Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,37
in you that way, Ron,” she said firmly. “I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that I was. I honestly thought you meant it when you said if I ever needed help, you’d come.”
“Of course, I meant it,” he protested.
“So you talked to the horse’s owner, without telling me, and offered to have Bartholomew put down, knowing that I got you out here because my daughter loves the horse and wants to save him.”
Ron cleared his throat. “I prefer negotiation to a stand-up fight.”
“Oh, I can see that negotiation is certainly more preferable. It would have been a great solution when my great-great-grandfather was fighting off cattle rustlers up in Montana, negotiating with people pointing loaded guns at him.” Her eyes were sparking now.
“Nobody rustles cattle anymore,” he argued.
“Yes, they do. They use transfer trucks instead of horses, but they still use guns.”
“Barbarians,” he muttered.
Her eyes went over his expensive suit, his styled, neat hair, and his expensive jewelry. And she found that she infinitely preferred Parker’s simple denims and long hair.
“Barbarians,” she mused. She smiled. “That’s what you think Parker is.”
He wrinkled his nose.
“You should never judge people by the way they look,” she said.
He made a rough sound in his throat. “I’m going back to my motel. I’ll see you tomorrow. By then, hopefully you and that rude child will have come to your senses. Good evening.”
She held the door open for him and watched him drive away in his expensive rented car.
She walked out to the stable to find Teddie still grooming Bart, tears running down her cheeks. Parker had already gone.
“Teddie,” she began.
Her daughter looked at her with eyes that were red with tears and disappointment and anger. She put Bart back into his stall and put up the grooming tool.
“Daddy would be ashamed of you,” Teddie said simply. She walked out of the stable and left her mother to turn off the lights.
Teddie didn’t come out for supper. Her door stayed locked.
Katy was miserable. She shouldn’t have listened to Ron. He was part of another world, another mindset. And yes, her late husband would have fought Bart’s former owner to the Supreme Court, if he’d needed to. But he would have saved Teddie’s horse. Even Parker fought for her, which was more than Katy had done.
She took a shower and dried her hair, put on a night gown, and sat down on the side of her bed. She picked up her phone and sent a short text to Parker.
It wasn’t answered. She tried again and her number had been blocked.
She put the phone down, tears stinging her eyes. If she needed to know how he felt, that was her answer. Obviously, he felt that she’d taken the lawyer’s part over her own daughter’s, and he was disgusted with her. He’d witnessed that kiss, as well. It must have been painful to him, because he’d thought that he and Katy had something going for them. That kiss had shown him that they didn’t.
She lay down and turned out her light. But she didn’t sleep.
* * *
Parker couldn’t sleep either. He was sorry that he’d blocked Katy’s number, but he’d thought they were headed for a good place together, and that wasn’t happening. He’d found her in the arms of this eastern attorney whom she’d vowed that she disliked. It hadn’t looked like dislike to Parker.
He got up and made coffee. It wouldn’t help him sleep, but it was something to do. He heard a vehicle coming down the road. It stopped and pulled into his driveway.
For an instant, he thought it might be Katy. But it was only his boss. Odd thing, to find the boss out driving at this hour of the night, he thought as he opened the door.
“Hey, boss. How’s things?” Parker greeted.
J.L. Denton came up on the porch, out of sorts and weary. “Got any coffee?” he asked.
“You bet. Come on in.”
The two men sat at Parker’s kitchen table sipping black coffee in a companionable silence.
“Okay, what’s this about some lawyer from back East sucking up to the man who beat that horse that the Blakes rescued?”
“Him.” Parker made a face. “Sleazy so-and-so. He’s ambitious. Bart’s former owner is rich and he has friends.”
“I have a few of my own. I called Beck and Thomas in L.A. They’re flying out here Monday. If the child’s mother will give custody of Bart to you, I’ll handle the rest.”
“That’s the thing,” Parker said quietly. “She was all hugged up with the lawyer when