It could hardly be counted as a date, since he wasn’t even coming along, but it would be the first thing Slade had ever given her. Too bad she couldn’t preserve an ice cream sundae as a souvenir. Maybe she’d tuck that five-dollar bill into a scrapbook, instead.
* * *
Seeing Annie and Val with their heads together was enough to send goosebumps sliding down Slade’s back. It had been occurring with distressing regularity ever since Annie’s arrival earlier in the week.
Over dinner on Annie’s first night, all Slade had heard was “Val said this” and “Val said that.” He probably should have been grateful that Annie was talking to him at all, but all he could think about was the topic. He had enough trouble keeping his mind off Val without her name coming up every two seconds. Still, he’d gritted his teeth and listened to every word Annie had to say about this new friend she’d acquired.
“And she said she’d take me into town tomorrow,” she’d said, her eyes bright with excitement. “There’s this place, Dolan’s, that has ice cream and hamburgers. It’s owned by a lady named Sharon Lynn. You probably know her. Her dad’s your boss or something. Anyway, Val said Dolan’s is the place to go in Los Piños. Or she said we could go for pizza. It’s not like one of those national chains. It’s made by a real Italian family. I think they came from Rome way back even. Anyway, she said it’s my choice. So, what do you think?”
What Slade thought was that the woman was as pesky as flies at a picnic. There hadn’t been a single day since she’d first turned up at White Pines that she’d minded her own business. If she got it into her head to befriend Annie, it could only mean trouble. It would start with ice cream and pizza, but who knew where it would lead? Still, he couldn’t bring himself to put a damper on Annie’s enthusiasm by saying no.
“If you want to go, it’s fine,” he’d said. “Just don’t take advantage. I’ll give you the money for your food.”
“No, it’s her treat. She said so.”
But when Annie had come to him for permission, he’d insisted on giving her the money for ice cream. A gentleman didn’t let a lady pay. The lesson had been drilled into him by his mother and echoed by his father. It had stuck, which he supposed made him some kind of an old-fashioned oddity in this day and age of dutch treat and ladies doing the asking for dates. On the circuit he’d been astounded by just how brazen some women were, even once they knew he was married.
Annie and Val went for ice cream and burgers on Monday. They had pizza on Tuesday. Val planned a swim in the creek and a picnic on Wednesday. The two of them were thick as thieves. Yes, indeed, it made his skin crawl. Annie needed a new friend, one who wasn’t old enough and sexy enough to make her daddy’s heart pump quite so hard.
Kids her own age would be good, he concluded, and the ranch was crawling with them. Was it possible to arrange some sort of play date at Annie’s age? He could talk to Cody about it. Or should he just pray that the kids found each other before hearing about Val drove him nuts?
The thought had barely occurred to him when he spotted Val striding toward him with a purposeful gleam in her eyes. Watching her walk was a thoroughly entertaining experience. The woman’s hips swayed provocatively enough to make a man’s blood steam, especially when she got the notion to wear a pair of kick-ass heels that made her legs look long and willowy, despite the fact that she was just a little bitty thing. She’d worn those heels today as if she knew the effect they had on him.
He indulged in a moment of purely masculine appreciation before he reminded himself that that expression on her face spelled upheaval.
“Whatever it is, the answer is no,” he announced emphatically when she was several yards away. He turned his attention back to the horse he’d been grooming before he’d caught sight of Val.
When she remained silent for way too long, he risked a glance up. She gave him one of her irrepressible grins. “Good. I have your attention. Just for the record, I haven’t asked for anything yet.”