and the subtle jabs she’d given him while they’d been together. “Definitely she has a thing for me. I’m pretty sure she hates me.”
“Well, that’s going to make having any kind of a relationship with her fairly difficult,” Mac replied.
“The good news is Henry asked me to do some baseball training with him, so I’ll be seeing her several times a week when I work with him,” Clay replied.
“Too bad that kid’s father is such a horse’s ass,” Jerrod said. A deep frown appeared between his dark brows. “Henry and his sister have participated in some of the activities at the community center. They are both great kids. They deserve better than Hank.”
“Then all I have to do is convince Miranda I’m not just another horse’s ass,” Clay replied. “I’ll have to pull out all my famous charm.”
“I know you’re good with the ladies, Clay, but I have a feeling you can pull out all the charm you possess, but that’s one lady you don’t have a chance with,” Mac said.
It wasn’t until later when Clay was in his twin bed in his room that he replayed the conversation in his head. It was true that Clay had dated a lot of women, especially over the past year. But how did a man find the right woman if he didn’t go actively looking for her?
All he could hope for was that Mac was wrong, because Clay really wanted Miranda to give him a chance.
* * *
Two hours ago Miranda had left The Cupcake Palace with Clay Madison. As usual, Miranda had looked perfectly put together in her black slacks and bright-blue blouse. Her shoulder-length blond hair had shone in the waning sunlight and she looked as pretty as she had in high school when she’d been the runner-up for homecoming queen.
She had to die, or at least be badly maimed.
She had to either leave this earth and be gone forever, or be crippled and ugly for the world to be right again. There was an enormous sense of satisfaction in finally deciding what had to be done.
Now it was just a matter of time and opportunity. The beautiful Miranda Silver didn’t know it, but she now had an expiration date stamped on her forehead.
Miranda woke up on Saturday morning feeling a little bit guilty about the way she had acted the night before. There was no question that she’d been rude to Clay and that wasn’t really who she was.
However, there was something about Clay Madison that set her on edge. Maybe it was because she was far too aware of him whenever they were in the same space.
Okay, she could admit that she’d always been secretly physically attracted to him. But she also believed he was a fairly vacuous man, sliding through his life and women on his good looks and easy charm.
Besides, she wasn’t interested in having a man in her life. Being married to Hank had soured her on the whole notion. She had given up her dignity and self-respect in staying with Hank as long as she had. Now she just wanted to be the best teacher she could be and raise her children to be happy, healthy and good people. She didn’t need a man to accomplish those goals.
At ten o’clock the kids were in the living room with their overnight bags packed. “Do you both have your toothbrushes?” she asked.
They replied that they did. “And clean socks and underwear,” Henry added and then giggled. “I knew that was going to be the next question ’cause you always ask the same thing before we leave on Saturday mornings.”
“And then you tell us that you love us and we should be good for Dad and Ms. Lori,” Jenny said.
“Great, then I don’t have to say any of that same old stuff today,” Miranda replied with a laugh.
A knock sounded at the door. Miranda answered to see her ex-husband, the boy she had fallen in love with when she’d been sixteen years old and had fallen out of love with after years of an unhappy marriage.
“Hey, Miranda,” he said with the crooked smile that had once made her heart beat faster and now only made her sad. His eyes were bleary and red-rimmed, but at least there was no smell of alcohol on him.
“Good morning, Hank,” she replied. She opened the screen door but didn’t invite him inside. Beyond him she saw Lori in the driver’s seat of Hank’s king cab pickup and waved to her.
By that time the kids were at the door. A flurry of kisses were given and then Miranda watched as they all got into the truck and Lori pulled away.
Miranda closed the door and headed for the kitchen. On most Saturdays when the kids were with Hank and Lori, Miranda cleaned the house and then graded papers. Before she could get started on anything, the phone rang.
“Hi, Mom,” she said when she answered.
“Hello, my lovely daughter,” her mother replied.
Miranda smiled. She could imagine her mother sitting in her favorite blue-flowered chair, her silver hair perfectly coiffed and impeccable makeup highlighting her high cheekbones and bright blue eyes.
No one ever saw Katherine Albright when she wasn’t completely pulled together. It had been that way when Miranda was growing up and even while her mother had been taking care of Miranda’s father, who had been sick with prostate cancer for months. He had finally succumbed to the disease and was now buried in the Bitterroot Cemetery. As far as Miranda was concerned, her mother was the strongest women she’d ever known.
“I heard a little rumor this morning when I was getting my nails done,” Katherine said.
Miranda groaned inwardly. “And what rumor is that?” she asked, even though she knew. God bless Bitterroot, Oklahoma, and its healthy gossip mill.
“I heard that you and the children had cupcakes and ice cream with that handsome cowboy Clay Madison.”
“The rumor is true, but it was just a chance meeting. It didn’t mean anything and it was certainly no big deal,” Miranda replied.
“Well, that’s too bad. You could do a lot worse than Clay. Not only is he easy on the eyes, but from what I hear he’s a hard worker. Besides, he’s just so darned nice whenever I run into him in town.”
Good Lord, the man had apparently charmed her own mother as well as most of the other females in town. “Actually, Henry asked him to help him get better at baseball and Clay agreed to help out.”
“If Hank were any kind of a father at all he’d be the one teaching that poor little boy how to play ball,” Katherine replied and then went into a ten-minute diatribe against the man who had once been her son-in-law.
She harangued him for cheating on Miranda, for not being a good provider for his family and for not being a real and present father in his children’s lives. She then went on to talk about Hank’s drinking problem.
“Are you finished?” Miranda asked dryly when her mother finally stopped to take a breath.
“For now,”
