She gave him one of those slanting looks that he was
beginning to associate with her. “It means I’m not some tramp whose favors can be bought with fifty head of cattle. Maybe what I did was wrong, but it doesn’t mean I’m bad.”
“Maggie, you weren’t wrong. I was.” He took the blame. “The gift of the cattle was a way of saying ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Well, I’m not.” Her lips were pressed firmly together. “I didn’t think Pa would make trouble for you. I mean, he talked a lot about it, but I never thought he would actually try it. When I think about him going to your father and telling him what we did, that’s what makes me feel like …” They were passing the inn when she paused and cast a quick glance at the upstairs windows. “… one of Jake’s ‘nieces.’”
“You’re not supposed to know about them.” His mouth twitched almost into a smile, amused by her directness.
“You mean I’m not supposed to let anybody know that I know about them. Everybody does,” she returned dryly, “and only pretend that they don’t.”
“You shouldn’t feel like one of them,” he insisted. “I know my father doesn’t think of you that way.”
She stopped beside the passenger’s door of a battered pickup and turned to look at him. “What do you think about me, Chase?”
“I think you are a remarkable and very beautiful young girl.” Looking into her candid green eyes, he felt the pull of her presence tugging at him. This time he resisted the urge to take her into his arms.
“Beautiful? In this?” She looked down at her clothes with a glance that was wryly skeptical. Then she sobered. “I guess you’re just trying to be polite, but you don’t need to. I know what people think about my pa … and the rest of the O’Rourkes, too. Pa always blames someone else for his troubles. But I don’t want you to think that I blame you for what happened. I knew what I was doing. I know you said you’d see me, but after the trouble Pa caused, I want you to know that I’m not expecting you to come around.”
“Why not?” A gentle quality took the roughness out of Chase’s craggy features.
A frown briefly wrinkled her forehead. “Because—”
“Chase!” Buck called and came trotting from the direction of the store. “What are you doing? Playing carry-out boy?”
“Meet me tomorrow at the fence line around ten o’clock. Can you make it?” Chase murmured quickly. She nodded uncertainly. Louder, he asked, “Where do you want me to put this sack? In the cab or the back of the truck?”
“In the back is fine.”
After setting the sack in the rear bed, he took the one from her arms and put it with the other. He touched a hand to his hat. “I’ll see you.” Then Chase turned to meet his friend. “Are you ready for that blueberry pie?”
“Sure am.” The last time Buck had seen the O’Rourke girl, he had labeled her a wildcat and a tomboy. Now he was picking up a different impression. His curious and dancing blue eyes studied the change.
The boldness of his inspection caused Maggie to become more self-conscious. She slipped the tips of her fingers into the front pockets of her jeans, hunching her shoulders forward to ease the strain on the shirt buttons. Her head was tipped at a proud and challenging angle under the rude stare, but Chase was turning away, prompting Buck to follow a second later.
Buck caught up with him in one stride, casting a half-glance in his direction. “I take back what I said about her the other day,” Buck murmured in a low voice. “You sure as hell can tell she’s a female.” As he opened the door to the café, he looked back at the girl. “Maybe it’s time I started calling on my neighbors.”
The gleam in his buddy’s eyes sent a ripple of unease down Chase’s spine. Buck tended to be careless of a girl’s feelings, lacking a conscience when it came to sexual conquest. That protective instinct bristled within Chase, arrogantly blind to the possibility that he wasn’t in a position to judge.
“Leave her be, Buck.” It was a terse reply, his tone bordering on hard authority.
“Why should I?” Buck challenged with a frowning smile and followed him into the café.
Chase attempted to smother the raw irritation with his friend and succeeded in making his voice light. “Let’s just say that I saw her first and leave it at that.” But there was a look of dark warning in his glance.
“Damn, but you’re selfish, Chase,” Buck teased. “I always share with you, don’t I? We nursed at the same breast, didn’t we? I even let you take my rightful place as the Calder heir, and this is the way you repay me.” He feigned a wounded look and swung his leg over the back of a chair to sit at one of the café tables. “Just for that, you can buy my pie. Hey, Tucker!” he called to the man behind the counter. “I want two pieces of your blueberry pie, and Chase here is paying for it.”
Chase noticed Angus O’Rourke sitting on a stool at the counter, but he let his glance slide past him to the rotund owner of the café. “Just coffee for me, Tucker, since I’ve been stuck with the bill.”
“Old Moneybags is trying to pretend he’s broke.” Buck laughed, an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth while he searched his pockets for a match. “Got a light?”
“I’ve got a friend who’s a moocher.” Chase tossed a book of matches onto the table in front of Buck. “You get paid more than I do. What do you do with your money?”
“By the time I drink a little whiskey, play a little poker, and keep the ladies happy, it just seems to disappear.” Buck grinned and puffed on the cigarette.
Tucker crossed the small café, carrying two plates of pie and two cups of coffee in his pudgy hands, the front of his white apron stained with spattered grease and food. Nearly bald, his head was too small for his solidly round body. He stopped beside Chase’s chair to set the order down.
“Tell Webb my freezer is getting low on meat, so I’ll be out to see him one of these days to buy me some Calder beef to butcher.” His voice was a monotone, as if it required too much effort to alter its flat sound.