Page 63 of Pure Temptation in Cowboy Boots

Mac’s smile was sad. “I wish you were right, Dozer. But I’ve listened to Tess go on about this for years. You guys got so much recognition with your football that she felt overshadowed most of the time.”

“Yeah, but she was in those plays,” Tim said.

“I know, but Copperville folks don’t get as excited about plays as they do about football games. You know she once considered trying to make it on Broadway.”

Rhino groaned. “We were all having a heart attack over that plan, too.”

“That Broadway idea was because of us?” Dozer asked.

“In a way. It would have made a splash. At any rate, thinking about a career on Broadway got her hooked on the idea of New York, but she finally realized she didn’t want to act for a living, so she decided to get a job in New York as the next best thing. Because no one else in the family has done anything remotely like that, it’ll be her badge of honor. I think she needs to go.”

“I can’t believe she’s been jealous of us, when she was so smart, pulling down A’s all the time,” Hammer said.

“Pulling down A’s doesn’t rate a picture in the paper. Don’t get me wrong. She’s proud as heck of all of you, but she wants her own claim to fame. This is it.”

Rhino stroked his chin. “You seem to know her pretty well.”

Hammer coughed. “A little too damn well, if you want my opinion. Why didn’t you just tell her you wouldn’t do it, Mac?”

“I should have. God, I know I should have. But she seemed so determined to make this happen. She was considering Donny Beauford.”

A strangled noise came from Rhino, and Dozer choked on his beer.

“God bless America,” Hammer said. “Beauford?”

“I’d ten times rather have Mac than Beauford,” Tim said. “Make that a hundred times.”

A silence fell over the brothers as each of them seemed to be contemplating the horrors of Donny Beauford with their sister.

“I guess it had to be somebody, sooner or later,” Tim said at last.

“We knew that,” Rhino said. “But we wanted to make sure it was the right guy.”

“I’ve been wondering about something,” Mac said. “How were you planning to supervise Tess’s dating life once she moved to New York?”

Rhino grinned. “We had a special picture made of all four of us and we planned to give it to her as a going away present.”

“And we had the photographer squat and point the camera up, so we all look huge,” Tim added.

“We’re going to tell her to keep it right by her bedside to remind her of her family,” Dozer said. “Any guy who sees that might think twice, especially if we pay a few surprise visits to New York now and then.”

Mac shook his head. “Amazing.”

“We might not have to worry so much now,” Rhino said. “If we want to look on the bright side of this disaster, Mac might have done us a favor.”

Hammer glared at Mac. “I can’t buy that.”

“Think about it,” Rhino said. “You know how she is once she settles on someone or something. Like a little bulldog. If she’s carrying a torch for Mac, she won’t be interested in any of those city slickers.”

Mac thought that was one of the best things he’d heard all night. Unfortunately it didn’t change the fact that Tess would be leaving and he would be staying. His life was about to become very empty, more empty than he could imagine. So if he wanted to keep his sanity, he wouldn’t even try to imagine life without Tess.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Tess knew that her last two weeks in Copperville would be rough, but she hadn’t understood the half of it. She ached from wanting Mac, but she’d expected that. The need for him was always there, a subterranean current that sometimes bubbled to the surface and threatened to drown her. But the moments she hadn’t expected were worse — moments when her first impulse was to share some little detail of her life with Mac, until she realized she could no longer do that.

There was the time she rescued Sarah’s kitten from a tree, and the hysterical sight of Mrs. Nedbetter riding around on her new mower, even though she had a postage-stamp lawn. Tess would hear a good joke or read an article about a new technique for breeding horses, and pick up the phone. And then the truth would hit her. No matter what he’d promised about always being friends, their friendship was dead.

The most exquisite torture of all lay ahead of her. Her parents’ anniversary party was no longer a surprise — surprises seldom worked out in Copperville. Once the secret was out, her family had decided to combine an anniversary barbecue in the park with a going-away party for Tess. Most of the population of Copperville would be there... including Mac.