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“Suits me. See you then.”
* * *
She went through her closet looking for a nice dress. She had plenty of pantsuits, but an evening out seemed to call for something a little less structured and worklike. She had one nice black cocktail dress. She paired it with elegant pumps and her one good coat, a black wool one with a small mink collar. She started to put her hair up, but when she brushed it out, she loved the way it looked down around her shoulders. It softened the lines of her face, made her look more feminine, younger. In the end, she left it long.
As she finished her makeup, there was a belligerent knock at the front door. She sighed heavily. She almost certainly knew who it was, since Jeff wasn’t due for another thirty minutes.
With resignation she opened it, and there, in the snow, stood Dal Blake with Snow. The dog rushed in past him, leaving Meadow to deal with him.
But the belligerence seemed to drop away as he stared at her with narrowed dark eyes. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied curtly. “Jeff asked me to dinner.”
He pursed his lips as he stared at her. She was sexy as hell in that dress, and she looked pretty with her face made up. He remembered the taste of her mouth under the mistletoe at a long-ago Christmas party and hated the sudden hunger it kindled in him. He’d spent years not seeing her. She wasn’t his sort of woman. No sense starting something he couldn’t finish.
But his body reacted sharply to the sight of her in that tempting little dress. Jeff would certainly sit up and take notice. Why was that so irritating? He scowled.
“It’s not a scandalous dress!” she blurted out, uncomfortable at the way he was watching her.
“I never said it was.” He hesitated. “You look . . . nice.”
Her heart jumped. She ignored it. “Thanks. I’m sorry, was Snow at your house again?”
He just nodded. He stuck his big hands in the pockets of his heavy shepherd’s coat. Under the wide brim of his hat, where snowflakes were gathering, he looked very much a Western man.
She shifted. She didn’t really know what to say. She’d expected a broadside about her pet, but he wasn’t belligerent. Not yet, at least.
His head lifted. “Just a tip,” he said after a minute. “Jeff loves heavy perfume, and he’s a card-carrying liberal. If you want to make an impression, that will help.”
She brightened. At least he wasn’t insulting her. “Okay.” She paused. “Thanks.”
He shrugged. “Jeff’s my friend. He’s a good guy.”
She smiled. “Yes, he is. He’s a great boss.”
“Well, your dog’s home. I have work to do. See you.”
“I’ll try harder to keep her at home. Sorry.”
He didn’t even answer her. He kept walking to the horse tied to a nearby tree, the one he’d obviously arrived on. He mounted and rode away, still without looking back at her. She closed the door and went to put on more perfume.
* * *
Jeff just stared at her when she opened the door, heavy coat on but unbuttoned and her purse in hand. He smiled slowly. “Nice,” he said, putting so much feeling into the one word that she flushed a little. She wasn’t used to admiring males.
He looked pretty good, too, in dark slacks with a white cotton shirt, red tie, and wool jacket.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Shay shay,” he said.
She raised both eyebrows.
“It means thank you,” he said. “One of the waitresses at the Chinese restaurant goes to college up in Denver. She’s teaching me.”
She laughed. “That sounds like fun.”
“She’ll teach you, too. It never hurts to know a little about other languages and cultures. It rounds us out.”
