Page 36 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

I should smile at that.

I don’t.

Because now I’m irritated at whoever thought it was a good idea to go through her things.

“At first I thought maybe I lost it,” she says. “Maybe I dropped it. Maybe I switched cards and forgot.” She gives me a brittle shrug. “But I didn’t.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell Silas?” I ask.

Her laugh this time is immediate and disbelieving. “Oh, hell no.”

“Why not?”

She gives me a look over the rim of her glass. “Because your brother has all the warmth of a locked office.”

“Yeah,” I muse. “You might be right about that.”

Her mouth twitches.

“And Cody?” I try.

“Cody is already watching me like a hawk. I don’t think he’d appreciate a slip-up like this.”

“I don’t think you need to worry quite so much.”

She leans back against my headboard and stares up at the ceiling. “I’ve been here a week, Duke. I already found weird vendor charges. I’m the new outsider in a town that apparently runs on gossip and casseroles. The last thing I need is to be the woman who loses things and starts making accusations.”

I rise and cross to the dresser, mostly so I can move this irritation somewhere useful. I cut a lemon bar with more force than necessary and hand it over.

She blinks. “What’s this for?”

“Emergency dessert.”

“That’s not a real category.”

“It absolutely is. Ask anybody who’s survived this family.”

She takes it despite herself, and I watch the smallest bit of tension ease from her mouth when she bites in.

Good.

I take the chair again

“I hate that this upset me so much,” she says, the words a dagger to my heart.

“Why?”

“Because it’s embarrassing.”

I bark out a laugh. “Honey, half this town nearly fistfights over pie auctions and seed prices. Nothing about being human is dignified.”

“That’s a terrible comfort.”

“It’s what I’ve got.”