glanced down at Marilee. “You said she had more boyfriends than anybody else in town.”
Marilee cleared her throat. “Well, yes, boy friends. Not men friends, though,” she added, covering her bases. It was hard to make Janie look juvenile if she was also a heartbreaking rounder.
Leo felt placated, God knew why. “There’s a difference.”
Marilee agreed. A tiny voice in her mind chided her for being so mean to her best friend, but Leo was a real hunk, and she was as infatuated with him as Janie was. All was fair in love and war, didn’t they say? Besides, it was highly unlikely that Leo would ever ask Janie out—but, just in case, Marilee had planted a nice little suspicion in his mind to prevent that. She smiled as she walked beside him to his truck, dreaming of the first of many dances and being in Leo’s arms. One day, she thought ecstatically, he might even want to marry her!
Janie went through two more bags of flour with attempts at biscuits that became better with each failed try. Finally, after several days’ work, she had produced an edible batch that impressed even Hettie.
In between cooking, she was getting much better on horseback. Now, mounted on her black-and-white quarter horse, Blackie, she could cut out a calf and drive it into the makeshift corral used for doctoring sick animals. She could throw a calf, too, with something like professionalism, despite sore muscles and frequent bruises. She could rope, after a fashion, and she was riding better all the time. At least the chafing of her thighs against the saddle had stopped, and the muscles had acclimatized to the new stress being placed on them.
Saturday night loomed. It was only four days until the Cattleman’s Ball, and she had a beautiful spaghetti-strapped lacy oyster-white dress to wear. It came to her ankles and was low-cut in front, leaving the creamy skin of her shoulders bare. There was a side-slit that went up her thigh, exposing her beautiful long legs. She paired the dress with white spiked high heels sporting ankle straps which she thought were extremely sexy, and she had a black velvet coat with a white silk lining to defend against the cold evening air. Now all she lacked was a date.
She’d expected Leo to ask her to the ball after those hungry kisses, despite his coolness later that day. But he hadn’t been near the ranch since he’d had supper with her and her father. What made it even more peculiar was that he’d talked with her father out on the ranch several times. He just didn’t come to the house. Janie assumed that he was regretting those hard kisses, and was afraid that she was taking him too seriously. He was avoiding her. He couldn’t have made it plainer.
That made it a pretty good bet that he wasn’t planning to take her to any Cattleman’s Ball. She phoned Marilee in desperation.
The other woman sounded uneasy when she heard Janie’s voice, and she was quick to ask why Janie had phoned.
“I saw you with Leo in the grocery store week before last,” Janie began, “and I didn’t interfere, because I was sure you were trying to talk him into taking me to the ball. But he didn’t want to, did he?” she added sadly.
There was a sound like someone swallowing, on the other end of the phone. “Well, actually, no. I’m sorry.” Marilee sounded as if she were strangling on the words.
“Don’t feel bad,” Janie said gently. “It’s not your fault. You’re my best friend in the whole world. I know you tried.”
“Janie…”
“I had this beautiful white dress that I bought specially,” Janie added on a sigh. “Well, that’s that. Are you going?”
There was a tense pause. “Yes.”
“Good! Anybody I know?”
“N… no,” Marilee stammered.
“You have fun,” Janie said.
“You… uh… aren’t going, are you?” Marilee added.
Her friend certainly was acting funny, Janie thought. “No, I don’t have a date,” Janie chuckled. “There’ll be other dances, I guess. Maybe Leo will ask me another time.” After he’s got over being afraid of me, she added silently. “If you see him,” she said quickly, “you might mention that I can now cut out cattle and throw a calf. And I can make a biscuit that doesn’t go through the floor when dropped!”
She was laughing, but Marilee didn’t.
“I have to get to the hairdresser, Janie,” Marilee said. “I’m really sorry… about the ball.”
“Not your fault,” Janie repeated. “Just have enough fun for both of us, okay?”
“Okay. See you.”
The line went dead and Janie frowned. Something must be very wrong with Marilee. She wished she’d been more persistent and asked what was the matter. Well, she’d go over to Marilee’s house after the dance to pump her for all the latest gossip, and then she could find out what was troubling her friend.
She put the ball to the back of her mind, despite the disappointment, and went out to greet her father as he rode in from the pasture with two of his men.
He swung out of the saddle at the barn and grinned at her. “Just the girl I wanted to see,” he said at once. He pulled out his wallet. “I’ve got to have some more work gloves, just tore the last pair I had apart on barbed wire. How about going by the hardware store and get me another pair of those suede-palmed ones, extra large?”
“My pleasure,” Janie said at once. Leo often went to the hardware store, and she might accidentally run into him there. “Be back in a jiffy!”
“Don’t speed!” her father called to her.
She only chuckled, diving into her sports car. She remembered belatedly that she didn’t have either purse or car keys, or her face fixed, and jumped right back out again to rectify those omissions.
Ten minutes later, she was parking her car in front of the Jacobsville Hardware Store. With a wildly beating heart, she noticed one of the black double-cabbed Hart Ranch trucks parked nearby. Leo! She was certain it was Leo!
With her heart pounding, she checked her makeup in the rearview mirror and tugged her hair gently away from her cheeks. She’d left it down today deliberately, remembering that Leo had something of a weakness for long hair. It was thick and clean, shining like a soft brown curtain. She was wearing a long beige skirt with riding boots, and a gold satin blouse. She looked pretty good, even if she did say so herself! Now if Leo would just notice her…
She walked into the hardware store with her breath catching in her throat as she anticipated Leo’s big smile at her approach. He was the handsomest of the Hart brothers, and really, the most personable. He was kindness itself. She remembered his soft voice in her kitchen, asking what was wrong. Oh, to have that soft voice in her ear forever!
There was nobody at the counter. That wasn’t unusual, the clerks were probably waiting on customers. She walked back to where the gloves were kept and suddenly heard Leo’s deep voice on the other side of the high aisle, unseen.
“Don’t forget to add that roll of hog wire to the order,” he was telling one of the clerks.
“I won’t forget,” Joe Howland’s pleasant voice replied. “Are you going to the Cattleman’s Ball?” Joe added just as Janie
