Evan

Well, she told herself, that was that. If he was desperate enough to throw himself into the arms of an old flame to escape Anna, it was time to retreat. She’d always known somehow that he was never going to take her seriously. She should have given up long ago.

The next morning she braided her long blond hair, put on her shorts and halter top and went out to set up her easel in the garden. She loved to paint. She was quite good at landscapes, having even sold a few. It gave her something to do when she wasn’t working.

Polly was at the office today—she sometimes worked seven days a week. But Anna worked five and painted the other two. Now she was toying seriously with the idea of quitting the office. She loved art and she had an eye for investment paintings. She could ask the owner of the local art gallery, who was a friend of the family, to give her a job. It would get her away from the office, where she was all too likely to run into Evan. He wanted her out of his life, so she decided that she’d give him a helping hand. It was the least she could do after having pestered him for two years. Cold sober, she could even understand why he’d brought Nina to the party last night. Poor man. He must have been at the very end of his rope.

As she dabbed paint on the canvas, she considered her options. She didn’t really want to leave home, but even that might be a good idea. She was going on twenty years old. It was time she had a life of her own, apart from her mother’s. She had to start thinking about her future. Marrying Randall was hardly an option, even though he’d been hinting that he wouldn’t be averse to the idea. Considering Polly’s wealth, it would be a strategic move on his part. It would give him the financial wherewithal to buy into an established practice, because certainly Polly would be willing to help her new son-in-law.

The landscape she was working on was a study of sunflowers against the sky. She was using a huge sunflower in the garden as a model. It was a lazy summer day with only a slight breeze, and the sun felt like heaven on her skin.

A car door slammed. She didn’t look up. It was almost lunchtime and she was expecting her mother.

“I’m out back,” she called. “If you’re ready, there’s a pasta salad in the fridge. I want to finish this before I come in.”

Footsteps answered her shout, but they didn’t belong to a woman. They were too heavy.

Her head turned just as Evan came around the side of the house. He was wearing work clothes—jeans and a dust-stained blue plaid shirt, with disreputable boots and a Stetson that was battered almost beyond recognition. She stiffened with hurt indignation, but she couldn’t afford to let it show. She turned back to her painting.

“Where’s Polly?” he asked without preamble.

So much for the forlorn hope that he might have come to see her, to apologize for dragging her pride through the dust the night before. She kept her eyes on the canvas, so that he wouldn’t see the disappointment in them.

“If she isn’t at the office, she’s on her way here for lunch, I guess,” she said.

His dark eyes slid over her with reluctant interest. “She was supposed to leave a prospectus for me on a new piece of land. Know anything about it?”

She shook her head. “Sorry.” She traced a sunflower petal with maniacal accuracy, to keep her mind off her breaking heart. “If you’d like to wait, Lori can make you some iced tea.”

Anna was so unlike her usual self that he felt out of his element. “What? No invitation to ravish you among the sunflowers?”

“I’ve decided to grow up,” she said without looking at him. “Chasing after unwilling men is for adolescents. From now on, I’m only going after men I think I can catch.”

“Like Randall?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Why not?”

Her attitude disturbed him. He leaned against the fence that surrounded the small garden. “I didn’t know you painted.”

“At the speed you always go around me, I’m not surprised,” she said imperturbably and dotted more yellow on the canvas. “No more games, Evan,” she said, looking up at him quietly. “I got the message last night. If you really came here to make it clear, there’s no need.” She managed a smile. “I’m sorry I made your life so difficult. I won’t embarrass you anymore, I promise.”

He felt empty. His eyes narrowed as she turned back to her canvas. She didn’t sound like herself. In fact, he mused, she didn’t look like the kid he’d always thought her. Those long, tanned legs were a woman’s, like the full breasts under that skimpy halter. She was delectable.

He quietly watched her. “Are you and Polly going to the Ballenger barbecue next week?”

“I don’t know.” She glanced at him shyly. “If you’re going to be there, probably not. I don’t want to do your social life any more damage than I already have. No wonder you’ve been staying away from local social occasions. I had no idea how difficult I’d made things for you until the gossip started to get back to me.”

He started. That didn’t sound like Anna. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could deny the insinuation, Polly’s car roared up the driveway. Seconds later she came around the corner, having seen Evan’s car. “There you are!” she said, laughing. “I’ve brought the prospectus. I was going to run it out to you. Anna, is lunch ready?”

“Lori said it’s on the table,” Anna replied. “I’ll be in later. I want to finish this while the light’s right.”

“Artists.” Polly sighed. “Okay, honey. Evan, stay and eat with me, since Anna’s bent on being eccentric.”

Evan’s dark eyes lingered on Anna’s profile. “I have to get back to work myself,” he said hesitantly. “We’re moving in new cattle today, so everybody’s out in the yards helping—even mother.”

“In a few years, you’ll have plenty of help,” Polly laughed. “All those babies coming along.”

“Yes.” He turned and took the prospectus Polly was holding out. “I’ll run through this with Harden and the others and give you a call when we decide.”

“Fine. Sure you won’t stay for lunch?”

He waited for Anna to say something, to second her mother’s offer at least. But she didn’t. She said nothing. She didn’t look up. After a minute, he shrugged and made his excuses.

When he was gone, Polly considered her daughter with open curiosity.

“Have you and Evan argued?” she asked softly.

“Of course not,” Anna said. She turned, smiling, to her mother. “I’ve just decided to stop making his life miserable. Having me dog him at every step must have been wearing.”

Polly relaxed a little. “I’m sure he realizes it’s just a stage you’re going through, darling,” she replied gently. “Evan’s not a bad man. He’s just a card-carrying bachelor. You’re a marrying type of girl. Even if you weren’t years too young for him your goals are too different.”

“You’re right, of course,” Anna said, trying not to choke on the words.

“I imagine he’ll be pleased to be off the endangered list, all the same.” She laughed. “You were getting pretty relentless. I, uh, heard about the whiskey bottles and the plastic snakes.”

“Another ploy in my relentless campaign that failed.” Anna sighed, managing not to reveal how hurt she really was. She concentrated on her canvas. “Well, it’s over now. He did look relieved, didn’t he?”

Polly nodded, but her eyes were saying something else. She wasn’t sure exactly how Evan had looked, but relief wasn’t the word she would have chosen. She had the oddest feeling that Anna had shocked him.

Chapter 3

In fact, perplexed was more the way Evan felt as he drove back to the Tremayne ranch. He hadn’t slept well, remembering the way Anna had looked when he and Nina left the party. He’d used the prospectus as an excuse to come over and see how much damage he’d done.

What he’d found had surprised him. Anna was apparently indifferent to his presence and not at all anxious for his company. After two years of being pursued, teased, flirted with and vamped, it was shocking to have Anna treat him like a stranger.

He pulled up at the house and went inside, scowling.

“Something bothering you?” Harden asked from the study doorway.

Evan went in and closed the door. He could talk to Harden as he could to no one else, and he needed a sympathetic ear right now.

“Anna’s bothering me,” he said shortly.

“That’s nothing new,” Harden replied. “You’ve been complaining about Anna for as long as I can remember.”

Evan scowled, turning. “No,” he said. “You don’t understand. She’s ignoring me.”

Harden’s blue eyes twinkled. “A new ploy?”

Evan sat perched on the edge of the desk. “She hasn’t been the same since last night. She’s decided that she’s been ruining my life, so she’s giving me up.”

“Nice of her,” Harden commented.

“It’s the way she’s doing it that worries me,” came the quiet reply. “She’s too calm.”

“You didn’t see the way she looked when she saw you with Nina,” Harden replied. “It cut her up.”

Evan cursed under his breath. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t want to hurt her. I just wanted to get her off my back.”

“You did. So what’s the problem?”

The bigger man sighed wearily. “I didn’t know how it was going to feel, having her ignore me completely.”

“Quite an admission from you, isn’t it?”

“I guess it is.” He studied his worn boot. “But I still think I did the right thing. She’s years too young.”

“So you keep saying. I guess she finally listened.”

“I guess.”

“Nina seems smitten all over again. Is it serious?”

Evan’s dark eyes met his brother’s blue ones. “I don’t want Nina. That was over years ago. I financed some new publicity for her and she’s paying me back.”

“I see,” Harden murmured. “She’s helping you fend off Anna.”

“Unnecessarily, as it happens. Anna’s dropped her mad pursuit. She said the game was over. Was that what it was all along to her—a game?”

“Maybe you’re the one who was taking it too seriously,” Harden said gently. “Anna played with you, brought you out of your shell. There were times when you almost seemed to enjoy it. Then you’d get your back up and complain that she was hounding you.”

True enough, Evan thought, because just occasionally he felt a raging desire for Anna that he had to quell. It had been building for a long time, but lately it was explosive. Nina had been an act of desperation, as Anna had said. But the action seemed to be backfiring. He was the one who’d been burned.

“Anna’s a virgin,” Evan said shortly. “I’m almost certain of it. I had a rough experience with an innocent woman. These days, I look for sophistication.”

“I know that,” Harden replied kindly. “But that woman wasn’t Anna. If she loved you, really loved you…”

“Anna isn’t old enough to be that serious about a man.”

“I hope you’re right,” he murmured. “Because if she really cared, and you’ve killed it, you may have cost yourself the brightest star in your sky.”

Evan scowled. “I told you, she said it was only a game!”

“Would she be likely to confess undying love when you’d just thrown one of your old conquests in her face?”

Of course not. This was getting him nowhere. “I’ll get back out to the stockyard. Coming?”

“In a minute. I’ve got to drive Miranda in to the doctor,” he said, grinning.

Evan shook his head. “First Pepi, now Miranda and Jo Anne. I’m surrounded by pregnant women.”

“Uncle Evan,” Harden mocked.

The big man smiled gently. “I love kids. I guess it’s going to be up to mother and me to spoil them all.”

“You might have some of your own one day.”

Evan’s eyes grew quiet and sad. “That isn’t on the books.”

“Anna’s not afraid of you, for God’s sake!” Harden growled.

“Of course she isn’t, I’ve never made a heavy pass at her!” Evan replied levelly, his dark eyes unblinking. “Louisa was fine until I tried to take her to bed!”

Harden stared at him. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“Even if Anna was old enough, I’d never have the nerve, don’t you see?” He stuck his hands in his pockets and stared out the window. “That one experience spoiled intimacy for me. I lost control and hurt Louisa. I’ve been afraid ever since that I’d do it again. I put Randy Hardy in the hospital when we got into that brawl a few years back, didn’t I?” he added to emphasize his concern.

“Accidentally.”

“Yes. Well, I could do the same thing to a woman if I lost my head,” Evan returned hotly. “My size is no joke.”

“You’re big,” Harden agreed. “And strong as a bull. Nobody’s arguing with that. But you’re giving yourself a complex, and it’s not necessary. Just because one hysterical woman accused you of breaking her ribs…”

“I did bruise them pretty badly,” Evan said miserably.

“She bruised them by trying to fight you and falling out of bed,” Harden reminded him harshly. “She was half your size and all bones, and a terrified virgin into the bargain. Anna is a big girl, tall and sturdy and voluptuous. She’s much more your type.”

“I don’t want Anna!” Evan returned.

“Suit yourself. She’ll probably marry the honorable physician and have ten kids.”

“If that’s what she wants.” His blood ran cold at the thought of Randall giving her children. He stuck his hat over his eyes and walked out of the room.

Harden, watching him, shook his head. He couldn’t talk to Evan anymore. The older man was running scared, even if he wouldn’t admit it. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to make a mess of not only his life, but Anna’s as well.

In the days that followed, Evan noticed a difference in his life. He went to town, and there was no more Anna peering over his shoulder in the hardware store or peeking out of her mother’s office window to grin and wave at him. He went to a local social gathering, and Anna hadn’t begged an invitation so that she could flirt with him. He took the precaution of taking Nina with him, just in case, but it hadn’t been necessary.

He should have been jubilant, but somehow it wounded him that Anna didn’t want him anymore. All his arguments against the relationship didn’t help.

Two weeks after the party, Anna was shopping at the local boutique when Nina danced in, wafting expensive perfume and looking on top of the world.

“Well, hello!” she greeted Anna, smiling. “So Evan did finally beat you off! We didn’t see a sign of you at the Andersons’ get-together night before last! He spent the first few minutes peeking around corners in case you showed up. You really gave him a complex.”

Anna felt sick at the way Nina had put it. “Yes. Well, I’m devoting myself to Randall these days.”

“The doctor with the wandering eye, hmm?” Nina mused, fingering one of the more expensive dresses in the shop. “He won’t be easy to hold, I’m afraid. I don’t suppose you know he took Cindy Grayson to the swimming party at the Fords’ Monday? Or that she didn’t get home until daylight?”

Anna glared at the older woman. “Is all this malice really necessary? You’ve got Evan. What more do you want?”

Nina’s delicate eyebrows levered up. “I haven’t ‘got’ Evan at all,” she said. “He only asked me out to keep you away from him. He said he’d do anything to scrape you off.” Her eyes darkened as they studied Anna haughtily. “You should have known that his type of man doesn’t like being chased. You cut your own throat.”

“Well, he’s safe now,” Anna said, almost choking.

Nina shrugged. “I doubt he’ll believe it. Not that I mind,” she added cattily. “Because the longer he feels you’re a threat, the longer I’ll have with him. He’s quite something in bed,” she said deliberately, watching Anna blush.

Anna left the dress she was looking at and went out the door of the boutique as if her jeans were on fire. Nina watched her for a minute and then turned back to the dress racks. That had been easy enough. She didn’t like the way Evan was preoccupied since Anna’s defection. Only if Anna was kept away would Nina have a clear shot at Evan. The fiction of sleeping with him seemed to do the trick, though. She was actually humming by the time she left the shop.

For the rest of the afternoon Anna barely knew what was going on around her. She left early and went to the Taylor Gallery.

Brand Taylor was elderly, with a keen eye for art and a thorough knowledge of the market for it. He’d known Anna since she was a child, and he’d followed her interest in art with pleasure.

“I’ve been hoping you might approach me for a job one day,” he told her honestly when she asked about it. “I’m here alone, and it’s a bit of a grind sometimes. It would be nice to have an assistant. You have an eye for detail, and I can teach you how to evaluate paintings, how to predict the market. But it will be hard work. Nothing like sitting in your garden and painting.”

She smiled. “I’d like to try it, nevertheless.”

He nodded. “All right. When can you start?”

“Monday,” she said. Her mother had never really needed her. A job had been created for her, but they both knew she was redundant.

“Won’t Polly mind?” he asked.

She shook her head. “On the contrary, I imagine she’ll be delighted.”

Polly was delighted and surprised. “I didn’t think you’d want to leave the office,” she admitted.

“Because Evan spends a lot of time there,” Anna murmured dryly. “That’s the very reason I want to leave. If I’m going to let go, I need to do it wholeheartedly. I’m very fond of Mr. Taylor, and I do like the idea of a career.”

“I’d hoped you might think of marriage as one,” Polly said quietly. “God knows, I’d have done that if your father had been able to settle down with me. He was too much a wanderer, though. He still is.”

“You’ve never really dated anyone else,” Anna ventured.

“Neither has he,” Polly said with a smile. “Maybe someday he’ll get it out of his system and come home. I never stop hoping. Meanwhile, I have a career I enjoy and I’m making gobs of money.”

“That’s what I want to do,” Anna said seriously. “I want to do something useful with my life. Marriage—maybe someday. But not yet.”

“Good girl. You’re young. You have plenty of time.”

“Plenty,” she echoed. Her eyes were sad, but she wasn’t going to moon around the house. “How about going out to eat tonight?”

“Delightful,” Polly agreed. “The Beef Palace?”

Evan’s favorite hangout. Anna shook her head. “How about that new Chinese restaurant, for a change?”

Polly smiled her approval. “Nice. Very nice.”

As they were leaving the restaurant that night, talking animatedly about Anna’s upcoming new job, Evan spotted them as he drove past with Nina. Odd, Anna eating Chinese food. He was sure she didn’t like it.

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