bit her lip. Tears stung her eyes. “Sorry. It’s still so new.”
“And so painful,” he agreed. He slid his big hand over her small one and held it just for a minute. He let go then. “Don’t let that steak go to waste,” he said, forcing laughter. “It’s one I bought from a local rancher. Filled up half my freezer. Grade A beef, no antibiotics, no hormones, just good beefsteak!”
She grinned. “I like steak,” she said. “But just once in a while. I mostly eat fish and vegetables.”
“Desserts?”
She paused and then shook her head. “I don’t like sweets.”
“Neither do I. Well, I like a chocolate pie once in a blue moon. The cook at the Gray Dove makes them. I eat there about once a week.”
She beamed. “So I’ll see you at work one day a week?”
He chuckled. “Yes, you will.”
She finished her meal and her coffee. “Want more coffee?” she asked, getting up.
“One more cup. It keeps me awake at night if I have more than that,” he said.
She sighed. “I don’t sleep, whether I drink coffee or not,” she said. “Mama was always wanting to go somewhere. California, Nevada, Idaho, New York City, overseas. I don’t think we ever spent more than a month at home. I don’t like traveling.”
“That makes two of us,” he said. “I got moved around a lot in the military. Up until then, I’d never been out of Benton in my whole life.”
“Honest?” she asked, surprised. She put his coffee mug down in front of him.
“Honest. My folks were ranchers.” He chuckled. “Hard to go off and leave the cattle while you party in some other country. One guy I know went to Tahiti for a month. When he came back, his cattle were gone. He went to ask his foreman what happened to them, and his foreman was gone as well. The guy forged his boss’s name on a bill of sale and sold the lot. Took the rancher two weeks to track him down. He hadn’t had time to spend much of the money, so he got it back and recovered his cattle. Foreman went to prison.”
“Good enough for him,” she said.
“It also taught the rancher a valuable lesson,” he added with twinkling eyes. “Not to be too trusting.”
She chuckled. “I can see the point.”
* * *
After they finished supper, Butch got Esther’s fox fur and helped her into it.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Walmart,” he replied. “You can’t wear the same clothes to work every day.”
She flushed. “I didn’t think about that.”
“We’ll get you some slacks and shirts and a coat that won’t attract attention,” he said.
She sighed. “I guess it does look a bit out of place. But maybe people will think it’s fake fur,” she added.
“Not in this part of the country, they won’t.” He laughed.
“At least I still have some money,” she said, and gave him a long, hard look that indicated he wasn’t paying for anything for her.
“What an expression,” he mused. “Have you ever knocked anybody out with those dagger-eyes?”
She relaxed and laughed softly. “Just making the point that I pay my own way,” she replied. “And you’ll get rent as soon as I get my first paycheck. I won’t argue,” she added softly. “You’ve been kinder to me than anybody ever was, except my parents.”
Now he was flushing, high on his cheekbones. “Okay, then,” he said, remembering that his former fiancée had begged for pretty things and never offered to do a thing for him. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER THREE
The store was crowded, and the first people Butch met were his friend Parker and Parker’s new wife, Katy, and his stepdaughter, Teddie. They were an interesting combination, because Parker was Crow—and had the jet-black hair and dark eyes and olive skin to prove it—and Katy was blond and blue eyed.
“Hey, buddy, how’s it going?” Butch asked.
Parker grinned at him, his arm around his wife. “Things are great. How’re you doing, Sarge?” he asked, and his eyes went curiously to the pretty blonde in the fox jacket standing so close to his friend.
Butch slid his one good arm around her and pulled her gently close. “She’s my fiancée. Esther, this is my friend Parker, and his wife and daughter.”
“Nice to meet you,” Parker said. “Fiancée, huh? And you didn’t say a word to me about it?” he teased.
“We haven’t known each other long,” Butch said, smiling down at a worried Esther, “but we both . . . just knew,” he said, shrugging.
“I know how that feels.” Parker