She took a card from her purse and handed it to him. “I’ve written the number on there.”
When he took the card from her, his fingers grazed hers.
Her gaze lifted to his strong profile.
She was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush and that had to stop. Going to the glass doors, she opened them. Ryan hadn’t told Lily where he was actually going tonight. In fact, he’d lied to her. He’d told her he was taking Violet to see a horse he was thinking about buying. On their drive home, she was going to convince him to tell his wife what was actually going on.
That way Violet wouldn’t think about Peter Clark. That way she could ignore all the sensations she’d always wanted to feel but had never felt before.
She didn’t need a man in her life. She did not.
Two
Violet drove up to the main house on the Double Crown Ranch the following morning, parking in front of a garden where sage plants and ornamental grasses grew. She was worried. By nature, she hated lying, even by omission. Yet she owed Ryan confidentiality and couldn’t tell Lily where the two of them had been last night. She wished Ryan would tell his wife about his symptoms and that Peter was going to have an MRI arranged.
Peter.
Shaking her head, as if that could rid her thoughts of the neurosurgeon, Violet walked through the arched entryway and opened the wrought-iron gate. A curved stone walkway led through the outer courtyard where native plants and rocks were arranged in a miniature arroyo. Flowering vines perfumed the area as she mounted the steps that led to a wide wooden door in the covered entryway.
At her knock, Rosita Perez opened the door. Pleasantly plump, dressed in a peasant blouse and a long gauzy skirt, she patted her bun as if to make certain it was still there, then smiled.
“You’re right on time. Lanie Meyers isn’t here yet. Traffic from Austin could be keeping her. But Mr. Ryan and Lily are waiting in the inner courtyard. Come on and I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”
This brunch had been planned since last week. Next month the governor would be honoring Ryan with his presence at Steven’s new ranch. The gala was already being organized. The governor’s daughter, Lanie, acting as an emissary for her father, would be coming to brunch to tell Ryan and Lily how glad she was that Ryan was being honored with the Hensley-Robinson Award. It was a preliminary meeting to fill in the Fortunes on some of the arrangements, and Lily had invited Violet to join them.
The foyer of Ryan’s ranch house opened up into a great room with a high, beamed ceiling.
As Rosita showed her through the room, Violet asked, “How’s Savannah?” Savannah was married to Cruz Perez, Rosita’s son. The couple had a five-year-old and were expecting another child soon.
Rosita smiled. “She’s doing well now after that premature labor scare. She just has to take it easy, and Cruz is making sure she does that. I help out with Luke whenever I can.”
“Tell her I hope to see her soon and that I wish her and Cruz well.”
Giving Violet’s hand a little squeeze, Rosita nodded, then opened one of the wood-framed glass doors that led into the inner courtyard. Violet loved the area where a fountain bubbled and an old-fashioned swing stood under a vine-covered arbor. Descending the few steps, she headed toward one of the glass-topped tables.
Right away she could feel the tension. Whatever Ryan and Lily had been discussing had put a frown on Lily’s face. Had he told his wife he was at Peter Clark’s last night?
However, Violet soon knew that wasn’t the case because Ryan gave her a barely perceptible shake of his head.
Spotting Violet, Lily quickly replaced her frown with a smile. At fifty-nine, she was still beautiful. Her Apache and Spanish heritage had given her high cheekbones and large dark eyes framed by thick lashes. She had a wonderful figure and wore her hair in a shiny bob a little longer than Violet’s own hair. She was wearing white slacks today with a colorful striped sweater.
“I’m so glad you could join us this morning.” She gave Violet a hug, which Violet affectionately returned. Always comfortable with Lily, she could usually talk to her easily. That was why it would be so hard to hide anything from her.
Ryan gave Violet a hug, too, as Lily asked, “So how did you like that horse Ryan took you to see last night? He tells me it’s a Morgan, brown with a white blaze.”
Violet’s thoughts seemed jumbled as she tried to come up with an appropriate response. Fortunately, just then, the chime of the doorbell could be heard in the courtyard.
As Rosita hurried away, Lily poured a cup of coffee for Violet from a silver serving set. “That should be the governor’s daughter.” Forgetting the horse her husband had mentioned, Lily motioned to the coffee. “You take it black with sugar, right?”
“Sure do. Coffee in the lounge at the hospital is usually strong and stale. The sugar helps. I’ve gotten used to it that way.”
Lily motioned Violet to a seat and placed the cup of coffee there. “We are definitely creatures of habit, maybe too much so.” Her gaze shot to Ryan.
His mouth tightened and some unspoken message seemed to pass between them.
Hearing footsteps, Violet turned and saw Lanie Myers coming down the steps. She was a beauty and, from what Lily had told her, often in the society pages with her blond hair, blue eyes and voluptuous figure. She had a reputation for being a bit wild, at least that was what the gossip columnists said.
After greetings all around, Lanie joined them at the table.
Ryan asked good naturedly, “How’s your father’s reelection campaign going?”
“It’s going,” she observed in a wry tone that made everyone laugh. “Well, it is,” she added with a little shrug. “I don’t know how he does it, shaking all those hands, trying to please so many people. I just got back from a shopping trip in L.A., so I escaped the fray for a while.”
When Violet gave the former debutante an appraisal, she noted Lanie’s cream halter dress shouted designer label all the way. “Do you ever fly to New York to shop?”
Lanie took a few sips of the orange juice Rosita had placed before her. “I love New York—not only the shopping, but the shows. I try to get there a few times a year. Lily told me you live there. It must be wonderful to have access to the theater district, the symphony and ballet all the time.”
“It is, and I should take advantage of it more. But I don’t.”
“Violet’s a neurologist,” Lily interjected. “When she’s not tied up with patients, she’s writing articles. She also sits on the board for a battered women’s shelter.”
“You have a terrifically serious life,” Lanie mused. “No wonder you don’t have much time for the theater.”
“Violet’s mother, Lacey, has been fighting for worthwhile causes since she was a young woman,” Lily explained. “That couldn’t help but rub off on Violet.”
Lily was right about that, Violet thought. Her mother was still fighting for causes she believed in. When she was growing up, Violet had mistakenly believed that her mom’s causes were more important than her family. But she’d been wrong about that. It had taken a crisis to prove to her that both of her parents as well as her brothers valued her more than anything else in their lives. Her experience at fifteen might have made her reticent to become involved in intimate relationships, but it had also made her realize she truly wasn’t alone.
Deflecting conversation from her life, Violet said, “We’re so excited Ryan’s getting the Hensley-Robinson Award. My brother can’t wait to host the party.”
“He recently married, didn’t he? My mother mentioned