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"There'll be other dances, I guess. Maybe Leo will ask me another time." After he's got over being
afraid of me, she added silently.
"If you see him," she said quickly, "you might mention that I can now cut out cattle and throw a calf.
And I can make a biscuit that doesn't go through the floor when dropped!"
She was laughing, but Marilee didn't.
"I have to get to the hairdresser, Janie," Marilee said. "I'm really sorry...about the ball."
"Not your fault," Janie repeated. "Just have enough fun for both of us, okay?"
"Okay. See you."
The line went dead and Janie frowned. Something must be very wrong with Marilee. She wished she'd
been more persistent and asked what was the matter. Well, she'd go over to Marilee's house after the
dance to pump her for all the latest gossip, and then she could find out what was troubling her friend.
She put the ball to the back of her mind, despite the disappointment, and went out to greet her father as
he rode in from the pasture with two of his men.
He swung out of the saddle at the barn and grinned at her. "Just the girl I wanted to see," he said at
once. He pulled out his wallet. "I've got to have some more work gloves, just tore the last pair I had
apart on barbed wire.
How about going by the hardware store and get me another pair of those suede-palmed ones, extra
large?"
"My pleasure," Janie said at once. Leo often went to the hardware store, and she might accidentally
run into him there. "Be back in a jiffy!"
"Don't speed!" her father called to her.
She only chuckled, diving into her sports car. She remembered belatedly that she didn't have either
purse or car keys, or her face fixed, and jumped right back out again to rectify those omissions.
Ten minutes later, she was parking her car in front of the Jacobsville Hardware Store. With a wildly
beating'
heart, she noticed one of the black double-cabbed Hart Ranch trucks parked nearby. Leo! She was
certain it was Leo!
With her heart pounding, she checked her makeup in the rearview mirror and tugged her hair gently
away from her cheeks. She'd left it down today deliberately, remembering that Leo had something of
a weakness for long hair. It was thick and clean, shining like a soft brown curtain. She was wearing a
long beige skirt with riding boots, and a gold satin blouse. She looked pretty good, even if she did say
so herself! Now if Leo would just notice her...
She walked into the hardware store with her breath catching in her throat as she anticipated Leo's big
smile at her approach. He was the handsomest of the Hart brothers, and really, the most personable.
He was kindness itself. She remembered his soft voice in her kitchen, asking what was wrong. Oh, to
have that soft voice in her ear forever!
There was nobody at the counter. That wasn't unusual, the clerks were probably waiting on customers.
She walked back to where the gloves were kept and suddenly heard Leo's deep voice on the other side
of the high aisle, unseen.
"Don't forget to add that roll of hog wire to the order," he was telling one of the clerks.
"I won't forget," Joe Rowland's pleasant voice replied. "Are you going to the Cattleman's Ball?" Joe
added just as Janie was about to raise her voice and call to Leo over the aisle.
"I guess I am," Leo replied. "I didn't plan to, but a pretty friend needed a ride and I'm obliging."
Janie's heart skipped and fell flat. Leo already had a date? Who? She moved around the aisle and in
sight of Leo and Joe. Leo had his back to her, but Joe noticed her and smiled.
"That friend wouldn't be Janie Brewster, by any chance?" Joe teased loudly.
The question made Leo unreasonably angry. "Listen, just because she caught the bouquet at Micah
Steele's wedding is no reason to start linking her with me," he said shortly. "She may have a good
family background, she may be easy on the eyes, she may even learn to cook someday miracles still
happen. But no matter what she does, or how well, she is never going to appeal to me as a woman!" he
added. "Having her spreading ludicrous gos-sip about our relationship all over town isn't making her
any more attractive to me, either. It's a dead turnoff!"
Janie felt a shock like an electric jolt go through her. She couldn't even move for the pain.
Joe, horrified, opened his mouth to speak.
Leo made a rough gesture with one lean hand, burning with pent-up anger. "She looks like the rough
side of a corncob lately, anyway," Leo continued, warming to his subject. "The only thing she ever [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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