Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

“I’m going to be fine,” Maddie interrupted her.

“Yes, she is,” Cort agreed. He smiled at Maddie. His dark eyes were like velvet. There was an expression in them that she’d never noticed before. Affection. Real affection.

She smiled back, shyly, and averted her eyes.

“Odalie wants you to talk to one of our friends, who has an art gallery in Dallas,” Heather said. “She thinks your talent is quite incredible.”

“It’s not, but she’s nice to say so…” Maddie began.

“They’re her kids,” Cort explained to the women, and Maddie’s eyes widened. “Don’t deny it, you told me so,” he added, making a face at her. “She puts so much of herself into them that she can’t bear to think of selling one.”

“Well, I know it sounds odd, but it’s like that with me and the songs I compose,” Heather confessed, and flushed a little when they stared at her. “I really do put my whole heart into them. And I hesitate to share that with other people.”

“Desperado owes you a lot for those wonderful songs.” Shelby chuckled. “And not just money. They’ve made an international reputation with them.”

“Thanks,” Heather said. “I don’t know where they come from. It’s a gift. Truly a gift.”

“Like Odalie’s voice,” Maddie replied. “She really does sing like an angel.”

Heather smiled. “Thank you. I’ve always thought so. I wanted her to realize her dream, to sing at the Met, at the Italian opera houses.” She looked introspective. “But it doesn’t look like she’s going to do that at all.”

“Why not?” Shelby asked, curious.

Heather smiled. “I think she’s hungry for a home of her own and a family. She’s been talking about children lately.”

“Has she?” Cort asked, amused.

He didn’t seem to realize that Maddie immediately connected Heather’s statement with Odalie’s changed nature and Cort’s pride in her. She added those facts together and came up with Cort and Odalie getting married.

It was so depressing that she had to force herself to smile and pretend that she didn’t care.

“Can you imagine what beautiful children she’ll have?” Maddie asked with a wistful smile.

“Well, yours aren’t going to be ugly,” Cort retorted. Then he remembered that he’d called Maddie that, during one of their arguments, and his face paled with shame.

Maddie averted her eyes and tried not to show what she was feeling. “Not like Odalie’s,” she said. “Is she thinking about getting married?” she asked Heather.

“She says she is,” she replied. “I don’t know if she’s really given it enough thought, though,” she added with sadness in her tone. “Very often, we mistake infatuation for the real thing.”

“You didn’t,” Shelby teased before anyone could react to Heather’s statement. “You knew you wanted to marry Cole before you were even an adult.”

Heather saw Maddie’s curious glance. “Cole’s mother married my father,” she explained. “There was some terrible gossip spread, to the effect that we were related by blood. It broke my heart. I gave up on life. And then the truth came out, and I realized that Cole didn’t hate me at all. He’d only been shoving me out of his life because he thought I was totally off-limits, and his pride wouldn’t let him admit how thoroughly he’d accepted the gossip for truth.”

“You made a good match.” Shelby smiled.

“So did you, my friend.” Heather laughed. “Your road to the altar was even more precarious than mine.”

Shelby beamed. “Yes, but it was worth every tear.” She hugged her son. “Look at my consolation prize!”

But when the women left, and Cort walked them out to the parking lot, Maddie was left with her fears and insecurities.

Odalie wanted to marry and raise a family. She’d seen how mature and caring Cort was, and she wanted to drive him by Maddie’s house because she was jealous of her. She’d wanted Maddie to see her with Cort.

She could have cried. Once, Odalie’s feelings wouldn’t have mattered. But since she’d been in the hospital, Maddie had learned things about the other woman. She genuinely liked her. She was like the sister Maddie had never had.

What was she going to do? Cort seemed to like Maddie now, but she’d been hurt and it was his car that had hit her. Certainly he felt guilty. And nobody could deny how much he’d loved Odalie. He’d grieved for weeks after she left for Italy.

Surely his love for her hadn’t died just because Maddie had been in an accident. He’d told Maddie that she was ugly and that she didn’t appeal to him as a man, long before the wreck. That had been honest; she’d seen it in his dark eyes.

Now he was trying to make up for what had happened. He was trying to sacrifice himself to Maddie in a vain attempt to atone for her injuries. He was denying himself Odalie out of guilt.

Maddie closed her eyes. She couldn’t have that. She wanted him to be happy. In fact, she wanted Odalie to be happy. Cort would be miserable if he forced himself into a relationship with Maddie that he didn’t feel.

So that wasn’t going to be allowed to happen. Maddie was going to make sure of it.

Chapter Nine (#ulink_d3610a73-dbec-5127-8079-b3d21fe7ea7c)

By the end of the second week after the accident, Maddie was back home, with a high-tech wheelchair to get around the house in.

Odalie and Cort had insisted on buying her one to use while she was recuperating, because she still couldn’t walk, even though the feeling had come back into her legs. She was exhilarated with the doctor’s cautious prognosis that she would probably heal completely after several months.

But she’d made her friends promise to get her an inexpensive manual wheelchair. Of course, they’d said, smiling.

Then they walked in with a salesman who asked questions, measured her and asked about her choice of colors. Oh, bright yellow, she’d teased, because she was sure they didn’t make a bright yellow wheelchair. The only ones she’d seen were black and ugly and plain, and they all looked alike. She’d dreaded the thought of having to sit in one.

A few days later, the wheelchair was delivered. It came from Europe. It was the most advanced wheelchair of its type, fully motorized, able to turn in its own circumference, able to lift the user up to eye level with other people, and all-terrain. Oh, and also, bright yellow in color.

“This must have cost a fortune!” Maddie almost screamed when she saw it. “I said something inexpensive!”

Cort gave her a patient smile. “You said inexpensive. This is inexpensive,” he added, glancing at Odalie.

“Cheap,” the blonde girl nodded. She grinned unrepentantly. “When you get out of it, you can donate it to someone in need.”

“Oh. Well.” The thought that she would get out of it eventually sustained her. “I can donate it?”

Odalie nodded. She smiled.

Cort smiled, too.

“Barracudas,” she concluded, looking from one to the other. “I can’t get around either one of you!”

They both grinned.

She laughed. “Okay. Thanks. Really. Thanks.”

“You might try it out,” Odalie coaxed.

“Yes, in the direction of the hen yard,” Cort added.