Reed had leaned across the table to take it from her. He set it down out of her reach.
“Hey,” she protested.
“Excuse me while I put on the kid gloves,” Travis drawled.
“She’s your sister,” said Caleb.
“And that means I get to have an honest conversation with her.”
“Not tonight, it doesn’t,” said Reed. Somehow, he had appeared by her side.
Katrina glared at Travis. “I am not a diva.” She knew divas, and Travis had obviously never met one. “Just because I don’t happen to like horses or Holsteins or cowboys.”
“Your family is full of cowboys,” Travis pointed out.
“But you all clean up nice,” chirped Mandy in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood.
Caleb backed up her effort, making a show of raising his glass. “Let’s hear it for clean cowboys.”
Abigail and Mandy immediately played along. “Clean cowboys.”
Travis grimaced, but Caleb stared him down until he gave in and raised his glass.
Katrina quickly stretched out to snag her own. “Too bad they don’t stay that way long.”
Everyone groaned, but it quickly turned to good-natured laughter.
She took a big swallow.
Reed muttered darkly in her ear. “You about done?”
“Done what?” she asked tartly, reminding herself that she was angry with him. It hadn’t been very gentlemanly of him to break off their kisses. Then again, he’d kind of stood up for her against Travis just now.
“Abigail,” said Reed. “I think Katrina’s ready for bed.”
A saucy comeback was on the tip of Katrina’s tongue. But when she swiveled to deliver it, she caught Reed’s thunderous expression. And she wasn’t quite brave enough to embarrass him.
“Are you going to wrap my ankle?” she asked him instead.
“No.”
“But it’s sore.”
“You’ve had too much champagne.
“It’s still sore.”
She wanted to get him up to the hotel room, alone, where she would… Okay, she wasn’t exactly sure what she’d do, but at least they could talk. This idea that they were going to nobly fight their attraction to each other because of Mandy and Caleb was ludicrous.
“Wrap her ankle?” Abigail asked.
“She strained her tendon dancing,” said Reed. “I’ve been using my herb wrap.”
“Crackerjack cure,” said Caleb.
“You hurt your ankle?” asked Abigail.
“It’s getting better,” said Katrina, somewhat surprised that Mandy hadn’t already shared the information with their sister.
Mandy reached out and took Katrina’s hand. “Maybe you should head back to the hotel. You’ve probably had enough dancing.”
“Sure,” Katrina agreed, playing the dutiful baby sister. Then she glanced innocently up at Reed. “You’ll take me back?”
His jaw tightened. “Abigail? Are you ready to go?”
“Absolutely,” said Abigail, and Katrina heard her rise from her chair. “I’m exhausted.”
Since Katrina and Abigail were sharing a room, there’d be no private conversation with Reed tonight. But Katrina wasn’t giving up. Tomorrow, they’d all troop back to the ranches. Eventually, she and Reed would find themselves alone.
Katrina soon discovered that things Reed didn’t want to happen, didn’t happen. After the charity ball in Lyndon, she and Mandy had spent a couple of days at their own ranch. But her sister soon found a reason to return to Terrells’, and Katrina found an excuse to go with her.
There, Reed was polite but resolute. He spent his days in the far reaches of the ranch, and his evenings in the company of Caleb and Mandy. If Katrina asked him a direct question, he answered. And he continued to wrap her ankle each evening, but he was careful never to get caught alone with her.
So she was surprised on a midday to hear his voice on the porch of the ranch house. She’d run through a workout and a few dance routines in the basement rec room this morning and was now looking for Mandy.
“It’ll only take me a few hours,” Reed was saying.
“That’s not the point,” Caleb returned. “We have hands for those kinds of jobs.”
“I have no intention of spending my entire afternoon in the office.”
“Once we get things set up with a manager, you’ll be able to do or not do any old job you want around here.”
“Good.” Reed’s tone was implacable. “Today I want to fix the well pump at Brome Ridge.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Deal with it. I’ll probably be late getting back tonight.” His boot heels clunked on the porch, and Katrina took her chance.
She burst through the front door. “Did you say Brome Ridge?” she asked Reed.
He stopped dead, as if frozen to the floor.
“I’ve been wanting to get up there before I leave,” she rattled on. “I’ve only got a couple of days left. Would you mind?” she smiled brightly.
“Forget it,” said Reed.
“Take her along,” said Caleb.
Reed shot his brother a glare. “It’s a working trip, not a picnic.”
“I won’t get in the way,” Katrina promised. Trapped in a pickup, Reed would have to talk to her. She’d be heading back to New York City very soon, and she wasn’t ready to pretend their attraction had never happened.
“You always get in the way.” Reed’s glare turned on her, his gray eyes hard as slate.
“Quit being such a jerk,” Caleb put in. “Go ahead, Katrina.”
“Back off, Caleb.”
“Which truck?” asked Katrina.
Caleb nodded. “Parts are in the back of the green one.”
“She’s not going,” Reed ground out.
But Katrina was already on her way down the stairs, heading across the wide driveway turnaround to the green pickup truck.
She hopped in the passenger side, slammed the door shut, and watched Reed argue with Caleb a few minutes longer. Finally, he turned, stalking across the driveway toward the pickup.
He yanked open the passenger door. “Get out.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
She nodded to where Caleb was staring at them from the top of the stairs. “Your brother thinks you’ve gone insane.”
“You are not going to do this to me,” he vowed.
“Do what?” She mustered up an expression of calm innocence. “What is it you think I’m doing here, Reed?”
He blinked, a split second of uncertainty crossing his face.
“All I want to do is talk,” she pressed. “I’m going to be gone in a couple days. It may be years before I’m back. You’re a nice guy. You helped me with my ankle. You built me a stationary bike. You don’t want a chance to say goodbye?”
He stared at her in silence, and she could read his hesitation. He was wondering if he’d imagined her intense attraction to him, their near-combustible chemistry, the fact that they shouldn’t be allowed to be alone together if they didn’t want it to race out of control.
He wasn’t imagining a thing. But she didn’t have to tell him that.
