She joined him on the matching stool. “Here’s to your health,” she said, picking up her spoon.
He ate three pieces of corn bread and two bowls of stew. “That was the best meal I’ve had since…since I last visited your uncle’s ranch.”
Instead of looking pleased at the compliment to her relative, her mood became pensive.
“What?” he asked, his voice dropping a register and sounding way too intimate in the silent cottage. He cleared his throat.
“Uncle Nick,” she murmured. “Beau says he’s doing fine, but I worry about him. He’s had a couple of spells with his heart this winter. I wish…”
“You wish?” he finally prompted when she was silent for a long minute.
“I wish we could find Tink for him.”
Adam knew that Theresa, or Tink, as she was called, was Nick’s only child and had disappeared at the scene of a car wreck that had killed her mother when the girl was only three and a half. The Dalton patriarch was in his seventies and had always longed to find his missing daughter. Beset with heart problems, his time could be running out.
For a few seconds, he contemplated the older man’s pain at losing his wife and child in that manner, then he shook his head. That was one reason he’d never let himself get too deeply involved with a woman. Emotion was too costly.
“What?” he asked, noting Roni’s sharp stare.
“Maybe you could help. I know, you can help me find Tink, and I’ll help you with your case.” She smiled brightly as if this solved some grand problem in the universe.
“Huh,” he said, putting a damper on that idea.
She gave him a grimace, then her impish grin returned. “You’ll be sorry you turned down such a good offer. I make a hundred dollars an hour as a consultant in my spare time.”
“Bully for you,” he muttered.
She laughed, then refilled his coffee cup. “Let’s go over here where it’s more comfortable.”
He took the leather easy chair while she snuggled into a corner of the sofa, kicked off her loafers and tucked her feet under her. Heat stirred through him. It settled in the lower part of his body, making him hot and wary of lingering in her house.
His usual reaction to her, he admitted. Lust and caution. How was that for a mixed combination?
“When did you get this place?” he asked as the silence became heavy with tension. Or maybe it was just him.
She seemed perfectly at ease as she blew gently over the surface of the hot coffee. “A month ago. I often jogged through this neighborhood and saw it as soon as it came on the market. I decided I’d rather have a house of my own, so I sold the condo and bought this.”
“With the increase in home prices, that was probably a wise move.”
“Will you be looking for a place to buy?”
“No.”
“You needn’t look as if a home is a ball and chain. It could be a good investment, even for someone who moves around fairly often. And you get tax breaks. My brother has preached home ownership as long as I can remember.”
Adam assumed she referred to Seth, who was an attorney and the oldest of her siblings. Her other brother was a doctor. One of her cousins was a deputy sheriff—he’d told Greg the truth when he’d said he’d worked with Roni’s cousin—while two others were ranchers. The five Dalton males and Roni, the lone female of the six orphans taken in by their uncle, had pitched in to build a resort in the mountains beside a small lake. If all went well, it was supposed to open this summer.
He realized that, with his sister married to the deputy, he knew a lot about the Dalton family. Their ancestors had been on the ranch for well over a hundred years. First Family of Idaho and all that. One cousin was married to a senator’s daughter. The senator was running for governor and would likely be elected in November.
For himself, he knew his family history only to his parents. All the grandparents had died before or shortly after his birth. Where their people had come from, he hadn’t a clue, except they were European for the most part with a little Hispanic and possibly Native American brought in from his mother’s grandmother.
Giving himself a mental shake, he wondered what the heck was wrong with him today. A glance at Roni gave him a hint. Each time he came into contact with her he ended up frustrated and angry.
Because he wanted her.
“What is it?” she suddenly asked.
“What is what?” he countered.
“Heavy sigh. Grim face. I know you aren’t involved with a woman. So, did someone just shoot your dog?”
“How do you know I’m not involved with a woman?” he demanded, irked at her certainty.
“Honey said you didn’t allow anyone to get too close. Your sister worries about your being all alone in the cold, cruel world.”
“My sister should take care of herself and not worry about me,” he muttered.
Roni smiled. “Then you know she’s expecting.”
The news stunned him.
She studied him. “You didn’t know. Well, no one told me it was a secret. She announced it last Sunday when we had dinner at the ranch. If you visited more often, then you would catch up on the news.”
A baby. His little sister. He’d looked after her since she was three years old. It felt odd that she was now involved in a major life change with no input from him.
Roni continued, her eyes dreamy the way women’s went when talking about babies and all that. “With Beau having a son, then Travis and Alison having their baby in March and now Zack and Honey expecting, Uncle Nick is in heaven. He’s hot after the rest of us to settle down and start families.”
Other than his sister’s nuptials, Adam had avoided the rash of Dalton marriages the past year by dint of his work. Roni’s two brothers had married only a few months ago.
“Must be something in the water,” he said, irritated by this whole conversation.
The youngest Dalton orphan laughed in delight. “That’s what I told Uncle Nick. I said I was bringing my own bottled water with me to the ranch in the future.”
“Good thinking,” Adam told her sardonically.
She gave him a shrewd glance. “Uncle Nick said if I got pregnant without being married the man would answer to him.”
“And to your brothers and cousins.”
“Yes. They all agreed they would straighten things out for me.”
Her laughter became a sigh as she lapsed into introspection. Women made him nervous when they talked of babies and marriage. He had no time for it, and he always made that clear at the beginning of a relationship.
Relationship?
