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At breakfast the next morning, the kids were gathered around and snickering faintly as they looked from a
hung over, very quiet Logan to a shy Kit.
"I hid the screwdrivers, Kit, don't worry," Emmett said with a wicked glance toward her and then Logan.
"You're safe this morning. All the same, I wouldn't lock myself in any more bathrooms with Logan around
here, if I were you. They've got this Polaroid camera and a saw..."
“What screwdriver?" Logan asked with restrained shock.
“The one they were using to take the doorknob off Kit's bathroom door," Emmett said smoothly.
Logan put down his fork. "My God!" he exclaimed, staring at the children.
"He never tells us nothing!" Guy muttered, and when he scowled at Emmett, it was like looking at a
miniature of the man.
to live, do I?"
"Emmett, have you ever considered giving up rodeo for a season and raising your kids?" Logan asked
curtly.
Emmett glared at him. "They're my kids and it's my life. I don't come up to Houston and try to tell you how
"Somebody ought to," Tansy remarked pleasantly, "before he ruins it."
“Thank you very much,” Logan growled at his mother.
She smiled vacantly. "Why, you're welcome, dear. Emmett, wouldn't you like to bring the kids and come
and visit Logan? I'd love for you to meet his new fiancee...!"
"I don't have spare bedrooms," Logan said abruptly.
"You do so," Tansy argued. "Three of them."
"They're being remodeled."
"They are not," she argued.
"They will be by tomorrow," he said under his breath. "Besides, Emmett's riding in a rodeo out in
Montana."
"In the snow?" Tansy exclaimed.
"Arizona," Emmett corrected lazily. He glared at Logan. "Some cousin you are. I offer you the hospitality
of my home and loving family, and you don't even want us to stay a night with you."
"Loving family?" Logan's eyes widened. He looked at the kids. "Them?"
"We're loving," Amy said, glaring at him.
"All of us," Guy seconded, scowling.
"You better not say we ain't loving, mister," Polk added.
"That's my kids," Emmett said smugly. "Listen up, you kids, how would you like Kit there for a mother?"
"She ain't pretty," Guy said.
"She's nice, though," Amy interrupted. "And she doesn't have to fix her face every two minutes and paint
her fingernails like that lady in the glittery dress that you brought home that night you thought we were
asleep," she reminded Emmett.
Polk frowned as Emmett's dark face flushed. "He sure took her away in a hurry when he saw us, didn't
he?"
"Will you stop?" Emmett asked him.
Kit chuckled to herself. She did like Emmett. But not enough to marry him.
"You could marry that glittery lady," Polk suggested. "She said she sure did like your money. She didn't
like us much, though. What was it she called us, Guy?"
"Guy, shut up!" Emmett raged.
"You were so married to our mama, weren't you, Emmett?" Amy asked. She called her father by his given
name, a habit he'd reluctantly gotten used to because he couldn't seem to break it.
"Yes, I was, Amy," he said.
"So that means we're not—"
"Amy, I'm warning you!" Emmett threatened.
"Oh, very well, Emmett," she said primly, dabbing at her mouth. "May we be excused?"
"Why? Are you in a rush to hijack a truck or something?"
They glared at him. "We're helping Mrs. Gibbs bake a cake. She's the foreman's wife," Amy explained to
everyone. "She said we could."
"God help Mrs. Gibbs."
"Some father you are," Logan muttered as the kids escaped out the backdoor, heading for the foreman's
house.
"Mrs. Gibbs has nerves of steel and they listen to her," he argued.
"They ought to be listening to you," Logan persisted.
"Talk about soreheads!" Emmett said, making a clicking sound. "Frustration sure doesn't sit well with you,
does it? And you ought to be ashamed of yourself, making advances to Kit when you're engaged to that
Betsy woman. Something I would never do if you got engaged to me, Kit, my dear," he added silkily.
“Oh, for God's sake!" Logan roared. He threw down his napkin and walked out of the room.
His back was growing very familiar to Kit, who saw more of it lately than she ever had.
“I really can't marry you, Emmett. I'm sorry," Kit said.
"I'm persistent," he remarked with a lazy smile. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
She smiled, but it wasn't an encouraging smile.
Two hours later, they said their goodbyes and Logan drove Kit and Tansy to the airport. Their seats were
widely separated, and for that small mercy Kit was glad. It was good to go home and get away from the
enforced intimacy with Logan. He barely spoke to her now, and she was equally glad to avoid him. After
the explosive interlude they'd shared, she didn't know how to behave with him. All she knew was that she
didn't want to end up in his bed because he was frustrated and she was weak. Going back to Houston and
keeping out of his way seemed the only sensible thing to do.
Logan was thinking the same thing. He'd just begun to realize what a horrible mistake he'd be making if he
married Betsy. But admitting it was next to impossible. It would kill his pride.
On the other hand, Kit's well-meant interference had only made him dig his heels in deeper. All the way
back home he did his best to convince himself that Kit was wrong and he was right about Betsy. But the
doubts were beginning to outweigh the certainties in the relationship. He was at a crossroads and he
honestly didn't know which way to turn.
Chapter Seven
Dane was fascinated by the report Kit gave him when she got back to the office.
"You're kidding," he remarked when she finished. "Nobody has children like that in real life. Are you sure
you haven't been reading fiction?"
"Why don't you go out there and see for yourself?" she suggested dryly.
"No, thanks!" He shook his head. "What a family. Tansy went home with Logan, did she?"
"Yes, but nobody knows how long she'll stay. When Betsy walks through the door, I expect Tansy will
vanish again," she said dejectedly.
"That means more business for us." Dane chuckled.
"I suppose."
Dane gave Kit a new case to work on, tracking down a bail jumper this time. But the man wasn't a
dangerous criminal; he was a forger who'd made "bush bond."
With a little help from the skip-tracing department, specifically from Doris, Kit latched on to an address
downtown in the red-light district. There was only one way to get close to that address, and she didn't find
it at all amusing. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]