compound, and the huge new barn made a perfect site for a neighborly gettogether. Rosie hurried to greet friends and bring their offering of food to a heavily laden table. Miguel ambled off to join a knot of men gathered around a keg.
But Tess held back.
“Come on,” Josh urged. “We’re here. We might as well go in and act like a married couple.”
She backed up a step, very unlike the Tess he knew.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t go in there,” she admitted from between clenched teeth. “I…just can’t.”
“You wanted to look married.”
“It’s not… that. I…I don’t feel like myself. All gussied up like…you know. Everyone will stare. Everyone will laugh.”
He sighed, then held out his hand. “Come on.”
She frowned.
“Come with me. Show some guts, woman.”
That brought her chin up, as he knew it would. She put her hand in his, and for the ?rst time he noticed the graceful, tapered ?ngers that looked almost delicate. “This way,” he told her and led her around behind the barn, where prying eyes couldn’t ?nd them. There he took out the knife he always carried on his belt.
“We’ll just make a few changes.” A half dozen big silk bows fell victim to his knife before she could object. Several gaudy ?ounces shared the bows’ fate. The resulting dress had simpler lines and showed off Tess’s womanly shape. And Tess did have a womanly shape, Josh noted- a slender waist, trim hips, and, well, other attributes that a decent fellow wasn’t supposed to stare at.
“There now,” he said, clearing his throat and forcing himself to behave. “You look ?ne. You don’t need all those gewgaws hanging on you. They just distract people from noticing how pretty you are.”
Tess looked down at herself with a dubious frown.
“You can’t get the picture from where you’re standing,” Josh told her. “You’ll just have to take my word for it. You’re prettier than a ?ower in spring.”
At that, she snorted. “Save it, cowboy. You don’t need to tell me lies.”
“I don’t lie. You’re damned pretty! Haven’t you ever looked in a mirror, woman? You’ve got-well, hell!- you’ve got everything a pretty woman should have. A nice smile. Shiny hair, great eyes, good…well, a gentleman isn’t supposed to talk about the details, you know. Just take my word on it. The men in that barn are going to think you’re downright beautiful.”
She was, Josh suddenly realized. Maybe her man’s dress and meandog attitude had blinded him up until this moment, but seeing Tess in a dress-now that he’d chopped away some of the excess-served as a revelation. Or maybe she was a woman who took time to grow on a man. She possessed the ?nest pair of eyes Josh had ever seen-deep green, like a quiet shady pool. Lush black hair and smooth olive skin-bronze even beyond the touch of the sun- hinted that her Irish father had taken a Mexican wife. And from the looks of Tess, her mother must have been a beauty.
She still looked doubtful. Strange to see uncertainty re?ected upon that usually con?dent face.
“Tess, in the one week I’ve known you, I’ve seen you climb on top of ornery broncs, face down your obnoxious brother, and push around range cattle who wouldn’t mind stomping you into the dust. You can’t possibly turn chicken because a few folks have gotten together for a barn dance.”
Her jaw stiffened. “Who’s chicken? I’m not chicken.”
He held out a hand. “Then let’s go. It’s starting to rain.”
Teeth clenched, but head held high, she took the offered hand.
TESS had never felt so out of place in her life as in that barn with the ?ddlers sawing out lively tunes, the couples doing jigs or polkas or whatever foolishness they wanted to do, and the other folks eating, drinking, talking, and smiling. Children ran wild through the crowd, getting in the way, tripping the dancers, making off with food from the heavily laden planks laid across bales of hay, but no one scolded them. This was a time for kicking up heels and having a good time. Everyone looked as if they just naturally knew how to have fun. Tess didn’t. Colin McCabe hadn’t been much for socializing. Work had always gotten in the way.
As Josh guided Tess toward the food, lawyer Bartlett spotted them and waved, a sly smile on his face. Or at least the smile looked sly to Tess, but she might have been just a little bit cranky when it came to Tombstone’s one lawyer. And dancing with Meg Riley, the blacksmith’s pretty daughter, was none other than Sean. Tess hoped Meg knew what a skunk her brother was.
The thought depressed her, because she hadn’t always thought her brother was a skunk. When they had been kids, Tess had been right fond of him. After he left, the two of them had occasionally written letters. Their daddy had refused to hear of Sean, but Tess had loved to read of the places he’d been and the things he had done. Maybe he really did think selling the ranch would ?x them both up right. But he didn’t have the feeling for the Diamond T that Tess did.
Josh nudged her. “Smile, and stop looking daggers at Sean. You’re married and happy. So look it.”
Looking married and happy proved tough. Eyes pressed in from all sides, staring at her as she nibbled on chicken and roasted corn, then following every awkward step when Ransom made her dance. He insisted, despite her telling him ?at out that she didn’t know how.
“Learn,” he told her. Just like a man, always wanting to be the boss, but after a few minutes of stepping on toes and stumbling about, looking like a fool, dancing became almost fun. Tess liked the feel of Josh’s arm around her. It was a strong arm. And from close up, the man looked even better than he did from farther away. She liked his face, Tess decided. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, and when they danced, he smiled a lot. What’s more, he smelled good, like soap and leather.
Too bad she wasn’t some pretty thing like Meg Riley who had been brought up liking the idea of having a husband run her life. Tess was beginning to suspect that Josh Ransom would make a dadgummed ?ne catch as a husband-for a girl who wanted one.
And he’d said Tess was pretty. Imagine that. Even if it was a baldfaced lie, it was a nice lie, and mighty kind of him to say.
They waltzed by Bartlett and his wife. “You two having fun?” the legal eagle inquired.
Tess gave him a smug look. “Of course we are. Being newlyweds is very romantic.”
As the crowd of dancers swept Bartlett away, Tess felt rather than heard a chuckle deep in Josh’s chest. “Tess, I don’t think you know the meaning of romantic.”
She looked up, jaw squared pugnaciously. “I do so.”
He shook his head. “Someday, some fellow is going to have the guts to teach you, and I’m not sure I don’t envy him.”
She would have shown her contempt by sticking out her tongue, but Sean was looking their way, so she settled for a quiet snort. “Some folks don’t have time for that sort of nonsense, Ransom.”
“It doesn’t take time,” he replied. “Just heart. Or so I’m told.”
“Sounds to me like you don’t know that much about it either.”
He laughed amiably. “Maybe I don’t, now that you mention it.”
The conversation got Tess’s mind churning about how romance, real romance, would feel like. Dancing with this man, absorbing his warmth, moving to the guidance of his body, feeling his breath trickle through her hair-it all made her feel ?ustered and achy inside, with her heart jumping around and a couple of unmentionable parts of herself tingling very strangely. Was that romance, or did the ?utter in her belly mean only that the chicken had been a little off?
When Miguel brought the wagon around, Tess discovered with some surprise that, once started, the evening had ?own past. She didn’t really want to leave, but that was pure silliness, because her father had always said that wasting time jawing with the neighbors never brought the beef home or broke a green horse. Still, she wanted to try this again next month, when the Hernandez family had their annual spring gettogether. Then she remembered: next month her life would be back in its normal rut, and she would have no reason to get gussied up. Josh Ransom wouldn’t be around to make her dance, or to tell her she was pretty.
Unless…
That was just about the worst idea Tess had ever heard. But still, it stuck in her mind like a burr.
