there are some impatient folks sitting out here wondering what happened to the help.”
“I’ll go,” Patsy said at once, brushing past him to discover that the only impatient person in the store was Justin. Her heartbeat accelerated. She forced herself to walk slowly back to the counter, pausing to grab a cup and the coffeepot on her way to where he sat.
“Back so soon?” she asked.
“Had to get my hourly fix of the prettiest woman in Los Piños,” he teased.
“Sharon Lynn, get out here,” Patsy called. “Justin’s looking for you.”
He grinned. “Very funny.”
He looked past her just then and spotted his grandfather. To Patsy’s amusement, he regarded him suspiciously.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Do you think you’re the only one in the world who appreciates a beautiful woman?” his grandfather asked.
“Go find your own. This one’s mine,” Justin said.
“Says who?” Patsy inquired.
“Whooee,” his grandfather said, grinning. “I like this girl.”
Justin turned his gaze from his grandfather to Patsy. His expression sobered. “So do I, Grandpa. So do I.”
“Then I’ll just run along and leave you to see what you can do about getting her to change her mind about you.”
After he’d gone, Justin focused on Patsy. “So, what about it? Can I change your mind?”
“About?”
“Being mine.”
Something in his tone told her the question wasn’t being asked in jest. And as desperately as one part of her wanted to say yes, another part reminded her that once before she’d been too eager to jump into a relationship. She hadn’t even fully extricated herself from that mistake yet.
“Maybe one of these days,” she said. She glanced around to make sure they were unobserved, then leaned across the counter to brush a kiss across his lips. “You are awfully cute.”
When she would have drawn away, Justin tucked his hand around the back of her neck and held her still long enough to deepen the kiss into something wild and sweet.
“Have dinner with me tonight,” he suggested when he released her.
“Two nights running. People will talk,” she teased.
“Darlin’, I’m beginning to think it’s our civic duty to give them something fascinating to talk about.”
“That sounds a little too self-serving to me.”
He grinned. “I was going for noble. What about it, though? Will you have dinner with me? We’ll go someplace quiet and romantic.”
Patsy had been to most of the restaurants in town. None she knew qualified. “Where?”
“You’ll see.”
“Justin, I really think you ought to tell me. I have a son to consider.”
“Taken care of. He’s going out to the ranch to spend the night. Janet says she can’t wait.”
Once again, he was taking over, smoothing things out to get his own way. Maybe under other circumstances she would have found the gesture touching. Instead, it rankled.
“Don’t you think you should have consulted me before making arrangements for my son?” she asked testily.
“The plans aren’t cast in stone,” he replied, his tone reasonable. “If you have a problem with them, we’ll change them.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point?” he asked patiently.
“I don’t need somebody to run my life for me, Justin. I’ve been there, done that, and I didn’t like it.”
He nodded slowly. “I see.”
“Do you really?”
“I think so. Will pretty much set the agenda for your lives and expected you to fall in line. How am I doing so far?”
There was that perception of his kicking in again to surprise her. “On the money,” she admitted.
“I’ll try to be more sensitive to that in the future,” he promised.
She shrugged, not entirely trusting an easily made and easily broken promise. The proof would have to come over time.
He gave her one of his crooked, endearing smiles. “Can we start this conversation over again?”
She hesitated, then grinned back, unable to resist him in the end. “What the heck, give it a try.”
“Patsy, would you care to have dinner with me tonight?”
“I’d be delighted,” she said, because she could recognize the stupidity of turning down a date with a man she loved just to make a point.
“What about a baby-sitter for Billy? Need any help in making arrangements?”
It was impossible to tell how much of the earlier conversation she’d overheard, but Patsy was grateful for the offer. “Are you sure you won’t mind?”
“Heavens, no. It’ll be fun. I can even stay over at your place. That way I won’t have to have someone from the ranch come into town to pick me up tonight and you won’t have to rush back home.” She grinned. “In fact, you could