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Cody made a face. “I hate fish.”

“Then you should have thrown them back,” she said, smothering a laugh.

Sitting down on the top step, he glanced up at her. “What were you doin’ at the creek with that guy?” he asked.

Taken by surprise, Dani looked up from her mending and then slowly set the torn shirt aside. “You were there?”

“Yeah. Well, no, not really. I was just comin’ back and I’d planned on fishin’ in the hole below the fork in the creek. You know, by the cottonwood trees.”

Dani nodded, hoping that her cheeks weren’t as warm as they felt. She’d never thought about Cody surprising her and Chase. But then, she hadn’t expected to find Chase in the creek . . . on her side of the fence.

“I saw that Chase What’s-his-face—”

“McEnroe,” Dani supplied, meeting her son’s curious stare.

“Yeah. I saw him walking back to Johnson’s property. He looked madder than a wet hen. You were standing down there.” He gestured toward the cottonwood stand, “And you were watching him leave and looking real sad.”

Dani folded her hands on her laps. “So you saw that, did ya?”

Cody nodded. “Was he bothering you?”

“A little,” she hedged. “I caught him trying to take water samples,” she explained. “We had a rather unfriendly. . . discussion.”

“You mean a fight.”

“I mean a battle royal.”

“What does he want with our water?”

“Beats me,” Dani admitted, wondering for the thousandth time exactly why Chase was so anxious to get water from her side of the fence. And what did it have to do with “evidence?” Damn Chase McEnroe; he held all the cards. And he knew it. “I suppose he wants the water because Caleb probably told him to get it.”

“And he got mad when you told him to leave.”

The understatement of the century. “Very.”

“I thought you told him not to come back here.” Cody began playing in the dust with a stick and avoided Dani’s eyes.

“I did.”

“Well?”

“I don’t know why he keeps comin’ back,” she admitted, gazing across the dry fields. “I guess maybe it’s just part of his job.”

“Or maybe he likes you.” Cody glanced over his shoulder again, pinning his mother with his dark brown eyes.

“Why would you say that?” Dani asked, worried that she and Cody were about to argue again.

“Because you always do. When some girl gives me trouble at school, you always say it’s because she likes me.”

Dani laughed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I do, don’t I? And you never believe me.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“That’s a big concession coming from you.”

Cody’s solemn face split with a smile. “I figure you’ve got to be right part of the time—”

“Get out of here,” she teased, her eyes sparkling. Standing, he winked at his mom. “How about a Coke?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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