The Rancher's Family Thanksgiving. Cathy Thacker Gillen

lined up her shot, too. She swung as hard as she could. The ball went a measly twenty-five yards.

      “Oh. Definitely,” Gary said. A look of pure bliss crossed his features. “I love numbers.”

      Susie nodded. “I can see that you do.” She watched Gary make a perfect line drive.

      It looked as if he loved golf, too.

      Gary nodded in greeting as another customer made his way past them to take up a position on the other side of Susie.

      Susie started to nod, too, when she caught a whiff of man and cologne that was all too familiar. She took a good look at the cowboy ambling by, in a striped golf shirt she could swear she had never seen before, his usual denim jeans, and what looked like a pair of bowling shoes.

      He kept his eyes on the green.

      Gary frowned at the way Susie’s mouth was hanging open. “You know him?” Gary inclined his head at Tyler McCabe.

      “I know everyone around here.” Susie flashed Tyler a tight, officious smile.

      This hadn’t been their deal.

      Tyler had been supposed to show up at seven-thirty, at the end of her “date” with Bachelor Number Two.

      Instead, Tyler had showed up at the beginning and positioned himself in perfect eavesdropping position.

      How was she supposed to concentrate on giving Gary Hecht the attention he deserved with Tyler right beside her? It was like going on a date with her parents!

      Not to mention, Tyler’s golf shot was worse than hers and he kept getting his balls in her lane.

      Turning her back to Tyler, Susie looked at Gary. “Tell me more about your job,” she said.

      Another thing Gary loved to do was talk about his life.

      For the next forty minutes, she could hardly get a word in edgewise. Finally, both their buckets were empty. “Want to get more balls?” Gary asked.

      “Actually, I think I’m going to have to call it an evening,” Susie said. They gathered up their gear. “But there is something I’d like to talk to you about—in private.” She flashed her most persuasive smile at her companion—the kind she saved for very special and or important occasions—and walked off.

      TYLER COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. Susie’s date had been one of the most self-absorbed men he had ever had the chance to come across, yet Susie was acting as if Gary were heaven’s gift as she sauntered off with him, arm in arm.

      He quickly emptied his bucket, picked up the clubs he’d borrowed from one of his cousins, and headed back to the window.

      “Nice outfit, Doc.” The girl behind the counter winked.

      Tyler grinned. The shirt had cost him all of five bucks at the thrift shop. “You like it?”

      “It’s real eye-catching.” The teenage clerk popped her gum. “Real, uh, orange. And green. And white. And striped.” She looked down at his two-tone footwear, so different from the boots he usually wore. “I like the shoes, though.” She gave the brown-and-beige leather a thumbs-up.

      Funny, Tyler thought they were the ugliest things he had ever seen. They felt unsubstantial, too.

      With his bagful of borrowed clubs slung over his shoulder, he headed for the parking lot. Susie was standing next to Gary Hecht’s white sedan, writing what appeared to be her phone number on a piece of paper.

      “Call me,” he heard her say as he passed by. “And we’ll set something up as soon as possible.”

      “Okay. I will.” Gary smiled and leaned forward to brush his lips against her cheek in a standard Southern goodbye.

      It was the kind of casual kiss a neighbor gave a friend. But it burned him up.

      Almost as much as the sight of Susie hopping in the cab of her pickup truck and driving off without so much as a glance in his direction.

      What the…

      Tyler jumped in his pickup truck and drove after her. He’d expected her to laugh at his getup. Much as the teenage clerk had.

      Susie had a great sense of humor and right about now Tyler felt she needed a little extra laughter in her life.

      Unfortunately, his choice of clothing had apparently done little to amuse her because she did not stop until she reached the small shotgun-style house tucked away behind the landscape center she owned.

      Rectangular in shape, the one-story, century-old residence was located behind three large greenhouses and the rows of trees and saplings for sale, and was hence, well separated from Carrigan Landscape Center and Design.

      Her business closed at six o’clock on Saturdays. The parking lot was deserted. The two of them were very much alone, which suited Tyler just fine. He didn’t want anyone else overhearing what he had to say to Susie.

      Tyler got out of his truck and followed her up onto the porch.

      She whirled to face him. Twin spots of pink color emphasized the elegant bones of her cheeks.

      “Are you mad at me?”

      Susie snorted in contempt. Lifted a brow. “Gee. You think?”

      Tyler exhaled in exasperation. “Why?”

      Susie set her chin. “I asked you to give me an out if I needed one.” She stepped nearer. “Not chaperone the entire outing!”

      Her stormy attitude added fuel to the fire of resentment burning within him. Tyler looked her up and down in a manner meant to irritate her, lingering on the curves of her breasts beneath the white T-shirt, the wide leather belt cinched around her slender waist, and the trim fit of her bootleg jeans, before returning his gaze, ever so slowly, ever so deliberately, to her flashing amber eyes. “You act like I interrupted something.”

      Susie’s lids narrowed. She glared at him through a fringe of thick honey blond lashes. “As it happens, you were!”

      “You like that guy?” Tyler still couldn’t believe she was giving the self-absorbed statistician a second chance to call her or go out with her or whatever.

      “Of course I did.” A fresh wave of color came into her face. “He was nice!”

      “I mean as a boyfriend,” Tyler clarified.

      She lifted her shoulders in a stubborn little shrug. “What if I did?”

      Tyler stepped nearer. “Then I’d have to say I severely misjudged you because I never envisioned you spending time with the most anal, numbers-driven guy I’ve ever come across in my life.”

      He’d never really expected her to give any guy—except him—the time of day, given the solitary way she had been living her life.

      “Gary Hecht is an actuary. What did you expect?”

      “I don’t know,” Tyler said drily. He paused to look deep into Susie’s eyes. “At the very least, I figured there would have been some conversation about the great November weather.”

      “Well, now that would have been thrilling,” Susie sassed back, mocking Tyler’s sober tone.

      “Certainly,” Tyler continued critically, trying to impress upon Susie the need to raise her standards. “It would have been laudable if there had been a lot less talk about Gary Hecht and his interests and more focus on you.”

      Susie shook her head at Tyler as if she could not believe his stupidity. She stepped nearer, not stopping until they stood toe-to-toe and nose to nose. “Did it ever occur to you that I did not want Gary Hecht to focus on me?”

      That had certainly been his wish, Tyler thought. It should not have been Susie’s. “Exchanging information—one’s likes and dislikes—is part of dating, Suze.”

      Susie’s expression turned