but he is probably the only man I could tolerate right now. As a gender, I’ve pretty much concluded they’re dense as granite.”
“As a gender?” Laurie teased. “Or just one particular man?”
“Okay, Slade. There, I’ve said his name. I don’t want to hear it again for the rest of the day.” She thought about it for a second, then added fervently, “Maybe even for the rest of my life.”
Beside her, Laurie chuckled.
Val glared. “It is not a laughing matter.”
“Oh, but it is,” Laurie said. “I seem to remember someone all but laughing her head off when Harlan Patrick was giving me fits. Turnabout’s fair play.”
“Is this what I did to you?” Val asked.
“Pretty much.”
“How annoying.”
“It was,” Laurie agreed. “But I forgave you, because I knew your heart was in the right place. Harlan Patrick and I belonged together.”
“Yes, well, Slade and I don’t.”
“If you say so.”
“I do,” she said firmly. Maybe if she said it often enough, she’d finally start to believe it.
Ten
“So, how’d it go with Val last night?” Annie inquired when she caught up with Slade at midday.
He scowled. “None of your business.”
For most of the morning, he’d been dreading Annie’s return and the likelihood she’d be asking a question just like this one. He knew he’d gone about things all wrong, but he hadn’t anticipated Val’s violent reaction. After the way she’d chased him for months, after the way she’d taken Annie under her wing, he’d foolishly been convinced that she’d jump at the opportunity to marry him and become a mom to Annie. Her fiercely negative response just proved how little he knew about women.
Annie’s expression fell at his blunt words. “Oh, no, Daddy. What did you do?”
“Who says I did anything?” he asked defensively. “Shouldn’t you still be sound asleep at the slumber party or something?”
“Nobody sleeps at a slumber party,” she pointed out. “That would ruin it.”
Yet another example of the illogic of the female mind, he supposed. “Why don’t you go on up to the house and read?” he suggested, grasping at straws to get some peace and quiet and avoid his daughter’s judgmental gaze. “You got a whole armful of books from the library the other day.”
“I was bored the other day. Now I’m not. I’ll read them later.” She faced him with a defiant tilt to her chin and her hands jammed into her pockets. “I thought maybe I could help you today.”
He was in no mood to have her hanging around pestering him, asking more questions about Val that he didn’t want to answer. Besides that, he couldn’t imagine what a ten-year-old girl could do to help. She knew nothing about ranch work and next to nothing about horses. She was so skinny, she looked as if a stiff wind could blow her away.
“Not today,” he said in a clipped tone. “Aren’t some of the other kids around here someplace?”
He could read the hurt in her expression, but she squared her shoulders as if the dismissal didn’t bother her in the least. He could practically see the pride kicking in.
“Never mind,” she said stiffly. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll find something to do.”
He watched her walk away, saw her shoulders slump dejectedly, and felt like kicking himself. What kind of rotten louse took out his frustrations on a little girl who was only trying to help? For an instant he was tempted to call her back, but it didn’t take much to convince himself that she was better off finding one of the Adams kids to play with. Sticking around him in his present mood sure wouldn’t be a lot of laughs. He was sick of his own company.
An hour later he was putting Black Knight through his paces when Hardy Jones came down to the paddock and propped his elbows on the rail. He watched the workout for a minute, then said, “As soon as you can take a break with that, I think you’d better come with me.”
The usually jovial hand’s grim tone set off alarms. “What’s happened?” Slade demanded. “Is it Annie? Is she hurt? Or Val? Has something happened to Val?”
“No, no, they’re both fine,” Hardy said soothingly. “Sorry. I should have said that straight out. But there is a problem and it does involve Annie.”
Only then did Slade notice the spark of amusement in the younger man’s eyes that he was struggling unsuccessfully to hide. It was a look that went with mischief, not calamity.