The words put a damper on the morning. There were never two people more different than Patience and Dallas. A cowboy and a professor-or soon-to-be, at any rate. Inwardly she groaned.
At least she had a good idea what to take with her on the trip. She tossed in a pair of strappy, black high-heeled sandals, took out a short black sheath dress-one of her few concessions to fashion-and the string of pearls her mother had left her.
Shari was gone by the time she finished packing and she still had an hour or so to work. Her thesis was coming along nicely. She slid her glasses on, cracked open her great grandmother's journal-the most interesting part of her research-and immediately became engrossed.
Lucky and Adelaide Holmes were still traveling the circuit together and their friendship seemed to be growing. Addie's horse came up lame, but the colonel found her another mount and she seemed happy with his choice. After that, several pages were missing, or appeared to be. When the writing resumed, Addie talked about racing in a couple of smaller rodeos and Sam Starling's name appeared again.
I really like him. I wish I didn't. Sam's a cowboy and most of us gals know what that means. Cowboys are like tumbleweeds. Tryin' to hold onto one of 'em will only leave you with a passel of stickers. They're the very best sort of men-long as you don't fall in love with one of 'em.
As she read the words, Patience felt an odd sort of connection. She liked Dallas Kingman-more than liked-though she definitely didn't want to. Whatever she felt, she wasn't about to let herself fall in love with him.
She turned the page, started reading, then sat forward in the booth.
There's a man who's started following the show. I saw him last weekend in Billings and I remember seeing him somewhere even before. Now it looks like he's come to this rodeo, too. He's always in the front of the crowd when the women are competing. I don't like the way he looks at us. There's just something about him.
Patience's heart started beating. She flipped to the back of the journal and carefully removed the page that had fallen out the first time she had opened the book.
He was out there again today. I saw him when I got ready to race. I don't like the way he watches me. Sometimes when I go into town with some of the gals, I feel like he's there behind us. I keep telling myself I'm being a fool. Surely, I am. I guess it doesn't matter. It won't do a lick of good to worry about it.
The first entry appeared to have been made right before the passage in the torn-out page.
Parts of the journal were dated but not all. The earlier page was marked July 27. Patience read the next several entries. The man continued to appear at a number of different rodeos, but the girls had become convinced that whoever he was, he was harmless.
Lucky says we should be flattered to have such a faithful fan.
But none of them knew his name and he always seemed to disappear as soon as the rodeo was over. Addie still had misgivings. Having been in a similar situation, Patience had misgivings of her own. She wanted to keep reading, wanted to find out what happened, but Dallas would be there to pick her up any minute and she needed to be ready when he got there.
Patience put the journal away and finished getting ready for the trip to Texas. She was excited, determined-and growing more and more nervous. She prayed she was doing the right thing.
The plane landed at Houston International Airport at 7:06 p.m. They hadn't flown first class, though Shari said that on occasion, some of Dallas's sponsors flew him around in their private jets. Shari said Dallas saved as much as he could, so she didn't know what sort of weekend was coming up.
She certainly didn't expect to see a black-haired chauffeur standing in the baggage area holding up a sign with Dallas's name on it. Dallas walked over to talk to him and the man came over to the luggage carousel to help them carry out their bags.
As Dallas pushed open the terminal door and they stepped out onto the sidewalk, a gust of thick, damp air hit her, surrounding her in a solid wall of heat. It was definitely summer in Texas and this close to the gulf, Houston suffered unbearable humidity. Her hair began to curl in the dampness, forming ringlets around her face.
They crossed the asphalt and the chauffeur opened the door to a long black Cadillac limo.
"My stepmother sent it," Dallas explained. "She told me she'd arrange for a car to pick me up."
"Nice choice," Patience said, sliding onto the deep, gray leather seat.
"Yeah, Rachael's always had expensive taste."
But Patience wasn't complaining. As the All-Around champion, Dallas might be used to living high on occasion, but Patience rarely had the chance. She leaned back against the seat and smiled when she noticed a silver ice bucket holding a bottle of champagne.
"My, your stepmother treats you extremely well."
"It's taken her four years to convince me to come home for a visit. I guess she figured that was cause for celebration."
Patience turned to look at him. "Four years? That's how long it's been since you've seen your family?"
Dallas reached over and plucked the champagne, an icy bottle of Dom Perignon, out of the bucket. "My father and I had a major falling out when I dropped out of college." He wrapped a towel around the bottle and deftly popped the cork.
"You went to college?"
He flicked her a glance. "Pretty hard to believe, huh?"
But maybe it wasn't. Dallas had never struck her as dumb. "Where did you go?"
"Texas A and M. I was on the collegiate rodeo team. That's how I first got started riding broncs-that and Charlie, of course. He rodeoed when he was younger, before he met Annie."
Questions swirled through Patience's head. She opened her mouth to ask what subject he had majored in and why he had dropped out of school, but he pointed to the glasses and she held two of them up for him to fill. Dallas nestled the bottle back in the ice and Patience handed him one of the flutes.
"To us," he said, clinking their rims together with a crystalline ring.
"To us," Patience repeated and both of them took a sip. The questions returned to mind. "What about your father? Will you tell me about him?"
Dallas moved closer on the seat. Bending his head, he pressed his lips against the side of her neck, and a shiver went through her. "Yes-since it seems you're going to meet him-but not tonight. Tonight I don't want to think about my father or anyone else. I don't want to think of anyone but you."
He tipped her chin up with his finger, lowered his head, and very gently kissed her. The kiss grew hotter, deeper. He didn't rush, didn't hurry, just kissed her and kissed her. Patience forgot her questions.
At least for the night.
In her apartment in New York, Hope dragged her mind from the words she was typing onto the screen of her laptop, the ringing of the phone beginning to penetrate her senses. She lifted the receiver, coming out of her writer's daze, and pressed the phone against her ear. "Hope Sinclair."
"Hello, Hope.... It's Tyler."
Hope stiffened at the unexpected name. "Hello...Tyler. What can I do for you?"
"I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find your sister."
Hope snorted a laugh. "Oh, sure, Tyler. I'm really gonna do that." She had met Tyler Stanfield once when she had been visiting her family in Boston. She knew the trouble he had caused. "You've been driving my sister crazy for months. Why don't you just leave her alone?"
It was late in New York City, the lights in the buildings outside her apartment window were beginning to wink out one by one. She'd been working on a human interest story for People magazine when the phone had started to ring.
"I love her, Hope," Tyler said.
"You hardly even know her."
"We're perfectly suited. Both of us are graduate students and our interests lie in teaching. We like the same kind of people. Like to do the same things. She just hasn't realized how good we are together."
"That's total bullshit, Tyler."
"It isn't bullshit, Hope. Deep down, I know she still cares."
Hope sighed into the receiver. "Patience doesn't give a damn about you, Tyler. You just can't stand being dumped. Stay away from her or I'm going to call the police."
"I hear she's doing her rodeo thing, traveling with some female hillbilly from Oklahoma."
"You knew what she planned to do this summer. In case you haven't figured it out, there are hundreds of rodeos all over the country. You haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of finding her."
"Yeah, well, maybe I'll surprise you."
"You do, and maybe I'll surprise you. Leave her alone, Tyler, I'm warning you."
"...You really don't think she cares?"
She gentled the tone of her voice, hoping she might actually reach him. "Look-be honest with yourself. You two only dated a few weeks. It just didn't work-at least not for her. Do yourself a favor and find a woman who really does care about you."
A long pause on the line.
"Listen, Tyler. You're a good-looking man. You've got a great education, a promising future. You keep this up, you're going to spoil everything you've worked for."
"You really think so?"
"Yes, I do."
"I'll give it some thought."
"You do that. You'll be doing yourself and my sister a favor if you just get on with your life."
The phone went dead on the other end of the line and Hope released a slow breath. She should probably telephone Patience. But if she did, it would put a major damper on her sister's summer. Traveling, moving around as much as Patience was, odds were Tyler wouldn't be able to track her down even if he tried.
And even if he found her, aside from being a royal pain in the ass, he seemed to be pretty much harmless.
Hope decided to wait. If he called again, she would warn Patience he was still on her tail. In the meantime, she would let her sister have the adventure she deserved.
Houston rose like the Emerald City out of the flat Texas landscape, a sea of tall glass buildings lit by beams of multi-colored lights. As they stepped out of the limo in front of the Four Seasons hotel, the humidity hit her as it had at the airport, making it hard to breathe and reminding her they had arrived in the southern portion of the country.
"Did you know that before this was Houston, it was a place called Harrisburg? It was a maritime trading post founded in 1824."
"You don't say."
"Years later a couple of men tried to buy it, but the owners wanted too much money so they settled the actual town of Houston a few more miles up the bayou from the gulf."
Dallas grinned. "Having you around is like having my own personal travel guide."
Patience flushed. "I didn't mean to-"
"Hey-I like it. I think it's great you know all that stuff."
They started walking toward the door of the hotel. The closer they got, the more her stomach churned with nerves. "The Four Seasons," she said. "Pretty swanky." Dallas pushed open the glass doors and she stepped into the marble-floored lobby. "This your stepmother's doing as well?"
Dallas smiled. "This one's on me. Rachael offered. I refused. I don't like being indebted to them." He glanced around the elegant interior, done in subtle shades of beige with Asian accents and huge bouquets of fresh flowers. "I wanted this to be special. I thought you might like it."
She liked it, all right. She loved it. And it was very thoughtful of Dallas to choose a place like this. "I heard you were trying to save money."
He shrugged his shoulders. "We're only staying a couple of nights. I used Roy Greenfield's name. Roy's company gets a rate. It wasn't really all that bad."
It wasn't cheap, either, but the ambiance was lovely, the hotel elegant and refined. Their room was equally spectacular, a small suite with Chippendale furnishings and huge bay windows that overlooked the city.
"It's beautiful, Dallas."
"I'm glad you like it." There was another bottle of champagne in a silver bucket on the table in the living room. He went over and opened it, poured them each a glass, and handed one of them to her.
"You're not trying to get me drunk, are you?"
"Do I need to?"
Actually, yes, but she didn't say that. Every minute they were together, her nerves seemed to crank up a notch.
"Why don't you go unpack and I'll order us something for supper."
"Supper?"
He smiled. "You thought all I was going to feed you were those awful snacks we got on the plane?"
She laughed. "I guess food wasn't my highest priority."
He gave her one of his intense blue-eyed stares. "If that's the case, maybe we should forget the food until later."
"No! I-I mean, no, I'm really very hungry. I'd love something to eat."
"Steak all right? This is Texas, after all."
"Steak sounds great. If you don't mind, while you're calling downstairs, I think I'll shower and change."
"Good idea. Maybe I'll join you."
"No! I mean, I'd rather you didn't." She took a big gulp of champagne. "I'll be out in a minute."
Dallas noticed the tremor in the hand that held the glass and frowned. "You're not nervous, are you?"
Patience forced herself to smile. "Why on earth would I be nervous? It's not like I haven't slept with a man before."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, I'm certainly not a virgin."
He chuckled. "I meant are you sure you're not nervous."
She felt like a fool. He seemed to have a way of doing that to her. "Well, maybe I'm just a tiny bit nervous, but I'll be fine-I promise."
She left him there in the living room and headed for the bedroom. The valet had left her garment bag in the closet. She unzipped the bag, took out a simple apricot cotton sundress that, except for two tiny straps, left her shoulders bare, and a pair of sandals, then picked up her carry-on bag and took it into the bathroom.
Like the rest of the suite, it was elegant, all beige marble and mirrors, a big marble tub, and a clear-glass shower. She laid out her toilette articles, took off her travel-stained clothes, wrapped her hair in a towel, and stepped into the shower.
She was dressed in less than fifteen minutes, her hair swept up in a twist. She smoothed the skirt of the sundress, took a deep, fortifying breath, opened the bedroom door, and walked into the living room.