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“No problem. Good night, Teddie.”
“Good night, Parker,” she called back.
They loaded Bart into the horse trailer and within five minutes, the yard was deserted except for Parker and Katy.
She was still standing in the cold in a thin sweater, her arms wrapped around herself. She looked miserable.
“Go home,” he said shortly, and turned back toward the house.
“He was kissing me,” she said. “I was too shocked to fight at first, and then you and Teddie came in and I was ashamed.”
He stopped at the steps and looked back at her. “You called that yellow polecat and asked him to come out here. I figured you wanted what happened. Especially after you broke Teddie’s heart with that comment about taking the easiest course and letting them put Bart down. That was cowardly.”
She flushed. She drew in a breath. “Yes,” she said after a minute.
“He doesn’t like Teddie.”
“I know.”
“Maybe you’d fit in better with Washington society after all,” he told her. “You’d probably be better off than living out here with barbarians. Good night, Mrs. Blake.”
He went into the house and slammed the door.
* * *
Katy drove home. Her daughter hated her. Parker didn’t want anything more to do with her. J.L. Denton thought she was despicable. And she’d deserved every single miserable thing that had happened to her tonight.
She could hardly believe that she’d agreed with Ron about having the horse put down, even knowing how much Teddie loved him. Teddie had loved her father, too. They’d been close in a way that Katy and Teddie had never been close. Her daughter had never warmed to her. Perhaps it was because Katy didn’t know how to let people in close. She’d loved her husband in her way, but she was always alone, apart, even from her own family. Her parents had hardly ever touched. They got along, said they loved each other, but they fought a lot. They’d married to combine two huge ranch properties. They’d cared for Katy, but they didn’t know how to show it. In turn, Katy had never been able to show that love she had for her daughter.
It occurred to her only then that Bartholomew had been the catalyst to bring Teddie and Katy closer together. The child had grown more optimistic, more outgoing, since she’d had responsibility for the abused horse. Parker had helped there, too. The two of them had made Katy look at the world in a different way. She and Teddie had been growing closer, more every day.
Until she called Ron to help save the horse and he’d defected to the enemy. Worse, he’d almost convinced Katy that his course of action was the right one, despite Teddie’s outraged and hurt feelings. She was losing her daughter’s love and trust, and for what? For a society lawyer who didn’t really care about Katy as a person, only as an asset to his legal career, because she’d become a good hostess and organizer among military wives, many of whom were big in social circles. And because she had those stocks that her husband had invested in, stocks that might make her very wealthy. He’d convinced her, with logic, that terminating the troublesome horse was the quickest way out of her legal dilemma.
Quickest, yes. And an excellent venue for destroying her relationship with her only child. She saw Teddie’s tearful, shocked face every time she closed her eyes. Teddie hadn’t expected her mother to sell her out to a stranger who didn’t even like her. Parker would never have done that. Katy was sure of it. Now the Dentons had involved themselves, and J.L. was going after the horse abuser with a firm of high-powered attorneys who made Ron look like a law student.
First, she was going to have to sign over custody of Bart in a legal manner. She thought about how that would look to her daughter and Parker and the Dentons if she got Ron to help her. No. She’d have to go into Benton Monday and find an attorney who’d be willing to do the work for her. It would be an expense, but if it would help mend the breach between her and Teddie, it was worth any amount of money.
Maybe she could win Teddie’s trust again. But Parker wanted nothing more to do with her, and he’d made it very clear tonight. Until then, she hadn’t realized how much a part of the family he’d become to her. It was painful to think she wouldn’t see him helping around the place, teaching Teddie horse care, explaining Crow legends. Talking about the cat in the box.
She smiled sadly as she thought what a high intelligence he had, and he’d let Ron treat him like a vagrant. She couldn’t imagine why. Or maybe she could. He wasn’t even going to try to compete with the society attorney. He’d witnessed that impassioned kiss and he was probably convinced that Katy had chosen Ron over him. It wasn’t the truth. But what did it matter? They all hated her.
Tomorrow was Sunday. She’d have to drive over to the Dentons to bring a furious Teddie home and discuss Bart’s future. Ron would certainly arrive after lunch, to complicate matters. She hadn’t felt such impotent sorrow since her husband’s death.
She missed her late husband. She felt guilty that she’d started seeing Parker, because it was like betraying her husband’s memory. But it wasn’t at all. Teddie loved Parker. He was larger than life, a strong and capable man with a stunning intellect and a big heart. He never ran from a fight. Ron did. It was why he negotiated settlements out of court for most of his cases. He wasn’t a stand-up fighter and he didn’t like confrontation. Well, not unless he considered his adversary inferior to him. That was why he’d been so condescending with Parker. Pity, she thought, that Parker hadn’t aired his views on theoretical physics. But Parker wasn’t competing, because he didn’t think Katy was worth the competition. That thought was like a knife in her heart. She hadn’t realized how important Parker was to her until she’d alienated him. She’d alienated her daughter as well. Somehow, she was going to have to make amends, if she could.
She went back to bed and turned off the light, but she knew she wasn’t going to sleep. Her life was in turmoil all over again because she’d gone nuts and invited Ron down to aid her in the struggle for possession of Bartholomew. He hadn’t aided her at all. He’d helped lose part of her family.
So she closed her eyes on welling anger and considered her next course of action. Tomorrow, after she got her daughter back, she was going to have a long and very hot conversation with one eastern attorney.
* * *
The Dentons were already up when she pulled up at their front door, after calling and asking if it was all right to come fetch her daughter. She didn’t want to make J.L. any madder than he already was.
Teddie was sitting at the breakfast table with Cassie and J.L. and the baby, in his high chair, when she walked in.
“Good morning,” Katy said hesitantly.
“Good morning,” Cassie greeted. “Won’t you have something to eat? Or at least coffee?”
