Page 34 of The Cowboy's Downfall
“Did I come at a bad time?” Pam Harvey asked.
Shauna clutched the lapels of the terry cloth robe in one hand, praying Pam couldn’t tell what she wore underneath.
She swung the door wide. “No. Not at all. Would you like to come in?”
Inviting Nora’s mother inside was the polite thing to do. But Nix could arrive any time now, and he expected to find her alone.
Pam stepped across the threshold into the small entry, giving her a clear view of Shauna’s open-concept living room and kitchen, and the bottle of wine on the island. Shauna didn’t know if Nix was a wine drinker—or a drinker at all—so she had a six-pack of assorted craft beers in the fridge.
Pam took note of the bottle of wine, Shauna’s robe, and her partially applied makeup. The string panties burned Shauna’s cheeks—fore and aft—like a badly kept secret. Whatever conclusion Pam drew, it couldn’t be far off the mark. She didn’t seem stupid.
“I can’t stay,” Pam said. “I’m here for Nora’s things. I also wanted to say how sorry I am about last night. Nora’s grounded for two weeks, but maybe after that, Taryn can come to our house so the girls can hang out.”
Shauna had no trouble reading the subtext on that. Nora wasn’t allowed to come to Taryn’s house anymore. It puzzled her how the girls had become friends in the first place, because on the surface, they didn’t have a whole lot in common. And while it was easy to think that maybe Taryn enjoyed leading Nora astray, Shauna didn’t believe that was true. Taryn liked Nora. The girls had been having fun together last night. Harmless fun.
She should be happy that Taryn was still welcome in the Harvey household. She was. But she wondered if it was because Nora’s parents liked Taryn, or if they liked her connection to Dan McKillop and the Endeavour Ranch more. Because the odds weren’t stacked in her sister’s favor.
“I’m sure Taryn would love that. I’ll get Nora’s things,” she said.
She found Nora’s school backpack and the clothes she’d abandoned on Taryn’s bedroom floor. She packed the clothes into a plastic bag and delivered everything to Pam.
Pam lingered as if she had more to say. “There’s a rumor going around,” she began, then waited, as if hoping Shauna might fill in the blanks. Shauna decided to wait too, on the off chance that the rumor wasn’t the one Taryn had started, but no such luck. “One of the men running the bull riding clinic might have an unhealthy interest in Taryn. She’s a pretty girl, and…mature for her age.”
While labeling Taryn as mature for her age was a stretch, a lot rode on Pam’s definition.
“If I believed that, I would have gone to Dan with it by now,” Shauna said.
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe it. What matters is who else might. Especially”—and Pam picked her words with great care—“when you consider the source.”
The source being Taryn. Nora must have said something to her mother about it. Maybe her mother had asked.
A loud crash in the backyard startled both women. The sliding patio doors in the small dining area next to the kitchen faced the front entry, where they were standing. All they could see in the glass was their reflections.
“Raccoons must be into the garbage,” Shauna said. Except she didn’t keep her garbage in the backyard. She kept food waste in the freezer. The more probable cause was that Nix had arrived, seen Pam’s car in the drive, and tried to vault the shaky fence that topped a retaining wall at the rear of the house. She hoped he wasn’t hurt.
“You shouldn’t store your garbage outside. It attracts bears,” Pam said.
“I have one of those bear-proof bins.”
“It still attracts them.”
Shauna waited until she heard Pam start her car, then ran to open the patio door, afraid of what she might find.
Nix lounged in a chair on the deck. To her relief, he looked all in one piece and a 9-1-1 call wouldn’t be needed. The fence, however, had a man-sized hole in it that was going to be difficult to explain.
She didn’t care about the fence. Given her conversation with Pam, keeping their relationship private might no longer be the right way to go.
Nix surged to his feet when he saw her, then kissed her in a manner that served as a reminder they didn’t have the kind of relationship they could take out in public. He really knew how to say hello to a woman. She rested her forearms on his shoulders and her forehead on his chin and struggled to think while catching her breath.
“We have a problem,” she said, although it seemed a lot less pressing now than it had a few moments ago.
“Nah. I’ll fix your fence.” He dipped his chin and nuzzled her throat. “It just so happens I’m kind of an expert.”
“Not the fence. It’s about Taryn.”
“Can’t it wait? For a woman who claims she only wants me for sex, you sure do like to talk.” He crooked a finger into the front of her robe and peeked inside. She’d left the bra on, and a low growl of approval rumbled out of his throat. “Right now, she’s not the sister I’m interested in.”
His finger dipped under the lacy cup of her bra, and she made up her mind.
