She smiled. “I’ll think about that.”
He’d planned to take her to an overlook that doubled as the local lover’s lane. But after Mal-lory’s blunt speech, he wasn’t keen to push the man. So instead, he drove her back to the ranch. He even turned off the engine and walked her to the door of the bunkhouse.
“You live in there with all those men?” he asked curiously.
“I have my own room,” she explained. “They’re nice men.”
“If you say so.”
“Well, thanks again,” she said, hesitating.
He smiled. He liked that little nervous laugh, the way her lips turned up at the corners, the faint dimple beside her mouth.
He bent and drew his lips gently against hers.
She tolerated the kiss. But she didn’t react to it. She felt nothing. Nothing at all.
He noticed that. They were too different to settle in together. But she was cute and he liked company on a night out.
“We’ll do it again soon,” he said.
She smiled. “Sure.”
She turned around and went into the bunkhouse. Darby was sitting by the door, his eyebrows arching as she walked in and closed the door behind her.
“Have fun?” he asked in a hushed tone, so he didn’t wake the cowboys down the hall.
“Yes. I guess.”
He tilted his head. “You guess?”
“Boss showed up at the restaurant,” she said, and looked puzzled. “I didn’t know he liked Chinese food.”
Darby’s eyes almost popped. “He hates it.”
She hesitated. “Well, he had Ms. Bruner with him. Maybe she likes it.”
“Maybe.”
“You sleep good, Darby.”
“You, too,” he said gently.
“The heifers doing okay?” she asked.
“Doing fine. We’ll just hope and pray that that the weatherman’s wrong on that snow forecast.”
“I’ll agree with that. Good night.”
“’Nite.”
She went into her room and closed the door. Darby had seemed shocked that the boss went to the restaurant where Morie was eating. She was shocked, too, but also pleased and flattered and thrilled to death.
She slept, finally. And her dreams were sweet.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE LAST THING MORIE EXPECTED the next day was to find a seething Gelly Bruner on her doorstep. Well, at the bunkhouse when she went in for lunch.
“I hate Chinese food,” Gelly said without a greeting.
“I’m sorry,” Morie said. “In that case, perhaps you should avoid Chinese restaurants.” She smiled.
“He went there because of you, didn’t he?” she demanded. “To make sure your date knew he was watching out for you.”
Morie looked innocent. “Why would he do that? He’s not my dad.”
Gelly frowned. “He’s not your boyfriend, either, and you’d better not make eyes at him,” she added coldly. “You won’t last long here if you do.”
“I work here,” Morie pointed out. “That’s all.”
“You see how they live and you like it,” the blonde said, giving Morie’s clothing an even colder look. “You’re poor and you’d like to have nice things and mingle with the right people.”
“I do mingle with the right people,” Morie said, offended.
“Cowboys” came the disparaging reply. “Smelly and stupid.”
“They’re neither.”
“If you do anything to make Mallory notice you, I’ll make sure it never happens again,” she added, lowering her voice. “You won’t be the first person I’ve helped off this ranch. It isn’t wise to make an enemy of me.”
“I work here,” Morie said, growing angry. She had her mother’s looks, but her father’s fiery temper. “And nobody threatens me.”
Gelly shifted. She wasn’t used to people who fought back. “My people are well-to-do,” she said stiffly. “And you won’t like how I get even.”
Morie raised an eyebrow. “Ditto.”
“Well, you just stay away from Mallory,” she said bluntly. “He’s mine and I don’t share!”
“Does he know?”
Gelly blinked. “Know what?”
“That he belongs to you? Perhaps I should ask him… .”
“You shut up!” The blonde woman’s fists balled at her sides and her face grew flushed with temper. “I’ll get you!”
“Wind and water,” Morie said philosophically. “Words.”
Gelly drew back her hand and started to slap the younger woman, but Morie threw up her forearm instinctively and blocked the move.
“I have a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do,” she told Gelly in a soft voice. Her dark eyes glittered. “Try that again, and you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
Gelly let out a furious sound. “I’ll tell Mallory!”
“Be my guest,” Morie offered. “I can teach him a few moves, too, in case you try that with him.”
Gelly stomped back off toward the house, muttering to herself.
Morie shook her head at the retreating figure.
“Unwise,” Darby said, joining her. He watched Gelly walk away. “She makes a bad enemy. We lost a hand because she accused him of stealing. Told you about that.”
“She’ll think she’s poked a hornet’s nest if she tries it with me. Nobody warns me off people and gets away with it,” she said curtly. “I don’t have any designs on the boss, for God’s sake! I don’t even know him. I just work here!”
Darby patted her on the shoulder paternally. “There, there, don’t let it get you down. Two nights’ sleep and you’ll forget why you argued with her. Come on in and eat. We’ve got chili and Mexican corn bread that Mavie made for us. She’s a wonderful cook.”
“Yes, she is,” Morie agreed. She grimaced. “Sorry. I don’t usually lose my temper, but she set me off. What a piece of work!”
“I do agree. But she’s the boss’s headache, not ours, thank God.”
“I suppose so.”
She followed him inside.
BUT THAT WASN’T THE END of it. Mallory called Morie up to the big house, and he wasn’t smiling as he motioned her into the living room and closed the door.
“Sit down, please.” He indicated a leather chair, not the cushy brocade-covered white sofa. Her jeans were stained with grass and mud from helping with calving. Probably he didn’t want a brown-spotted couch, she thought wickedly.
She sat. “Yes, sir?”
He paced. “Gelly said that you threatened her.”
“Did she?” She sounded