Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,41
close,” Katy said, not looking at the sad little girl at the table. “My fault. My parents married to combine two ranching properties. I think they wanted me, at first, but neither knew how to show affection. I was raised with almost no touching, no sharing, no affection.” She smiled. “It’s hard to show love when you haven’t been shown it.” She glanced at her daughter. “I’m in the learning stages about that.”
Teddie flushed. She squirmed in her chair.
“Coffee?” Cassie asked again.
“Thanks, anyway. But we’d better go,” Katy said. Her face tautened. “I have a lawyer to parboil after lunch.”
J.L. chuckled helplessly. Teddie’s face lightened.
“He’ll be leaving very soon, I believe,” Katy added with a glance at Teddie. “And I’m not listening to anything else he says. I’ll have those papers for you tomorrow afternoon, Mr. Denton. I’ll see the lawyer first thing after I dismiss my class.”
“Wait and let my attorneys draw up the papers,” J.L. replied. “They’ll be here by noon tomorrow. I’ll have Parker drop the papers off at your place when you get home.”
She bit her lower lip. “Parker isn’t speaking to me at the moment.”
J.L. cocked his head, his eyebrows arching in a question.
“He’s mad at me about the horse. He thinks I sold out my daughter. It looks that way.” She searched Teddie’s eyes. “When I flub up, I do a super job of it, don’t I, baby?” she asked.
Teddie got up from the table. “Me, too,” she confessed.
“So we’ll go home and get our ducks in a row,” Katy continued. She grimaced. “But it might be kinder to ask somebody besides Parker to hand over the paperwork. Kinder to him, anyway.”
He shrugged.
“You’ll take good care of Bart, won’t you, Mr. Denton?” Teddie asked worriedly. “You won’t let that awful man come and take him?”
J.L. smiled at the child. “He’d need a tank at the least to get through my security, and he’s much too lazy to learn to drive one.”
Teddie laughed. “Okay. Thanks. And for letting me stay.”
“You’re always welcome,” Cassie told the little girl, and hugged her.
“Thanks, from both of us,” Katy said.
Cassie hugged her, too. “Don’t take life so seriously,” she said gently. “Things work out, if you just give them time.”
“Good advice,” Katy said warmly. “We’ll take it. Ready to go, Teddie?”
“I’m ready.”
They said their good-byes, stopping at the stable so that Teddie could say good-bye to Bartholomew, who had a huge stall and plenty of food and fresh water.
One of the cowboys grinned at them. “That your horse?” he asked Teddie. “He’s super nice.”
Teddie beamed. “Thanks!”
“I’ll look after him, no worries,” he assured her.
“Okay.”
“Thank you,” Katy added. She herded Teddie out of the stable and back to the SUV, putting her in before she got behind the wheel.
“You meant it?” Teddie asked at once. “About that lawyer?”
Katy nodded. “I meant it.” She drew in a breath. “I’m sorry. You were right. Daddy would have been ashamed of me.”
“I’m sorry I said that,” Teddie told her. “I’m sorry about it all. It’s just, I love Bart and I thought you were going to let that man talk you into having him put down. I was scared.”
“Nobody’s putting Bart down,” Katy said firmly as she started the car. “And Ron is going back home tomorrow, whether he wants to or not.”
Teddie didn’t say anything as she put on her seat belt. But she smiled.
Chapter Eight
It was after lunch before Ron drove up to the front porch. Katy let him in, but not with any sort of welcome. He glanced beyond her at Teddie sitting on the sofa, glaring, and he made a face.
“I thought you and I might go for a ride,” he said. “To talk about the horse.”
“How much did Mr. Dealy offer you, Ron?” she asked abruptly.
His lower jaw dropped. He stared at her while he searched for a reply that wouldn’t get him kicked out the front door. The man was extremely wealthy and he’d offered the lawyer a whopping fee if he could convince the woman to have the horse put down. If there was no evidence, he could get out of the abuse charge, just as he’d gotten out of similar charges in the past—with money.
But it looked as if Katy was wise to the deal. He wondered who’d been talking to her. He suspected the Indian, but how would that man . . . what was his name again, Parker? How would Parker know?
“So it’s true,” Katy continued, nodding. “I thought so.”