my, this is just lovely,” Kathy exclaimed as they entered the living room. “I hope we aren’t putting you out.”
“Nonsense, nothing we like better than company,” Red assured her. “Meredith, why don’t we get them settled in their rooms, then we’ll have Smokey rustle up some refreshments. It’s a long bus ride from Kansas City to here.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Kathy said.
“We’ll put Kathy in the guest room and Chase can go into Tanner’s old room,” Red said.
For the first time since they’d stepped into the house, Chase focused on Meredith. She had the face of a beauty queen, but if her hair were any indication of the local stylist’s expertise then he wouldn’t be visiting any of the town’s barbers. Although a luxurious black, her bangs fell unevenly across her forehead and the left side of the shoulder-length locks was definitely shorter than the right side.
There wasn’t an ounce of makeup on her face, that he could see, and she was dressed in a pair of jeans and an oversize man’s flannel shirt. Once again a small ball of unexpected tension twisted in his gut.
Her gaze met his and her cheeks pinkened slightly. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms,” she said.
She led Kathy to a room decorated in cheerful yellow with an adjoining bath. Chase set Kathy’s suitcase on the bed, then followed Meredith down the hall. Even though the flannel shirt struck her below the hips, it didn’t hide the sensual sway of her walk.
The bedroom she led him to was smaller than Kathy’s and had obviously been occupied by a male. The bed was a heavy mahogany covered in a navy spread. A chest of drawers stood against one wall. “Tanner? Which one is that?” he asked as he set his suitcase down.
“Tanner is my oldest brother,” she said.
“The one who married a princess.”
“That’s right. Anna.” Her chin rose a touch and she met his gaze. “Tell me, what description did my brother give of me that made me so easy to find in the café;?”
“He said to look for the gorgeous, sexy woman who looked like she’d had a close encounter with a Weed Eater.” He gazed pointedly at her uneven hair.
She raised a hand self-consciously, but before she touched her hair, she dropped her arm and narrowed her eyes, obviously not pleased as she edged toward the door.
“The bathroom is just down the hall on the left. Feel free to head to the kitchen after you get settled in.” She slid out of the room as if she couldn’t escape him fast enough.
He pulled his suitcase onto the bed and opened it. He’d improvised a bit on what Dalton had said. Dalton had called his sister neither gorgeous nor sexy.
As he hung some of his clothing in the closet, he wondered how difficult it had been for Meredith West to be raised in a house filled with men. By the look of her she certainly didn’t seem to be in touch with her femininity. Not that it mattered to him. Not that he cared.
He wasn’t here to care about anyone. He was here to do a job. It was bad enough he was here to betray a friend’s trust; the only thing that could make it worse was if he also seduced his friend’s sister.
There was no way Dalton would have described her as gorgeous or sexy, although he certainly would have told Chase she looked like a woman who’d gotten too close to a Weed Eater.
Meredith thought about that all through dinner that night. Dalton had arrived at the ranch to share the meal and visit with his friends. Meredith had eaten quickly, then excused herself and retreated to the stables until bedtime.
Now, the faint gray of predawn painted the sky as she crept from her bedroom and down the hallway to the bathroom. As she showered and dressed for the day, her thoughts lingered on Chase McCall.
Gorgeous and sexy. He had to say that. Had he been making fun of her? Nobody had ever used those terms to describe her.
She didn’t like him and she wasn’t sure why. He’d been pleasant enough at dinner the night before, entertaining them with cop stories and talking about the good times he and Dalton had shared while they’d worked on the same case.
But there was an edge to him, a whisper of something slightly dangerous in his eyes, an arrogant tilt to his head. She stood in front of the mirror and brushed her shoulder-length hair, then frowned.
Maybe Savannah was right. She needed to get into the Curl Palace and get one of the ladies to trim her hair the right way.
Fighting her impulse to pick up a pair of scissors and try to straighten out the mess, she reached for her toothbrush instead. She always cut her hair when she was stressed, and there was no denying that she’d been stressed lately.
She’d go to the Curl Palace this morning, then head over to Sheriff Ramsey’s office to see if she could get her hands on the files of the investigation into her mother’s murder.
She had a feeling Ramsey wouldn’t be particularly pleased by her request. “As if we don’t have enough going on around here,” she could imagine him saying.
She finished brushing her teeth, then gave her hair a final finger comb. Her decision to get her hair professionally cut and styled had absolutely nothing to do with Chase McCall, she told herself. She would have done it whether the handsome man had come to town or not.
Leaving the bathroom, she was glad that Tanner’s bedroom door remained closed. It was early enough that she didn’t expect anyone to be up except Smokey, who would be in the kitchen working on breakfast.
Instead of heading into the kitchen, she walked to the front door and slipped outside to the porch. She moved directly to the railing and leaned against it, staring out at the land that stretched for miles all around.
This was her favorite time of day, when the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon and birds sang from the trees. Scents of hay and grass and cattle wafted on the air, as familiar to her as her own reflection in a mirror.
She loved the ranch, but there were times when she longed for the excitement of the city, the anonymity of a place where she wasn’t one of those West kids, but rather simply Meredith West.
She drew deep breaths, filling herself up with the smells of home, then turned to go back inside. She jumped, startled as she saw the old man seated in the wicker rocking chair.
“Smokey! Jeez, you scared me half to death. What are you doing out here?” Even in the dim light she could see the frown that tugged his grizzled eyebrows together in an uneven unibrow.
“That woman is in my kitchen.”
“Kathy? What’s she doing?”
“Cooking.” The word spat from him as if he found it distasteful on his tongue.
A small burst of laughter welled up inside Meredith, but she quickly swallowed it. As far as Smokey was concerned invasion of his kitchen was grounds for execution. “Think I’ll go get a cup of coffee and check
