night before last? That was the first thing I heard over coffee this morning. Cassie couldn’t wait to spill the beans.”
“Define cozy,” Lauren said. “We were with Karen and Grady, after all. And is this something we should be discussing in front of your daughter?”
Actually Caitlyn was already inching toward the rail at the corral and was pretty much out of earshot.
Emma chuckled. “Speaking of nice tries,” she said. “But you’re not getting away with it, either. Caitlyn is far more interested in the horses than she is in anything we have to say. Now talk to me. What’s the deal? Who is this guy? What do you know about him? How involved are the two of you?”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Lauren said. “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
Emma’s gaze suddenly shifted away. “Hmm? Could this be the man in question coming our way? Maybe he’ll be more talkative.”
Lauren spun around and shot a warning look in Wade’s direction. “Stay away,” she shouted.
He regarded her with confusion. “Why?”
“Because Emma has questions, and she’s a seasoned trial attorney. She’ll grill you until you tell her what she wants to know.”
She should have guessed that that was the exact wrong thing to say. Wade hesitated, then closed the distance despite her warning. If anything, he looked intrigued.
“I have nothing to hide,” he said. “What’s the crime?”
“No crime,” Lauren said, resigned to the inevitable. “Emma has heard things about the two of us.”
Wade looked nonplussed by that, but he was too close now to turn tail and run. Not that he would have, anyway, she realized. He’d already done his part at Stella’s to keep the talk alive. He was clearly enjoying either her discomfort or being the center of attention himself.
“Fascinating,” he said now. “According to these reports, was I any good?”
Emma shifted her gaze to Lauren. “Now that is fascinating. My sources didn’t seem to know that things had gone that far.”
“Things, as you so eloquently put it, haven’t gone anywhere at all,” Lauren said. “Wade’s just trying to stir up the pot. He seems to find it amusing, while I, to the contrary, have had my fill of people dissecting my life. In no time at all, it gets out of hand.”
Emma’s expression sobered at once. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. You’re right. Of all people, I should know better. I’ve had my own share of run-ins with the media. I know how quickly things can get out of hand.”
“Media?” Wade said, picking up on the telling remark at once. “Why would they be involved? I thought this was about small-town gossip.”
Lauren shot a discouraging look at Emma, then told Wade, “Emma had a bad encounter with the Denver press.” Perhaps she could shift all of the focus to Emma and away from her own experiences.
“Aren’t you Ford Hamilton’s wife now?” Wade asked Emma. “You must have gotten over it, if you decided to marry the editor of the local paper.”
“I trust my husband,” Emma agreed. “But not the media in general.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. But what does any of that have to do with Lauren?”
“It’s not important,” Lauren said hurriedly. “Did you need me for something?”
He stared at her blankly for a minute, then nodded. “Oh, yeah, I was going to let you know that I’m leaving now. I’ll be gone most of the day. Remember what we talked about.”
“My memory’s not that short,” she said testily. “I don’t need to be reminded that you don’t trust my judgment.”
“Lauren—”
“I know, I know. I won’t do anything stupid.”
He gave a curt nod of satisfaction. “That’s good. I’ll hear about it if you do.”
“Who’s going to tell? Midnight? Is the horse conversing with you now?”
“Dammit, Lauren, this isn’t a game,” he said with evident frustration. “He’s still dangerous.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Lauren heard Caitlyn calling out to an approaching horse. She turned just in time to see Midnight dancing closer to the child, who had climbed atop the split-rail fence. Midnight was probably braving the encounter with the hope of getting one of the treats Lauren had been bringing him on a daily basis.
Wade spotted the potential for tragedy at precisely the same moment. Before Lauren could even begin to gather her wits, he was across the ground scooping Caitlyn into his arms and out of the horse’s reach. Caitlyn was scowling at her abrupt removal.
“Why’d you do that?” she demanded, regarding Wade with a disapproving pout. She was completely oblivious to the danger