Bachelor Available!. Ruth Dale Jean

come in quite late the night before. This was the first chance the roommates had had to talk since breakfast yesterday.

      “He didn’t have to blackmail me,” Emily said. “You know I owed him after he saved my father’s life in that boating accident. I can never repay him for that.”

      “No, Em, your father can never repay him for that. Or couldn’t—I guess now that he’s dead, it kind of gets both of you off the hook.”

      “Really? Then why do I feel so beholden?”

      Laurie shrugged. “Because you’re one of the good guys,” she said with a smile. “You’d probably help Terry even if he wasn’t your cousin and you didn’t think you owed him.” She grinned and added, “But it’s still blackmail!”

      “You could be right.”

      Laurie returned to the main point. “Was Terry happy you’ve been to the Yellow Rose?”

      Emily nodded. “My...counselor or whatever you call her is a delightful old lady named Wanda Roland. I mentioned her in my E-mail to Terry yesterday and he’s apparently heard of her. He wants to know all about her and how she gets along with computers.”

      “That sounds innocent enough.”

      “Yes, except...there’s something funny about Wanda and computers.”

      “Funny ha-ha or funny strange?”

      “Definitely funny strange. She talks about using them, even boasts about how computerized the company is, but she touches her computer the way I’d touch a snake.”

      “Not with love, huh.”

      “Definitely not.” Emily frowned. “She calls her computer George.”

      “That is peculiar. Most computers I know are named Max.” Laurie laughed. “So did anything else happen yesterday, except that you met a strange little old lady?”

      “Well...” Don’t go on, Emily warned herself. Don’t mention Cody James. She’d never see him again, so why bring him up? “I...uh...” She licked her lips, surprised at the unexpected desire to talk about him. “I met a really good-looking man. I mean, really.”

      “Better-looking than John?”

      “Much better-looking.”

      Laurie rubbed her hands together with glee. “Now we’re getting down to brass tacks!”

      “But I don’t want to get down to brass tacks. After John, I’m not in the market for a man, as you well know.”

      For a moment, Laurie frowned at her friend. Then she shook her head sadly. “Emily Kirkwood, I don’t understand you at all. Just because your former fiance was a louse doesn’t mean they all are. Every woman without a man is in the market for one, preferably the right one, of course.”

      “That’s just it. You never know if he’s the right one until it’s too late. And he doesn’t know if you’re the right one, either.”

      Laurie winked broadly. “Half the fun’s in finding out.”

      “No, thank you very much. I’m only doing this to help my cousin research a magazine article so he can make good at his job. I’m definitely not looking for a relationship.”

      “You’re sure about that?”

      Emily lifted her chin. “Absolutely sure.”

      But if she was looking for a relationship—she pulled such thoughts up short. She had to forget Cody James and go to work! With any luck, today would not be the day she heard from Wanda Roland. In fact, if Emily was really lucky, Wanda wouldn’t find a match anywhere inside that darned computer.

      Cody was surprised to find his niece, ten-year-old Liana, at the lunch table when he came in from running longhorns on the north forty. “What you doin’ home from school, shrimp?” he inquired, ruffling her straight dark hair.

      Her mother, Elena, scowled from her spot before the built-in cooktop. Most family meals at the Flying J were taken in the large kitchen with everyone clustered around the big round oak table. The ranch hands ate at the chuck wagon, their own “café” staffed with a cook who made her way to the ranch each day from a nearby farm. Cody and his brother, Ben, Elena’s husband, were as likely to eat the midday meal at one place as the other.

      “Liana woke up this morning claiming to be sick,” Elena said. “Silly me, I believed her.”

      Liana’s lower lip thrust out in a pout. “I am sick,” she whined. “I mean, I was, only now I feel better. Can I go out with Uncle Cody this afternoon, Mama? Can I?”

      “No way.” Elena used a spatula to dish up grilled steak-and-cheese sandwiches to augment the tomato soup already steaming in mugs. “If you’re sick enough to stay home from school, you’re too sick to get out of bed.”

      “I’m out of bed now,” Liana argued, snatching a golden triangle off the platter when her mother set it down.

      “Meals don’t count. As soon as you finish...” Elena pointed toward the door leading to the stairs, which in turn led to the bedrooms.

      “Uncle Cody!”

      “Sorry, cupcake, your mother’s right.” He settled into his seat and warmed his hands around the mug of soup. It was chillier than usual out there today.

      Elena smiled, her beautiful white teeth flashing. Ben had found a real jewel in her. “That’s what I like about you, Cody,” she said. “You never let them get the best of you.”

      Cody winked at Liana. “Never?”

      Elena laughed. “Not that I know of anyway. So tell me, how did it go yesterday at the Yellow Rose?”

      “All right,” he said in a noncommittal tone. Although his entire family knew all about his decision to go wife-hunting, he felt uncharacteristically shy about yesterday.

      Elena’s brows rose. “You mean...?”

      Just then, Ben entered through the back door, yanking off his denim jacket and tossing it onto a hook beside the door. “I’m hungry enough to eat a horse,” the manager and co-owner of the Flying J declared. He paused long enough to drop a kiss on his wife’s cheek on his way to wash up.

      Watching them together, smiling and happy after twelve years of marriage, Cody felt envy start to boil in his chest. He fought it down valiantly. That was why he’d taken his courage in hand and gone to Yellow Rose Matchmakers; he wanted what Ben and Elena had. That included little Liana, grinning after her tall father with adoration in her eyes, and eight-year-old Jimmy, who was at school.

      Elena smiled at her husband’s broad back. “I was asking your brother how it went at the matchmaker’s yesterday.”

      Ben grinned over his shoulder, busily splashing his hands beneath the stream of water. “Yeah, Cody, tell us all about it.”

      “Had to fill out a lot of junk,” Cody said. He made a face.

      “Like what?” Elena pressed.

      “Ah, you know—what kinda guy I am, what kinda woman I’m looking for, stuff like that.”

      “Aunt Jessica was pretty,” Liana piped up.

      “Yeah,” Cody agreed, “but I’m not lookin’ for another one of those. Although...”

      Elena and Ben both perked up. Ben dried his hands on a dish towel and joined them at the table. “Although what?”

      “Well...I met a real looker while I was there.”

      Husband and wife exchanged knowing glances. “You did?” Elena asked encouragingly.

      “But I’ll never see that one again. It was just a screwup over the appointments.” Cody helped himself to several sandwich halves from the platter, then reached for the jar