Part 3 (1/2)
”Yes.” Morgan turned to her. ”Gabe was nice enough to switch horses with me. His was better trained than mine, and I'm not a very good rider.”
”You had a very stubborn horse,” Gabe said.
”Yes, well.” She swallowed. ”Did you happen to talk to Jack?”
”I did, as a matter of fact. I gather you talked to him, too.”
”Yes. We had a...conversation.” Her expression was carefully controlled.
”You two can catch up later,” Edgar said. ”It's time to eat us some watermelon!” He lifted an old-fas.h.i.+oned school bell and started ringing it. ”Watermelon-eating contest! Last chance to enter!”
Morgan reached for the ties around her neck. ”You know what? I don't think I'll do this, after all.”
Gabe caught both her hands in his. ”Don't you dare chicken out on me, Morgan O'Connelli.” He hadn't counted on her hands being quite so soft and warm. Or her mouth being quite so close and inviting.
She glanced up at him. ”Gabe, it's not a good idea.” Her eyes darkened as they had when he'd chased down Geronimo.
He didn't think fear was the reason this time. He'd bet good money she was as s.e.xually aware of him as he was of her. As further evidence, pink tinged her cheeks and her breathing changed.
”Go on, both of you.” Madge shooed them toward the table as if they were five-year-olds, and Gabe was forced to let go of Morgan.
She allowed herself to be herded toward the table, but fumbled with the ties of her bib along the way. ”Seriously, I'm taking myself out of the compet.i.tion.”
”That's exactly the problem,” Madge shot back.
”There's too much seriousness these days. It does people good to act foolish once in a while. Sit right there, Morgan. Gabe, you take the next seat.”
Gabe sat down and glanced over at Morgan with a shrug. ”I think you're outvoted.”
”All right.” Morgan met his gaze and a flicker of her usual good humor returned. ”But I need to warn you, I've been looking forward to these events for a long time, and when it comes to watermelon contests, I eat to win.”
Gabe smiled. ”Them's fighting words, ma'am.”
Madge put a hand on each of their shoulders. ”Morgan, it's only fair to tell you that when Gabe was in high school he won this compet.i.tion three years out of four.”
”Because one year I beat his a.s.s.” Nick clapped Gabe on the back and sat down next to him. ”You're toast, bro. I've been practicing.”
”So that explains the love handles!” Gabe had never been so glad to see Nick in his life. Maybe Nick's cheerful acceptance of Morgan would erase the bad impression Jack had left.
”A guy has to do what a guy has to do.” Nick leaned around Gabe to talk to Morgan. ”Watch out for my brother. He cheats.”
”I do not!” Gabe looked at Morgan and was gratified to see a smile back on her face. ”Don't listen to him. It's character a.s.sa.s.sination, pure and simple. Nick's the sneaky brother.”
”I'll vouch for that.” Aiming her camera at the two men, Dominique crouched in front of the table and took a shot. ”Nick is very sneaky. I found this taped to my lens cap an hour ago.” She waggled the ring finger of her left hand, where a diamond caught the sunlight.
”Hey, hey, hey!” Gabe left his seat and came around the table. ”Could we have a short delay in the proceedings? My brother Nick just had the good sense to propose to Dominique.”
”And I had the good sense to accept,” Dominique said.
Gabe hugged her. ”Welcome to the family. Nick's a lucky guy.”
Nick joined them on the other side of the table and put an arm around his fiancee. ”Grandpa Archie used to say that Chance men are lucky when it counts.”
”Nice going, Nick.” Gabe shook Nick's hand as the rest of the people at the table and in the surrounding crowd came up to offer their congratulations.
Morgan joined in as naturally as if she'd lived in Shoshone for years. Gabe liked seeing her relax back into her normal upbeat personality. Best of all, he didn't detect any envy or wistfulness on her part. No engagement fever going on, there. She probably wanted to keep focused on her career, and that was a good thing.
At last Edgar Perkins rang the school bell again. ”This is all very exciting, but we're falling behind schedule. I need the contestants to be seated so we can bring out the watermelon.”
Gabe watched Morgan to make sure she didn't use this interruption to sneak out, but she hurried back to her chair beside him.
Once Nick sat down, Gabe leaned toward him. ”Does Mom know about this?”
”Yeah, and Jack and Emmett and Mary Lou. You would've, too, but you were over dealing with the Appaloosa.”
”Must've been a pretty quiet announcement. I didn't hear any commotion over there.”
”It was a quietly emotional announcement, not a wild and crazy one. Mom's feeling kind of teary today, anyway, and this started up the waterworks again. You know how Jack gets when she cries.”
Gabe's gut tightened. ”Speaking of Jack, I-”
”Here are your watermelon wedges, ladies and gents.” Edgar came over with two plates and Madge followed with two more. On each plate sat a quarter of a melon sliced lengthwise. The process was repeated until all ten contestants had watermelon.
”We'll talk,” Nick said. ”But not now.”
”Nope, not now.” Gabe tucked his Stetson under his chair before giving Nick and then Morgan the evil eye.
”I hope you both know you're going down.”
Excitement sparkled in Morgan's blue-green gaze. ”We'll just see about that, Gabe Chance.” Pulling a scrunchie out of her pocket, she tied back her hair. ”I intend to chomp my way to victory.”
Now that was the Morgan he liked to see-full of p.i.s.s and vinegar. He thought again about that Italian mother of hers. This could be a very interesting day, and quite possibly a more interesting night.
4.
WHEN MORGAN had heard about the watermelon-eating contest a week ago, she'd decided to sign up for it, as well as any other activity going on during the celebration. She'd always enjoyed contests, but her parents frowned on compet.i.tion. Besides, their wanderl.u.s.t had pretty much guaranteed Morgan wouldn't be playing organized sports.
Watermelon-eating wasn't exactly a sport, but she would take what she could get, although she hadn't expected to be squaring off against the Chance brothers. Somewhere she'd heard that a woman had to be careful of a man's ego and not beat him at games. Forget that noise. As long as she was here, she planned to whip everyone at this table, including the gorgeous Gabe Chance.