Legend (Legend, Colorado 1)

“How about fried rattlesnake today?” she murmured, laughing as she went to her closet. It was a small walk-in closet, but that only made Kady’s meager wardrobe look even more sparse. Frowning, she pushed aside the hangers and pondered her drab, oversized tops. She could hear Jane’s complaint, “Don’t you have anything smaller than a circus tent? Where do you find these clothes anyway?” Kady had never answered her friend, but had stood there tight-lipped, thinking it was all right for Jane to wear snug-fitting clothes since she was a size six, but Kady wanted to hide the bulk that was her body as best she could.

Today, as she sorted through her few clothes, Kady seemed to feel different. Maybe it was all the men in Colorado who’d asked her to marry them. Or maybe it was just Cole’s incessant attention.

Leaving the closet, Kady went to the big chest of drawers in the bedroom and began to rummage. Last Christmas, Jane had given her a red blouse, and years before that she had given her some earrings. Now, if Kady could only find them.

An hour later Kady walked into Onions, and her first sight was of Gregory sitting at one of the tables, a newspaper before his face, a coffee cup by his hand. Turning a page, he glanced up at her for just a second before returning to his paper.

At his look, Kady’s breath caught. It had been so very long since she had seen him, and since then she’d spent a great deal of time with another man. Would he know? Would he see the guilt on her face? Would he sense that something was different about her?

“Mom made the coffee,” Gregory said without looking up. “I don’t think I’m going to die from it, but I might.”

Smiling, Kady started for the kitchen. “Coffee coming up.” Nothing had changed, she thought with relief. To Gregory it was only hours since she had last seen him. He had no idea that she’d been away for days or that she’d—

As Kady passed him, she glanced at his profile and thought for the millionth time how good-looking he was. Almost as beautiful as Cole, she thought, then, to rid herself of that thought, she pushed the paper out of his hands and plopped herself onto his lap. Taking Gregory’s head in her hands, she put her lips on his and kissed him deeper and with more passion than she ever had before.

“Hey, what is this?” Gregory asked, his hands on her wrists and pulling his face away. His tone was disapproving. “Before breakfast?”

“I missed you,” Kady said, sliding her arms about his neck and hugging him.

“Well, I missed you, too,” he answered, but again pulling away, and this time there was a frown on his handsome face. “Kady,” he said sternly, “I think there is a time and place for everything, and in the middle of Onions on a Sunday morning isn’t quite the place or the time.”

She was beginning to feel embarrassed, but she tried to make light of it. “How about going to my place then?” she said with what she hoped was a lascivious look.

Drawing back, Gregory studied her for a moment. “What in the world has come over you today? And what do you have on?”

“Like it?” Kady asked, looking down at herself. “It has lycra in it. Jane said that if she had . . . well, if she were endowed like me, she’d show herself off, so she gave me this.” Looking up at Gregory, she fluttered her eyelashes. “Think it does?”

Gregory was frowning rather a lot now. “If you’re asking me if I like to see you hanging out of the top of your clothes, the answer is no.”

Kady brightened. “Jealous?”

“Not quite,” he said as though this concept amused him. “But it’s not very sanitary, and with the top half of you naked, you could be burned at the stove. And, Kady dear, as delightful as this position is, both of my legs have gone to sleep. You aren’t exactly the light-as-a-feather type, now, are you?”

Abruptly, Kady got off his lap. “No, of course I’m not,” she said hastily. “I’ll make you some coffee and get started on Sunday lunch.” Stiffly, she turned away, but Gregory caught her arm.

“Kady, honey, you look great. Really you do, but maybe I’d rather you showed yourself just to me and not to the entire world.” He kissed the back of her hand, and Kady left the room smiling, feeling that she was glad to be home.

“Something has happened to you,” Jane said softly, “and I mean to find out what it is.” They were in a furniture store in Tyson’s Corner Mall, and Kady was inspecting every piece in the big showroom.

“Is that why you’re still here?” Kady asked as she looked at the price tag on a green velvet sofa. “How do you think this would look with the lacquer lamps I bought at auction? And with the new rug?”

“New rug, new sofa, new lamps! That’s just what I’m talking about. What has happened to you?!”

“People are beginning to stare,” Kady said calmly, referring to Jane’s raised voice.

“They are going to stare more when I grab those overpriced curtain cords and tie you to that iron bed and keep you there until you talk to me.”

“I had no idea you were so kinky,” she said, but when Jane didn’t smile, Kady sighed. “I’ve told you a hundred times, nothing is wrong with me. I’m just getting married, and I’m choosing things for my house. And I’m sending the bills to Gregory. Doesn’t that please you?”

“Four days ago you were frightened of buying so much as a sheet, but now you walk into stores and say, ‘I want this and I want that,’ as though you were a born shopper. And the way you bargained with that poor rug merchant I almost felt sorry for him.”

“Did you?” Kady asked, smiling.

“And that’s another thing, Miss Kady Long, you keep flirting with men.”

“I’m getting married, not going to my execution. What’s wrong with flirting a bit?”

Too many words raced through Jane’s mind for her to speak. The Kady she had known all her life ran away when a man looked at her. But three days ago Kady had spent an hour and a half drinking mint tea with a rug merchant and arguing over the price of the rug. Jane and Debbie thought they were going to pass out with boredom, but Kady had seemed to enjoy every minute of it. And when they’d left the store, she’d said, “He asked me to be his second wife. With my own apartment, though.” All three women had laughed about the outrageous proposal as they drove Debbie to the airport so she could return home.