“If that’s the kind of woman, you’re used to—”
“That’s the kind of woman I spent lots of money getting rid of.”
“Oh, come on, Cowboy. She’s beluga caviar, and I’m fish and chips.”
“Hey”—he stroked her cheek—“I like fish and chips.”
“We hardly know each other.”
“So? We can’t get to know each other?”
“I suppose so, but don’t you think maybe we should have a real date? I mean, we seem to have a good…chemistry together, but—”
“Chemistry? We explode, Doc. We’re dynamite. The earth moves a little faster when we’re in the same room together. I knew it when I first laid eyes on you.”
Annie threw the saliva soaked ball again. “I don’t know if I’d put it that way.”
“How exactly would you put it?”
She sighed. He was right. “Okay, we’re dynamite together. We explode.” Why fight it?
“Exactly.” He pulled her into his arms and brushed his mouth over hers. “Let’s start over. I don’t want you cooking tonight. You can cook tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night? What if I’m busy?”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Okay then.”
“Why can’t I cook tonight?”
“Because I want to pamper you. Let me feed you.”
What a sweet man. “All right, Cowboy.” She wrapped her arms around his
neck. “Feed me.”
* * *
“It was horrible, Daddy.” Chelsea Beaumont McCray cried into her cell phone. “He had a naked bimbo in my kitchen! And she had an accent. Jersey City or Philadelphia. They all sound alike to me. Low-class.”
“Now, buttercup,” Stewart Henderson Beaumont said, “he’s no longer your husband. He has the right to cavort with whomever he chooses.”
“I’m almost positive he was cheating on me while we were married.” Chelsea sniffed.
“He was cheating on you?” Her father’s thunderous voice hurt her ear.
Chelsea knew better. Dallas would never cheat. His cowboy ethics wouldn’t allow it. Cowboy ethics that got on her nerves. Oh, he was faithful to her all right, but his code of the west hadn’t kept him from throwing her over. What had she done to deserve that? Well, there were a few things, but still.
Her father, however, didn’t need to know about his ethics. “I don’t know for sure, Daddy. But he might have. I mean, we’re barely divorced and he already has a hussy in his home. He was probably fooling around with her before he even filed for divorce.”
“Jason McCray’s boy? I don’t know, Chelsea.”
Damn him anyway. Taking the fool’s side. “I swear it, Daddy,” she said. “Now that I think of it, I’m absolutely sure I’ve seen the woman before. Sneaking out of our barn!”
“You wouldn’t be stretching the truth a little, now would you?”