One Of A Kind. Diana Palmer

      “Not your fault,” Janie repeated. “Just have enough fun for both of us, okay?”

      “Okay. See you.”

      The line went dead and Janie frowned. Something must be very wrong with Marilee. She wished she’d been more persistent and asked what was the matter. Well, she’d go over to Marilee’s house after the dance to pump her for all the latest gossip, and then she could find out what was troubling her friend.

      She put the ball to the back of her mind, despite the disappointment, and went out to greet her father as he rode in from the pasture with two of his men.

      He swung out of the saddle at the barn and grinned at her. “Just the girl I wanted to see,” he said at once. He pulled out his wallet. “I’ve got to have some more work gloves, just tore the last pair I had apart on barbed wire. How about going by the hardware store and get me another pair of those suede-palmed ones, extra large?”

      “My pleasure,” Janie said at once. Leo often went to the hardware store, and she might accidentally run into him there. “Be back in a jiffy!”

      “Don’t speed!” her father called to her.

      She only chuckled, diving into her sports car. She remembered belatedly that she didn’t have either purse or car keys, or her face fixed, and jumped right back out again to rectify those omissions.

      Ten minutes later, she was parking her car in front of the Jacobsville Hardware Store. With a wildly beating heart, she noticed one of the black double-cabbed Hart Ranch trucks parked nearby. Leo! She was certain it was Leo!

      With her heart pounding, she checked her makeup in the rearview mirror and tugged her hair gently away from her cheeks. She’d left it down today deliberately, remembering that Leo had something of a weakness for long hair. It was thick and clean, shining like a soft brown curtain. She was wearing a long beige skirt with riding boots, and a gold satin blouse. She looked pretty good, even if she did say so herself! Now if Leo would just notice her…

      She walked into the hardware store with her breath catching in her throat as she anticipated Leo’s big smile at her approach. He was the handsomest of the Hart brothers, and really, the most personable. He was kindness itself. She remembered his soft voice in her kitchen, asking what was wrong. Oh, to have that soft voice in her ear forever!

      There was nobody at the counter. That wasn’t unusual, the clerks were probably waiting on customers. She walked back to where the gloves were kept and suddenly heard Leo’s deep voice on the other side of the high aisle, unseen.

      “Don’t forget to add that roll of hog wire to the order,” he was telling one of the clerks.

      “I won’t forget,” Joe Howland’s pleasant voice replied. “Are you going to the Cattleman’s Ball?” Joe added just as Janie was about to raise her voice and call to Leo over the aisle.

      “I guess I am,” Leo replied. “I didn’t plan to, but a pretty friend needed a ride and I’m obliging.”

      Janie’s heart skipped and fell flat. Leo already had a date? Who? She moved around the aisle and in sight of Leo and Joe. Leo had his back to her, but Joe noticed her and smiled.

      “That friend wouldn’t be Janie Brewster, by any chance?” Joe teased loudly.

      The question made Leo unreasonably angry. “Listen, just because she caught the bouquet at Micah Steele’s wedding is no reason to start linking her with me,” he said shortly. “She may have a good family background, she may be easy on the eyes, she may even learn to cook someday—miracles still happen. But no matter what she does, or how well, she is never going to appeal to me as a woman!” he added. “Having her spreading ludicrous gossip about our relationship all over town isn’t making her any more attractive to me, either. It’s a dead turnoff!”

      Janie felt a shock like an electric jolt go through her. She couldn’t even move for the pain.

      Joe, horrified, opened his mouth to speak.

      Leo made a rough gesture with one lean hand, burning with pent-up anger. “She looks like the rough side of a corncob lately, anyway,” Leo continued, warming to his subject. “The only thing she ever had going for her were her looks, and she’s spent the last few weeks covered in mud or dust or bread flour. She’s out all hours proving she can compete with any man on the place and she can’t stop bragging about what a great catch she’s made with me. She’s already told half the town that I’m a kiss short of buying her an engagement ring. That is, when she isn’t putting it around that I’m taking her to the Cattleman’s Ball, when I haven’t even damned well asked her! Well, she’s got her eye on the wrong man. I don’t want some half-baked kid with a figure like a boy and an ego the size of my boots! I wouldn’t have Janie Brewster for a wife if she came complete with a stable of purebred Salers bulls, and that’s saying something. She makes me sick to my stomach!”

      Joe had gone pale and he was grimacing. Curious, Leo turned… and there was Janie Brewster, staring at him down the aisle with a face as tragic as if he’d just taken a whittling knife to her heart.

      “Janie,” he said slowly.

      She took a deep, steadying breath and managed to drag her eyes away from his face. “Hi, Joe,” she said with a wan little smile. Her voice sounded choked. She couldn’t possibly look for gloves, she had to get away! “Just wanted to check and see if you’d gotten in that tack Dad ordered last week,” she improvised.

      “Not just yet, Janie,” Joe told her in a gentle tone. “I’m real sorry.”

      “No problem. No problem at all. Thanks, Joe. Hello, Mr. Hart,” she said, without really meeting Leo’s eyes, and she even managed a smile through her tattered dignity. “Nice day out, isn’t it? Looks like we might even get that rain we need so badly. See you.”

      She went out the door with her head high, as proudly as a conquering army, leaving Leo sick to his stomach for real.

      “Why the hell didn’t you say something?” Leo asked Joe furiously.

      “Didn’t know how,” Joe replied miserably.

      “How long had she been standing there?” Leo persisted.

      “The whole time, Leo,” came the dreaded reply. “She heard every word.”

      As if to punctuate the statement, from outside came the sudden raucous squeal of tires on pavement as Janie took off toward the highway in a burst of speed. She was driving her little sports car, and Leo’s heart stopped as he realized how upset she was.

      He jerked his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the police department. “Is that Grier?” he said at once when the call was answered, recognizing Jacobsville’s new assistant police chief’s deep voice. “Listen, Janie Brewster just lit out of town like a scalded cat in her sports car. She’s upset and it’s my fault, but she could kill herself. Have you got somebody out on the Victoria road who could pull her over and give her a warning? Yeah. Thanks, Grier. I owe you one.”

      He hung up, cursing harshly under his breath. “She’ll be spitting fire if anybody tells her I sent the police after her, but I can’t let her get hurt.”

      “Thought she looked just a mite too calm when she walked out the door,” Joe admitted. He glanced at Leo and grimaced. “No secret around town that she’s been sweet on you for the past year or so.”

      “If she was, I’ve just cured her,” Leo said, and felt his heart sink. “Call me when that order comes in, will you?”

      “Sure thing.”

      Leo climbed into his truck and just sat there for a minute, getting his bearings. He could only imagine how Janie felt right now. What he’d said was cruel. He’d let his other irritations burst out as if Janie were to blame for them all. What Marilee had been telling him about Janie had finally bubbled over, that was all. She’d never done anything to hurt him before. Her only crime, if there was one, was thinking the moon