talk.”
“My suite?” she said, brightening.
He didn’t want to be alone with her. “Let’s take a walk,” he suggested.
He started to follow Lizette out of the stable, but before he emerged into the bright sunshine, he turned and narrowed his eyes at Mrs. Gray. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but stop it,” he said sternly, and at least the cat had the good grace to look surprised.
It was cool in the palm grove, and no one else was around. Hank was bored with Lizette’s nattering before they even reached the oasis hot pool.
“As I said, I have learned so much by being a life coach. It’s opened my eyes, Henry, to what a person can and should be. Take you, for instance. You have such potential. Why are you wasting it? You really should come back to the city.” They came to a bench, and Lizette sat down. “I can tell you exactly how I think you should approach your life at this point.”
Hank preferred to remain standing, so he rested one booted foot on the seat of the bench. When she realized that he wasn’t going to sit beside her, Lizette made a face at the dusty boot and scooted over a notch so she wouldn’t have to sit so close to it. She scowled up at him.
“Lizette,” he began, “I don’t need you to tell me how to run my life.”
“But—”
“No buts, Lizette.” He fixed her with a stern glare. “It happens that I like this life. I’m dedicated to giving my daughter the best possible childhood, and she is thriving here. She has her aunt and her baby-sitter and me.” He drew a deep breath. “I’m not planning to return to New York anytime soon.” He almost added, “If ever,” but decided against it at the last minute. He’d given Lizette quite enough to digest already.
“You have a job there,” she said. “You have a life.”
“Do I?” he said musingly. “Is rushing from one place to another a real life? Is flying all over the world on behalf of Rowbotham-Quigley enjoyable? Is my two-room apartment a real home? I don’t think so.”
Lizette looked bewildered. “You’re not the only one who lives like that in the city,” she said.
“Other people like it.”
“You might like it better if…well, I came here with the idea of suggesting that we move in together.”
“You and me and Kaylie?”
Her expression faltered. “You and I need time alone, Henry. Perhaps she could stay here with your sister while we settle in.”
He was aghast that she would expect him to give up Kaylie even for a while. “No, Lizette. Kaylie stays with me. And I wish you’d call me Hank.”
She sprang to her feet. “I’ll never be able to call you Hank. It’s a cowboy’s name. You’re not a cowboy. You’re a city dweller and an investment banker, and you have cosmopolitan tastes. Don’t tell me you’re going to give all that up for…for a little brat!” Her lips quivered in anger, and her fists clenched as though she could hardly refrain from punching someone, most likely him.
“I’m not going to tell you more than I already have,” he said quietly. “It’s over, Lizette.” He whirled and strode away.
She had called his beloved daughter a little brat. That was all the reason he needed to remove Lizette from his life forever.
ERICA TOOK a long, luxurious bath, sprayed herself with a flowery perfume from the atomizer on the vanity, then dressed slowly and with great care. Her outfit was a one-piece navy-blue silk jumpsuit, draped at the hips, slender in the legs so that it showed off her calves. The bodice had a low square neck, curved gently under her breasts. When she studied herself in the mirror and saw that she was all curves and no angles, that her hair was bouncy and her face appeared to be a perfect oval, she couldn’t help thrusting her fist in the air and yelling, “Yesss!”
She looked like what she wanted to be. She looked like someone a cowboy would desire.
For fun, she added big dangly earrings and a bunch of jingly silver bracelets she’d bought for herself when she’d selected a necklace for Charmaine in the gift shop earlier.
When Hank opened the door of his apartment, she thought he might greet her with a kiss on the cheek, but instead, he appeared with a baby on his hip and a cloth diaper arrayed across his shoulder. He looked harried but happy to see her.
“Come in,” he