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“Don’t nag,” he said shortly.
She drew in a breath. “Jeff looks very nice,” she said aloud, sketching him with her eyes.
“So do you.”
She laughed, surprised by the comment. She looked up at him. She knew the little black cocktail dress outlined her full figure in the nicest way. But it was good to hear the compliment, just the same. Dal wasn’t known for flattery. Not that he hadn’t flattered her more than usual since Meadow had returned to Raven Springs.
“Thanks,” she said.
“I’m starved,” he commented. “Let’s see what we can find on the buffet table.”
“Great idea!”
* * *
Gil showed up minutes later, in a dark gray suit with a flashy red tie. He grinned at Meadow as he joined her and his boss in the crowd.
“There are a lot of people here,” the deputy commented, his black eyes flashing with humor. “I almost didn’t find a parking space.”
“They’d like to enlarge the parking lot, but the land they’d need belongs to Ned Turner, and he’d never sell an inch,” Jeff said with a sigh. “He doesn’t even like the idea of the community center itself. He says the noise every weekend drives him nuts.” He threw up his hands. “If he hates it so much, why doesn’t he just move farther into the national forest?”
“I expect he’d need a lot of legal paperwork done to get permission,” Meadow added. “But the Forest Service does sometimes trade parcels of land. If there’s some they like, they’ll trade land for it. Somebody with land they want might sell it to them in return for ownership of the tract next to the community center.”
“That’s resourceful thinking,” Jeff said, smiling as he locked Meadow’s cool fingers into his.
She smiled back. “Thanks.”
“Hello, Jeff,” Dana Conyers said with an amused smile as she joined them with a whiskey highball in one hand. She was wearing a black lacy cocktail dress, her dark hair loose around her shoulders. She looked very pretty, something Jeff picked up on at once.
“Hi, Dana,” he replied. “You look pretty.”
“Thanks. You don’t look bad yourself.” She looked around. “I can’t find Dal anywhere. He’s always wandering off to talk cattle with other ranchers.” She grimaced. She looked up at Jeff with sultry eyes, ignoring Meadow entirely. “Care to dance?” she asked.
Jeff let go of Meadow’s hand with an apologetic glance, set his glass on the table, and led Dana onto the dance floor. Meadow, who had no real romantic feelings for Jeff, nevertheless felt bad for him as she watched him shuffle around the dance floor with Dana in his arms. She knew how he felt about the other woman. Poor man. She was just toying with him, probably to make Dal jealous. She hoped Jeff knew. Men were so blind about women and their motives . . .
“Well, well, you found another red dress,” Dal Blake drawled from behind her.
She steeled herself not to show any emotion. She turned and looked up at him. “I had a few spare minutes, so I took down the curtains and made them into a party dress,” she said sarcastically.
His dark eyes slid over her like caressing hands, making her pulse run wild and her breathing erratic. Those were signs he was too experienced to miss. She was still stuck on him. He hated it. He hated her. She was a woman who had white picket fence written all over her, and he never wanted to settle down.
“Cute,” he remarked. He took a long sip of his drink. “I hope you’ve got your men looking out for pregnant heifers. You can’t afford to lose livestock.”
“They know what to do,” she replied. “I just let them do it.” She glanced toward the dance floor. Jeff had Dana close in his arms, and she seemed to be eating it up.
“Faithless,” Dal muttered, following her gaze. “Women never devote themselves to one man anymore. They play the field.”
She shrugged. “It’s a new world.”
He looked down at her with dark, irritated eyes. “Yes. A new world.” His eyes ran over her again. “Are you making a statement, with that dress?”
She flushed. She’d worn it deliberately, to taunt him. He probably knew it already. She hated how transparent she was to him.
“It’s the only really good party dress I own,” she lied.
“That’s right. Mustn’t wear anything feminine.” The smile he gave her was sharper than a razor.
She flushed. “It’s hard to run down criminals in a dress and high heels,” she said shortly.
