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“He say this before he rode off?” Pickett quizzed, grinning. “Girl, you have a tendency to stretch the truth more than I do.”
She laughed. “I know if he was here, he’d be fine with it as long as we were careful.” Just then they both heard a rider approaching and turned to see the man in question.
“Looks like we’re about to find out,” he said, his grin widening as Holly Jo sighed in disappointment. They both knew what Holden was going to say.
“You could tell him it’s not that dangerous,” she suggested before his boss reached them.
“I could, but then I’d be a bigger liar than you, squirt.”
STILLUPSETAFTERher run-in with her brother, Oakley drove back into Powder Crossing. She felt at loose ends. She hadn’t been able to get Pickett off her mind. Had she just imagined that he’d been feeling what she had? She feared that might be the case.
When she saw Duffy’s ranch pickup parked in front of the café, her heart leaped at the thought that Pickett might be with him. It was almost noon and she hadn’t even had breakfast. Her stomach growled as she swung in and parked.
As she pushed open the café door and spotted Duffy, she saw at the same time that he wasn’t alone. Disappointed, she realized that his companion wasn’t Pickett. With a jolt she recognized the man as the one who’d passed her on the road to the ranch—the PI Tilly had told her about. She started to head for the counter when Duffy called her over to his table.
She approached saying, “If you’re busy—”
“No, Mr. Murdoch was just leaving,” Duffy said pointedly.
The man nodded with obvious reluctance and rose. “You must be Oakley Stafford.” His gaze bored into her for a moment before he glanced at Duffy, then back to her. “I didn’t realize you two...” He let that hang.
“We’re friends,” Oakley said. “You have a problem with that, Mr. Murdoch?”
He smiled. “You remind me of your mother.”
“Those are fighting words,” she said in warning. “I’d be careful throwing them around.”
He laughed. “Yes, Powder Crossing is a dangerous place. At least it was for your mother’s second husband.” He tipped his hat to her as he headed out the door.
She looked to Duffy questioningly as she sat down. “A friend of yours?”
“Hardly,” Duffy said, watching him leave. “He’s been in town for a while asking questions.”
She felt a chill. “Tilly saw him earlier out at the ranch. He’s asking about Dixon Malone, the man my mother was married to.”
“Is apparently still married to,” Duffy said. “He also seems to be interested in a man named Rory Eastwood.” When he saw that she’d never heard of him, he asked, “Hungry?”
She eyed what little was left of his pancakes. “Late breakfast?”
“Something like that,” he said with a grin. She could feel his gaze on her as if he could read her moods.
“Penny,” she said to the waitress when she passed by, “I’ll have—”
“The usual?”
She smiled and nodded. “Thanks.”
“We are such creatures of habit, it seems,” Duffy said as Penny took away his dishes and refilled his coffee cup. “Rough day already?”
DUFFYWATCHEDOAKLEYfiddle with her napkin. He often felt blindsided by how pretty she was. Her ash-blond hair was long, often corralled into a single plait that fell to the middle of her back or tucked up under her hat. Her eyes, mostly green like her mother’s, changed with the light. At five-five she was slim and athletic-looking as if ready to take on anything. But her real beauty seemed to come from within. This morning her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright and her lips... He almost missed what she said.
“I got into it with CJ earlier.” He pushed away thoughts about how much he liked her and listened. A run-in with CJ was enough to upset anyone, but Duffy could tell it was something more and waited.
Avoiding his eyes she said, “When I drove up to the ranch house earlier this morning...” She shook her head. “It was probably just the sunlight on the guest room window, but...” Her gaze rose to lock with his. “I thought I saw him standing at the window. He disappeared at once as if he saw me. Or maybe he wasn’t there at all. I just don’t know.”
“You think he’s faking his injury?” It would be just like the cowboy.
“How could he, though? The doctors would know, wouldn’t they?”
