made himself scarce.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Cherry said on a sigh. “Honestly, Dad, I’m fourteen!”
“And I’m an old bear. I know.” He threw an affectionate arm around her. “You did fine, partner. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks! Where did you disappear to?”
“I helped your idol into her motor home,” he said.
“My idol…Miss Parker?”
“The very same. She’s got a bad back, that’s why she doesn’t ride anymore. She’s game, though.”
“She’s the best barrel racer I ever saw,” Cherry said. “I have a video of last year’s rodeo and she’s on it. The reason I begged to come to this rodeo was so that I could meet her, but she isn’t riding this time. Gosh, I was disappointed when they said she’d retired. I didn’t know she had a bad back.”
“Neither did I,” he murmured. He put an arm around her and hugged her close. She was precious to him, but he tended to busy himself too deeply in his work, especially in the years since her mother had walked out on them. “We haven’t had much time together, have we? I’ll make it up to you while we’re on vacation.”
“How about right now?” She grinned at him. “You could introduce me to Miss Parker.”
He cleared his throat. How was he going to tell her that her idol thought he was about as low as a snake?
“She’s so pretty,” Cherry added without waiting for his answer. “Mother’s pretty, too, but not like that.” She grimaced. “Mother doesn’t want me to come up next week, did she tell you?”
“Yes.” He didn’t add that they’d argued about it. Marie didn’t spend any more time with Cherry than she had to. She’d walked out on the two of them for another man six years ago, declaring that Cherry was just too much for her to handle. It had devastated the young girl and left Todd Burke in the odd position of having to forego board meetings of his corporation to take care of his daughter. He hadn’t minded, though. He was proud of the girl, and he’d encouraged her in everything she wanted to do, including rodeo. Marie had a fit over that. She didn’t approve of her daughter riding rodeo, but Todd had put his foot down.
“What does she see in him?” Cherry asked, her gray eyes flashing and her blond pigtail swinging as she threw her hands up in a temper. “He’s so picky about everything, especially his clothes. He doesn’t like pets and he doesn’t like children.”
“He’s brilliant. He has a national bestseller. It’s number one on the New York Times list. It’s been there for weeks,” Todd replied.
“You’re smart, too. And you’re rich,” she argued.
“Yes, but I’m not in his class. I’m a self-made man. I don’t have a Harvard degree.”
“Neither does he,” Cherry said with a giggle. “He hasn’t graduated. I heard Mama say so—not so that he could hear her, though.”
He chuckled. “Never you mind. If she’s happy, that’s fine.”
“Don’t you love her anymore?” she asked.
His arm contracted. “Not the way I should to be married to her,” he said honestly. “Marriage takes two people working to make each other happy. Your mother got tired of the long hours I had to spend at work.”
“She got tired of me, too.”
“She loves you, in her way,” he replied. “Don’t ever doubt that. But she and I found less in common the longer we lived together. Eventually we didn’t have enough to sustain a marriage.”
“You need someone to look after you,” she told him. “I’ll get married one day, you know, and then where will you be?”
He chuckled. “Alone.”
“Sure,” she agreed, “except for those women you never bring home.”
He cleared his throat. “Cherry…”
“Never mind, I’m not stupid.” She looked around at the dwindling crowd. “But you need someone to come home to, besides me. You work late at the office and go on business trips all over the place, and you’re never home. So I can’t go home, either. I want to go to school in Victoria in the fall. I hate boarding school.”
“You never told me that,” he said, surprised.
“I didn’t want to,” she admitted reluctantly. “But it’s just awful lately. I’m glad I’m out for the summer.” She looked up at him with gray eyes so similar to his own. “I’m glad you took this vacation. We can do some things together, just you and me.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” he confessed. “I’m looking forward to having a few weeks off,” he lied convincingly, and wondered how he was going to survive the lack of anything challenging to do.
She grinned. “Good! You can help me work on those turns in barrel racing. I don’t guess you noticed, but I’m having a real hard time with them.”
He recalled what Jane Parker had said about Cherry, and he allowed himself to wonder if it might not do both women good to spend a little time talking together.
“You know,” he mused aloud, “I think I may have some ideas about that.”
“Really? What are they?”
“Wait and see.” He led her toward their car. “Let’s get something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved!”
“Me, too. How about Chinese?”
“My favorite.”
He put her into the old Ford he’d borrowed while his Ferrari was being serviced, and drove her back into Jacobsville.
They had lunch at the single Chinese restaurant that was nestled among half a dozen barbecue, steak and fast-food restaurants. When they finished, they went back out to the arena to watch the rest of the afternoon’s competitions. Cherry was only in one other event. She did poorly again, though, trying to go around the barrels. When she rode out of the arena, she was in tears.
“Now, now.” Todd comforted her. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“They didn’t have barrel racing in Rome!” she wailed.
“Probably not, but the sentiment is the same.” He hugged her gently. “Perk up, now. This is only the first rodeo in a whole string of them. You’ll get better.”
“It’s a waste of time,” she said, wiping her tears. “I might as well quit right now.”
“Nobody ever got anywhere by quitting after one loss,” he chided. “Where would I be if I’d given up when my first computer program didn’t sell?”
“Not where you are today, that’s for sure,” she admitted. “Nobody does software like you do, Dad. That newest word processor
