He shrugged. “I’m a one-woman man, but I lost the woman to someone richer,” he said bitterly.
“She was glaring at us on the dance floor,” she commented helpfully.
He perked up. “She was?”
She smiled. “Yes, she was.”
He chuckled. “Maybe there’s hope.”
“Maybe there is. Thanks for taking me.”
“Thanks for going with me. See you first thing Monday morning.”
“You bet. Good night.”
“Good night,” he called as he went back to his car, started it, and roared off with a wave of his hand.
Meadow went into her house. It was quiet and dark. That was how her heart felt. Dal had said terrible things to her, hurtful things. He’d meant them. He thought she looked like a hooker. She laughed coldly to herself. She’d seen hookers on the street. She should get him in the car and drive him to Denver, let him see for himself how little she resembled the real thing in her elegant dress. But it wouldn’t make any difference. He hated her. He’d made it apparent tonight.
She wondered why he’d kissed her so hungrily. Dana was his girl, everybody knew it. Had he mistaken her for Dana? He’d been drinking a lot. That was unusual. Everybody knew he rarely drank hard liquor at all. Someone in his family had been an alcoholic, his grandfather, she recalled. It must have been hard for his father. He’d been an only child. Dal would have grown up with bad memories of men who went over the edge on booze.
But he’d been drinking tonight. Why? She gave up wondering and went to bed.
* * *
Her dreams were wild and erotic. Dal figured heavily in them. Just before she woke up, he’d been kissing her again, devouring her as he had outside the building the night before. It was so sweet. He’d whispered something. She was trying so hard to hear it when Snow started howling in her ear.
She came awake at once. The white muzzle was sneaking under the covers, cold and insistent on her cheek.
She laughed and hugged Snow close. “Got to go, huh? Okay. Just a minute, sweetie. I have to go with you so you don’t sneak off.”
After the things Dal had said, she wasn’t about to let Snow wander up to his ranch. Not again. Never again.
She threw on her snow boots and a coat, got the lead, and went outside with her dog.
* * *
She’d thought that it would be a long time before she saw Dal again, but he was sitting on the edge of Jeff’s desk when she walked into his office in the courthouse.
He gave her a disapproving glance, his eyes going to the pistol on her belt, next to her badge. “You walk around with that gun all the time?” he asked.
“It goes with the job,” she returned calmly, refusing to be baited. “Hi, boss,” she added, with a smile for Jeff.
“Hi, kid,” he said with a grin. “I’ve got a job for you.”
“You have?” she asked warily.
“I have to be away from my house tonight,” Dal said curtly. “I need someone to stay there and keep an eye on my antique writing desk. I had an attempted break-in the night I took Dana to the dance. I’m sure he’ll try again, and tonight’s his best chance. Everybody knows I’m going to Denver to buy a new lot of purebreds. I won’t get home until near midnight.”
“That would be private security,” she said coolly.
“Yes, it would,” he replied, “and it’s a paying job. You don’t work nights. There isn’t anybody else,” he added, with just enough acid to let her know that this wasn’t his own idea.
“I sort of volunteered you,” Jeff said apologetically. “If you don’t want to do it, nobody’s going to insist.”
Dal cocked his head. “You can bring Snow with you,” he said sarcastically, “since she thinks she lives at my ranch, anyway.”
She bowed up like a spitting cat. “Look here . . .” she began.