before. But there was a time…” Dori’s eyes looked sad, her face grave.
“You mean…?”
“When he would not come in to town at all. When he wouldn’t talk to anyone, after his wife went away.”
Kayla swallowed a groan. This was not where she’d expected the conversation to go. Worse, thinking of that time only reminded her how much Sam resented her for helping Ronnie. How much he hated her for wanting to take Becky from him now. She pushed the thoughts away. She should be focusing on what she needed to do to accomplish just that, not on how Sam felt about her.
“But if he never bothered to spend any time with his wife…” At Dori’s incredulous expression, she faltered.
“What is this, not bother? He works hard on his ranch from morning to night. For his wife. And now, for his little girl.”
They both looked at Becky, who had pushed hard against the counter to make her seat swivel in a circle.
“I know,” Kayla said, “but—”
“He’s a good provider,” Dori interrupted, nodding emphatically. “Like my Manny. Is that not right?” She directed the question to the person who had just slid onto the stool on the other side of Kayla’s.
Kayla turned quickly to find Ellamae, the court clerk, looking at her.
“If you’re talking about Sam Robertson, Dori, you’re one hundred percent right. Now he’s grown-up and gotten over his teenager ways, you couldn’t find a better daddy this side of the Mississippi.”
So Ellamae was fighting her, too, in her own way. She was probably here this morning directly from the judge’s courtroom, trying to find out anything she could to help Sam.
The two women began an intense discussion about a new item on the menu.
Kayla took a deep breath and let it out. Of course these women would support Sam. He’d probably deceived everyone in town. They wouldn’t know about all the things Ronnie had said, about the way Sam had treated Ronnie and rejected Becky, about all Sam’s lies.
Look at that story he had told about not even knowing he’d had a child. No matter how Sharleen defended him, Kayla couldn’t believe that. Ronnie had contacted Sam repeatedly, hoping he would want to get in touch with his daughter. Finally, after years of no response, she had stopped trying.
Yet, knowing all that, Kayla had let herself get swept up in thinking crazy thoughts about him yesterday afternoon. Then she had almost let herself reach out in sympathy last night. She’d come so close to falling for that hurt look in his gray eyes.
Her thoughts wavered just as her words had faltered at Dori’s disbelief. Had Sam really tricked everyone into thinking he was so wonderful?
Or had Kayla been the one deceived—by Ronnie?
Before she could even begin to recover from that shocking thought, Becky cried out. Kayla recognized it as a sound of happiness.
It wasn’t Becky’s cry or Ellamae’s satisfied nod, but the thud of boots on the hardwood floor of the Double S that made Kayla’s spine stiffen.
Slowly, as Becky had done, she swiveled her own stool to face the room behind them.
Heading across the café came the one person she had feared it would be.
Sam.
Beside her, Becky tapped her thumb against her forehead, then waved her hands palm up in the air. She made the signs over and over again. The words rang in Kayla’s head as clearly as if Becky had spoken them.
“Daddy’s here. Daddy’s here. Daddy’s here.”
The sight of her niece’s elated grin nearly broke Kayla’s heart.
She forced her gaze to the other side of the room again, only to see Sam rapidly closing the space between them. Unable to stop herself, she found herself meeting his eyes. A tiny shiver ran through her, but when she tried to look away again, she couldn’t.
If Sam planned to stay home from working on his ranch very often, they could be spending a lot of tension-filled time together.
Six weeks suddenly seemed an eternity.
She wondered if she would survive them.
Chapter Nine
For some reason, it took all Sam’s willpower to cross the room to the women on the other side. He felt as though he was trying to forge a raging river. Just which of the four females over there would throw him a rope?
All of them, it looked like—although Kayla would probably then hog-tie him with it and drop him in deep water.
Why not? He was already in way over his head with this whole situation. He wanted her gone.
A quick glance at Becky almost made him trip over his