brother’s words made her feel wanted, yet at the same time uncomfortable. He and the rest of the family had simply taken it for granted that she was home to stay. But Mercedes wasn’t at all sure that her life was meant to be spent on the ranch. Not when old memories and past mistakes continued to haunt her at every turn.
She was trying to push the unsettling issue of her future out of her mind when her gaze slipped past Lex’s shoulder to another couple circling the dance floor. So far this evening, she’d not spotted the horse trainer taking a turn to the music. She’d already decided the man wasn’t into dancing, but it looked as if she was wrong.
Alice Woodson, an old classmate of Mercedes’s, was snuggled up to him, looking as though she was enjoying every second of being in his arms. She would, Mercedes thought with a measure of sarcasm. The woman was man-crazy and had been since junior high.
“Yoo-hoo, sis! The song is over. Want to go another round?”
Realizing the music and her brother’s feet had both stopped, Mercedes looked up at him and hoped her wandering thoughts didn’t show. “I think I’ll sit this one out, Lex. I’m ready to get something to drink.”
Looping his arm around her waist, Lex ushered Mercedes off the dance floor. As the two of them walked to the nearest galvanized tub of iced drinks, Mercedes couldn’t help but ask, “Do you know why Mother invited Alice?”
Lex frowned. “She’s one of your old classmates, isn’t she?”
“Yes. But I never cared for her,” Mercedes muttered. “Although it seems that someone around here does.”
Lex followed Mercedes’s gaze as she watched Gabe escort Alice off the dance floor and over to a nearby table.
“Gabe and Alice?” Lex laughed. “He’s just being gentlemanly. I don’t think Gabe is much into women.”
Mercedes frowned as she reached down and plucked a diet soda from among the assortment of drinks. “What do you mean?”
Lex shrugged as though he didn’t much want to elaborate, which only made Mercedes even more curious.
Lex finally said, “I think he’s had a bad experience and doesn’t care to repeat it.”
Mercedes could certainly understand that. She’d spent the past eight years dodging men, telling herself that being alone was much better than having her heart ripped out, her trust shattered again.
Popping open the can, she took a sip as she covertly studied the horseman out of the corner of her eye. He was a tall devil, shaped like a wedge with strong broad shoulders and narrow hips. His jeans and Western shirt were probably pieces of clothing that he wore to work every day. Yet he wore the casual garments with so much class that he made all the other men seem ridiculously overdressed.
Mercedes’s lips pressed together as she watched Alice place a hand on Gabe’s arm. “Then he’d better stay away from Alice. She’ll try to devour him.”
Lex chuckled. “If you’re so worried about the man, why don’t you go to the rescue and ask him for a dance?”
Mercedes stared in thoughtful surprise at her brother. Back in high school, she’d been bold enough to ask a guy for a dance, or even a date. But once she’d grown older, once she’d loved and lost, her courage with men had faltered. Then later, when she’d learned the hard way that trusting a man was equal to rolling a dice, her desire to be close to one in any circumstance had dwindled down to nothing.
“Me?” she asked. “No. I’m not the type to ask a man to do anything.”
“Getting a little haughty, are we?”
Haughty? If she told her brother how insecure she really felt, he’d be shocked. But she didn’t want him to know that his once fearless sister had changed to a cautious soul, that she saw men as things that could hurt her rather than give her pleasure and companionship. “No,” she said curtly. “More like getting smart.”
With a roll of his eyes, Lex shook his head at her. “Coward.”
Why was it that her brother had always known exactly how to push her buttons? He could have said anything else and it would have rolled off her back. But being home on the ranch reminded her that being a Saddler meant facing a challenge head on. Mercedes wanted her brother to see she was still worthy of the family name.
With a toss of her head, she gave Lex a cunning smile and then started off in Gabriel Trevino’s direction. After all, the worst the man could do was turn her down. And even if he did, it was only a little dance. She wouldn’t let it bother her.
Alice saw her coming first and Mercedes watched a plastic smile form on the other woman’s face.
“Mercedes, have I told you tonight how fabulous you look?” Alice asked as Mercedes edged up to the table where the pair were sitting in folding metal chairs. “The Air Force must be getting lax, ’cause you look as if you’ve spent the past month in a spa. ‘Course, it wasn’t as if you were toting a gun through the jungle or anything.”
Mercedes merely looked at the woman, and Alice, sensing she’d just chewed on her own foot, began to giggle nervously.
“It’s great to see you, Alice. I’m glad you could make it tonight,” Mercedes said politely, then turned a questioning gaze on Gabe. “Would you care to dance with me, Mr. Trevino? When the band starts playing Bob Wills, I can’t keep my feet still and Lex is all tuckered out.”
“Yeah, Lex looks plumb beat,” Alice said mockingly.
Ignoring the other woman’s jab, Mercedes watched Gabe’s gray eyes flicker with surprise, but then slowly he rose to his feet and reached for her arm.
He said, “Excuse me,” to Alice, and the woman made some sort of reply, but Mercedes didn’t hear it. Her ears were roaring with her own heartbeat as the two of them walked toward the elevated dance floor.
“What was that all about?” he asked once they were a few steps away from Alice. “You have a grudge against that woman?”
“Not really. I just thought you ought to know she’s a maneater. She’s already been through two husbands and she hasn’t celebrated her thirtieth birthday yet.”
To her surprise, he chuckled.
“Do I look like a man who can’t take care of himself?”
He looked like a man who could take care of anything. But she’d only just met the man; she was hardly ready to give him a gushing compliment.
“I don’t know. Can you?”
“I’ve survived thirty-five years,” he said curtly. “I’m doing okay.”
By the time they reached the dance floor, the western swing number had finished and the lead singer began to sing a slow ballad about lost love. It wasn’t the sort of dance she’d intended to have with Gabe Trevino, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now except step into his arms and move to the music.
“Why did you ask me to dance?” he asked bluntly as his hand settled at the back of her waist.
His arms were rock-hard
