Her tiny gasp made him grin. Would she be sitting there, wide-eyed, one hand over her mouth? he wondered.
“You’re up awfully early.”
“Early? Should’ve been up and out half an hour ago,” he said, glad she hadn’t hung up despite his long-winded “message” and his blatant flirtation. “But what’re you doing up at this hour, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Her sigh filtered through the wires, kissing his eardrum. Reid shivered involuntarily.
“No specific reason,” Cammi said. “I just have… There’s a lot to be done today.”
Was that sadness he heard in her voice? Reid hoped not, because something told him that if anybody had earned the right to be happy, it was Cammi. “Well, I won’t keep you, then. Just wanted you to know you can call, any time, if I forgot anything.”
“You didn’t forget anything, but if I remember something you might have forgotten, I’ll be sure and call.” After a long pause, she added, “And I hope you know you can do the same.”
He nodded, then shook his head and chuckled under his breath, because of course she couldn’t see him nodding. “Sure. Right. I’ll do that.” Reid cleared his throat. “Well, you take it easy, y’hear?”
“I will. You, too.”
“Catch you later, then.”
“Have a good one!”
If one of them didn’t put a stop to this, they’d go on “ending” the conversation till sundown. Much as he’d enjoy spending the day with her, even by phone, he took the bull by the horns: “Bye, Cammi. Glad to hear you’re still feeling fine.”
“Thanks. Glad you’re all right, too. I’ll call if I hear anything from the insurance company or the mechanic.”
“I’ll do the same.”
He put the phone back into its cradle, wondering why the room felt colder and darker.
Reid remembered that earlier, he’d pocketed Billy’s note, the one with Amanda’s hotel and room number. Grimacing, he fished it out. The sooner he got things cleaned up, the better. She answered on the first ring.
“Hey,” he said, “I got your message and—”
“Reid, darling!” she shrieked. “How are you! Why haven’t you called! I’ve been so worried about you!”
He sighed. “Will you be free in about an hour? I know it’s early, but—”
“Oh, Reid,” she cooed. “I’m never too busy for you.”
He stifled a sigh of frustration. Amanda’s tendency to overemphasize even the simplest words was but one in a long list of reasons that it could never work out between them.
“When did you get into town?”
“Why, yesterday, of course. I called the minute I settled in, so we could get together and talk about us.”
He could tell her, here and now, that there never had been and never would be an us, but Reid didn’t believe in taking the easy way out. The night he’d won the Silver Buckle award, Amanda had tearfully admitted she didn’t have a ride home. And because Martina and Billy had drummed into his head that gentlemen treated women like ladies whether or not they deserved it, he agreed to drive her. He should have immediately put the brakes on her intense thank-you kiss in the hall outside her apartment. If he had, he wouldn’t have paid for his thoughtfulness every day since.
“I didn’t leave my room once,” Amanda was saying. “I’d just die if you called while I was out!”
“Mmm-hmm,” he said distractedly. He had tried, over and over since that first night, to explain that one kiss doesn’t seal any deal, least of all of the relationship kind. Her sobs had made him decide to explain things another day, when she wasn’t so…emotional. And today’s that day.
“I can hardly wait to see you, Reid! Did you miss me as much as I missed you?”
In place of a response, he said, “How ’bout I pick you up at eight, buy you some breakfa—?”
“Oh, Reid! I’d just love that!”
“See you at eight.”
Reid felt strangely guilty after hanging up, not for severing the connection with Amanda, not for what he was about to tell her, but because it seemed this meeting with Amanda was tantamount to cheating on Cammi. He couldn’t help but chuckle at that, because wouldn’t it be a bitter irony if Cammi was home right now, rehearsing the same speech for him that he was about to make to Amanda!
Amusement faded fast as he imagined her, hemming and hawing as she sought a compassionate way to deliver her message. It would hurt worse than a fall from a saddle bronc, no matter what words she chose or how kindly she spoke them.
“Ridiculous,” he muttered. “Face it, man…you barely know the woman!”
Still, admitting how it would sting if Cammi rejected him started a ‘what goes around, comes around’ mantra swirling in his head. It made him decide to set Amanda straight gently. Very gently…just in case. He half ran down the stairs, anxious to get it over with, once and for all. If he didn’t waste any time, he could get the new ranch hands squared away before heading into town….
The moment he stepped into Martina’s big sunny kitchen, he saw that she’d set the table. The scent of fresh-brewed coffee permeated the air, and pots and pans promising a full country breakfast were steaming on the stove.
“Good grief,” he said, looking around. “What time did you get up?”
Martina handed him a glass of juice. “Never you mind. Just sit down and eat before everything gets cold.”
Billy only shrugged, so Reid did as he was told; might be a lot easier for Amanda to take his “I’m not good for you” speech if he wasn’t wolfing down bacon and eggs while he made it.
“I want you to have a healthy meal in your belly,” Martina told her husband, “before we start out for Fort Worth.”
It wasn’t like Billy to comply so quickly, without so much as a teasing retort or a sly wink. Reid blamed it on nerves; Billy had never liked long drives or sleeping in hotel beds, and liked doctors’ exams even less. This trip to the latest in a long list of specialists would require both.
Martina handed each man a plate piled high with link sausages, over-easy eggs, crisp golden hash browns, and buttered toast. She filled their coffee cups, then joined them at the table. Spreading homemade raspberry jam on her bread, she asked, “You okay this morning, Reid?”
He looked up, more than a little surprised at the question. Later today, she’d drive her husband all the way to Fort Worth for who-knows-what kind of prognosis. “I’m fine. How ’bout you?”
From the day Reid’s mom brought him and his beat-up cardboard suitcase into this house, Martina had taken Reid under her wing, treated him like the son she’d never had.
