One Of A Kind

“It was so nice of you to drive me to the store, Leo,” Marilee was cooing at Leo as they walked out. “My wrist is really sore from that fall I took.”

“No problem,” he murmured with a smile.

“The Cattleman’s Ball is week after next,” Marilee added coyly. “I would really love to go, but nobody’s asked me. I won’t be able to drive by then, either, I’m sure. It was a bad sprain. They take almost as long as a broken bone to heal.” She glanced up at him, weighing her chances. “Of course, Janie’s told everybody that you’re taking her. She said you’re over there all the time now, that it’s just a matter of time before you buy her a ring. Everybody knows.”

He scowled fiercely. He’d only kissed Janie, he hadn’t proposed marriage, for God’s sake! Surely the girl wasn’t going to get possessive because of a kiss? He hated gossip, especially about himself. Well, Janie could forget any invitations of that sort. He didn’t like aggressive women who told lies around town. Not one bit!

“You can go with me,” he told Marilee nonchalantly. “Despite what Janie told you, I am no woman’s property, and I’m damned sure not booked for the dance!”

Marilee beamed. “Thanks, Leo!”

He shrugged. She was pretty and he liked her company. She wasn’t one of those women who felt the need to constantly compete with men. He’d made his opinion about that pretty clear to Marilee in recent weeks. It occurred to him that Janie was suddenly trying to do just that, what with calf roping and ranch work and hard riding. Odd, when she’d never shown any such inclination before. But her self-assured talk about being his date for the ball set him off and stopped his mind from further reasoning about her sudden change of attitude.

He smiled down at Marilee. “Thanks for telling me about the gossip,” he added. “Best way to curb it is to disprove it publicly.”

“Of course it is. You mustn’t blame Janie too much,” she added with just the right amount of affection. “She’s very young. Compared to me, I mean. If we hadn’t been neighbors, we probably wouldn’t be friends at all. She seems so… well, so juvenile at times, doesn’t she?”

Leo frowned. He’d forgotten that Marilee was older than Janie. He thought back to those hard, hungry kisses he’d shared with Janie and could have cursed himself for his weakness. She was immature. She was building a whole affair on a kiss or two. Then he remembered something unexpectedly.

He glanced down at Marilee. “You said she had more boyfriends than anybody else in town.”

Marilee cleared her throat. “Well, yes, boy friends. Not men friends, though,” she added, covering her bases. It was hard to make Janie look juvenile if she was also a heartbreaking rounder.

Leo felt placated, God knew why. “There’s a difference.”

Marilee agreed. A tiny voice in her mind chided her for being so mean to her best friend, but Leo was a real hunk, and she was as infatuated with him as Janie was. All was fair in love and war, didn’t they say? Besides, it was highly unlikely that Leo would ever ask Janie out—but, just in case, Marilee had planted a nice little suspicion in his mind to prevent that. She smiled as she walked beside him to his truck, dreaming of the first of many dances and being in Leo’s arms. One day, she thought ecstatically, he might even want to marry her!

Janie went through two more bags of flour with attempts at biscuits that became better with each failed try. Finally, after several days’ work, she had produced an edible batch that impressed even Hettie.

In between cooking, she was getting much better on horseback. Now, mounted on her black-and-white quarter horse, Blackie, she could cut out a calf and drive it into the makeshift corral used for doctoring sick animals. She could throw a calf, too, with something like professionalism, despite sore muscles and frequent bruises. She could rope, after a fashion, and she was riding better all the time. At least the chafing of her thighs against the saddle had stopped, and the muscles had acclimatized to the new stress being placed on them.

Saturday night loomed. It was only four days until the Cattleman’s Ball, and she had a beautiful spaghetti-strapped lacy oyster-white dress to wear. It came to her ankles and was low-cut in front, leaving the creamy skin of her shoulders bare. There was a side-slit that went up her thigh, exposing her beautiful long legs. She paired the dress with white spiked high heels sporting ankle straps which she thought were extremely sexy, and she had a black velvet coat with a white silk lining to defend against the cold evening air. Now all she lacked was a date.

She’d expected Leo to ask her to the ball after those hungry kisses, despite his coolness later that day. But he hadn’t been near the ranch since he’d had supper with her and her father. What made it even more peculiar was that he’d talked with her father out on the ranch several times. He just didn’t come to the house. Janie assumed that he was regretting those hard kisses, and was afraid that she was taking him too seriously. He was avoiding her. He couldn’t have made it plainer.

That made it a pretty good bet that he wasn’t planning to take her to any Cattleman’s Ball. She phoned Marilee in desperation.

The other woman sounded uneasy when she heard Janie’s voice, and she was quick to ask why Janie had phoned.

“I saw you with Leo in the grocery store week before last,” Janie began, “and I didn’t interfere, because I was sure you were trying to talk him into taking me to the ball. But he didn’t want to, did he?” she added sadly.

There was a sound like someone swallowing, on the other end of the phone. “Well, actually, no. I’m sorry.” Marilee sounded as if she were strangling on the words.

“Don’t feel bad,” Janie said gently. “It’s not your fault. You’re my best friend in the whole world. I know you tried.”

“Janie…”

“I had this beautiful white dress that I bought specially,” Janie added on a sigh. “Well, that’s that. Are you going?”

There was a tense pause. “Yes.”

“Good! Anybody I know?”

“N… no,” Marilee stammered.

“You have fun,” Janie said.

“You… uh… aren’t going, are you?” Marilee added.

Her friend certainly was acting funny, Janie thought. “No, I don’t have a date,” Janie chuckled. “There’ll be other dances, I guess. Maybe Leo will ask me another time.” After he’s got over being afraid of me, she added silently. “If you see him,” she said quickly, “you might mention that I can now cut out cattle and throw a calf. And I can make a biscuit that doesn’t go through the floor when dropped!”

She was laughing, but Marilee didn’t.

“I have to get to the hairdresser, Janie,” Marilee said. “I’m really sorry… about the ball.”

“Not your fault,” Janie repeated. “Just have enough fun for both of us, okay?”

“Okay. See you.”

The line went dead and Janie frowned. Something must be very wrong with Marilee. She wished she’d been more persistent and asked what was the matter. Well, she’d go over to Marilee’s house after the dance to pump her for all the latest gossip, and then she could find out what was troubling her friend.

She put the ball to the back of her mind, despite the disappointment, and went out to greet her father as he rode in from the pasture with two of his men.

He swung out of the saddle at the barn and grinned at her. “Just the girl I wanted to see,” he said at once. He pulled out his wallet. “I’ve got to have some more work gloves, just tore the last pair I had apart on barbed wire. How about going by the hardware store and get me another pair of those suede-palmed ones, extra large?”

“My pleasure,” Janie said at once. Leo often went to the hardware store, and she might accidentally run into him there. “Be back in a jiffy!”

“Don’t speed!” her father called to her.

She only chuckled, diving into her sports car. She remembered belatedly that she didn’t have either purse or car keys, or her face fixed, and jumped right back out again to rectify those omissions.

Ten minutes later, she was parking her car in front of the Jacobsville Hardware Store. With a wildly beating heart, she noticed one of the black double-cabbed Hart Ranch trucks parked nearby. Leo! She was certain it was Leo!

With her heart pounding, she checked her makeup in the rearview mirror and tugged her hair gently away from her cheeks. She’d left it down today deliberately, remembering that Leo had something of a weakness for long hair. It was thick and clean, shining like a soft brown curtain. She was wearing a long beige skirt with riding boots, and a gold satin blouse. She looked pretty good, even if she did say so herself! Now if Leo would just notice her…

She walked into the hardware store with her breath catching in her throat as she anticipated Leo’s big smile at her approach. He was the handsomest of the Hart brothers, and really, the most personable. He was kindness itself. She remembered his soft voice in her kitchen, asking what was wrong. Oh, to have that soft voice in her ear forever!

There was nobody at the counter. That wasn’t unusual, the clerks were probably waiting on customers. She walked back to where the gloves were kept and suddenly heard Leo’s deep voice on the other side of the high aisle, unseen.

“Don’t forget to add that roll of hog wire to the order,” he was telling one of the clerks.

“I won’t forget,” Joe Howland’s pleasant voice replied. “Are you going to the Cattleman’s Ball?” Joe added just as Janie was about to raise her voice and call to Leo over the aisle.

“I guess I am,” Leo replied. “I didn’t plan to, but a pretty friend needed a ride and I’m obliging.”

Janie’s heart skipped and fell flat. Leo already had a date? Who? She moved around the aisle and in sight of Leo and Joe. Leo had his back to her, but Joe noticed her and smiled.

“That friend wouldn’t be Janie Brewster, by any chance?” Joe teased loudly.

The question made Leo unreasonably angry. “Listen, just because she caught the bouquet at Micah Steele’s wedding is no reason to start linking her with me,” he said shortly. “She may have a good family background, she may be easy on the eyes, she may even learn to cook someday—miracles still happen. But no matter what she does, or how well, she is never going to appeal to me as a woman!” he added. “Having her spreading ludicrous gossip about our relationship all over town isn’t making her any more attractive to me, either. It’s a dead turnoff!”

Janie felt a shock like an electric jolt go through her. She couldn’t even move for the pain.

Joe, horrified, opened his mouth to speak.

Leo made a rough gesture with one lean hand, burning with pent-up anger. “She looks like the rough side of a corncob lately, anyway,” Leo continued, warming to his subject. “The only thing she ever had going for her were her looks, and she’s spent the last few weeks covered in mud or dust or bread flour. She’s out all hours proving she can compete with any man on the place and she can’t stop bragging about what a great catch she’s made with me. She’s already told half the town that I’m a kiss short of buying her an engagement ring. That is, when she isn’t putting it around that I’m taking her to the Cattleman’s Ball, when I haven’t even damned well asked her! Well, she’s got her eye on the wrong man. I don’t want some half-baked kid with a figure like a boy and an ego the size of my boots! I wouldn’t have Janie Brewster for a wife if she came complete with a stable of purebred Salers bulls, and that’s saying something. She makes me sick to my stomach!”

Joe had gone pale and he was grimacing. Curious, Leo turned… and there was Janie Brewster, staring at him down the aisle with a face as tragic as if he’d just taken a whittling knife to her heart.

“Janie,” he said slowly.

She took a deep, steadying breath and managed to drag her eyes away from his face. “Hi, Joe,” she said with a wan little smile. Her voice sounded choked. She couldn’t possibly look for gloves, she had to get away! “Just wanted to check and see if you’d gotten in that tack Dad ordered last week,” she improvised.

“Not just yet, Janie,” Joe told her in a gentle tone. “I’m real sorry.”

“No problem. No problem at all. Thanks, Joe. Hello, Mr. Hart,” she said, without really meeting Leo’s eyes, and she even managed a smile through her tattered dignity. “Nice day out, isn’t it? Looks like we might even get that rain we need so badly. See you.”

She went out the door with her head high, as proudly as a conquering army, leaving Leo sick to his stomach for real.

“Why the hell didn’t you say something?” Leo asked Joe furiously.

“Didn’t know how,” Joe replied miserably.

“How long had she been standing there?” Leo persisted.

“The whole time, Leo,” came the dreaded reply. “She heard every word.”

As if to punctuate the statement, from outside came the sudden raucous squeal of tires on pavement as Janie took off toward the highway in a burst of speed. She was driving her little sports car, and Leo’s heart stopped as he realized how upset she was.

He jerked his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the police department. “Is that Grier?” he said at once when the call was answered, recognizing Jacobsville’s new assistant police chief’s deep voice. “Listen, Janie Brewster just lit out of town like a scalded cat in her sports car. She’s upset and it’s my fault, but she could kill herself. Have you got somebody out on the Victoria road who could pull her over and give her a warning? Yeah. Thanks, Grier. I owe you one.”

He hung up, cursing harshly under his breath. “She’ll be spitting fire if anybody tells her I sent the police after her, but I can’t let her get hurt.”

“Thought she looked just a mite too calm when she walked out the door,” Joe admitted. He glanced at Leo and grimaced. “No secret around town that she’s been sweet on you for the past year or so.”

“If she was, I’ve just cured her,” Leo said, and felt his heart sink. “Call me when that order comes in, will you?”

“Sure thing.”

Leo climbed into his truck and just sat there for a minute, getting his bearings. He could only imagine how Janie felt right now. What he’d said was cruel. He’d let his other irritations burst out as if Janie were to blame for them all. What Marilee had been telling him about Janie had finally bubbled over, that was all. She’d never done anything to hurt him before. Her only crime, if there was one, was thinking the moon rose and set on Leo Hart and taking too much for granted on the basis of one long kiss.

He laughed hollowly. Chances were good that she wouldn’t be thinking it after this. Part of him couldn’t help blaming her, because she’d gone around bragging about how he was going to marry her, and how lucky he was to have a girl like her in his life. Not to mention telling everybody he was taking her to the Cattleman’s Ball.

But Janie had never been one to brag about her accomplishments, or chase men. The only time she’d tried to vamp Leo, in fact, had been in her own home, when her father was present. She’d never come on to him when they were alone, or away from her home. She’d been old-fashioned in her attitudes, probably due to the strict way she’d been raised. So why should she suddenly depart from a lifetime’s habits and start spreading gossip about Leo all over Jacobsville? He remembered at least once when she’d stopped another woman from talking about a girl in trouble, adding that she hated gossip because it was like spreading poison.

He wiped his sweaty brow with the sleeve of his shirt and put his hat on the seat beside him. He hated what he’d said. Maybe he didn’t want Janie to get any ideas about him in a serious way, but there would have been kinder methods of accomplishing it. He didn’t think he was ever going to forget the look on her face when she heard what he was saying to Joe. It would haunt him forever.

Meanwhile, Janie was setting new speed records out on the Victoria Road. She’d already missed the turnoff that led back toward Jacobsville and her father’s ranch. She was seething, hurting, miserable and confused. How could Leo think such things about her? She’d never told anybody how she felt about him, except Marilee, and she hadn’t been spreading gossip. She hated gossip. Why did he know so little about her, when they’d known each other for years? What hurt the most was that he obviously believed those lies about her.

She wondered who could have told him such a thing. Her thoughts went at once to Marilee, but she chided herself for thinking ill of her only friend, her best friend. Certainly it had to be an enemy who’d been filling Leo’s head full of lies. But… she didn’t have any enemies that she knew of.

Tears were blurring her eyes. She knew she was going too fast. She should slow down before she wrecked the car or ran it into a fence. She was just thinking about that when she heard sirens and saw blue lights in her rearview mirror.

Great, she thought. Just what I need. I’m going to be arrested and I’ll spend the night in the local jail….

She stopped and rolled down her window, trying unobtrusively to wipe away the tears while waiting for the uniformed officer to bend down and speak to her.

He came as a surprise. It wasn’t a patrolman she knew, and she knew most of them by sight at least. This one had black eyes and thick black hair, which he wore in a ponytail. He had a no-nonsense look about him, and he was wearing a badge that denoted him as the assistant chief.

“Miss Brewster?” he asked quietly.

“Y… yes.”

“I’m Cash Grier,” he introduced himself. “I’m the new assistant police chief here.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said with a watery smile. “Sorry it has to be under these circumstances.” She held out both wrists with a sigh. “Want to handcuff me?”

He pursed his lips and his black eyes twinkled unexpectedly. He didn’t look like a man who knew what humor was. “Isn’t that a little kinky for a conversation? What sort of men are you used to?”

She hesitated for just a second before she burst out laughing. He wasn’t at all the man he appeared to be. She put her hands down.

“I was speeding,” she reminded him.

“Yes, you were. But since you don’t have a rap sheet, you can have a warning, just this once,” he added firmly. “The speed limit is posted. It’s fifty on all county roads.”

She peered up at him. “This is a county road?” she emphasized, which meant that he was out of his enforcement area.

Nodding, he grinned. “And you’re right, I don’t have any jurisdiction out here, so that’s why you’re getting a warning and a smile.” The smile faded. “In town, you’ll get a ticket and a heavy scowl. Remember that.”

“I will. Honest.” She wiped at her eyes again. “I got a little upset, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on the road. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“See that you don’t.” His dark eyes narrowed as if in memory. “Accidents are messy. Very messy.”

“Thanks for being so nice.”

He shrugged. “Everybody slips once in a while.”

“That’s exactly what I did…”

“I didn’t mean you,” he interrupted. His lean face took on a faintly dangerous cast. “I’m not nice. Not ever.”

She was intimidated by that expression. “Oh.”

He wagged a finger at her nose. “Don’t speed.”

She put a hand over her heart. “Never again. I promise.”

He nodded, walked elegantly to his squad car and drove toward town. Janie sat quietly for a minute, getting herself back together. Then she started the car and went home, making up an apology for her father about his gloves without telling him the real reason she’d come home without them. He said he’d get a new pair the next day himself, no problem.

Janie cried herself to sleep in a miserable cocoon of shattered dreams.

As luck would have it, Harley Fowler, Cy Parks’s foreman, came by in one of the ranch pickup trucks the very next morning and pulled up to the back door when he saw Janie walk out dressed for riding and wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Harley’s boss Cy did business with Fred Brewster, and Harley was a frequent visitor to the ranch. He and Janie were friendly. They teased and played like two kids when they were together.

“I’ve been looking for you,” Harley said with a grin as he paused just in front of her. “The Cattleman’s Ball is Saturday night and I want to go, but I don’t have a date. I know it’s late to be asking, but how about going with me? Unless you’ve got a date or you’re going with your dad…?” he added.

She grinned back. “I haven’t got a date, and Dad’s away on business and has to miss the ball this year. But I do have a pretty new dress that I’m dying to wear! I’d love to go with you, Harley!”

“Really?” His lean face lit up. He knew Janie was sweet on Leo Hart, but it was rumored that he was avoiding her like measles these days. Harley wasn’t in love with Janie, but he genuinely liked her.

“Really,” Janie replied. “What time will you pick me up?”

“About six-thirty,” he said. “It doesn’t start until seven, but I like to be on time.”

“That makes two of us. I’ll be ready. Thanks, Harley!”

“Thank you!” he said. “See you Saturday.”

He was off in a cloud of dust, waving his hand out the window as he pulled out of the yard. Janie sighed with relief. She wanted nothing more in the world than to go to that dance and show Leo Hart how wrong he was about her chasing him. Harley was young and nice looking. She liked him. She would go and have a good time. Leo would be able to see for himself that he was off the endangered list, and he could make a safe bet that Janie would never go near him again without a weapon! As she considered it, she smiled coldly. Revenge was petty, but after the hurt she’d endured at Leo’s hands, she felt entitled to a little of it. He was never going to forget this party. Never, as long as he lived.

Chapter Three

The annual Jacobsville Cattleman’s Ball was one of the newer social events of the year. It took place the Saturday before Thanksgiving like clockwork. Every cattleman for miles around made it a point to attend, even if he avoided all other social events for the year. The Ballenger brothers, Calhoun and Justin, had just added another facility to their growing feedlot enterprise, and they looked prosperous with their wives in gala attire beside them. The Tremayne brothers, Connal, Evan, Harden, and Donald, and their wives were also in attendance, as were the Hart boys; well, Corrigan, Callaghan, Rey and Leo at least, and their wives. Simon and Tira didn’t attend many local events except the brothers’ annual Christmas party on the ranch.

Also at the ball were Micah Steele, Eb Scott, J. D. Langley, Emmett Deverell, Luke Craig, Guy Fenton, Ted Regan, Jobe Dodd, Tom Walker and their wives. The guest list read like a who’s who of Jacobsville, and there were so many people that the organizers had rented the community center for it. There was a live country-western band, a buffet table that could have fed a platoon of starving men, and enough liquor to drown a herd of horses.

Leo had a highball. Since he hadn’t done much drinking in recent years, his four brothers were giving him strange looks. He didn’t notice. He was feeling so miserable that even a hangover would have been an improvement.

Beside him, Marilee was staring around the room with wide, wary eyes.

“Looking for somebody?” Leo asked absently.

“Yes,” she replied. “Janie said she wasn’t coming, but that isn’t what your sister-in-law Tess just told me.”

“What did she say?”

Marilee looked worried. “Harley Fowler told her he was bringing Janie.”

“Harley?” Leo scowled. Harley Fowler was a courageous young man who’d actually backed up the town’s infamous mercenaries—Eb Scott, Cy Parks and Micah Steele—when they helped law enforcement face down a gang of drug dealers the year before. Harley’s name hadn’t been coupled with any of the local belles, and he was only a working-class cowboy. Janie’s father might be financially pressed at the moment, but his was a founding family of Jacobsville, and the family had plenty of prestige. Fred and his sister-in-law Lydia would be picky about who Janie married. Not, he thought firmly, that Janie was going to be marrying Harley….