in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry. It slipped out. I just couldn’t believe you’d dated a Fitzgerald. You’re the rabid one about the feud. I would have thought you’d rather interspecies date than do that.”
Color still stained her cheeks. Her mouth worked furiously, but no sound emerged. Finally she planted her hands on her hips. “Interspecies date?”
He tried not to smile. “I was making a point, Nora. I didn’t actually mean it.”
“You think I’m such a mutant that no man would want me? That I would be reduced to the local garter snake, or perhaps a zebra?”
“I hadn’t actually thought of a garter snake.” He reached forward and took her right hand in his. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I wasn’t trying to make fun of you or embarrass you in front of your family. You have to admit, given what I know about you and your views, the thought of you dating Katie’s brother would be a little shocking.”
As he spoke, he moved his thumb against the back of her hand. Her skin was smooth and soft and warm. He thought he detected a slight quiver, but he wasn’t sure. Still, he must have done something right, because the light of battle drifted out of her eyes and some of her tension eased.
“I guess I can understand that,” she admitted.
“So tell me what happened.”
She pulled her hand free, then turned her back on him. “Have a seat,” she said. “I’ll set the table.”
“I’ll help,” he offered.
She gave him a withering glance. “You’d just get in the way. You can sit down and listen or you can leave.”
“Have you always been this bossy?” he grumbled, even as he took a seat on one of the spare chairs against the wall.
“Always,” she told him.
She disappeared into the kitchen, then reappeared seconds later carrying a cloth. She started at one end, carefully wiping down the large, rectangular table.
The dining room was good-sized, about twenty-by-fifteen with a chair rail that went all the way around the room. The table had six chairs around the perimeter, but there were another six lined up along the wall. To the east was a tall hutch and opposite that was a buffet table.
“As I was saying before you started screaming loud enough to wake the dead,” she said, not looking at him as she spoke, “David and I dated all through high school. Both of our families were shocked, although my mom was more okay with it than his dad. Everyone thought it would end when David went off to college, but it didn’t. We got engaged the summer I turned twenty. It was supposed to be a long engagement—at least until David graduated. I guess everyone thought the romance would fizzle out.”
She moved as she talked, taking a tablecloth from a deep drawer in the buffet and smoothing it over the table. Then she collected napkins and silverware. She worked with the easy grace women have when they perform the familiar. Her body swayed, her hips shifted in an entrancing rhythm.
“Did the romance fizzle out?” he asked in an effort to distract himself.
“Not for me. I can’t speak for David, although I guess his actions told the truth loud enough.” She straightened and faced him. “After David graduated, we set a date for the following spring. I had long finished beauty school and was working at the Snip ’n Clip. Aaron, David’s father, came to see me one evening when I was closing the shop.”
She paused, then shuddered, as if after all this time, Aaron’s words still had the power to wound. “He looks so much like David, just an older version. But he’s nothing like his son. David was always funny, gentle and kind. Aaron stared at me like he wanted to rip me apart using his bare hands.” She clutched the back of the chair in front of her. “He said that no son of his was going to marry a Darby. That he would disown David if he tried and that his son wasn’t strong enough to walk away from the family fortune.”
Stephen wanted to ask her if she was kidding. This was the twenty-first century, not feudal England. “What happened?”
She shrugged. “I told David and he promised everything would be fine. That he would love me forever. Then he went away.”
She walked to the hutch and removed six dinner plates. “I guess Aaron sent him. That part was never clear. One minute he was in Lone Star Canyon and the next, he was gone. At first he wrote me every day. He said not to worry. That he was working on a ranch that belonged to a friend of his father’s. He was learning a lot and missed me. He swore he would return in time for the wedding. Then the letters became less and less frequent.”
She set the plates in place, then brought out glasses. She gave Stephen a smile that trembled a little at the corners. “He returned two weeks before the wedding, but he didn’t come home alone. Instead he brought his new bride of less than a month, who was already nearly two months pregnant.” She put the glasses at each place setting. “You’ll meet Fern and their daughters at Jack and Katie’s wedding.”
Stephen didn’t know what to say. He’d expected something bad, but he hadn’t considered that Nora would have been so betrayed. He frowned as he remembered hearing something about her father running out on his family when she was eleven or so. Obviously she had a history of men letting her down. No wonder she wasn’t thrilled with the males of the species. Knowing about her past made her prickly personality easier to understand.
“I don’t care that they’re going to be at the wedding,” she continued. “I’m long over him. However, I do have my pride. We live in a small town and people talk.”
She didn’t want pity. He knew that instinctively. Nora would hate any whispers from those who felt sorry for her. He found himself feeling oddly protective of her, which was crazy. Nora would have him for lunch on a platter if she knew what he was thinking. But he couldn’t help wondering how different she would be if only there had been a trustworthy man in her life. Someone who had kept his promise to love her forever.
Not that it could be him, he reminded himself. He wasn’t into love and forever. Not anymore. Friendship was allowed. Maybe even being lovers, but nothing more.
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