She drew in a quiet breath. “Thanks for the ride,” she managed in a polite tone. She opened the door and got out.
He still hadn’t said a word. He was down the driveway before her foot was on the first step up to the house. She didn’t look back. It wouldn’t help.
* * *
HER MOTHER WAS still acting oddly. Almost a week had passed since Boone had taken Keely riding and kissed her. The rain had stopped and now the heat blazed. There were wildfires. Everyone was afraid to throw down a match or burn trash or even smoke a cigarette outdoors. It was almost time to harvest corn and hay and peanuts. The corn and hay would have to last the livestock through the winter; it was very important. Combines and tractors were sitting on ready, while the last days counted down to harvest.
On Saturday morning, the sounds of machinery could be heard everywhere. Winnie stopped by to pick up Keely for an impromptu lunch, assuring her first that Boone was out with the combines and wouldn’t be in all day. He’d taken a cooler with him, bearing lunch and beer.
“I hope I have enough eggs to do the egg salad,” Winnie murmured as they pulled up into her driveway past the huge posts that held the now-open gates that led to the house. “If I don’t, I may have to run back to the store. Why didn’t I think of it while I was in town?” she moaned. She glanced at Keely, who looked apprehensive. “Boone’s really out with the combine,” she promised. “I wouldn’t lie.”
Keely relaxed with a smile. “Okay. Sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Winnie replied, leading the way into the house. “Boone raged about you all week, in fact, not to mention Hayes Carson—God knows why. But this morning something came by express. He took it into the office, and got all quiet. He went out without a word, walking really slow.” She grimaced. “God help the cowboys. Somebody will quit by sunset, you mark my words. He’s seething!”
“You don’t know why?” Keely had to ask. “It couldn’t have been something about my father…?”
Winnie looked surprised. “What would Boone have to do with your father?”
Keely felt trapped. “You said he’d talked to Sheriff Hayes…”
Winnie scowled. “Keely, what’s going on?”
She hesitated. “Did Clark say anything to you at all?”
“He said you had to take a bodyguard with you when you went to San Antonio,” Winnie replied gently. “I’m not stupid. There’s gossip about your father being in trouble and threatening you and your mother. But I don’t think Boone would be mixed up with that.”
“No. No, of course not,” Keely said at once. She forced a smile. Winnie had no idea what was really going on with Boone and her best friend. It was probably better that she never did. Boone would never look twice at Keely again, anyway. She wondered how she was going to manage to draw back from her friendship with Winnie without making the other woman suspicious. She had to find a way. Just the thought of running into Boone again, after the way they’d parted Saturday, made her nervous.
They started lunch, but as Winnie had predicted, she should have bought eggs. She only had two.
“I can’t make enough egg salad for us now and for the men later out of just two eggs,” she laughed. She grabbed her car keys and her purse. “You finish the pasta salad and I’ll run to the store. I’ll only be fifteen minutes.” She glanced at Keely’s worried face. “He’s over in the north pasture,” she added ruefully. “Boone couldn’t even get here in fifteen minutes. Feel better?”
“Yes,” Keely said blatantly.
Winnie pursed her lips. “I do wonder what’s going on between you and my big brother. But I won’t ask. Yet.”
She rushed out the back door and closed it behind her. Keely felt less secure.
She finished the pasta salad and put it into the refrigerator. She heard the front door open and close and felt a pang of relief. Winnie was back.
But the footsteps coming down the hall weren’t soft and muffled. They were heavy and hard. Apprehensive, she turned.
And there was Boone, wearing stained jeans and boots, a shirt wet with sweat, his Stetson dangling from one hand. His eyes, as they met hers, were blazing with anger.
“Come into the office, Keely,” he said tautly. “I’ve got something to show you.” He turned and walked away, leaving her to follow.
She paused at the open door of the office, tugging at the buttons on her long-sleeved white shirt she was wearing over tan twill slacks. He was holding the envelope that Winnie said had come by express service this morning. He took out a photograph and held it out to her.
“Have a look,” he said in a tone so threatening that it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. “And then tell me you don’t have anything going with Clark!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KEELY MOVED SLOWLY into the room and took the photograph Boone held out to her. She almost choked when she saw it. The picture showed two people in bed, in an intimate embrace. The man was Clark. The woman had Keely’s face. But it certainly wasn’t Keely’s body. She almost laughed with relief at the very obvious attempt to frame her by putting her face on another woman’s body.
She looked up with the amusement in her eyes, but Boone wasn’t laughing. He was positively enraged, and he obviously believed the photograph was proof of her lies.
“This isn’t me,” she began.
“Like hell it isn’t!” he raged. He tore the photograph from her fingers and ripped it to shreds, tossing it onto the carpet. “If you’d just told me the truth, I could have accepted it, Keely. You didn’t have to lie!”
“But I didn’t,” she protested. “And I can prove it!”
Her hands went, reluctantly, to the buttons of her shirt. She didn’t want to have to go to
