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

“Never mind!” Leopold said icily.

“I was only going to say that you…”

“Shut up!”

“If you two don’t stop, I’m going to lay you both out right here,” Callaghan said, and looked very much as if he meant it. “Apologize.”

They both murmured reluctant apologies.

“All right, that’s that.” He put his hat back on. “If you can come at nine, we’ll send one of the boys for you.”

“Thank you, I’d rather drive my own car.”

“I’ve seen your car. That’s why I’m sending one of the boys for you,” Callaghan continued doggedly.

Her mouth fell open again. “It’s a…a nice old car! And it runs fine!”

“Everybody knows Turkey Sanders sold it to you,” Callaghan said with a disgusted look. “He’s a pirate. You’ll be lucky if the wheels don’t fall off the first time you go around a curve.”

“That’s right,” Rey agreed.

“We’ll stop by on our way out of town and talk to him,” Leopold said. “He’ll bring your car back in and make sure it’s perfectly safe to drive. He’ll do it first thing tomorrow.”

“But…”

They put their hats back on, gave her polite nods and stomped back out the way they’d come.

Callaghan paused at the front door, with the screen open. “He may talk and act tough, but he’s hurt pretty bad, inside where it doesn’t show. Don’t hurt him again.”

“Him?”

“Corrigan.”

She moved forward, just a step. “It wasn’t like that,” she said gently. “He didn’t feel anything for me.”

“And you didn’t, for him?”

She averted her gaze to the floor. “It was a long time ago.”

“You shouldn’t have left.”

She looked back up, her eyes wide and wounded. “I was afraid of him!”

He let out a long breath. “You were just a kid. We tried to tell him. Even though we hadn’t seen you, we knew about you from other people. We were pretty sure you weren’t the sort of girl to play around. He wouldn’t listen.” He shrugged. “Maybe we corrupted him. You might ask him sometimes about our parents,” he added coldly. “Kids don’t grow up hating marriage without reason.”

There was a lot of pain in his lean face. He was telling her things she’d never have dared ask Corrigan. She moved forward another step, aware of the other two talking out on the porch in hushed whispers.

“Is he still…like that?”

His eyes were cold, but as they looked into hers, they seemed to soften just a little. “He’s not the same man he was. You’ll have to find out the rest for yourself. We don’t interfere in each other’s lives, as a rule.” His gaze went over her wan face. “You’ve been to hell and back, too.”

He was as perceptive as his brother. She smiled. “I suppose it’s part of becoming an adult. Losing illusions and dreams and hope, I mean.” She locked her fingers together and looked up at him quietly. “Growing up is painful.”

“Don’t let go,” he said suddenly. “No matter what he says, what he does, don’t let go.”

Her surprise widened her eyes. “Why?”

He pulled his hat lower over his forehead. “They don’t make women like you anymore.”

“Like me?” She frowned.

His dark eyes glittered. He smiled in a way that, if she hadn’t been half-crazy about Corrigan, would have curled her toes. “I wish we’d met you before,” he said. “You’d never have gotten on that bus.” He tilted the hat. “We’ll send Joey for you in the morning.”

“But…”

The door closed behind him. He motioned to the other two and they followed him down the steps to the four-door pickup truck. It had a big cab. It was streamlined and black, and it had a menacing look not—unlike Corrigan Hart’s brothers!

She wondered why they’d all come together to ask her to go out to the ranch, and why they’d done it when Corrigan was gone. She supposed she’d find out. She did wonder again about the fifth brother, the mysterious one that Corrigan had mentioned. None of these men were named Simon.

Later, the telephone rang, and it was Turkey Sanders. “I just wanted you to know that I’m going to have that car I sold you picked up in the morning and put to rights,” he said at once. “I guarantee, it’s going to be the best used car you’ve ever driven! If you would, just leave the keys in it, and I’ll have it picked up first thing. And if there’s anything else I can do for you, little lady, you just ask!”

He sounded much more enthusiastic than he had when he’d sold her the rusty little car. “Why, thank you,” she said.

“No problem. None at all. Have a nice day, now.”

He hung up and she stared blankly at the receiver. Well, nobody could say that living in Jacobsville wasn’t interesting, she told herself. Apparently the brothers had a way with other businessmen, too. She’d never have admitted that the car had worried her from the time Turkey had talked her into buying it, for what seemed like a high price for such a wreck. She had a driver’s license, which she had to have renewed. But never having owned a car in New York, it was unique to have one of her own, even if it did look like ten miles of bad road.

It was a cold, blustery morning when a polite young man drove up in a black Mercedes and held the door open for her.

“I’m Joey,” he told her. “The brothers sent me to fetch you. I sure am glad you took on this job,” he added. “They won’t give me any money for gas until that checkbook’s balanced. I’ve been having to syphon it out of their trucks with a hose.” He shook his head ruefully as he waited for her to move her long denim skirt completely out of the door frame so that he could close the door. “I hate the taste of gasoline.”

He closed the door, got in under the wheel and took off in a cloud of dust.

She smiled to herself. The brothers were strange people.

The ranch was immaculate, from its white wood fences to the ranch house itself, a long elegant brick home with a sprawling manicured lawn and a swimming pool and tennis court. The bunkhouse was brick, too, and the barn was so big that she imagined it could hold an entire herd of horses.

“Big, huh?” Joey grinned at her. “The brothers do things on a big scale, but they’re meticulous—especially Cag. He runs the place, mostly.”

“Cag?”

“Callaghan. Nobody calls him that in the family.” He glanced in her direction, amused. “They said you’re the reason Corrigan never married.”

Her heart jumped. “No kidding?”

“Oh, yeah. He doesn’t even look at women these days. But when he heard that you were coming back, he shaved and bought new clothes.” He shook his head. “Shocked us all, seeing him without a beard.”

“I can’t imagine him with one,” she said with some confusion.