Christmas Cowboy: Will of Steel / Winter Roses. Diana Palmer

never get it,” she said stubbornly.

      Sassy was going to comment that rich people with intent sometimes knew shady ways to make people do what they wanted them to. But the developer wasn’t local and he didn’t have any information he could use to blackmail either Theodore or Jillian, so he probably couldn’t force them to sell to him. He’d just sit and wait and hope they couldn’t afford to keep it. Fat chance, Sassy thought solemly. She and John would bail them out if they had to. No way was some out-of-state fat cat taking over Jillian’s land. Not after all she’d gone through in her young life.

      Maybe it was a good thing Theodore didn’t know everything about his future potential wife. But Jillian was setting herself up for some real heartbreak if she didn’t level with him. After all, he was in law enforcement. He could dig into court records and find things that most people didn’t have access to. He hadn’t been in town when Jillian faced her problems, he’d been away at the FBI Academy on a training mission. And since only Sassy and her mother, Mrs. Peale, had been involved, nobody else except the prosecuting attorney and the judge and the public defender had knowledge about the case. Not that any of them would disclose it.

      She was probably worrying unnecessarily. She smiled at Jillian. “You are right. He’ll never get the ranch,” she agreed.

      They pulled up at the house. It had been given a makeover and it looked glorious.

      “You’ve done a lot of work on this place,” Jillian commented. “I remember what it looked like before.”

      “So do I. John wanted to go totally green here, so we have solar power and wind generators. And the electricity in the barn runs on methane from the cattle refuse.”

      “It’s just fantastic,” Jillian commented. “Expensive, too, I’ll bet.”

      “That’s true, but the initial capital outlay was the highest. It will pay for itself over the years.”

      “And you’ll have lower utility bills than the rest of us,” Jillian sighed, thinking about her upcoming one. It had been a colder than usual winter. Heating oil was expensive.

      “Stop worrying,” Sassy told her. “Things work out.”

      “You think?”

      They walked down the hall toward the master bedroom. “How’s your mother?” Jillian asked.

      “Doing great. She got glowing reports from her last checkup,” Sassy said. The cancer had been contained and her mother hadn’t had a recurrence, thanks to John’s interference at a critical time. “She always asks about you.”

      “Your mother is the nicest person I know, next to you. How about Selene?”

      The little girl was one Mrs. Peale had adopted. She was in grammar school, very intelligent and with definite goals. “She’s reading books about the Air Force,” Sassy laughed. “She wants to be a fighter pilot.”

      “Wow!”

      “That’s what we said, but she’s very focused. She’s good at math and science, too. We think she may end up being an engineer.”

      “She’s smart.”

      “Very.”

      Sassy opened the closet and started pulling out dresses and skirts and blouses in every color under the sun.

      Jillian just stared at them, stunned. “I’ve never seen so many clothes outside a department store,” she stammered.

      Sassy chuckled. “Neither did I before I married John. He spoils me rotten. Every birthday and holiday I get presents from him. Pick something out.”

      “You must have favorites that you don’t want to loan,” Jillian began.

      “I do. That’s why they’re still in the closet,” she said with a grin.

      “Oh.”

      Sassy was eyeing her and then the clothes on the bed. “How about this?” She picked up a patterned blue skirt, very long and silky, with a pale blue silk blouse that had puffy sleeves and a rounded neckline. It looked demure, but it was a witchy ensemble. “Try that on. Let’s see how it looks.”

      Jillian’s hands fumbled. She’d never put on something so expensive. It fit her like a glove, and it felt good to move in, as so many clothes didn’t. She remarked on that.

      “Most clothes on the rack aren’t constructed to fit exactly, and the less expensive they are, the worse the fit,” Sassy said. “I know, because I bought clothes off the sales rack all my life before I married. I was shocked to find that expensive clothes actually fit. And when they do, they make you look better. You can see for yourself.”

      Jillian did. Glancing in the mirror, she was shocked to find that the skirt put less emphasis on her full hips and more on her narrow waist. The blouse, on the other hand, made her small breasts look just a little bigger.

      “Now, with your hair actually down and curled, instead of screwed up into that bun,” Sassy continued, pulling out hairpins as she went and reaching for a brush, “you’ll look so different that Ted may not even recognize you. What a difference!”

      It was. With her long blond hair curling around her shoulders, she looked really pretty.

      “Is that me?” she asked, shocked.

      Sassy grinned. “Sure is.”

      She turned to her friend, fighting tears. “It’s so nice of you,” she began.

      Sassy hugged her. “Friends look out for each other.”

      They hadn’t been close friends, because Sassy’s home problems had made that impossible before her marriage. But they were growing closer now. It was nice to have someone she could talk to.

      She drew away and wiped at her eyes. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to do that.”

      “You’re a nice person, Jilly,” Sassy told her gently. “You’d do the same for me in a heartbeat, if our situations were reversed, and you know it.”

      “I certainly would.”

      “I’ve got some curlers. Let’s put up your hair in them and then we can snap beans.”

      “You’ve got beans in the middle of winter?” Jillian exclaimed.

      “From the organic food market,” she laughed. “I have them shipped in. You can take some home and plant up. Ted might like beans and ham hocks.”

      “Even if he didn’t, I sure would. I’ll bet it’s your own pork.”

      “It is. We like organic all the way. Put your jeans back on and we’ll wash your hair and set it. It’s thin enough that it can dry while we work.”

      And it did. They took the curlers out a couple of hours later. Jillian was surprised at the difference a few curls made in her appearance.

      “Makeup next,” Sassy told her, grinning. “This is fun!”

      “Fun and educational,” Jillian said, still reeling. “How did you learn all this?”

      “From my mother-in-law. She goes to spas and beauty parlors all the time. She’s still gorgeous, even though she’s gaining in years. Sit down.”

      Sassy put her in front of a fluorescent-lit mirror and proceeded to experiment with different shades of lipstick and eye shadow. Jillian felt as spoiled as if she’d been to an exclusive department store, and she said so.

      “I’m still learning,” Sassy assured her. “But it’s fun, isn’t it?”

      “The most fun I’ve had in a long time, and thank you. Theodore is going to be shocked when he shows up Saturday!” she predicted.

      Shocked was an understatement. Jillian in a blue ensemble, with her long hair soft and curling around her shoulders, with demure makeup, was a revelation