to Eton? Even I’ve heard of that. Where did you go for college?”
“For university you mean? I went to St. Andrews in Scotland, naturally.”
Naturally. “Did you always do what your family expected of you?”
He picked up his goblet and swirled the wine in the candlelight, his expression growing wistful. “Father used to say that he could count on me for anything. I mean, he was close to all of his children and loved us all equally. But even Mum will tell you that Father and I shared a special bond. We enjoyed the same things like polo, managing finances, being with our families—even watching old cowboy movies.”
“I would have liked to have met him.”
Jensen reached into his pocket for a moment, then withdrew his hand. “My father and I even shared a love of airplanes, although he was a pilot and I wasn’t.”
“Did you ever think of taking flying lessons?”
“Occasionally. But now that he’s gone, I think about it even more. What I’d really like to do is purchase a jet. That way, I could visit my family in Texas whenever the fancy struck.”
“Seriously?”
Again, he reached into his pocket. “Well, I’ll probably take those flying lessons. And I might even buy a jet. But I’d hire the pilots.”
She lifted her linen napkin, trying to hide the smile that touched her lips. If he flew here regularly, she’d get to see him more often. But she didn’t want to corner him into making promises out of an offhand comment, so instead she said, “You keep reaching into your pocket. Why is that?”
“Oh.” He pulled out an antique gold watch. “This was my father’s, and his father’s before him. It’s silly really, but whenever I think about him, I have a habit of toying with it.”
“That’s sweet. How did he pass?”
His expression dimmed, and for a moment, she thought he might change the subject, but he looked up from the treasured heirloom and continued. “He died of a massive coronary while playing polo four years ago—almost to the day. The family was devastated.”
Amber thought of Pop’s death, what his loss had meant to her and how she’d given up her rodeo career in order to return to the ranch to be with Gram and to help her through it.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“So am I. It wasn’t easy to step in and take over the helm of the family holdings and investments—but not because I couldn’t handle it. My father had trained me well, and I was already doing much of that when he died. The difficult part was that I suffered more than just the loss of my father and the family patriarch. I lost my best friend and confidant.”
The grief he still carried after four years was etched deeply in his face, and her heart went out to him.
“I suspect that you handled it all with grace—and that you did your best to take care of everyone else.”
“My father would have expected it. And my mother needed me to be strong.”
“Did you have anyone to lean on at the time?”
What she was really asking was if he had a girlfriend or a significant other in his life. But even though it had come out innocently and seemed like a natural question to ask, she knew better and winced at her inappropriate curiosity, especially at a time when he was sharing his heart.
It was just that she’d like to have a small part of his heart—if he’d only give it to her.
“I started to talk to my mum about it one day,” he admitted, “but she was so heartbroken herself, I couldn’t burden her with my grief.”
“What about friends or...someone else?” There she went again, probably sounding like an insecure teenager, prying about the other women in his life when she ought to wait for a more opportune time.
But Amber would have given anything to be the one who’d comforted him back then, the one he could have opened up to.
“I realize the tabloids all seem to say that I’m one of England’s most eligible bachelors. And while I do attend plenty of social events and usually have a lady on my arm, that’s merely an image I project.”
“I can’t believe women aren’t clamoring to date you,” she said, a green twinge of jealousy rising up inside.
“Perhaps they are. But my life isn’t as glamorous as it seems.”
The life he lived didn’t seem the least bit glamorous to her—not if he didn’t love her back and she couldn’t be a part of it.
“Every time I appear in public with a woman, the gossip columns predict a wedding. And if I go on my own, without a date, they wax poetic about why I won’t commit.”
“That must be aggravating.”
“It is. I’m very careful about what I do and the image I project—just as my father was. I wouldn’t do anything to soil the family name. But I’ve learned to take those tabloid headlines in stride. I’m stronger than my sister Amelia in that respect. She went through terrible turmoil last spring when they falsely announced her engagement to Lord James Banning. So don’t believe everything you read.”
She leaned back in her chair, somewhat comforted. “So no ladies back home are spitting nails because you showed up in the tabloids kissing a Texas cowgirl?”
“Absolutely not. I wouldn’t have done what we did the other night if I was involved with anyone that way.”
Of course he wouldn’t. Amber would expect nothing less of the prim and proper Jensen, but it still felt good to hear him say it out loud.
“So what about you?” he asked, changing the subject. “Did it hurt to give up the rodeo?”
“I told my grandmother that I’d grown tired of the traveling and being away from home. But Gram is my only family. And I didn’t want her to think I’d sacrificed my dreams to be with her while she grieved.”
The maître d’ came by to take their orders—the prime rib for him and the herb chicken and red potatoes for her.
She assumed the topic of their conversation would change, but after he left, Jensen asked, “Why the rodeo?”
“Because I’m good at it, for one thing. But I also did it for Pop. My dad used to compete, which tickled him to no end. But when he married my mom, she thought bronc riding was too dangerous. So he gave it up, moved to Houston and got an office job. After my dad died, she couldn’t support me on her own. So she moved home to the Broken R.”
“Then you took up barrel racing?”
She smiled. “I couldn’t ride broncs, but it was a way to compete in the rodeo—and to make my pop proud.”
“From what I heard, you were a natural.”
“That’s what Pop said.”
“So you just gave it
