To Tempt a Cowgirl (31 page)

Everyone was grateful for that.

Now all Gabe had to do was to figure out what to do with his house. He might rent it, but for the time being, he was not going to sell.

* * *

D
ANI USUALLY DISCUSSED
everything under the sun with Jolie, no matter how personal, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to confess that Gabe had told her he’d bought the house for her. Well, for her
and
her sisters, but she knew it was mainly for her.

And despite that, he’d made no attempt to make contact with her. Was that because of guilt? Because he thought he owed her?

Or was it a new type of manipulation? He’d hang back, let her come to him?

She was thinking too much, analyzing too much. It was driving her crazy, so when Mac called to tell her he was back in town and would be hanging at his brother’s bar, Dani had told him she’d meet him there at nine, even though it was a Monday and she had a superfull schedule the next day. She needed to talk to someone who wasn’t involved in this mess she’d gotten herself into. More than that, she needed an objective opinion. If anyone would give it to her, it was Mac. He’d helped her buy a horse, so maybe he could help her out with this, too. A guy’s point of view—someone to tell her, yes, what Gabe did was a standard manipulative man ploy.

She spotted him the instant she walked into the bar, which wasn’t hard to do since he was a head taller than almost everyone there. He stood as she approached his table and enveloped her in a mighty hug. “I missed you,” he said after releasing her and waving her to a chair.

“I missed you, too,” she said as he lifted the pitcher and poured her a glass of Budweiser. He topped off his own, then raised his glass. “Salute.”

Dani smiled and drank. “So how’s life on the other side of the state?” she asked, wiping foam off her upper lip with the back of her hand.

“Lonely.”

“Awww...” Dani reached out to pat his upper arm in mock sympathy.

“I had a visitor, though.”

There was something in his tone... “Yeah?”

He nodded. “It was Gina.”

Dani’s mouth dropped open. “She traveled across the state to see you?”

“She did. Brought the little guy and everything.”

Dani had wondered why Gina asked about Mac every now and again in that almost too-casual voice and, looking back, her friend had perked up whenever his name had been mentioned. But she’d never considered the possibility of vivacious Gina hooking up with someone as steady and, well, almost boring, as Mac. Gina had always gone for the wilder guys, but now she had her son to think about.

“And how do you feel about that?”

From the way the color was creeping up his face, Dani got the feeling he felt pretty good about it.

“She’s been going through a lot—needed some time away from her mom.” Mac tightened a corner of his mouth. “We’ve been talking on the phone for a while, and then, well...she asked if she could come see me.”

“So are you going to keep seeing her?”

“I’d like to. I’m kind of scared of screwing up. I mean...this is two lives, here, Dan, what with her having a kid.”

“Yes, it’s different when there’s a child involved,” she agreed, even though she had no personal experience in that regard. And she hoped, really hoped, that Gina wasn’t just looking for a guy to be a decent father to her son. Gina was her friend, but so was Mac.

“Take it slow,” Dani said, thinking of Mel’s advice to her.

“I will. It may go nowhere, but...” He shrugged his big shoulders.

Dani lifted her glass in a salute and the mood between them began to edge back to comfortable—although it was going to take a while for her to get used to this whole Gina-Mac hookup. Talk about opposites attracting.

“So what’s going on with you?” he asked as he scooted his chair a little closer to the table, setting his elbows on either side of his glass.

“It’s been one strange summer, Mac.”

“I heard there’s going to be a water park next to your place?”

“I don’t know. The equipment is gone and...someone else bought the property.” She pushed her glass from one hand to the next as she debated how to dive into this getting-man-advice thing. “The, uh, guy who was supposed to get us to sell the Lightning Creek to Widmeyer Enterprises bought the property.”

“
He
wants to build the water park?”

“Not according to him.”

“Then...” he asked, obviously confused. “What’s going on, Dani?” She shook her head, still trying to come up with words. Mac waited almost a full minute before asking gently, “Why the sudden inability to articulate? What’s that about?”

“It’s about my own stupidity,” she blurted. “I liked this guy—Gabe. Really liked him. We got to know each other—I thought—but I didn’t get to know the real him. I got to know the him he wanted me to get to know.” Mac looked no less confused, quite possibly because she was rambling.

“Start at the beginning and go slow, okay?”

So Dani did, from the moment Gabe had engineered the meeting at Lacy’s pen right up to where he’d bought the Staley property and now had no intention of doing anything with it.

Mac was quiet for a long moment, then he said, “I get why you’re angry.”

After a few long seconds, Dani cocked her head. “But...?” she prompted, waiting for Mac to present another take on the situation, something she hadn’t considered, as he always did when they discussed life. He was a natural devil’s advocate.

“No buts. I get it.”

Great. The one time she was hoping for devil’s advocacy, she hears, “I get it.”

“So I should be outraged and angry.”

“I would be.”

Why did she feel deflated by his agreement? How sick was that? Dani took a bracing swallow of her beer, thought about ordering a shot. “Why do you think he bought the property next door only to have it lie fallow?”

“Maybe he cares about you.”

Dani’s chin lifted at the expected response, then she dropped her frowning gaze to stare at her glass. Gabe was a player. He had an angle.

“Why don’t you believe him?”

Dani glanced up again, her expression dark. “Gee. I don’t know. Maybe the fact that he spent two months working me?”

Mac gave a soft grunt of acknowledgement. “So...he was employed by Widmeyer, a friend, and came here on a professional mission.”

“Yes.”

“To make an offer on the property.”

“Yes.”

“If he’d come right out and offered on it when you first met him, what would you have done?”

“Turned him down.”

“Any chance he knew this?”

“Of course he knew it. That’s why he worked me,” Dani said impatiently.

“Just checking the facts. And now he’s failed on his mission, he quits Widmeyer’s and buys the property, which he has no plans for.” Mac raised his eyebrows as he met Dani’s gaze. “It wasn’t a cheap purchase, was it?”

She slowly shook her head, afraid to acknowledge the logical path Mac was laying forth. “So what’s in it for him?”

“That,” he said, lifting his glass, “is the question.”

Dani exhaled heavily. “Yeah...” She gave Mac a weary half smile. “You were supposed to have answers. Something brilliant that made everything clear.”

“You want things to be clear, you’ll have to talk to him.”

“I’d be afraid to believe him.”

“Why afraid?” Mac asked.

Dani closed her eyes. “Because he can hurt me.”
Still.
A truth she hadn’t wanted to face. “I don’t know if I can trust him. Or myself.”

“So, no matter what he does, he’s screwed...even if he cares for you.”

Dani didn’t want to think about him caring for her. “All I want is to have him out of my life, so I can re—”

She stopped abruptly, but Mac merely lifted his eyebrows and said, “Re
cover
?”

“Re
coup
—recoup my lost time.”

Mac lifted his bottle. “Here’s to recouping lost time.” He spoke the words in a way that told Dani he was talking as much about himself as her. He and Gina—go figure. Well, at least Gina was an open book. No secrets there. If she liked you, you knew it, and the same if she didn’t.

“Indeed.” She touched her glass to his, then once again took a long drink.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“
Y
OU SHOULD GO
see her.” Serena tipped her martini glass toward Gabe as she spoke, then lifted the olive out and popped it in her mouth, setting the toothpick aside.

“Not a good idea.”

“Kind of like dinner last night?” she asked archly.

“No. I liked meeting Lauren.” His date, an old friend of Serena’s, newly returned to the States from a stint in London, was attractive, articulate, warm and funny. Gabe had enjoyed her company, but when the evening ended, they’d parted ways with no intention of seeing one another again.

“Go settle things with Montana.” Serena’s nickname for Dani, since she couldn’t keep the sisters straight.

“Leave it,” he said seriously. She’d already drilled him about buying the place, then continuing to work from his apartment instead of from his new home.

“Fine.
I’ll
go see her,” Serena said. “Straighten matters out.”

Gabe gave a disparaging snort. “You do that.”

She arched an eyebrow at him in a way that was pure Serena. “I would if I wasn’t so busy keeping Neal...busy.”

“I’m happy for you.” Gabe took a long sip of whiskey. He
was
happy for them, glad that his friends had patched things up, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel a twinge—no, make that a wallop—of jealousy. “I don’t think I can patch my troubles up with a Crown Vic.”

“It took more than the Vic,” she said, swirling the remnants of her drink slowly. “It took a major attitude adjustment...on both our parts.” She gave a small sigh. “Mainly mine.” Then she leaned back in her chair. “I’m going back to Spokane to pick up another car from the Crown Vic guy. A perfect ’57 Chevy for me. Want to come? Road trip? Take your mind off things?”

“Is Neal coming?”

“Yes.”

Gabe laughed. “I don’t think Neal is going to want to have me along...but thanks for the invite.”

Neal eventually joined them and confirmed Gabe’s suspicions.

“No offense, love, but the backseat is not big enough for three.”

Serena blew out an impatient breath, then covered Neal’s hand with her own.

Gabe smiled with a touch of acid and signaled to the bartender to bring him another drink.

* * *

I
T WASN’T THAT
Gabe didn’t trust Serena...it was just that Gabe didn’t trust Serena when she had it in her head that she needed to help him fix his life. His drawings, his books, his rough-draft proposals—yes, she could have a hand in fixing those. His life? No.

After she and Neal set out on their weeklong road trip to pick up the new addition to their classic car family, Gabe found it even more impossible to focus than usual. What if she took him at his word and stopped to hash things out with “Montana”?

That was the very last thing he needed.

He needed to hash those things out himself. The sane way of doing that seemed to be to give her space. Help her believe that he wanted nothing tangible from her—that he respected her anger, understood her lack of trust. Hell, she was reacting just as he had in his untrusting days, after being burned a few times, so he honestly understood.

He hadn’t been forgiving or quick to trust, either. It’d taken years for him to control his defensiveness and even then he hadn’t been able to fully open up to anyone...until he’d met Dani. He trusted her.

She didn’t trust him.

He needed to do something about that and like Serena had so sweetly mentioned the night before, what would keep Dani from moving on with her life with someone else while he was so gallantly giving her time to stop being angry at him?

Later that day, he called his three clients, told them he’d be working from Montana the next few weeks, but everything would proceed on schedule. The next morning he flew out of Chicago into Missoula...in the midst of one of the earliest snowstorms in recent history.

* * *

“
I
’M GLAD YOU
decided not to travel today,” Dani said to Jolie, cupping the phone against her shoulder as she stared out into the solid mass of white filling her window. “It’s practically a whiteout.”

“Equally nasty here,” her sister said. “But Allie is making hot toddies, so all is well.” There was a voice in the background and then Jolie said, “Allie wants to know if you’ve heard anything new about Kyle’s rumored transfer.”

“Gina said it was a done deal,” Dani said. “And since the café is cop central, she probably knows.”

“I hope he goes soon.”

So did Dani. That would be one hurdle cleared as far as Allie putting her life on track. With Kyle on the other side of the state, he’d hopefully leave her alone. She was about to say so when a low mechanical groan from the furnace made her jump, then the lights went out.

“Just lost power,” she said to Jolie. “I’d better go.”

“Hey,” Jolie said, “stay in the house.”

“No kidding? And here I was going to go make a snowman.” She smiled and said, “Goodbye. Enjoy your furnace and electric lights.”

She hung up and turned to face her house. Empty. Silent. Lonely.

Kind of like certain aspects of her life.

She walked to the door to call Gus, whom she’d let out just before Jolie called. Dry snow swirled around her when she stepped out onto the porch, stinging her skin as she pulled the door shut behind her.

“Gus!” She hugged her arms around her middle, hunching over as the wind smacked into her. “Gus!” she yelled again, thinking that he couldn’t hear her over the wind, but he never strayed too far unless he was hot on the trail of a rabbit. Or deer. She’d seen a few does in the field with the cows when she’d fed them that morning.

The snow pelted against her face as she started toward the gate, calling Gus’s name. He had to be in the barn. A deep shiver ran through her and she reversed course, heading back to the house to get her coat and boots. A few minutes later she emerged from the house and headed toward the barn, following Gus’s tracks, which were rapidly being obliterated by the snow. She followed them around the barn toward the field where the deer had been pushing snow aside to graze earlier that morning.