matter-of-factly. “I guess I don’t blame him for hating me. Everybody says I look just like her. I heard Grandma tell one of her friends that if I’m not careful I’ll turn out just like her, too. Nothing but trouble, that’s what she said.”
Val was stunned. This was more than she’d ever learned from Slade, and it went a long way toward explaining his attitude toward women. Still, his problems with his ex-wife were no excuse for treating his daughter the way he’d been doing. And her grandmother should have watched her tongue. Val couldn’t see that it served any useful purpose to go knocking her former daughter-in-law where Annie could overhear her.
“Your mom’s leaving must have hurt you both very much,” Val said, treading carefully. “Sometimes grown-ups don’t get over something like that very easily.”
“Like kids do?” Annie retorted. She sighed heavily, as if resigned to the fact that no adult could ever understand what she was going through.
“Of course not,” Val agreed, “but—”
Annie faced her squarely. “Look, you don’t have to be nice to me. I’m just a kid and I’m used to being on my own. My grandma and grandpa pretty much left me alone, except when I did something wrong.”
“I’ll bet you got into trouble a lot then, didn’t you?” Val guessed.
Annie stared at her with obvious surprise. “How’d you know that?” She sighed once again. “Never mind. I suppose he told you. He probably warned you about me.”
Val decided not to tell her it was predictable. Annie probably thought she was the only kid who’d ever used that technique to get the attention of the adults around her. “Nope. Lucky guess,” she said instead. She glanced toward the horses. “Do you like horses as much as your dad does?”
Annie shrugged. “I suppose. My grandma and grandpa lived in town, so we didn’t have horses.”
“But you must have been around them when your dad was on the rodeo circuit.”
“Me and my mom didn’t go with him all that much after I started school. I guess we did when I was real little, but I don’t remember that. My mom said it was my fault he left us behind all the time.”
Val hid her dismay. What kind of mother openly blamed her child for the problems that were clearly between her and her husband? And what kind of father allowed it to happen? She wanted to reach out and hug this sad, neglected child, but Annie’s defensive posture told her she wouldn’t welcome the gesture, much less trust that it was genuine.
“You’re going to really love living here,” Val told her instead. “There are lots of kids around. The Adamses are wonderful people. They’ll throw a party at the drop of a hat. You’ll fit in in no time.”
Annie looked skeptical. “They probably won’t invite my dad and me. He just works here.”
“I work here, too, but they always include me.”
“You’re a grown-up,” Annie said, but she couldn’t hide the wistful look that crossed her face.
“Maybe so, but I was hoping maybe we could be friends. I haven’t been here all that long myself. Maybe we could go into town one day. I could show you around while your dad’s working.”
Annie regarded her skeptically. “Yeah, well, if you’re doing it so my dad’ll notice you, you’re wasting your time. He hates girls, because of my mom. My grandma says he’d be a recluse if he could.”
Apparently Grandma had one very loose tongue. “Well, you’re here now, so being a recluse is not an option,” Val said briskly, giving Annie’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “He may not know it yet, but having you here is going to be very good for him. I can tell that already.”
Despite Annie’s conviction about how little her father thought of her, she gave Val a hopeful look that almost broke her heart.
“Do you think so?” she asked.
“I know so,” Val assured her. If she had to knock Slade Sutton upside the head herself, she was going to see to it.
Three
Val had a giant-size calendar spread out on the floor in Laurie’s music room, while her boss sprawled on the sofa, idly picking out a tune on her guitar.
“This song is terrible,” Laurie concluded, eyeing the instrument as if it were at fault. “I haven’t been able to write worth a lick since Harlan Patrick and I got married.”
“Stop putting so much pressure on yourself,” Val advised. She’d been listening to the same complaint for weeks now. If Laurie wasn’t careful, she was