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“Just that. There was someone outside watching me through the window.” She was blunt with her answer, her eyes cold in their regard of Tara.
“Just now?” Sally gaped at her.
“That’s ridiculous. You must have imagined it,” Tara insisted.
“You mean, while you were changing Laura’s diaper?” Cat said, as stunned as Sally.
Ignoring all of them, Jessy headed for the door, as eager as the men to confront the man. Tara, Sally, and Cat were quick to follow her.
Jessy reached the front walk in time to hear Chase bark, “Stop right there, Buck.”
As she rounded the corner of the house, Jessy spotted the three men converging on a fourth, dressed in jeans, a blue chambray shirt, and a cowboy hat. Buck swung around to face them with an almost studied nonchalance. Even with the brim of his hat shading his features, there was no doubt in Jessy’s mind Buck was the same man she had seen moments ago.
“What’s got you in such an uproar, Chase?” Buck drawled with a kind of lazy innocence.
“You were seen looking in the window, Buck,” Chase stated, a steely flatness to his voice.
Buck drew his head back in a show of surprise. “What window? What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“Don’t try to bluff your way out of this, Buck,” Chase warned. “It won’t work.”
Before Buck had a chance to respond, Tara arrived and inserted herself into the conversation. “Jessy claims there was a man outside the window watching her a few minutes ago.”
“Well, she’s wrong,” Buck declared forcefully.
Ty took an angry step forward, “You were warned—”
Logan laid a restraining hand on his arm and smoothly placed himself between Ty and Buck. “Why don’t you tell us what you’re doing out here, Buck?”
“I noticed somebody skulkin’ around the house.” Buck kept his eyes on Ty. “I figured it was probably O’Rourke and came over to take a look-see. For all I know, I could’ve been standin’ in front of a window, but I sure as hell wasn’t lookin’ in. I was tryin’ to spot where O’Rourke had disappeared to.”
It was a plausible explanation, one that Jessy found difficult to refute. The many folds of the sheers had prevented her from seeing more than the silhouette of a hatted man. Any other details had been obscured.
“There’s your answer.” Tara lifted her hand in a presenting gesture. “Obviously Jessy only imagined that he was peering in the window. Isn’t that right?” Her dark gaze gleamed with confidence.
“It’s possible,” Jessy admitted, still searching her memory in an attempt to pinpoint the reason she had been certain the man was looking inside.
“Culley is around here somewhere,” Logan inserted quietly. “I caught a glimpse of that bay gelding he always rides grazing in one of the draws as we were driving in.”
“You see, it was all a mistake,” Tara proclaimed and cast a pitying smile at Jessy. “It’s an easy one to make. I know if I saw a man standing outside a bedroom window, I would assume he was looking in. Any woman would.” She turned her smile on the others. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m relieved
this whole fuss was over nothing.”
“Just make sure it stays that way,” Ty warned, continuing his stare-down of Buck.
Wisely, Buck made no response to that.
But Tara was quick to slide a calming hand over Ty’s arm. “Ty Calder, I swear you are just itching for a fight,” she chided, all beguiling charm. “This is a special evening for me. Don’t you go spoiling my first dinner party.” Then, as if to end this confrontation once and for all, she smoothly glanced at Buck. “Go on back to the trailer. And pay no attention if you see Culley about the place. He isn’t likely to cause any harm.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Buck dipped his head in a respectful nod and backed up a few steps before turning to head toward the trailer.
“Let’s go inside, shall we?” Tara suggested to all of them. “Dinner will be ready soon, and I still haven’t shown you the rest of the house.”
The incident was not referred to again that evening, but the memory of it stayed, like an uninvited guest at the table, creating a tension that didn’t allow any of them to totally relax.
Later that night back at The Homestead, the twins fell asleep almost before the covers were tucked around them. Bending, Jessy smoothed a dark strand of hair off Trey’s forehead.
“They’re exhausted,” she murmured to Ty.
