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“I guess. Something like that.” She cocked her head and looked up at him. “You ever been in love?”
He averted his eyes. “Once. A long time ago. I lost her.” He didn’t say how.
“Maybe you’ll find somebody else one day.”
He smiled sadly. “Not on my agenda. I like my life as it is. I have absolute control of the television remote and nobody to fuss when I don’t take out the trash on time.”
“Have you got pets?”
“Just Harry.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Harry?”
He pursed his lips. “You scared of snakes?”
She shivered a little. “Oh, yes.”
“Me, too.”
“Is Harry a snake?”
He smiled. “Harry’s an iguana,” he said. “He’s four years old and about five feet long.”
“Wow! What sort of cage do you keep him in?”
He pursed his lips. “Well, that’s sort of the reason I’m still single. See, he’s a little too big to keep in a cage. I just let him go where he wants to. His favorite spot is the back of my sofa. He watches TV with me at night.”
“An iguana who watches TV.” Teddie sighed.
“Well, Sarge has a wolf who watches it. Maybe animals understand more than we think they do, huh?”
She laughed. “I guess so. Could I see your iguana sometime?”
“Sure. I’ll invite you both over when we get a little further along with the repairs and your Horses 101 training.” He looked down at her. “Is your mom afraid of reptiles?”
“Oh, no. She’s not afraid of anything.”
“An interesting woman,” he mused as he turned back to the horse.
“That man’s coming out here next month,” Teddie said miserably. “For Thanksgiving, he said.”
“That man?” he asked, trying not to sound too interested.
“That lawyer who helped her settle Daddy’s business,” she explained. “He doesn’t like me. I really hope Mom doesn’t like him. He’s . . .” She searched for a word. “He’s smarmy.” She laughed. “I guess that’s not a good word.”
“It suits,” Parker replied. “It says a lot about a person. But are you sure it fits him? Sometimes people aren’t what you think they are at first. I hated Sarge’s guts until we were under fire and he saved my life.”
“Gosh!”
“Then I saved his, and we sort of became friends. So first impressions can be altogether wrong.”
She drew in a long breath. “That would be nice. But it’s not really a wrong impression. I heard him talking to another man, when Mom wasn’t listening.” She pulled a face. “He said that my daddy had lots of stocks that were going to be worth big money and that my mom wasn’t all that bad looking. He said if he could get close to her, and get control of those stocks, he’d be rich.”
Parker’s black eyes sparked. “What does he have in mind, you think?”
“I think he wants to marry her. She doesn’t like him. She told me so. But he thinks he can wear her down.” She drew in a breath and looked up at Parker with sad eyes. “If she marries him, can I come and live with you and Harry?”
He laughed softly. “Come on, now. You won’t have to do that. Your mom’s a sharp lady. She’s intelligent and kind and she has a sweet nature.”
