they were seated and had given their dinner orders, Mike studied her. “Now, tell me more about you and Stallion Pass, Texas. You don’t seem like the small-town type.”
“I’m very much the small-town type. I love Stallion Pass. John Frates’s family businesses have really made Stallion Pass the town it is. Well, there are other businesses and families that contribute to it, but the Frateses did a lot. He had the oil company, Frates Oil, which he sold last year. He remained as CEO so they will simply replace him, and that wasn’t part of the will. He had the home that you received, the quarter-horse ranch and the cattle ranch—”
“Two ranches?”
She gave him a quizzical look. “Didn’t you listen as I read the will?”
“Actually, no,” Mike admitted. “After you announced I was inheriting a kid, I went into shock and didn’t hear anything more you read. I wouldn’t even think that kind of thing’s legal.”
“Of course it’s legal to appoint a guardian. John might not have told you about it, but I know he intended to.”
“Well, tell me what the other guys got, then. Did it occur to you that one of them might take little Jessie?”
“We’ll get to that,” she said, her cool, I’m-in-charge voice returning. “Jonah Whitewolf got the cattle ranch. He can do with it whatever he wants—sell it, keep it or lease it.”
“I’d guess Jonah will sell it. John Frates should have discussed all this with us in more detail.”
“I don’t think he dreamed that anything would happen to both him and his wife. Boone Devlin inherits the quarter-horse ranch—it’s famous nationwide for its horses.”
Mike shook his head. “Boone and a horse ranch. He grew up on a farm and wanted to get away from it. The flyboy is nuts about planes. He won’t leave his air-charter service. John Frates should have talked to all of us and talked to others who would have been better choices for these inheritances.”
“Once again, you’re making snap judgments.”
“Maybe, but I know these guys as well as I know myself. We knew Frates was worth a lot, but not this much.”
“The Frates family was enormously wealthy, and when John sold the oil company, he received a lot more.” She leaned forward, candlelight flickering in the depths of her eyes. For an instant, Mike was drowning in blue. His gaze lowered to her mouth, and he wondered if there was a woman beneath all that pushy, do-it-my-way exterior. What was she like in a man’s arms? He leaned closer.
“Ever been in love, Counselor?”
If the question surprised her, she hid it well. She gave him a smile. “Maybe once in college, but not since.”
“No steady guy now?”
“No,” she replied, looking amused. “Going to ask me for a date?”
He smiled at her, and they both laughed. “I didn’t think so,” she said. She caught his wrist and the touch was electrifying to him. He took a deep breath, surprised at his reaction.
“Tell me something.”
“Whatever you want to know,” he said in a husky voice, beginning to wonder what it would be like to have a real date with her.
Those blue eyes nailed him. “If John Frates had called you and asked if you would be little Jessie’s guardian, what answer would you have given him?”
Startled, all Mike’s erotic thoughts vanished. He was staring into eyes that probed, accused and demanded an answer. What if John Frates had called and asked him to take his baby?
“I can’t answer that, because he didn’t call,” Mike replied.
“You won’t answer my question because if her father had called and asked you, you would have agreed to become her guardian,” Savannah said in a voice dripping with satisfaction.
“I damn well would not have,” he snapped, moving his wrist away from her grasp and leaning back in his chair. “Don’t put words in my mouth. Are you a trial lawyer?”
“Occasionally,” she answered, and Mike could imagine her nailing a witness and using that same satisfied tone. She looked down at her purse and whipped out the picture again. “Look at this little baby. How can you refuse? You would have all the money in the world and could hire five nannies for her if you wanted.”
“You think a dad who hands a baby over to nannies all the time is better than a foster home?”
“Yes! In foster care, she’d be shuffled around. If you had her, you’d care and you’d be responsible,” Savannah answered heatedly, her eyes flashing. “Underneath that selfish exterior, there must be some heart—John saw that in you. I’ve known John all my life, and he was a good man and a very smart man. He didn’t misjudge people.”
“Give it up, Counselor. I’m not taking that baby,” Mike replied, wondering how many times he was going to have to refuse.
Savannah put away the picture and leaned back while he drank some wine. He wished he had ordered something stronger. When their dinners came, he ate golden, cheese-covered lasagna in silence, thankful she had stopped badgering him but still annoyed with her for calling him selfish.
As soon as they finished, she picked up the check and drove him to his hotel.
“You gave it your best shot,” he said before he stepped out of the car. “Sorry, but you can do something else with that inheritance.”
“It’s not that simple. Can you come by my office in the morning while we work out details?”
“Sure.” He sat staring at her, thinking she was a beautiful woman sitting only a couple of feet away. His gaze dropped to her mouth, but he knew better than to try a kiss. “Night, Counselor.”
“I don’t know how you’ll be able to sleep, or even look at yourself in the mirror.”
“I’ll sleep just fine, thank you. Do you always butt into people’s lives like this?” he asked.
“Of course not—this is a big exception,” she said, studying him intently. “I still think John saw something in you that I’m not seeing.”
“I hauled his ass out of the jungle—it was a job. The man was grateful to have his life back, but gratitude can blind people.”
“Not John. He told me about spending weeks with you guys because the escape didn’t go as planned. He said that, in the life-threatening circumstances all of you were in, you really get to know someone. He said he knew he could depend on you completely.”
“Well, too bad he’s not here to know how much I’ve let him down. Good night and start thinking of someone else for that particular inheritance.”
He climbed out of the car and closed the door, leaning down to speak to her through the open window. “Thanks for dinner.”
She glared at him, put the car in gear and drove away. He stared after her and still wondered what it would be like to kiss her. His flight back
