under the circumstances? She looked down, surprised to see he was still holding her hand.
“What kind of party is this?” he asked as he let go, as if as reluctant to break the connection as she’d been. His gaze, however, came right back to her after he shook her sister’s hand.
“It’s our cousin’s engagement party,” Laci said.
He smiled. “Thank you, but I really couldn’t intrude.”
“It’s no intrusion,” Laci said, grinning curiously from Laney to Nick. “The entire town is invited and half the county. That’s the way things are done around here. Haven’t you seen the baby shower and anniversary notices in the local newspaper inviting the whole county? Welcome to small-town America.”
“A lot different from the big city,” Nick said. “But still I don’t think I—”
“It’s for our cousin Maddie Cavanaugh and her fiancé Bo Evans,” Laci interrupted. “It would be a good time to meet more of the locals. Everyone will be there.”
Laney saw the change in Nick’s expression. “Maybe I will reconsider,” he said. “When is this party?”
“Saturday afternoon,” Laci said. “Wear your dancing boots. Gramps will be playing his fiddle as part of the Whitehorse Country Band.”
Nick met Laney’s gaze. “Save me a dance?”
She nodded, feeling sixteen again and just as foolish because she was beginning to think this engagement party for Maddie wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
ARLENE EVANS LOOKED ACROSS the table at her handsome son and smiled. She’d suggested dinner at the Hi-Line Café because she had something important to announce.
“I’m going to have the steak sandwich,” Bo said, closing his menu. He glanced toward the street and drummed his fingers on the table as if bored.
Arlene tamped down her annoyance. “Have whatever you want,” she said, feeling magnanimous. Bo was the light of her life. Her son. The one who would carry on the family name. It was especially important to have a son when you lived on a farm. Sons stayed and worked the place and, although Bo had shown little interest in farming, she knew he would once he was married.
Daughters on the other hand, well, they were supposed to get married and leave.
She let her gaze shift from her son to her youngest daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte was staring at a lank of her long straight blond hair, looking for split ends. Arlene applauded Charlotte’s interest in her looks at seventeen. At least one of her daughters understood the importance of looking her best from her hair to her prettily painted acrylic nails.
Arlene glanced at her other daughter and scowled. Violet, her unmarried daughter, was her burden to bear. Not pretty, not overly bright, certainly not ambitious, Violet was thirty-four with few prospects. No matter what Violet wore, she looked…well, frumpy.
Her hair was a dull brown and her complexion muddy, and her nails! Arlene had done everything possible to break Violet of biting her nails and it had done no good.
Arlene feared her daughter would never marry and leave home as was natural. And how would that reflect on Arlene? She couldn’t bear such a blight on her as a mother.
“I’ll have a cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate milk shake,” Violet said tentatively.
“Are you sure you don’t want a nice salad, dear? All that fried food. It isn’t a problem for the rest of us, but with you watching your weight…”
Violet closed her menu. “Why don’t you order for me, Mother?”
Arlene thought she detected an edge to her daughter’s voice, but that would be so unlike Violet that she dismissed it.
“So what’s this about?” Bo asked impatiently. “You said you had something you wanted to tell us?”
Arlene refused to be rushed. Fortunately, the waitress came to take their orders just then. A steak sandwich and jojos for Bo, the grilled chicken salad for Violet, a side salad with vinegar and oil for Charlotte and a strawberry milk shake, the fish basket with fries for Arlene.
“So did anything interesting happen last night?” she asked Violet after the waitress had gone.
Violet looked at her brother. “Well,” she said dragging out the word, “I did see Maddie at the bar last night. She was dancing with Curtis McAlheney.”
“So?” Bo snapped. “It’s not like we’re married yet. She can dance with anyone she wants.”
“Curtis McAlheney?” Violet let out that irritating loud laugh of hers. “He’s old enough to be her father!”
“Please! Could we just have one meal together without you two arguing?” Arlene glared at Violet, took a breath and let it out slowly, upset to hear about Maddie.
She wondered if Maddie had been drinking. She wouldn’t have been surprised, given that Charlotte had gotten served when the bars were really busy even though she was only seventeen. Or maybe the girls had fake IDs. That would be just like Maddie.
“You weren’t with Maddie, Bo?” Arlene asked, surprised and a little concerned. She’d thought that he was meeting Maddie when he’d left the house before his sisters last night.
“I went to Havre with some friends,” he said, obviously not happy to hear that Maddie had been at the bar—and dancing with Curtis McAlheney even though Curtis was no prize. “It’s not like Maddie and I are attached at the hip, you know.”
“You’re right,” Arlene quickly agreed. “It’s good to have friends and do things with them even after you’re married.”
“If he gets married,” Violet said under her breath.
“What is that supposed to mean?” both Arlene and Bo demanded. Charlotte hummed quietly to herself, apparently oblivious to the rest of them.
Violet only gave her brother one of her that’s-for-me-to-know-and-you-to-find-out looks.
Arlene wanted to slap her. Instead, she decided it was time to make her announcement. “I have great news. I’ve started a home business.”
Both Bo and Violet were noticeably surprised. Charlotte glanced up, but went back to her split ends; she would never need a dating service.
“What kind of business?” Violet asked as if worried she might have to work it.
“On the Internet,” Arlene said excitedly. She’d done her best to find Violet a man, throwing her together with every eligible man she could find in several counties. Now it was time to expand her territory. “It’s an Internet dating service for rural singles.”
Violet gasped.
Bo began to laugh, shaking his head as his gaze went to Violet then his mother. “This is going to be good.”
ON SATURDAY, NICK TOLD HIMSELF he had no business going to a party in Old Town Whitehorse or anywhere else. His plan had been
