“Sorry to say, but that tallies perfectly with what I knew of my uncle. I’d wondered if your mother was black. Nobody’s crass enough to mention it openly, of course, but there’s been some gossip to that effect. Your skin’s paler than Mac’s—at least I thought so from the few times I’ve seen you close up—but there’s something about the caste of your features that suggests some African blood.” He was muscular and strong, she 17
Cindy Spencer Pape
knew that much—and tall. He shaved his head and Leah had sworn it suited him. She’d also given Carmen a photo to look at under her magnifying lens, just so her cousin would “know” her new neighbor. Carmen had made out the vivid green of Dash’s eyes and the strong jut of his jaw. She’d also seen the scars that created a reddened, lacy pattern across his left cheekbone and jaw.
“Mom is biracial,” Dash told her easily. “She always said my green eyes came from her father as well as my own. I have to admit, I was a little worried about moving to a rural community. Nobody cares in Chicago, but I wasn’t sure about Texas.”
Carmen shrugged. “I’m a hybrid too—mostly Comanche on my mother’s side, while my dad is half Cherokee and half Irish, which is where I get the freckles. But you are what you are, and there’s no point trying to hide it or change it. We have our bigots here, just like everywhere else. I bet Chicago does too, you just chose to ignore them. I do the same in Morgan’s Creek.”
“Smart lady, as well as a gorgeous one,” he said with a laugh. “Even with the freckles, which I think are cute. I can definitely see the relationship between you and Leah.” He fiddled with his glass before taking a drink. “I guess that makes us sort-of cousins, doesn’t it?”
Was that disappointment she’d heard in his voice? God, she hoped so.
“Everybody knows the story, Dash, and they know you and I aren’t any kind of kin.
I’d like it if we could be friends though.” She didn’t know much about seduction, but she did her best to put a husky note of suggestion into her words.
“Friends.” He paused for a moment. “I’d like that, Carmen. Even if I’m not sure I’m any good at the whole concept anymore. You might be getting yourself a pretty lousy bargain.”
“I’ll take that chance,” she told him. “Everybody needs friends.”
“Are friends allowed to help clear the table?” he asked a few minutes later when they’d both finished eating. “You cooked, so it only seems fair.”
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“Definitely,” she confirmed. “If you want to rinse the dishes, I’ll load them in the dishwasher.”
“You could come back tomorrow night,” she offered softly a few minutes later, after she’d walked him out to her front porch. “Just to check on the eagle. Or maybe to help me eat the lasagna I was thinking about making. I’m sure it will be way too much for just one person.”
Dash paused halfway to the step. She hoped he could tell she was offering more. If he came back tomorrow night, it would actually be a date. Based on his hesitation, he understood. She heard him swallow hard then she thought she saw his head dip in a nod. “You have a grill?”
“Of course.” She leaned back against the cool logs fronting the cabin.
“If you can manage a salad, I could bring a couple of steaks. Seems those are pretty easy to come by when you own part of a cattle ranch.”
“I think I can handle a salad.”
He patted the top of Silver’s head. “That okay with you, boy?”
Silver gave a contented chuff and moved over for a scratch from the departing visitor. Since he usually only did that with Ken, Carmen was astounded as well as secretly delighted.
Dash reached out to scratch Silver’s ears. “He’s quite a dog—seems devoted to you.”
“He’s one quarter gray wolf, one quarter malamute and half German Shepherd,”
Carmen explained. “Believe it or not, he was the runt of the litter—when he was born, nobody thought he’d survive. I took care of him, and now he takes care of me.”
“If that’s the runt, I’d hate to see the big guys in a dark alley,” Dash mused. He leaned down and spoke to Silver. “Okay if I kiss her, boy?”
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Carmen figured she wasn’t supposed to hear, but she did, and she felt a big grin break out over her face. “He doesn’t mind a bit,” she whispered.
“Well, in that case…” Carmen’s nerves sang an overture as he stepped back toward the cabin and leaned in. “Thank you, Carmen, for a lovely dinner.” His hands braced on the wall on either side of her head, he leaned in and laid his lips over hers.
The kiss was soft—little more than a whisper-light touch of his full lips. That wasn’t what Carmen wanted. Damn the butterflies in her stomach, she wanted him to know that she was interested in this—and a lot more—from him. Clamping her hands on his shoulders, she pulled him closer and opened her mouth.
He didn’t seem to need much encouragement. Moving his hands from the wall, he slid one into her hair and the other around her waist. Slowly, gently, he deepened the kiss, his tongue at first tracing her lips then carefully slipping inside.
Carmen swirled hers around it, savoring the taste of chili and beer and man. Then she sucked lightly on the tip, pressing her breasts into the hard plane of his chest.
Dash groaned, taking charge of the kiss and ravishing her mouth until neither of them could breathe when they finally fell apart.
“Umm—I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said raggedly as he stepped back and grabbed hold of the post supporting the porch roof.
“Can’t wait,” she managed. “Drive safe, Dash.”
“Good night,” he returned as he spun and walked down the steps. “Sleep tight.”
His truck door slammed, the engine roared to life, and then he was gone.
* * * * *
“Hello, Grandfather.” Carmen didn’t need to see the man standing in the doorway of the barn to know who it was. She could sense her grandfather’s presence as easily as she could sense the sunshine on a summer day. “Did you bring me a fish for the eagle?”
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Eagle’s Redemption
“Of course.” His boot heels clattered on the tile floor as he crossed to the sink and laid his bounty into it. “Three mid-sized bass should see him through the next couple of days, right?”
“That should be plenty.” Carmen finished putting a stack of clean towels into a cupboard and turned, moving toward him. “Though she’s a big girl, isn’t she?”
Ken stepped over to the eagle and wrapped his arm around Carmen’s waist as she moved up next to him. “She is. Dash said it was a bullet wound?”
“Just a graze. She’ll be fine in a few days.” She kissed his weathered cheek then went over to the sink. The fish had been scaled and gutted, which wasn’t optimal nutrition, but would make for easier storage and serving. She cut one in half then wrapped the remainder in aluminum foil. Then she placed the cut piece on a plastic plate and put it in the eagle’s cage. She loved the fact her grandfather just stood back and let her work without getting in the way by trying to help.
“What about the other patient? Think he’ll be okay anytime soon?” Ken waited while Carmen finished washing up then walked with her and Silverfoot back up to the house. When he settled down at the table, Carmen knew he was here to grill her, so she poured two mugs of coffee and sat across from him.
“You mean Dash.”
“Of course.” He picked up his mug and sipped. “Man’s been through a hell of a time.”
“So I’ve heard,” she replied wryly. “Though only the basics. Seems to be handling it, but he’s got a lot of scars, inside even more than out. Offhand, I’d say he’s mending.”
Ken was silent for a while, and Carmen smiled. She knew the old man far too well.
He wouldn’t come out and question her, but he must have suspected there was some…spark between the two of them.
She rolled her eyes and added, “He thinks a lot of you, you know. And he loves Leah and Mac already, even if he doesn’t know it yet. Bringing him here may have been the most decent thing Joe Morgan ever did, even if he did it for all the wrong reasons.”
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Ken snorted. “Other than marrying my daughter and giving us your cousin, you mean. But yes, I agree. This land has power. It’s a good place for a man to make a new beginning—as long as he doesn’t break any hearts in the process.”
“I’m not going to let him break my heart, Grandfather. I’m a big girl now. Any relationship I go into is with my eyes open, and it’s strictly between me and the man involved. If there
was
something going on, it wouldn’t be any of your business, you nosy old coot.” It was so easy to talk to him—she could never tease like that with her own parents, who took everything in life far too seriously.
His laugh was easy and affectionate, just as it had always been. “I love you too, missy. And I know you’re a woman grown. Just be careful though. The heart you risk might not be your own. He’s a good man, and he could use a little kindness, but don’t get into something just out of compassion. In the long run, that would hurt him more than it would help.”
“I know.” She suppressed a satisfied grin. Compassion be damned, what she and Dash had was all about plain old
passion
. After last night’s kiss, she was sure of it. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”
“Figured you would.” He drained his mug, stood and set it in the sink. Stepping back over to the table, he mussed her hair then dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“Happen to know the boy has a fondness for oatmeal cookies.” He scratched Silver on the head as he made his way out the door.
Carmen sipped slowly on her coffee as she stared after him, or at least in the direction of the door—anything beyond the end of her fingers was just a haze of light or shadows.
“Well, Silver? Think we should make some oatmeal cookies?”
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Nobody had questioned Dash when he left the ranch early, claiming he needed to make a run into town. He’d gotten used to the small grocery store in Morgan’s Creek, and he was able to chat comfortably with the owner Ted Miller, who’d wasted no time in showing Dash his own bullet scar, high on his shoulder, which had earned him a Purple Heart in Vietnam. Though Dash wouldn’t say the Millers were exactly friends, at least he was able to relax in their company. Baby steps, his mother would call them. He wasn’t over his discomfort of going out in public, but he was making a few small strides in that direction.
He picked up potatoes, a bottle of red wine and a few other items to accompany the steaks he’d liberated from the ranch freezer. He hesitated, though, over the small section of fresh flowers. Mary, Mrs. Miller, caught him deliberating.
“Now I know Leah isn’t back yet,” the silver-haired woman teased. “So there must be someone else who caught your eye. The roses just came in today, so they’re good and fresh.”
Dash felt himself blush, which he hadn’t known he was capable of—since maybe junior high. He looked at the roses then shook his head and pointed at something sort of white and swirly. “What are those?”
“Calla lilies. Very elegant.” Her faded blue eyes twinkled. “Of course, if it’s someone who lives out here, she might be more of a wildflower kind of girl. I’ve got a big patch of bluebonnets in the side yard—I could go cut you a bunch.”
“Are those the ones growing all over the place?” He’d seen the blue-covered roadsides and gardens everywhere, even around his line shack—it was really quite impressive, but weren’t the flowers awfully small for a bouquet? The ones at his place were only a few inches tall.
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“State flower of Texas, my boy,” she replied. “Hearty enough to thrive in this environment but about the prettiest damn things on earth. The ones I have are a lot bigger than the local variety, and I grew them from seed, so don’t worry, they’re legal to cut.”
Pretty, wild, resilient—that suited Carmen perfectly. Dash nodded and thanked her then he finished checking out. Mary was waiting for him by the door with a big tissue-wrapped bouquet of the vivid bluebonnets.
“These are on the house. You have a good night now, hon,” she told him, handing him the bundle. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Another middle-aged woman in the check-out line laughed heartily. “That leaves you a lot of room, son,” she teased. “Mary Miller was a wild one back in the day. Just ask Ted.”
“Look who’s talking, Loretta,” Mary shot back with a wink. “You went out with half the football team in high school—all at the same time.” With a snicker and a wink, she elbowed Dash toward the door. “Now get going before those flowers wilt.”
* * * * *
Carmen dithered in front of her closet for far longer than she should have. Stupid, really. Since she had real trouble making out patterns or matching things that weren’t solid blocks of color, most of her wardrobe consisted of jeans or denim shorts and simple shirts—solid color scoop-necked Ts for summer and sweaters for winter, with some long-sleeved man-tailored shirts in denim or white for in between. She also had a couple of simple black dresses she mostly wore when visiting her parents in Houston since she couldn’t bring herself to wear jeans to the opera, which was the one passion she shared with her mom. Wearing a dress seemed way over the top though. She finally settled on jeans and a butter-soft T in a bright green that reminded her of Dash’s eyes.
Silver hoops at her ears and her silver charm bracelet weren’t too much, she decided, and she swiped on a coat of her favorite grapefruit-flavored lip gloss. There. That 24
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would have to do. Makeup was more than she could manage. Leaving her feet bare, she padded downstairs to finish making the salad.
She popped the bowl back into the fridge to stay cool just seconds before she heard the truck out front. Silver chuffed softly but didn’t bark or move as the doorbell rang, a sure sign that he’d already accepted Dash into his pack. Carmen couldn’t help but grin at the thought as she crossed the room to open the door. Silver was a very discerning judge of character and not usually so accepting of another potential alpha.