Heather's Song

But he only kept walking. She drained her coffee cup with a furious disregard for the temperature of the coffee, so angry she wanted to throw things. No other man had ever inspired in her the violence of emotion that Cole did. He could make her feel positively murderous.

* * *

“I see flames rising from your hair,” Emma remarked as Heather joined her in the living room later that afternoon.

“I want to burn Cole at the stake,” she said without thinking.

“What’s he done now?” the older woman asked with amusement in her dark eyes.

“What hasn’t he done!” Heather’s blue eyes burned. “He’s the most maddening, irritating man I’ve ever known!”

“Fire and ice,” Emma agreed with a tender smile, “just like his father. Jason was that way, too.”

Heather studied the softness in the other woman’s face as she spoke. “You loved him very much, didn’t you?”

The brown eyes were wistful. “All the way to my soul. It very nearly killed me when he died. Cole was the only reason I didn’t throw myself over a cliff. Oh, your father was a great comfort to me in later years, but Jason was…everything.”

“Did he look like Cole?” she asked.

“Exactly. He was a handsome devil, all right. Always had women chasing him—even after we were married! Why, your own mother used to flirt with him outrageously. It didn’t bother me, though. Jason never had eyes for anyone but me.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“At a rodeo.” Emma laughed. “He was one of the suppliers, and my brother was riding one of the broncs he supplied. I looked at him and I knew I’d die if I couldn’t have him. He must have felt the same way—” she sighed “—because we married six days later.”

“My goodness!” Heather gasped. She and Emma had never talked about Cole’s father until now, and she was fascinated. “Talk about whirlwind courtships!”

“It was crazy, all right, but Jason always did impulsive things. Like riding that bronc…” The light in her eyes seemed to go out, like a candle extinguished by a strong, bitter wind.

“Tell me how your day-care center is going,” Heather said quickly, changing the subject.

Emma’s face brightened again as she launched into the details of her latest project.

* * *

The tension between Cole and Heather was almost palpable, and Emma glanced suspiciously from one to the other at the supper table. “It’s cold out today,” she said finally.

“Arctic,” Cole agreed with a glance. “We’re going to Nassau in the morning.”

“In the morning!” Emma burst out. “But we haven’t even packed…!”

“To hell with packing,” he growled. “Buy what you need when we get there. I’m not dragging along a truckload of suitcases.”

Heather stared at him in bewilderment. “You said we’d go the first of the month,” she murmured.

His eyes narrowed on her face. “And I’ve changed my mind. Did you have any other plans…like visiting that damned reporter?”

She gaped at him. “You told Gil he couldn’t come here,” she reminded him.