man. He’d been silent so long, and her conversation with Gavin had been so intense, she’d almost forgotten his presence. It was one of her brother’s two partners, Cal McKinney.
She stared at him as if he had just magically appeared in a puff of smoke. He was tall, but not as tall as Gavin. He was wider in the shoulders, and he carried himself like the rodeo cowboy he’d once been. He was a devilishly handsome man with thick brown hair and long-lashed hazel eyes.
In his late thirties, he still had a boyish air, even more so when he smiled and showed his dimples. He showed them now. “You’re perfect for this, Tara. You know it. Gavin knows it. I know it. And Spence goes along with us.”
Spencer Malone was the third partner. She knew him, but not nearly as well as she knew Cal. And Cal, bless him, was generous to a fault. So was Gavin, where she and Del were concerned.
“I—I couldn’t do it. And you’d just be doing it as a favor because Gavin thinks I need to get away from here. I—”
“No.” Cal’s smile faded. “You’re doing us the favor. Didn’t you study design in college?”
“Yes.” Her major was design, her minor equestrian studies. It might seem an odd combination to some, but to her it had been as natural as breathing. It was she, not Sid, who’d done most of the renovation on the little ranch outside Santa Clarita. Sid couldn’t read a blueprint or pound a nail in straight.
Cal said, “Serena and I’ve seen your ranch. You did a top-notch job on it. I know that’s true ’cause Serena tells me and that woman’s got taste.”
“In everything but husbands,” joked Gavin.
“Especially in husbands,” Cal shot back, grinning.
Cal moved to the middle of the room. He and Gavin were both horsemen, but Cal, Texan to his marrow, always dressed the part. His boots and belt were hand-tooled, his sky-blue shirt Western-cut.
He said, “Here’s our plan. I’m gonna have a ranch on the western edge of this land. Spence wants to build the main community section, small estates in sync with the environment. But he doesn’t start until the equestrian section’s finished.”
Gavin moved to Cal’s side. “Cal and I have to get to Crystal Creek, meet Spence, finalize some things. Then I need to get back to Hawaii. When I’m done there, I’ll come back to Texas to keep an eye on the start of main construction. You fix up the west wing of the house for me. Who knows what I like better than you?”
Tara looked at these two men and was staggered by their generosity, fascinated by their offer, yet at the same time wary.
“Texas is a long way off. It’s a long way to take Del.”
“I told you,” Cal said. “I got people there. My daddy’s just retired and is off gallivantin’ for a while. But his cousin Bret’s managing the ranch. Big Bret. He’ll be right next door. My sister and brother-in-law are there. You’ll love my sister—she’s horse-crazy as you. Serena and I have friends there, too, and they’ll help you out. You got my word on it.”
Tara was still uncertain. “No. It doesn’t feel right. I’m not the little match girl. I don’t want to take charity. I don’t want to go imposing on people I’ve never met. I—I—”
“You’re scared,” Gavin said. “Once you would have jumped to go. But Sid and Burleigh have knocked the starch out of you. You’re afraid to take chances.”
Confusion disappeared in a flash of indignation. “I am not afraid. Our parents raised us to take chances.”
“Then what’s the matter? You don’t think you’re up to it? Loss of confidence?”
“Certainly not!” she retorted. “Restore a house? A lodge? Get a stable put up? Damned straight I could do it.”
“You really think so?” he asked.
“Yes, I do. Yes, I could,” she said before she knew the words were out of her mouth.
“Well, then,” Gavin said, as if in philosophic resignation, “That’s that. Cal, how fast you think we could get her set up there?”
“Under ordinary circumstances, two or three months. But put my sister on the job—four weeks, easy.”
Gavin narrowed his eyes. “And Sid won’t try to stop you. You know that.”
To her sorrow, she knew.
With a certain slyness, Cal said. “Texas law’s different from California law. It’ll put another obstacle in what’s-his-name’s path.”
Burleigh, she thought. And any move that slowed down Burleigh was a good one.
“It won’t be easy,” Gavin warned. “There was a flood that did considerable damage downstream. Most construction workers are tied up there. Labor’ll be hard to find.”
“Lynn’ll help her.” Cal shrugged as if the matter were already resolved. He glanced at his plate, sitting empty on the desk, then at Gavin’s. “Gavin, if you don’t want the rest of that sandwich, can I have it? Tara, what about that salad?”
Did I just agree to go to Texas? She asked herself, dazed. Yes. I think I did.
Numbly she passed her salad bowl to Cal. “How can I settle in Texas in only a month? Things would have to be done at warp speed.”
Cal picked up a fork and speared a cherry tomato. “Just leave it to the McKinneys, darlin’.”
Gavin gave him a sardonic glance. “Texans. Always bragging.”
“Well, you know what they say,” Cal answered. “If it’s true, it ain’t braggin’.”
CAL HADN’T BEEN BRAGGING.
Exactly one month later, Tara was in Crystal Creek, Texas.
She sat, temporarily alone, in the kitchen of a kindly, cheerful stranger who was not quite a stranger—Lynn McKinney Russell.
Today Tara and Lynn had met face-to-face for the first time after a frantic month of e-mails and phone calls. Tara had smiled and chatted, asked and answered questions over coffee.
The whole time she’d pretended that all of this was normal. She’d pretended that she was the most confident woman in the world. Inwardly she still wondered how in hell she suddenly found herself halfway across the continent, a California girl in the heart of cowboy country.
She stole another glance out Lynn’s kitchen window to check on Del. He was playing lustily on a backyard jungle gym, almost wildly. After all, he’d been cooped up in the truck so long. His black-and-white terrier, Lono, released from his cage, happily chased about the yard.
This morning had seen the last leg of the journey. Tara had driven from Dallas through Austin, then to this little town and to Lynn’s house. Lynn had already done a hundred kindesses for her and Del, and she had welcomed them like family.
Del was clearly happy and excited because he had, for a while at least, what all only children most desire, a playmate.
