enough to scare anyone. He leaned against the railing next to her and looked out at the snowy land. Ice crystals danced in the air like glitter.
“I should have told you I was going to call your father,” he said quietly.
She made an angry sound. “Is it true you haven’t married because you never got over Rebecca?”
His gaze flew to her. “Where did that come from?”
“Is it?”
“No.” He looked back out at the valley. “I just haven’t found anyone I wanted to marry. Do you always ask such personal questions?”
“Yes.”
He realized she preferred seeing him off balance than the other way around. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Why aren’t you married?”
“I’m too young.” She grinned, her cocky attitude back.
“You’re what? Thirty?”
“Twenty-nine and you know it.” She shivered, wrapping her arms tighter around her. “It’s cold out here.” She started to turn to go back inside.
On impulse he grabbed her arm to stop her. “It’s okay to be scared. It would help if I knew what you had to be afraid of, though.”
She met his gaze and held it. “Yes, it would help, wouldn’t it? But then you said you weren’t interested. Your job was just to get me to that jet back to Texas.” She pulled free and strode into the lodge, hips swinging, head high, the door slamming behind her.
Chance watched her go, cursing under his breath. Bonner had warned him that Dixie would play him. So what if she told him her side of the story? That didn’t mean she’d tell him the truth.
But even as he thought it, he knew he’d let her get to him.
Chapter Eight
As Dixie heard Chance come in from the deck, there was a knock at the door. She’d told herself she wasn’t hungry, but the smell of food made her stomach rumble as a young man from the lodge served what they called the Montana Special.
“Food,” Chance said, as if offering an olive branch after the young man left.
She was still furious with him, but the food smelled too good and she caught sight of what looked like pie. She did love pie. And he knew it.
They consumed buffalo burgers, cattleman fries and moose-tracks chocolate milkshakes in silence.
“I thought you might like this,” Chance said, handing her a piece of the pie. “It’s huckleberry. A local favorite.”
She took a bite. The food had taken the edge off her anger. That and the fact that Chance seemed to be trying to placate her.
“Bring your pie in here,” he said, and got up to go into the living room area to sit in one of the plush recliners. His dog plopped down at Chance’s feet to sleep off the two burgers he’d devoured. “So tell me what’s going on, really,” Chance said when she joined him.
She forked a bite of pie and ate it.
He leaned back, all his attention on her. “Dixie, talk to me. Why is someone trying to kill you?”
She told herself, why bother telling him? Even if he believed her, he was getting paid to take her to a jet in forty-eight hours because her father apparently was bound and determined to get her back to Texas—one way or another.
She looked into Chance’s handsome face and feared she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.
But at least it would be her last mistake.
CHANCE WAITED, remembering how stubborn she’d been as a kid. She hadn’t changed that much, he realized. She was furious with him. Not that he could blame her.
“Let me make it easy for you,” he said. “Who was the guy chasing us on the highway?”
She bit at her lower lip for a moment. “Roy Bob Jackson. He works for my father.”
“And? Come on, I know there’s more to it. He seemed to want to talk to you about something.”
She glanced away and sighed. “He probably just wants his engagement ring back.”
Chance let out an oath. “He’s your fiancé? And you didn’t think to mention that while the guy was chasing us?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I bet it is,” Chance said with a shake of his head. “So much so that you forgot to mention you were getting married.”
“I’m not marrying the bastard.”
“He gave you a ring!”
“No, he put it in my Christmas stocking.”
Chance frowned. “You already looked in your stocking?”
Dixie mugged a face at him. “You know I could never wait until Christmas Day.”
He’d forgotten how she was always snooping around the tree, shaking packages. “So the guy left a ring and a note asking you to marry