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“Couldn’t say,” Laredo said blandly.
Jessy gave him a puzzled, uncertain look. “What do you mean?”
“Just what I said. For all I know he could be awake, but not here.” He swung the door open wider. “His bed hasn’t been slept in.”
“You mean—He never came back last night?” she said as her gaze made its own confirmation with a quick sweep of the unrumpled bed.
Wise
to the smallest nuance in her tone and expression, Laredo detected the note of concern. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” he told her. “If Trey’s in any trouble at all, it’s probably the female kind.”
“The photographer he was with yesterday,” Jessy guessed, an acceptance settling into her expression, the kind that came from being a woman in an essentially male world, with all its occasional crudities. If she personally found it offensive that a man took a woman purely for his own sexual gratification, she had learned to keep it to herself.
“That would be my guess,” Laredo agreed. “Looks like you’re ready to head out for breakfast.”
“You’re not.” She touched a finger to the patch of lather on his neck.
“It’ll only take me a couple minutes to finish up.”
“In that case, I’ll make a quick call to the ranch and see how things are there.” Her glance again strayed to the unmade bed. “I imagine Trey will show up sometime—to shower and change clothes.”
“He always does.” Laredo’s tone was dry with amusement.
A reluctant smile tugged at her mouth. “I sound like a mother, don’t I?”
“I kind’a like it,” Laredo said. “You don’t often let yourself be female.”
Rising on her toes, she pressed a warm kiss on his mouth, all tender and loving, then drew back before Laredo could turn it into something more. “Go finish shaving,” she ordered. “I’m hungry.”
Uncowboy-like, Trey put his hat on last and snugged it down, then cast a glance about the motel room. Sloan had rolled out of bed the minute the alarm went off and headed straight into the bathroom, emerging a few minutes later fully dressed. With a couple of pillows propping him up, Trey had watched while she knelt beside the camera case and loaded her vest pockets with film and gear.
“Aren’t you coming?” she had asked, managing to spare him an over-the-shoulder glance.
“I’ll catch up with you later in the morning,” he told her rather than admit that pride wouldn’t let him compete with a camera for her attention.
Satisfied that she had everything she might need, Sloan had crossed to the bed and leaned across to give him a warm, lingering kiss, then eluded his attempt to pull her onto the bed with him.
“I’d bring you some coffee, but I don’t want to lose the light.” Then she had gone, leaving him alone.
Trey wasn’t really sure how long he had lain there before he finally got up. He only knew he wasn’t in the best of moods, and he wasn’t sure who or what to blame for that.
In a weary gesture, he rubbed a hand over his mouth and cheek and felt the scrape of his beard growth. A shower, shave, and change of clothes were in order. Then he could figure out the next step.
Though he was aware that time was passing, there was no hurry in his stride when he crossed to the door and opened it. As he stepped into the hall and paused to pull the door firmly shut, footsteps sounded behind him. Casting an idle glance in their direction, he saw a sleepy-eyed Kelly Ramsey. With her face strangely bare of all makeup and her blond hair straggling loose from her ponytail, it took a second for Trey to recognize her.
Kelly had no such difficulty as her expression took on a stricken look. “Trey.” His name slipped out, and her hand lifted to smooth her hair. Her mouth twitched with a self-conscious smile. “I guess you can tell I just got up,” she said, then went still for a split second before darting a sharp, quick look at the door to Sloan’s room. A swirl of questions and suspicions was in her eyes when she shifted her gaze back to him. “Did you just get up, too?”
Her question was anything but innocent, and Trey knew it. “A little while ago,” he replied and let her think what she liked.
“We missed you at the street dance last night. I guess you were otherwise occupied.” Her smile was taunting.
He ignored her latter comment. “Had a good time last night, did you?”
“Of course.”
“Glad to hear it.” Trey nodded a little curtly. “See you around.”
He struck out down the hall, his strides lengthening to put distance between them. He figured that Kelly knew it wasn’t his room, considering that the range telegraph usually worked as well in town as it did on the ranch, and most Triple C ranch hands knew which rooms the Calders occupied.
