Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,40
and find an attorney who’d be willing to do the work for her. It would be an expense, but if it would help mend the breach between her and Teddie, it was worth any amount of money.
Maybe she could win Teddie’s trust again. But Parker wanted nothing more to do with her, and he’d made it very clear tonight. Until then, she hadn’t realized how much a part of the family he’d become to her. It was painful to think she wouldn’t see him helping around the place, teaching Teddie horse care, explaining Crow legends. Talking about the cat in the box.
She smiled sadly as she thought what a high intelligence he had, and he’d let Ron treat him like a vagrant. She couldn’t imagine why. Or maybe she could. He wasn’t even going to try to compete with the society attorney. He’d witnessed that impassioned kiss and he was probably convinced that Katy had chosen Ron over him. It wasn’t the truth. But what did it matter? They all hated her.
Tomorrow was Sunday. She’d have to drive over to the Dentons to bring a furious Teddie home and discuss Bart’s future. Ron would certainly arrive after lunch, to complicate matters. She hadn’t felt such impotent sorrow since her husband’s death.
She missed her late husband. She felt guilty that she’d started seeing Parker, because it was like betraying her husband’s memory. But it wasn’t at all. Teddie loved Parker. He was larger than life, a strong and capable man with a stunning intellect and a big heart. He never ran from a fight. Ron did. It was why he negotiated settlements out of court for most of his cases. He wasn’t a stand-up fighter and he didn’t like confrontation. Well, not unless he considered his adversary inferior to him. That was why he’d been so condescending with Parker. Pity, she thought, that Parker hadn’t aired his views on theoretical physics. But Parker wasn’t competing, because he didn’t think Katy was worth the competition. That thought was like a knife in her heart. She hadn’t realized how important Parker was to her until she’d alienated him. She’d alienated her daughter as well. Somehow, she was going to have to make amends, if she could.
She went back to bed and turned off the light, but she knew she wasn’t going to sleep. Her life was in turmoil all over again because she’d gone nuts and invited Ron down to aid her in the struggle for possession of Bartholomew. He hadn’t aided her at all. He’d helped lose part of her family.
So she closed her eyes on welling anger and considered her next course of action. Tomorrow, after she got her daughter back, she was going to have a long and very hot conversation with one eastern attorney.
* * *
The Dentons were already up when she pulled up at their front door, after calling and asking if it was all right to come fetch her daughter. She didn’t want to make J.L. any madder than he already was.
Teddie was sitting at the breakfast table with Cassie and J.L. and the baby, in his high chair, when she walked in.
“Good morning,” Katy said hesitantly.
“Good morning,” Cassie greeted. “Won’t you have something to eat? Or at least coffee?”
J.L. didn’t speak. He glared.
Katy flushed. She took a deep breath and put her hands in her pockets. “I’m going into town tomorrow to see an attorney and have Bartholomew signed over to you, Mr. Denton. I’ll be very grateful, and so will Teddie, for any help you can give us. I don’t want him put down and I don’t want his former owner to get him.” She shifted her feet restlessly. “Ron is very logical. He helped me settle my husband’s affairs after he was killed overseas. He seemed like a capable, trustworthy man, but he’s not. He’s a snake. I just didn’t know it until yesterday, when he almost convinced me that I was being stupid and unrealistic.”
Teddie was looking at her mother, not glaring. J.L.’s hard face softened just a little.
“Anybody can be taken in by a fast-talking lawyer,” Cassie said. “My poor father was the victim of one, who helped his shady client ruin my father’s reputation so they could get his position for her. The uproar caused my mother to commit suicide.”
“Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry!” Katy exclaimed.
“We were very close,” Cassie confided. “It took a long time to get over it. In fact, I haven’t yet.”