttered oath he reached around and unfastened her seat belt.
“Stony—”
“Don’t worry. I couldn’t make love to you in the front seat of this truck if I wanted to. I’d kill myself on the gearshift. But I can damn sure kiss you, and that’s what I intend to do.” He smiled at her. “I won’t compromise your virginity with a kiss, will I?”
She let out a long sigh that sounded like surrender. “It’s a mistake.”
“It won’t be my first.” Angling his head, he urged her toward him and tasted her rosy lips. Lord, but she was ready for that kiss. With a whimper she got right into it, scooting as close as the gearshift would allow and opening her mouth for his tongue.
It seemed years since he’d enjoyed the delights of her mouth, and he couldn’t seem to get enough. His erection strained against the fly of his jeans as he delved deeper and she moaned softly against his mouth. Enough of his brain remained in working order to keep him from unbuttoning her blouse. After all, they were right near the road in the middle of the afternoon.
But no one could see when he reached beneath her skirt and pressed his fingers against her damp underwear. Pink. He remembered his glimpse of the color from earlier in the day when her skirt had torn Thinking of that inviting pink silk barely covering her femininity only drove him crazier. He knew how she’d feel if he pushed the material aside and touched her there. He remembered how warm and moist she’d been when he’d slipped his hand between her thighs on the night they’d made love. He remembered the way she’d cried out when he brought her to orgasm.
She wanted that now.
From outside a horn honked.
“Go, Stony!” hollered a voice.
Dazed and disoriented, Stony lifted his mouth from Daphne’s and gazed out the front window. A red pickup sped off down the road, arms waving wildly out of both windows. He recognized the truck—it belonged to Sam, who owned a neighboring ranch.
He looked back into Daphne’s flushed face.
Her voice was no more than a breathless whisper. “We should go.”
“Yes. This isn’t the time or place.”
“There...is no time or place.”
“Are you so sure?” He pressed his fingers firmly against her.
She gasped. “Just because I want you doesn’t mean I have to give in to that.”
“No, I guess not, sweetheart.” He eased away from her. Damn, but his jeans fit tight right now. “But if you decide being a virgin isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, come and see me.” He refastened his seat belt. “I’ll be just down the hall.”
DAPHNE CHANGED INTO JEANS and a T-shirt while Stony put away the groceries. She changed her damp underwear, too. So much for pretending she had no lingering feelings, she thought. Not only were they lingering, they were raging out of control.
She and Stony hadn’t made any conversation the rest of the way home. Everything had been said and her choice was clear. She could live in keeping with her principles and sleep alone, or she could spend her nights locked in primitive passion with Stony for the rest of the time she stayed under his roof. Damned if that second option
didn’t sound mighty good right now.
Daphne zipped up her jeans and sighed. She’d worked through this question before, and had come up with an answer—short-term gain wasn’t worth sacrificing long-term satisfaction. Sure, she could gamble on love making its way into the equation with Stony somewhere along the line. She was half in love with him now, although she realized that could be a carry-over from the letters, which he’d inspired but definitely didn’t write. As for him, he was very much in lust, but Daphne didn’t kid herself that he loved her.
When she returned to the kitchen, the groceries were all put away and Stony was giving Chi one of the doggy treats Daphne had thrown into the cart at the last minute. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she drew great comfort from watching him with his dog.
She leaned against the counter. “I see you found my little extravagance.”
“Yeah. She loves them. Big Clyde always does the shopping for the ranch, and I never thought to ask him about getting some of these.”
“I thought it might be a way to retrain her so she won’t get so scared about loud noises. You could make a little noise, like slapping the top of the table, and then when she starts to run you could get her back and give her a treat while you talk to her.”
Stony straightened and brushed off his hands. “That’s a good idea. I’m afraid someday she’ll take off and get out on the main road where she might get hit by a car. When she gets scared like that, she doesn’t show good sense. I’ve had to tell the boys they can’t have target practice out behind the barn anymore, because she can’t stand it.”
Daphne walked over and leaned down to give Chi a pat. “She’s lucky to have an owner like you.”
He looked startled. “Oh, she’s not really my dog. I’m just keeping her for the time being, because she had nowhere else to go. Somebody’s bound to claim her sooner or later.”
“After all these months? I doubt it.” She used both hands to give Chi a thorough scratch behind the ears. “You’re Stony’s puppy, aren’t you, Chi?”
The retriever whined softly and thumped her tail against the blanket
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