“He lost his wife?” Heather asked, shocked. She ignored the suggestion that he could be a stand-in for Angel’s real daddy. “He can’t be more than twenty-eight, twenty-nine. How old was she?”
“He’s thirty-one, actually, but Marilee was only twenty-five when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It took her in less than a year. That was about two years ago. Joe’s stayed to himself since then. For a time he was like a lost soul. We were all worried sick about him. He was doing some hard drinking, but from what I’ve seen he’s pulled himself together and sobered up now.”
“What does he do? For a living, I mean,” Heather asked.
“He’s a rancher. Has a spread west of town. He’s been buying up land, expanding the ranch he inherited from his family. He’s breeding some of the finest horses in the state. He caters to the rodeo circuit. He spent some time busting broncs himself. Has a couple of championship buckles, but he gave it up to marry Marilee.
“I have a lot of respect for that boy. He married her after she was diagnosed with cancer. Stuck right by her side. Wouldn’t let anybody else come in to help him nurse her. Wore himself out during that time. I think he blamed himself for not marrying her sooner, for taking the time to go off on the rodeo circuit the way he’d dreamed of doing since he was a boy. He made up for it, though. The way he loved her was something to see.”
“How awful that they had such a short time together,” Heather said.
“Not so short,” Henrietta replied. “The marriage was short, that’s true, but Joe had loved Marilee for as far back as I can remember. The expression ‘childhood sweethearts’ could have been coined for the two of them. They used to come in here when they were barely into their teens. They’d sit in that same booth where he was tonight, drinking sodas and laughing, planning their future. He was going to be a big rodeo star, then settle down with Marilee and raise horses and babies. I wondered if I’d ever see him in here again after she died, but he’s been coming back real regular the past few weeks. Until you came along, though, I hadn’t seen him laugh much.”
“He’s such a hunk, I’m amazed some woman around here hasn’t snapped him up.”
Henrietta chuckled. “Oh, believe you me, they’ve tried. One night he sat here and told me some of the tricks they’ve pulled. Said his freezer was still filled with all the casseroles and cakes they brought him. That’s normal enough, I suppose, when a man’s a widower, but they were offering a whole lot more, and some of them none too subtle about it. In my day, any woman who dared to go after a man so blatantly wouldn’t have been called a lady, that’s for sure.”
Heather began to get Henrietta’s own none-too-subtle message. “You told me all this so I won’t do anything to hurt him, didn’t you?” she guessed.
“Exactly. Like I said, Joe hasn’t shown any interest in another woman until you turned up. I wouldn’t want to see his heart broken.”
“I’ll make sure he knows that I’m leaving,” Heather promised.
“Either that,” Henrietta advised, then added pointedly, “or tell him your heart’s already taken.”
“But—”
“You can’t fool me, girl. Whatever history there is between you and Todd, it’s far from over.”
Heather prayed Henrietta was wrong, but deep inside she couldn’t help wondering if the older woman hadn’t gotten it exactly right.
6
Todd hadn’t scheduled so many back-to-back meetings for himself and Megan since they’d moved the company’s headquarters from Manhattan to Whispering Wind. He was determined to fill every waking minute with work. Since paperwork left his mind free to wander, he’d concluded that meetings that forced him to focus on the subject at hand were safer. So far everyone was tolerating the shift in routine without comment, but both Megan and Peggy had started giving him speculative looks every time they walked through his office door. Right this second, Peggy was doing it again.
“What?” he snapped finally.
“Something’s up with you,” she said. “Want to talk about it? I know when things were real bad for me and Johnny, talking helped.”
That almost drew a full-fledged smile. The woman was a chatterbox. “I’m not surprised,” he said wryly.
“Okay, I know I babble sometimes, but I’m talking about real serious talk, you know? The heart-to-heart kind. Megan let me go on and on till I worked things out in my head. I’d be happy to listen to you.”
“The only thing I want to talk about is Megan’s idea for this cooking show,” he said adamantly. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”
She regarded him with obvious disappointment, but finally shrugged. “Okay, let’s talk about the show. I think the better question is whether you think I can do it. You’re the expert.”
“Peggy, there is not a doubt in my mind that you could handle this and be wildly successful. The real question is do you want to?”
“You’re worried that Johnny’s going to have a cow, aren’t you? Well, the truth is, he might, but you know what? That’s okay, because it’s something I want to do. For a long time, he expected me to get used to his running around with other women. That may be over, but it’s my turn now. He’ll have to get used to this.”
Todd barely resisted the urge to chuckle at her defiant tone. “It’s hardly the same thing.”
“No, but since I never wanted to run around with other men, it will have to do.”
He regarded her worriedly. “Peggy, if this is some sort of payback, if you’re not going into it with wholehearted enthusiasm, it’s a bad idea.”
“To tell you the truth, it scares me to death. The whole idea of carrying a nationally syndicated show all on my own, who would have thought it? I am so grateful to you and Megan for giving me this kind of an opportunity. I won’t let you down. I promise.”
“You can give it a hundred percent?”
“Whatever it takes,” she said firmly. “I’m not afraid of long hours or hard work.” She grinned. “Besides, it won’t hurt Johnny to spend a little more time looking after the kids. It’ll keep him out of trouble.”
“An interesting marital philosophy,” Todd observed.
“I’m learning as I go,” she admitted. “A year ago I wouldn’t have given you two cents for our chances to turn our marriage around, but we have. Almost, anyway. I think the biggest lesson we both learned is that you can’t take a relationship for granted. You have to work at it, especially when it hits the rough patches.”
“Something tells me you and Johnny will make it,” Todd said, all too aware that Heather had bolted at the first sign of difficulty. Now he was about to do the same thing.
“If we do, maybe we ought to launch a marriage-counseling program. Goodness knows I could have used some down-to-earth practical advice the first time I found out he was cheating on me.”
Todd chuckled.
“You think I’m joking, don’t you? I’m serious,” Peggy declared.
“If you keep this up, you’ll be the one with the media empire,” Todd told her.
“Not me. I’m just an average Wyoming housewife.”
“Peggy, there is nothing average about you,” Todd said, wishing he had the nerve to let her take a shot at counseling him. But he wasn’t prepared to let the world—or even this