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Briefly Laura toyed with the idea of making an entrance, then rejected it as too dramatic. She paused in front of the mirror and absently ran a smoothing hand over the waistline of her teal-colored dress, then gave her blond hair a push to increase its fullness and exited the room to run lightly down the oak staircase.
As she reached its broad landing, her grandfather’s voice reached out to her. “There you are. I was just about to holler upstairs and let you know your guests had arrived.” He stood outside the double doors to the den, his aging body tilted to one side as he leaned on the support of his cane. “I thought you might want to be on hand to welcome this Crockett fellow in person.”
Laura opened her mouth to correct him, then saw the twinkle in his brown eyes. “Honestly, Gramps, you are as bad as Trey,” she admonished with affection and crossed the living room to his side.
“You mean that isn’t his name?”
“It’s Boone, and you know it. Now hold still. Your tie is crooked.” She reached up to center it. “And please try to be on your best behavior tonight. I think he might want to marry me.”
Unimpressed, Chase Calder responded with a harrumph. “He certainly isn’t the first.”
“I know.” Laura smoothed the lay of his collar. “But he’s the first I might consider accepting.”
“Really?” He showed his surprise.
“Yes, really. So, be good.”
“I thought you just met him when you were in Europe.”
Laura didn’t bother to recount the number of times she had seen Boone, first in Rome, then in England and on the Triple C. “Now, Gramps,” she reasoned instead, “when have you ever known me to be slow at making up my mind about anything? And just imagine the kind of splash a marriage between the Rutledges of Texas and the Calders of Montana would make.”
His gaze narrowed, anger flaring in the wells of his eyes. “I knew it was a mistake to let you spend all that time in Europe with Tara. That’s the kind of talk you hear from her.”
“But if I hadn’t gone, I might never have met Boone,” Laura responded.
“Do you love him?” The question bordered on a challenge.
Considering how close she had come to falling in love with Sebastian, Laura didn’t consider love to be the most trustworthy of emotions. But she had long ago learned that where women were concerned, her grandfather tended to be idealistic rather than pragmatic.
“Any woman could love Boone, including me.” She believed that. More importantly, Laura was confident of her ability to manage him. “Wait until you meet him, Gramps.” She hooked an arm around his and directed him toward the entry. “He’s one of those big, tall Texans with a potent animal magnetism that can make any girl’s heart beat faster.”
But her reply failed to provide Chase with much peace of mind. In his way of thinking, Laura put way too much stock in the things that Tara considered important. And that tended to color his attitude toward this Boone Rutledge.
Chase vaguely recalled having met Max Rutledge before, but most of what he knew about the family was by reputation. Rutledge was a name that carried weight in a lot of circles. And from what Chase had heard, the old man wasn’t shy about throwing it around. He was known for being a ruthless businessman and a demanding boss. As for the son, other than some idle talk about him being a disappointment to the old man, Chase knew nothing.
He looked Boone over good when Laura introduced him. The man was tall, as tall as Trey, with a more muscled chest and shoulders. He had his father’s hard features and a look of coarse masculinity that Chase supposed Laura had chosen to call “animal magnetism.” Try as he might, Chase couldn’t fault the courtesy and respect Boone showed him, but he took an instant dislike to the possessive way he looked at Laura. Something about it made his hackles rise in anger, but he couldn’t put his finger on just what it was.
All through the social hour that preceded dinner and the meal itself, Chase puzzled over it, contributing little to the conversation. A dozen times his attention strayed to the couple, observing the glances Laura slanted at Boone, subtly suggestive and flirtatious, the same kind that Tara had once practiced on his son Ty. And with each of Laura’s attentions, the possessive gleam in Boone’s eyes grew brighter.
By meal’s end Chase was no closer to identifying the thing that troubled him about Boone. Chase knew he was getting too damned old, and his discernment wasn’t nearly as sharp as it once had been.
There was only one man, other than Laredo, whose judgment he trusted. Chase started to get up, then sat back down in his chair and did something he would never have done under any other circumstances.
“Logan, will you give me a hand here?” he said, careful to inject the right note of impatience for his supposed infirmity.
Seated closer, Trey immediately pushed back his own chair. “I’ll help you, Gramps.”
“No.” Chase waved him off. “You take the rest of them into the den. We’ll be there directly. It’s just going to take me a bit longer than you young folks.”
Even with Logan’s assistance, Chase made certain they were the last ones to move away from the table. It didn’t take Logan long to catch on to his delaying tactics.
“What’s the problem?” Logan pitched his voice low to keep it from carrying.
“Laura’s new beau,” Chase muttered, his gaze tracking the man exiting the dining room with his granddaughter. “The way he looks at her.”
“You mean, like she’s a prize to be won?”
“That’s it.” The fog cleared in his mind. There was heat in the man’s look, but no warmth or tenderness, Chase realized.
