A Willing Wife

Pretending that he hadn’t picked up on her foul mood, he smiled. “I’d like to take Travis for a ride.”

“And I suppose you told him the same thing and got him all excited about it,” Maggie said with scathing sarcasm.

“I wouldn’t do that, Maggie. I asked him to stay in the side yard while I talked to you. Since he’s never been on a horse before, I thought it might be best to get him used to being so far off the ground by having him first ride with me.”

Maggie almost shouted, “No!” but a sudden burst of very disturbing knowledge stopped her. She could be as protective of Travis as she wanted, but the damage—as far as Dallas went—had already been done, and could very well be irreversible. Was there any point now in stopping Travis from learning to ride a horse, just because Dallas would be his instructor?

A great weakness overtook Maggie. She loved riding herself, and it was only natural for a boy with Travis’s lively curiosity and imagination to be drawn to horses. She’d brought this on herself by bringing Travis to the ranch, even though she couldn’t possibly have predicted a relationship between her five-year-old son and one of the Fortune men.

“Well?” Dallas said quietly, awaiting her verdict.

Maggie didn’t want to say yes. She didn’t want Dallas to further encourage her son’s affection when she knew in her soul that Dallas was using Travis as an excuse to see her. Obviously Dallas hoped to wear down her objections to having an affair with him—she could see it in his eyes—and it wasn’t going to happen.

“I want you to understand something,” she said bluntly. “Your phoney friendship with my son is not going to undermine—”

“Phoney!” Dallas exclaimed heatedly, interrupting her. “Maggie, there is nothing phoney about my feelings for Travis!” Dallas looked off for a moment, then brought harder eyes back to her. “You’ve got me all wrong, Maggie. I caused it myself and I wish to hell it were possible to take back everything I said to you the first time I came here. Isn’t there some way we could start over?”

“Nothing leaps to mind,” Maggie drawled. “I really wish—” The hurt look in Dallas’s eyes didn’t halt her little speech, but the sight of Travis peeking around the corner of the house did. Had he been eavesdropping all along? she wondered uneasily. He should be scolded for listening to a grown-up conversation, but she’d laid down so many new rules since they’d come to the ranch that his little head was probably spinning from them. Eavesdropping was something that had never come up for discussion in Phoenix—there’d been no reason—but there was no question that their acute change in life-style at the ranch had demanded a great many new rules.

Regardless, Maggie suddenly felt sorry for her adorable little son. And guilty for denying him the pleasure of a ride on a horse, even if it was with Dallas. After all, she and Travis weren’t going to be here much longer, and once they left Travis would forget all about Dallas.

“All right,” she said in a much calmer voice. “You may take Travis for a ride.”

Dallas wondered what had changed her mind, but he wasn’t about to open that can of worms. “Thanks,” he said evenly. “And don’t worry about him. I’ll watch him like a hawk.”

“Please do.”

Dallas started to leave the porch, then stopped on the stairs to turn and look at her. “By the way, Rosita invited me to supper tonight. She said Cruz and Savannah would be here, and that you were making ribs. I’m looking forward to it.”

How could her mother do that to her? But even while the nerve-racking question formed in her mind, so did the answer. Rosita would like nothing better than to see her daughter married again, and it would never occur to Rosita that a Perez wasn’t good enough for a Fortune. If she knew what was really brewing in Dallas’s mind, she wouldn’t be so quick to play matchmaker, thought Maggie.

Silently, Maggie watched Dallas lift Travis up to the saddle on his horse’s back. Below his big hat, Travis’s little face was flushed and excited. Dallas mounted and nudged the horse into a walk.

“’Bye, Mama!” Travis yelled.

“Goodbye, sweetheart. You hang on tight!”

“I will, Mama.”

Feeling totally defeated, Maggie went inside. Dallas’s plans to eat with them tonight changed everything. Dinner was not going to be an enjoyable family affair.

Four

All afternoon, while cooking and preparing extra-special dishes because His Highness, Dallas Fortune would be eating at the Perez table that evening, Maggie fumed to herself. There was no way she could be anything but nice to Dallas in front of her family. She would have to smile at him, talk to him and generally act as though she was as pleased as Ruben and Rosita were to have him as a dinner guest.

Of course, any and all visitors to the Perez home were treated well, but Dallas being a Fortune raised him far above the ordinary-guest category, and perhaps that was what galled Maggie most. Other than the fact that Rosita would probably not have been so quick to hand out an invitation if she wasn’t positive that Dallas and Maggie would make a perfect couple.

Oh, yes, Maggie thought with a sardonic twist of her lips. Her mother’s matchmaking was precisely the reason that Dallas was coming to dinner, and the reason that instead of a delightful evening of visiting with Savannah and Cruz, Maggie was going to have a perfectly miserable time.

To add insult to injury, ever since Dallas had returned Travis to the house after their horseback ride, the boy had been on cloud nine. Several times Maggie had had to bite her tongue to stop herself from snapping at her son simply because he’d talked incessantly about Dallas. He let me hold the reins, Mama. Dallas’s horse is named Vic, Mama. Dallas said the next time I could ride by myself, Mama.

So, Maggie thought venomously, no matter which way she turned, there was Dallas. Her mother adored him, her son adored him. Undoubtedly her father liked Dallas. And if Cruz didn’t like him, he certainly would not have let Dallas finance his pending business venture. She was in the middle of all that hero worship, and not one member of her family knew or even suspected that their hero wasn’t all he was cracked up to be.

And if she told them what kind of man he really was…? Maggie pursed her lips. They would probably say she’d misunderstood Dallas’s intentions. They’d probably be thrilled that he would even look at Maggie twice!

It was too late to tell them anything about that day. How would she explain not having said something about it before this? To keep the peace sounded like a pretty lame excuse, especially since she’d allowed Dallas to take Travis riding, and to give him that big hat. If she’d been truly insulted, why hadn’t she snubbed Dallas’s every advance, even those he’d made toward Travis?

Maggie stopped grating carrots for a salad and frowned over that question. Good heavens, she thought uneasily. Surely there wasn’t some part of her that had liked Dallas’s crude approach!

No, she would never believe that. But for some reason she was able to separate the Dallas of that day from the man he had been around her on other occasions.

“Damn,” she mumbled, and resumed the grating at a furious pace. To find herself suddenly ambiguous about Dallas was a disturbing jolt. She tried not to think about him at all, but she couldn’t stop herself from recalling his ardent apology and plea for them to start over.

“No,” she said out loud. All Dallas wanted from her was a one-night stand. How could she forget that for even a moment? He wasn’t two men, he was one. And just because he could alter his personality—apparently on an hourly basis—didn’t mean she should remember the good and forget the bad. Her life was up in the air as it was; she certainly didn’t need a man muddying the waters. Even if he was the most attractive man she’d ever known.

Her own thoughts made Maggie gasp in outright shock. Obviously some portion of her was out of control. How else could she admit an attraction for a man that she shouldn’t even notice?

“Hello, Maggie,” Savannah said.

Maggie hugged a beaming Cruz, then her sister-in-law. Maggie truly liked Savannah, and thought the woman beautiful with her long blond hair and big blue eyes. But considering how popular Cruz had always been with women, Maggie wasn’t at all surprised that his bride was so pretty.

Rosita came in from the kitchen and hugged her son and daughter-in-law. “Welcome. Papa should be home soon. Wait until you see the feast Maggie prepared for our dinner.”

“I didn’t know you could cook, Maggie,” Cruz teased.

Just then Travis bolted into the room full tilt and excited. “Aunt Savannah! Uncle Cruz!”

Savannah smiled and picked up the little boy. “Hello, sweetheart. How have you been?”

“Great! Hey, Uncle Cruz, you wanna play catch?”

“Sure. Go get your ball.”

“Yeah!” Travis exclaimed, and ran for his bedroom.

“Thank you, Cruz,” Maggie said with a delighted smile. She looked at Savannah. “Would you like to join Mama and me in the kitchen?”

“Yes, of course,” Savannah replied.

Travis ran in with his ball, and he and Cruz went outside. Rosita, Maggie and Savannah walked into the kitchen, and Savannah said, “My goodness, it smells wonderful in here.”

“Maggie’s been cooking all day,” Rosita said proudly. “We are going to have a fine dinner.”

“Well, I had nothing better to do,” Maggie said, even though she was very pleased with her mother’s praise. “Savannah, sit anywhere. There are only a few things left to do before everything will be ready.”

“I’d be glad to help,” Savannah said.

“Maggie has almost everything ready. You just sit down and relax,” Rosita said firmly.