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“And your father’s cattle ranch and the oil wells?”
“I’m his partner.”
Her fingers covered her mouth and she expelled her breath on a long, shuddering sigh. “Leigh.” He took the hand she held against her mouth and grasped it hard. “Does my bank account bother you? Would you rather I were a mechanic and nothing more?”
“No, Chad, no it’s not that, though I admit I’m a little intimidated by… by all this. Greg, as dangerous as his job was, was still a government employee. I just can’t get used to the idea of such affluence.”
“Don’t think about it. It means nothing. If I were a mechanic barely scraping out a living from odd jobs and had you and Sarah, I’d feel like the richest man alive. And if I didn’t have you, none of this,” his hand swept the room, “would be worth a damn to me. Today, for the first time, this house has been important. And only then as a home to bring you and Sarah to.”
The blue eyes that could glow with passion
now shone with conviction. He meant what he said and she knew he meant it. Tears blurred his image as she reached out to touch his beautiful mouth. “Oh, Chad…”
* * *
At Leigh’s front door, he kissed her with a tenderness devoid of passion. “I hate to go. I want to spend the night, but I don’t want to gamble with your reputation. We’ve already given the gossip mongers material to last a month because of last night.”
“I’m willing to take a chance.”
He shook his head. “I’m not. Not with you. We won’t live together until you’re my wife. And you will be, Leigh. You will be.” He kissed her again before turning away.
Chapter Eight
He telephoned just as Leigh was snapping Sarah into her playsuit after her bath the next morning.
“Hi. Are you up?”
“You should know better than to ask. Sarah is a live-in alarm clock.”
He laughed. “We’ve been invited to a party this weekend. Friday night to be exact. Will you come?”
“What kind of party?”
“A dinner party for three friends of mine who coincidentally share the same birthday.”
She pieced together a mental image of a dining room full of people like Bubba’s wife and her friends. Sophisticated. Wealthy. She would have nothing suitable to wear.
“It’s to be sort of an indoor cookout. Very casual.”
Instead of gold and diamonds, they’d be wearing their silver and turquoise. Leigh hadn’t lived under a rock, and her mother, with all her pretentiousness, had drilled flawless social graces into her. Yet she knew she wouldn’t belong in a room with rich oil and cattle people. She’d felt intimidated enough visiting Chad’s house and seeing his wealth.
“I don’t know, Chad,” she hedged, groping for a reasonable excuse to say no. “I don’t know what I’d do with Sarah. She”
“Can go along. This is a family fling. Kids are invited, too. There’ll be hordes of them and Sarah will be by far the best behaved.”
“Well”
“End of discussion. I just wanted to let you know about it so you could plan on going. Now, what are you doing for lunch today?”
They spent more time together that week than they spent apart. He came to eat lunch with her every day, taking her out of the mall to a nearby restaurant or sharing sandwiches on a bench near the fountain in the shopping center.
He insisted on taking her and Sarah out to dinner rather than having Leigh cook each night. She was nervous the first time they took Sarah to a restaurant, but the baby surprised her and behaved remarkably well. While she and Chad ate Mexican food, Sarah gurgled happily to a piñata dangling from the ceiling.
“I told you so,” Chad said, nodding toward the contented baby.
“She’s only behaving well to spite me.”
Chad laughed and wrinkled his brow in perplexity. “I’m sure there’s some logic there, but I fail to see it.”
