Part 20 (2/2)

Steven paused a moment before shaking his head. ”Nope,” he said. ”I planned on running a ranch, like my dad.”

”What changed your mind?”

Steven was a little surprised to find himself discussing a matter he'd barely talked about with Zack, his best friend, or Brody and Conner, his cousins. ”Ranching was in my blood,” he said, ”but so was the law, as it turned out. My grandfather founded one of the biggest firms east of the Mississippi. It was a family business.”

”Was?” Melissa's tone was casual, but she was watching him closely.

”My uncles still run it. It wasn't the same after my mother and grandfather pa.s.sed away.”

”Wasn't there a place for you-afterward?” she asked.

Steven shook his head. ”Not one I'd fit into,” he said. ”Zack-Matt's father-was a good friend of mine, from way back. He put in a good word for me where he worked, and I moved to Denver.” He paused, looking back. It wasn't something he allowed himself to do very often; in his opinion, there wasn't much to gain by indulging in personal retrospectives. ”Turned out I liked practicing criminal law a lot better than corporate. And I was good at it.”

”But you didn't stay,” Melissa said smoothly.

He grinned. ”You must be pretty good in a courtroom yourself,” he observed. Though the remark had been prompted by her subtle way of going after sensitive information, Steven meant what he was saying. Melissa wasn't just beautiful, she was smart, and most likely successful at just about everything she did.

Take s.e.x, for instance.

Melissa smiled, and that was almost Steven's undoing. When the lady smiled, her eyes shone and her whole face lit up. ”I do all right,” she replied easily. Then she drew a deep breath, let it out, and squared her shoulders. ”So,” she went on. ”What brings you to Stone Creek?”

”It's a great place to raise a kid,” Steven said.

”So are lots of other places, like Denver. And Boston. And wherever else you've been in your travels.”

Like Lonesome Bend, Colorado, he thought, with a touch of sadness.

He didn't see any need to tell Melissa about the experience that had soured him on the place. So he merely raised and lowered one shoulder slightly in what was meant to serve as a shrug. ”As you probably know, your sister-in-law and I are distantly related. Turns out the founders of the McKettrick and Creed clans were half brothers. Meg tracked me down online, and we started emailing back and forth. The more she told me about Stone Creek, the more it appealed to me. I paid a brief visit, met Meg and the rest of the McKettrick family, saw that this ranch was for sale and made an offer.”

Melissa bit down on her lower lip, her eyes luminous with worried curiosity. ”Today at lunch, you mentioned spending summers on a Colorado ranch while you were growing up. Is that near Denver?”

Steven nodded. ”It's outside a town called Lonesome Bend. My dad and stepmother still live there, when they're not traveling around the country in their RV. My cousin Conner runs the operation now.”

”Your cousin?” She arched one eyebrow. The woman didn't miss much. ”If the ranch was your home, at least part of the time, why not make a life there?”

He sat back, folded his arms. Tessa Quinn's meat loaf was fantastic, but he was satisfied. When it came to food, anyway. ”Conner and Brody's father was the firstborn son in his generation. He inherited the ranch when my grandparents were both gone, and even though my dad stepped in and took over after his older brother died, there was never any question of owners.h.i.+p. Legally, the ranch pa.s.sed to my cousins when they turned twenty-one.”

”And your dad was just out in the cold after that?”

Steven grinned. ”Hardly. The executors paid Dad a good salary for taking care of the spread, not to mention raising Conner and Brody, and he had some money of his own to start with. He's a master saddle maker-there aren't many of those left-and he fills custom orders for a pretty elite list of customers.”

Melissa smiled. ”When he's not RVing with your stepmother?”

”It's a big RV,” Steven answered. ”Dad does a lot of work on the road.”

Melissa, also through eating, rested her forearms on the table and leaned forward a little way. ”Does it bother you?” she asked.

”Does what bother me?”

”That your cousins each got a share of the ranch but you evidently didn't?

”No,” Steven said. ”That was the deal. I knew it from the beginning. And, anyway, Conner and Brody offered me a third of the outfit. I turned it down.”

”Because?”

”Because I wanted to build a legacy of my own,” Steven said.

She spread her hands. ”And here you are,” she said, with another of those wrenching smiles of hers.

”Here I am,” he agreed.

”Have you ever been in love?”

Steven chuckled. ”Yeah,” he said. ”At least, I thought so at the time.”

”But you were mistaken?”

”I guess you could say that.”

”What was she like?”

”Beautiful. Smart. Tough as nails.”

They were quiet for a few moments, while Melissa mulled over what he'd said. For his part, Steven was content just to look at her, though he wouldn't have said no to more s.e.x.

”How about you?” he asked, in good time. ”Have you ever been in love?”

As soon as he'd asked that question, he regretted it, because the atmosphere changed. He saw Melissa draw further into herself; her smile wobbled and the happy light in her eyes dimmed a little.

”I guess it's only fair, your asking me that,” she said. ”Since I asked you you the same thing about two minutes ago.” the same thing about two minutes ago.”

His heart went out to her, and he wasn't sure it was going to find its way back where it belonged anytime soon.

He reached across the narrow table, took her hand, gave her fingers a light squeeze. ”Another time,” he said, watching her. Thinking he might just fall right into the blue of her eyes, tumbling head over heels forever, never hitting bottom.

”No,” she said, shaking her head. ”Fair is fair.”

”If you don't feel like talking, Melissa, that's all right.”

Melissa looked straight into his eyes, didn't move to pull her hand from his grasp, but it was a long time before she spoke. ”His name was-is-Dan Guthrie. He wanted to get married, and he had these two great kids. I said yes. But every time we tried to go through with the plan and actually throw a wedding, I'd back off. Eventually, Dan got tired of that, and he-well-he's married to someone else now. They're going to have a baby.”

Steven wanted to ask if she still loved this Guthrie yahoo, but he figured there had been enough soul-baring for one night.

Besides that, he wasn't sure he could stand hearing the answer.

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