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J.L. didn’t speak. He glared.
Katy flushed. She took a deep breath and put her hands in her pockets. “I’m going into town tomorrow to see an attorney and have Bartholomew signed over to you, Mr. Denton. I’ll be very grateful, and so will Teddie, for any help you can give us. I don’t want him put down and I don’t want his former owner to get him.” She shifted her feet restlessly. “Ron is very logical. He helped me settle my husband’s affairs after he was killed overseas. He seemed like a capable, trustworthy man, but he’s not. He’s a snake. I just didn’t know it until yesterday, when he almost convinced me that I was being stupid and unrealistic.”
Teddie was looking at her mother, not glaring. J.L.’s hard face softened just a little.
“Anybody can be taken in by a fast-talking lawyer,” Cassie said. “My poor father was the victim of one, who helped his shady client ruin my father’s reputation so they could get his position for her. The uproar caused my mother to commit suicide.”
“Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry!” Katy exclaimed.
“We were very close,” Cassie confided. “It took a long time to get over it. In fact, I haven’t yet.”
“Teddie and I haven’t really been close,” Katy said, not looking at the sad little girl at the table. “My fault. My parents married to combine two ranching properties. I think they wanted me, at first, but neither knew how to show affection. I was raised with almost no touching, no sharing, no affection.” She smiled. “It’s hard to show love when you haven’t been shown it.” She glanced at her daughter. “I’m in the learning stages about that.”
Teddie flushed. She squirmed in her chair.
“Coffee?” Cassie asked again.
“Thanks, anyway. But we’d better go,” Katy said. Her face tautened. “I have a lawyer to parboil after lunch.”
J.L. chuckled helplessly. Teddie’s face lightened.
“He’ll be leaving very soon, I believe,” Katy added with a glance at Teddie. “And I’m not listening to anything else he says. I’ll have those papers for you tomorrow afternoon, Mr. Denton. I’ll see the lawyer first thing after I dismiss my class.”
“Wait and let my attorneys draw up the papers,” J.L. replied. “They’ll be here by noon tomorrow. I’ll have Parker drop the papers off at your place when you get home.”
She bit her lower lip. “Parker isn’t speaking to me at the moment.”
J.L. cocked his head, his eyebrows arching in a question.
“He’s mad at me about the horse. He thinks I sold out my daughter. It looks that way.” She searched Teddie’s eyes. “When I flub up, I do a super job of it, don’t I, baby?” she asked.
Teddie got up from the table. “Me, too,” she confessed.
“So we’ll go home and get our ducks in a row,” Katy continued. She grimaced. “But it might be kinder to ask somebody besides Parker to hand over the paperwork. Kinder to him, anyway.”
He shrugged.
“You’ll take good care of Bart, won’t you, Mr. Denton?” Teddie asked worriedly. “You won’t let that awful man come and take him?”
J.L. smiled at the child. “He’d need a tank at the least to get through my security, and he’s much too lazy to learn to drive one.”
Teddie laughed. “Okay. Thanks. And for letting me stay.”
“You’re always welcome,” Cassie told the little girl, and hugged her.
“Thanks, from both of us,” Katy said.
Cassie hugged her, too. “Don’t take life so seriously,” she said gently. “Things work out, if you just give them time.”
“Good advice,” Katy said warmly. “We’ll take it. Ready to go, Teddie?”
“I’m ready.”
They said their good-byes, stopping at the stable so that Teddie could say good-bye to Bartholomew, who had a huge stall and plenty of food and fresh water.
One of the cowboys grinned at them. “That your horse?” he asked Teddie. “He’s super nice.”
Teddie beamed. “Thanks!”
