Courting the Enemy

Chapter Seven

Grady stayed away for two weeks. Even though it was something she’d once hoped for, Karen found herself watching the driveway day after day, regretting the attack of conscience that had had her sending him off after the snowstorm.

She knew he’d gotten home safely, not because he’d called, but because his housekeeper had. It was as if he’d taken her cue and decided to go one step further, cutting off all contact. The disappointment she had felt the second he had left had only grown in the days since that afternoon.

“You certainly look miserable,” Gina declared when Karen drove into Winding River to have a spaghetti dinner at the restaurant where her friend was filling in as cook. Tony had used Gina’s willingness to step in for him as the perfect excuse to take his wife on a long-promised trip to Italy.

“Just what every woman wants to hear,” Karen said. “Maybe I should have stayed home. I can probably boil pasta as well as you can.”

“Ouch,” Gina protested.

“Well, I can.”

“But your pasta isn’t homemade. Mine is.”

“You’ve got me there, though I doubt I’d notice the difference.”

“Which brings us back to miserable,” Gina said, sitting down opposite her. “I’ve got some time to talk. We’re not that busy. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Karen said honestly. There was nothing good or bad going on in her life. Every day it was just more of the same exhausting work and loneliness. She’d had a brief respite, thanks to Grady…which made it seem even more depressing now.

“Hey, this is me you’re talking to, not those nosy in-laws of yours,” Gina said. “Tell the truth. Is this about Grady Blackhawk?”

Karen’s gaze shot up. “Why would you think that?”

“Just hazarding a guess. You two were spending a lot of time together until I told you I’d heard rumors floating around town about him being at the ranch the night of the snowstorm. Is he still coming by?”

“No.”

“Did you two have a fight?”

“Not exactly.”

Gina regarded her with exasperation. “This is like trying to get information out of the CIA.”

Karen grinned despite herself. “Sorry. I’m not being deliberately tight-lipped. I just don’t know what to say. After you called, I explained what you had said, and I told him it would be best if he left. He seemed to understand.”

“But he hasn’t been back,” Gina concluded. “Hasn’t called, either?”

“Nope.”

Her gaze narrowed. “And that really bothers you, doesn’t it? Were you starting to trust him, Karen? Maybe even like him? Was this turning into something for you?”

Karen felt compelled to deny it, even though the truth was that Gina had hit on the problem. “It was a pain in the neck at the outset,” she said. “It’s a pain in the neck now. Nothing’s changed.”

“Except that you’ve realized that the pain is actually a gorgeous, sexy man,” Gina guessed, clearly not buying her disclaimer.

Karen sighed. “Yes, well, there is that.”

“And that maybe you wouldn’t mind getting to know him a lot better,” Gina continued. “At least if there weren’t all these obstacles in the way.”

“But the obstacles are real,” Karen said despondently. “Caleb, his parents, the ranch-how can I overlook any of that just because I’ve been feeling a little lonely and Grady has filled a void in my life?”

Gina stood up. “I’m getting you a glass of wine. No, a whole bottle of wine.”

Karen regarded her with alarm. “I can’t drink and drive all the way back to the ranch.”

“You’re not going to. You’re going to drink and walk to my place and spend the night.” Gina walked off toward the bar before Karen could protest.

While Gina was gone, the rest of her words sank in. When she returned, Karen studied her intently, then asked, “Since when do you have a place in Winding River?”

Gina winced. “You caught that, did you? Since I agreed to stick around and help Tony out. I couldn’t keep crashing at my parents’ place, so I rented an apartment here in town.”

“For how long?”

Gina shrugged. “Yet to be determined,” she said, casting a look across the dining room to a table by the window. The man who’d been hanging around off and on since the reunion was sitting there with an empty wineglass and a stack of paperwork. He looked as if he’d set up a permanent office right there. At the moment he was the only other customer.

“Do you want to tell me who he is and what’s going on?” Karen asked, studying her friend’s face with concern.

“Nope,” Gina said.

Alarm rose as another thought occurred to her. “He’s not stalking you, is he?”

“Not the way you mean,” Gina said wryly. “Drink your wine. I’m going to fix your dinner. Forget spaghetti. This will make your mouth water. It will transport you straight to a trattoria in Rome.”

Karen noticed that, on her way across the room, Gina paused to splash a little wine into the man’s glass, though she carefully avoided his gaze, ignored whatever he said and kept right on going toward the kitchen, where the waitress was no doubt filing her nails.

Interesting, Karen thought. And troubling. Gina had never been known for her reticence. In fact, her bubbling enthusiasm and firsthand knowledge of Italian cuisine, combined with her innovative technique in the kitchen, had made her the perfect candidate for running a successful New York restaurant. She wasn’t bubbling now, though. At least not with the mysterious stranger.

And in all these months there had been no mention of that New York bistro or who was running it in her absence. Direct questions had been ignored or evaded, which was very unlike the candid Gina of old.

Another mystery, Karen concluded with a sigh. Her life seemed filled with them lately. And Grady was the biggest one of all. Had he been insulted, even hurt, by her cavalier dismissal that day? Had he simply given up the fight? As incredible as that might be, it was a possibility.

Maybe he was simply away on a sudden trip. She knew he had a ranch, but he also had other business interests. Perhaps he’d had to go to Cheyenne or Denver or who knew where else he might have his finger in some corporate pie. Maybe this disappearing act had nothing to do with her at all.

She sighed at the thought. More troubling than his disappearance was her reaction to it. She missed him, dammit. As Gina had guessed, Karen had gotten used to Grady’s company, exasperating as it was at times.

“It was just a habit,” she muttered. Like anything else that was bad for her, it could be broken.

“Deep thoughts?” a familiar male voice inquired behind her.

Her head snapped around, her gaze clashed with Grady’s, the wine she held with suddenly trembling fingers splashed on the table.

“Where have you been?” she asked before she could bite back the words. Even she recognized they were a stark contrast to her previous greetings demanding to know why he was there.

“Miss me?” he asked, a devilish twinkle in his eyes.

“No more than I would a swarm of bees,” she retorted.

He slid into the seat opposite her, taking note of the second glass of wine. “Where’s your date?”

“I’m here alone.”

“Good. Then I’ll join you,” he said, taking a sip from the untouched extra glass Gina had left for herself.

Karen frowned, annoyed by his presumption and by her own eagerness to have him stay. “Grady, you can’t just waltz in here and invite yourself to have dinner with me.”

“Why not?”

“Just because.”

“Because it’s going to stir up more talk?” he asked, regarding her with a pointed look.

“That, too,” she agreed.

“And what else?”

“Maybe I don’t want to have dinner with you.”

“Maybe?” he teased. “Let me know when you decide, then we’ll discuss it. Until then, I’ll just sit here and enjoy the wine and the vision of a beautiful woman sitting across the table from me.”

“I don’t want you here,” she said with more conviction. “And you know perfectly well why it’s a bad idea.”

He studied her thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Yes, you do want me here. You just feel compelled to deny it. You’re tough enough to stand up to a little idle gossip.”

“If you believe that, then why did you leave the house when I asked you to?”

“Because my being there had clearly upset you and because I was way too tempted to kiss you senseless to make you forget that inconvenient conscience of yours.”

“And now?”

“You’re here. I happened by. I consider that fate.” He smiled, then turned his attention to the menu. “What are you having?”

Because she knew from experience there was little point in arguing, she gave up. Besides, the truth was, she was so happy to see him, so happy to know that he wasn’t furious with her, that her heart felt lighter than it had in days.

“I have no idea what I’m going to eat.”

“You haven’t ordered?”

“Gina wouldn’t let me. She’s fixing what suits her.”

Grady nodded. “Maybe I’d better stick my head in the kitchen and make sure she fixes enough for two.”

As he crossed the restaurant, Karen watched him intently. Her pulse had kicked into high gear the second she heard his voice and hadn’t let up since. This wasn’t good, she thought. Not good at all.

Gina came stalking out of the kitchen on Grady’s heels and followed him straight to the table. Her indignant gaze came to rest on Karen. “Are you okay with this?”

“He’s not going away,” Karen said with an air of resignation. “I guess I’ll have to make the best of it.”

“I can kick him out,” Gina offered.

“You and who else?” Grady demanded, regarding Gina with amusement.

Gina’s gaze strayed to her mysterious man. “I can muster up some help if I need it,” she declared.

“No need,” Karen said. “Grady will be on his good behavior.” She looked at him. “Won’t you?”

He winked. “The best. And I’m a really big tipper.”

Gina grinned then, apparently satisfied that there would be no fireworks. “I’m counting on it.”

After she’d gone, Grady looked at Karen. “She’s very protective of you.”

“As you’ve figured out by now, I’m sure, there are five of us who grew up together. We’ve been best friends ever since. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do if one of us needed something.”

“And these are the friends who are willing to bankroll your vacation?”

“Some of them, yes.”

“It must be nice to have a circle of friends you can count on.”

Her gaze narrowed at that. “Don’t you?”

“I have acquaintances,” he said with no trace of self-pity. “And I have my grandfather. That’s always been enough.”

She thought she detected a rare note of wistfulness in his voice. “It has been? Not now?”

His gaze met hers. “No,” he said quietly. “Not now.”

Deep inside, she felt something give way. It was the last of her defenses crumbling…and for the life of her, she couldn’t seem to regret it.

Even though she’d been anticipating-no, dreading-the call, hearing Anna Hanson’s voice on the phone first thing the next morning would have been disconcerting enough for Karen under any conditions. But Grady had arrived not five minutes earlier. He was standing right next to her. That was enough to fill her with guilt. Added to the discovery she’d made the night before about just how vulnerable she was to this man and the guilt tripled.

“Anna,” she said with forced enthusiasm. “How good to hear your voice.”

“Is it?” Anna said in that dire tone that meant she had plenty to say to Karen, none of it good.

Anna Hanson hadn’t entirely approved of her son’s choice of a wife for reasons that had never been clear. Maybe she would have resented any woman chosen by her only son.

And when Caleb had died, Anna had all but said she believed Karen was responsible in some way. Had she known that Karen, in fact, blamed herself, she would have thrown it in her face at every opportunity. Even as it was, the tension between them had been thick ever since the funeral. Anna called only when she felt duty-bound to check in on the condition of the ranch, and seemed to have no concern about how Karen was managing with her grief.

“Of course it’s good to hear from you,” Karen said, scowling at Grady, who rolled his eyes, clearly aware of the reason for this call. “How’s everything in Arizona? Is Carl doing okay?”

“He’d be much better if we hadn’t been hearing certain things,” Anna said, her tone grim.

Karen barely contained a sigh. At least the woman hadn’t wasted any time getting to the point. “What things?”

“That you and that terrible Grady Blackhawk have been carrying on.”

“Excuse me?” Karen said, though she was less stunned by the accusation than she would have been if Gina hadn’t warned her that rumors were circulating about the night of the storm. She was only surprised that they’d taken so long to reach her in-laws.

“The first time I heard it, I dismissed it,” Anna claimed, sounding self-righteous. “But we’ve had three calls this morning alone. Apparently everyone in the entire region knows that he’s spending every single day at the ranch with you. That was bad enough, but then he was there overnight. Was he sleeping with you in my son’s bed?”

Karen had always tried to ignore her mother-in-law’s attitude for Caleb’s sake. She had wanted a smooth co-existence, if a friendship was impossible. But Caleb was no longer a consideration. She no longer had to bite her tongue. Years of pent-up anger roared through her.

“How dare you,” she said sharply, aware that Grady had moved closer and laid a supportive hand on her shoulder. She shuddered at the contact, especially given the context of the conversation, but she didn’t move away.

“I loved your son,” she told Anna emphatically. “I never gave him or you any reason to doubt that. I certainly wouldn’t do anything disrespectful of his memory under his roof.”

“Then why is that man there every single day? Why did he spend the night? And how could you be seen in public with him last night, flaunting your affair in front of our friends?”

Karen wasn’t exactly certain how to answer that. “He stayed the night because he was stranded by the storm. And whether you want to believe me or not, there is no affair.”

“If you say so,” Anna said skeptically. “But that doesn’t explain what he’s been doing there in the first place.”

“He’s been helping out.”

“You surely don’t need the help of the likes of Grady Blackhawk. Or are you running the ranch into the ground?” Anna asked bitterly.

Karen restrained her temper. Another outburst would solve nothing. “Any time you and Carl would like to come back and take over running this place, you’re more than welcome to. In fact, I’d be delighted to sell it back to you,” she said to remind the woman of the fact that she and Caleb had taken out a mortgage of their own to pay his parents the money they needed to retire. It was the size of that mortgage that had kept them in debt, but Caleb had insisted it was only fair.

“Well, I never…” Anna said. “I’m going to put Carl on. Maybe he can get through to you.”

Karen’s relationship with Caleb’s father had always been more cordial. He had been as hardworking as his son. In fact, if it had been up to Carl, he would have stayed on after the funeral to help out, but Anna had been insistent that they needed to get back to Arizona where she had a brisk social calendar lined up, now that she was happily ensconced in a fancy retirement village.

“Don’t mind Anna,” he said the minute he got on the line. “She just took Caleb’s death real hard. She doesn’t mean half of what she says.”

“But the other half, she does,” Karen pointed out wryly. “I’ve never known which half to listen to.”

“Neither, would be my advice,” he said. “You doing okay, Karen? Hank and Dooley giving you enough help?”

“We’re managing.”

“What about this Blackhawk fellow? Has he been hanging around, like Anna hears?”

Karen sighed, glancing over at the man in question. “He wants the ranch. He’s made an incredible offer.”

Maybe Carl would tell her to go ahead and sell. If she had his permission, maybe this wouldn’t continue to eat away at her, and she could get away from the ranch and from Grady, finally escaping all the memories that haunted her here, good and bad.

“I don’t want that ranch in Blackhawk hands,” Carl said flatly. “If you want to get out, I can understand that. Nobody knows better than I do what a thankless task it is trying to keep a small ranch running in the black. Just promise me you’ll sell to anybody but him. Why should that man be rewarded after all the sneaky, conniving things he and his family have done to us through the years?”

Karen didn’t have an argument for that. Grady had been working hard to prove that she’d misjudged him, but he hadn’t offered any proof at all that he hadn’t been behind the sabotage of their herd. Someone had infected those animals and set fire to that pasture. If not Grady, then who? Until she knew for certain, Carl was right. She couldn’t sell to Grady.

“I won’t do anything at all without talking it over with you,” she promised her father-in-law.

“That’s good enough for me. You take care of yourself, Karen. I don’t want you wearing yourself out at your age out of some misguided sense of loyalty, you hear me? If the time comes when you can’t do it or even if you just decide you want a different life, then you grab your chance. I love that land, but it’s just land. It’s not worth dying for, the way Caleb did.”

“I love you,” she said to him, tears stinging her eyes.

“You, too. You were a good wife to my boy and I will always be grateful to you for that.”

Karen slowly hung up the phone, not daring to look at Grady.

“The Hansons, I presume,” he said caustically. “Did they manage to restore your sense of purpose?”

“I’m not going to discuss them with you,” she said, already reaching for her coat. “I’ve got work to do.”

“Where are you going?” he asked as she pushed past him.

“To the barn. Not all of us have time to fritter away.”

He stopped her in her tracks. “Is that what you think I’m doing around here, frittering away my time?”

Her gaze clashed with his. “Isn’t it? You have plenty of people working for you, I’m sure, people who do whatever needs doing on your ranch. I don’t. If something needs to be done around here, I do it myself.”

She jerked away from his grasp and ran outside, tears streaking down her face, all but turning to ice in the frigid February air. She headed straight for the barn and Ginger’s stall, leaning against the horse for comfort, absorbing her body heat.

When her tears had dried and her nerves settled, she reached for a brush and began grooming the horse as a reward for her patience. The steady strokes were soothing to both of them. Eventually she was calm enough to think about what had just happened, not just on her phone, but in her kitchen.

She had taken Anna’s attack out on Grady, no doubt about it. She’d figured he deserved it, since he was the cause of it. The plain truth was, Anna had ladled on guilt and Karen had accepted it because she was riddled with guilt already. Then she had lashed out at the cause.

She owed him an apology. She was the one who’d agreed weeks ago and again the night before to his visits. She had known there would be talk, known deep down that sooner or later it would reach Caleb’s parents and that there would be a price to pay.

What was one more disagreement, one more disapproving lecture, from a woman who hadn’t been any less critical when Caleb had been alive?

Finished in the barn, Karen walked slowly back to the house, where she overheard Grady on the phone.

“I want it taken care of today, do you understand me? This has dragged on long enough.”

Her heart thudded wildly at the implication. Was he tired of trying to outwait her? Was he somehow going to force the issue?

She let the door slam behind her and stood in front of him, her pulse thundering. “What was that about?” she demanded. “What are you up to now?”

The dismay on his face seemed proof enough of his treachery.

“You will not get this ranch,” she said, jabbing a finger in his chest. Because it felt so good, she did it again, and then again, until tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was pounding on him with her fists. “You won’t, dammit! I won’t let you.”

Grady let her rant until she wound down. Then he gathered her close, murmuring soothing, nonsensical words. Slowly she relaxed against him. Every inch of her was suddenly awakened to the sensation of their bodies pressed together, of his arms tight around her, his breath fanning her cheek.

“It’s okay, darlin’. It’s okay,” he reassured her. “That call wasn’t about the ranch, I promise. It was about something else entirely.”

She wanted to believe him, wanted to believe she had misunderstood, but how could she? She lifted her head from his chest to look into his eyes. What she saw there was even more troubling than the treachery she’d suspected. There was hunger and yearning and the kind of seething passion she’d almost forgotten existed.

His gaze locked with hers, he tenderly wiped the tears from her cheeks. His thumb caressed her mouth. The flash of heat in his eyes turned brighter. The air around them suddenly felt charged with electricity…and with anticipation.

And then, before Karen could guess his intentions, his mouth covered hers. The kiss was everything she’d ever imagined-and feared. It was devastating. It was pure temptation.

And Grady had stolen it.

If he could steal a kiss so cleverly when she’d been furious with him only moments before, would stealing the land she’d grown to despise be any challenge for him at all?