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“What’s all this—” He stopped, his gaze coming to an abrupt halt on Danielle.
“Hello, Travis,” Danielle said.
Travis’s body stiffened. “I didn’t know you were here.”
Since Travis had rescued Danielle from an embarrassing escapade with a barn and a bull, the two had been oil and water. But there wasn’t time to indulge in their little feud now.
“How fast can you get a decision at the state level?” Seth asked Danielle.
She pulled her attention back to Seth. “I can leave for Denver tonight.”
“How confident are you?” asked Caleb.
“Ninety-nine percent,” said Danielle. “I’d give it a hundred, but lightning might strike the courthouse before I can get there.”
“Do it,” said Seth, forcing Darby from his mind.
“Mandy and I’ll drop you off in Denver,” Caleb offered, rising. “I need to get back to Chicago.”
Mandy came to her feet, looking closely at Seth. “Damn the torpedoes?”
He wasn’t sure he got her point.
Taking in his expression, she clarified. “You’re throwing Darby under the bus.”
“Darby always knew the score.” He felt like a heel uttering the words. But they were true. He might like her, but he’d never promised to back off from the fight.
Mandy stopped beside him, speaking in a lower tone. “So nothing’s changed?”
He peered at her quizzically. “Why would anything have changed?”
“She told me you found her attractive.”
Seth wished he dared ask about the rest of that conversation, about Darby’s feelings for him. But he wasn’t about to do that now, maybe not ever.
“She’s a beautiful woman,” he allowed.
“Are you sending her mixed signals?” his sister demanded.
“No.”
He honestly wasn’t sure if he was lying about that. Was sleeping with her a mixed signal? Was letting her know she was getting under his skin a mixed signal?
“You’re going behind her back on this,” Mandy said.
“She knows I’m out to win.”
“Maybe so. But if you’ve given her reason to believe you care about her…”
He hadn’t. It wasn’t like either of them had kept their priorities a secret. Hell, she’d made jokes about sleeping with him in order to distract him from their fight. She wasn’t about to turn into a wounded deer because he’d found another avenue to fight her, he was sure. She was tougher than that.
“Don’t worry about Darby,” he told Mandy.
She gave him a pitying smile. “I’m not worried about Darby.”
He raised his brows in a question.
She gave him a pointed glare. “I’m worried about you.”
“Ready to go?” Caleb asked his wife.
“Ready to go,” Mandy confirmed.
As Danielle passed Travis on the way to the door, Seth heard him mutter, “Pretty cocky in your confidence.”
She paused without looking at him. “You wrangle the bulls. I’ll wrangle the judges.”
Travis leaned in and whispered something in her ear.
Her lips flattened out, and a blush rose on her cheeks.
What the hell was the matter with his little brother? Didn’t he know the woman was helping them?
“In your dreams,” muttered Danielle. “And in my nightmares.”
“Good luck,” Travis told her out loud.
She turned her head to meet his gaze, and Seth watched his brother give her an insultingly insolent once-over. Then his lips curved into a cocky smile. As he watched her walk away, lust was all but naked in his expression.
The door closed behind them.
“What is wrong with you?” Seth asked.
Travis blinked at him. “What?”
“Danielle is helping us. She’s doing us a favor.”
Travis dropped into an armchair. “If you want a shark on your team, she’s the one to call in, all right.”
“What is your problem with her?”
“You mean my problem with the uptight city chick who won’t give the dusty cowboy the time of day no matter how many favors he does her?”
Seth pointed at his brother. “Put your libido on hold, and check your ego at the door, and let the nice lady lawyer help us out here.”
“I hauled her sorry ass halfway across the Eldridges’ field, and she didn’t even have the grace to say thank you.”
“Get over it.”
Travis slumped back in his chair, the fight seeming to go out of him. “She’ll do a good job for you, Seth. She’s laser-focused that way.”
Seth dropped into another chair. “How would you know that?”
“From Caleb. From her. I’ve heard what she says, and I’ve seen what she does.”
“And you’re so into her, you can’t see straight.”
“It’s better when she’s not around,” Travis admitted. Then he gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Did you get a look at her?”
“She’s pretty,” Seth admitted. Not that he was remotely attracted to her. Which was odd, when he thought about it.
Maybe he’d been too focused on Danielle’s role as a lawyer to think about her in any other way. Or maybe he’d been so completely satisfied by Darby last night that he didn’t want sex today.
Well, except with Darby. If Darby was here, sex would be all Seth was thinking about.
“Seth?” Travis’s hard voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Hmm?”
“You better not be thinking about Danielle.”
Seth blinked his brother back into focus. “I’m not thinking about Danielle.”
“Good.”
No. Not good. It was fine to have a thing for Darby because she was a beautiful, sexy woman. But if it went beyond that, Mandy was right: he was going to get himself into a whole lot of trouble.
* * *
Darby tacked the new poster on the bulletin board in the foyer of City Hall. Captioned “Jobs for Lyndon Valley,” it was bright, friendly and positive. Children frolicked in the background on a wildflower-strewn meadow, while a rugged, working-class man gazed with satisfaction at his shiny new transport truck. Smaller print listed the economic benefits of developing local transportation options, including a trucking co-op.
It was late afternoon, and Darby had been putting the posters up all around town. They’d revamped the website, and they were working on a few new radio spots.
“New tactic?”
Seth was right behind her.
“I don’t think it’ll incite any bar fights,” she responded, pushing in the bottom tacks.
It had been three days since she’d seen him and made love with him. Still, the mere sound of his voice had the power to send tingles skipping along her nervous system. She wasn’t sure what would happen if she turned to look at him.
“Interesting.” He was obviously reading over her shoulder. “A trucking co-op?”
“Keep the jobs local,” she responded. Then she drew a bracing breath and turned. “Who wouldn’t be in favor of keeping the jobs local?”
“Kind of like apple pie and motherhood.” His deep blue gaze bore into hers.
“Perennial favorites,” she responded.
“How are you doing?” he asked in a lower tone.
“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to talk about anything that alluded to their night at her place, definitely not while standing in a public lobby. “Is the citizen discord staying under control?”
“A few public arguments and some letters to the editor, but nothing serious.”
“Good night, Mr. Mayor,” called a cheerful, female voice from across the foyer.
“Good night, Sally,” Seth responded over his shoulder. “Good luck to the boys.”
A thirtysomething woman gave a wave in response.
“My receptionist,” he explained to Darby. “Her six-year-old twins have a baseball game tonight.”
“Your staff seems to like you,” Darby observed.
As she had at the Rodeo Association dinner, she couldn’t help but notice how positively the city workers seemed to react to Seth.
“They’re a great bunch of people.”
Several more called and waved on their way out the door.
Darby knew she should say goodbye, as well. She hadn’t expected to see Seth here. Okay, maybe half of her had hoped she would, but the other half had definitely hoped she wouldn’t.
Her physical attraction to him was strong as ever, stronger, if that was possible, and it remained a colossally bad idea.
“I’ve missed you,” he told her quietly.
“You can’t do that,” she responded, equally quietly.
“I mean talking to you, debating with you. Life’s a little dull when you’re not around.”
“We can’t be seen together,” she told him.
“We can if it’s official business.”
