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Chase glanced at the doorway, but Jessy was the only one who came through it after Trey. “Where’s Laura?” He frowned.
“Better not wait dinner on her.” Trey pulled out his customary chair and lowered himself onto it. “She’s on the phone with Crockett. She’s likely to be cooing in his ear for another hour yet.”
“Now, Trey,” Jessy murmured in light reproval.
“It’s true.” He pulled his napkin off the table and laid it carelessly on his lap. “What do you want to bet we’ll have the dubious pleasure of his company again this weekend? What’s he been here—three or four times since the sale? For the life of me, I don’t understand what Laura sees in him.”
“You mean other than the fact he’s rich and good-looking,” said Laredo.
“And full of Texas swagger,” Trey added, his disgust for the man showing. “Or haven’t you noticed the way he walks around like he’s the he-bull of the prairie.”
“If he seems a bit standoffish, maybe it’s because you haven’t acted all that friendly to him,” Jessy suggested.
“I’ve met his kind before.” Trey’s tone was dry with cynicism. “I have a hunch he figures he’s too important to need friends. And I’m not the only one who thinks that. Quint feels the same way about him.”
Trey’s assessment of the man was one that Chase shared. What he disliked about Boone was more an aura than any overt action. It pleased him that Trey had picked up on it. It certainly didn’t surprise him that Quint had.
“Speaking of Quint,” Jessy began, making a tactful change of subject, “have you talked to Cat lately? I was curious how Quint’s getting along since he reported back for work.”
“Fine, I guess,” Chase replied. “Although Cat did say that he tires quickly.”
Trey smiled. “I talked to him last night. He said he was getting stronger every day. Now that they put the walking cast on him, he’s gotten rid of the crutches and started using a cane. Sort of like you, Gramps.”
“With one difference: he’s a few years younger.”
They were halfway through the meal before Laura joined them. “Sorry I’m late,” she offered in breezy apology as she slid into her chair.
“Trey explained that you were on the phone with Boone,” Jessy said in a show of understanding.
“I was. Then I had to call Tara and talk to her.”
“About what?” It was Chase who made the challenge.
“Boone wanted to fly up this weekend, but he’s going to be tied up at the ranch. He wants me to fly down there instead.” She took the platter of roast beef that Laredo passed to her. “So I had to call Tara and see whether she would be free to go with me. After all, it wouldn’t look right for me to stay at the ranch with Boone without someone to serve as a chaperone, and I knew it would be impossible for you to get away, Mother.”
“It is,” Jessy confirmed, yet it stung that she hadn’t been asked first. “So, are you going?” she asked.
Laura nodded and forked a slice of beef onto her plate. “We’ll leave Friday morning, probably around ten o’clock, and fly back Sunday afternoon sometime.”
The wheelchair made almost no noise as it rolled across the stone floor of the living room in the sprawling ranch house. Ignoring the soft whirr of its motor, Boone crossed to the bar, took a glass off the shelf, and reached for the bottle of bourbon.
“I heard the phone ring.” Max Rutledge’s voice reached across the room to demand his attention. “Is she coming or not?”
“She’s coming.” Boone poured a full jigger of liquor into the glass, added some ice cubes and a splash of water. “So is Tara.”
“Smart girl,” Max said with approval. “There are some who’d look sideways at a woman who’d spend the weekend here alone.”
“That’s what she said,” Boone acknowledged.
“Tomorrow you go into town and buy her a ring. Get her something big and flashy that she can show off, but nothing as ordinary as a diamond—unless you can find a yellow one. A yellow diamond,” Max repeated, warming to the possibility. “That’s exactly what you need to get.”
“Isn’t that rushing things a bit?” Boone countered. “I’ve only known her a little more than a month.”
“If you haven’t gotten her to fall in love with you in a month, you never will.” His dark eyes narrowed on Boone in sharp suspicion. “Or is that the problem? You figure she’s going to turn you down.”
“I don’t think that at all.” But at the same time, he wasn’t certain she’d accept him, either. It was the pressure of that uncertainty that had Boone downing a hefty swallow of bourbon.
