April turned every which way, checking out every angle in the mirror. “Daddy would make her do that if he saw it. Oh!” April gasped.
“What? Did you see a spider?”
April was terrified of spiders and they multiplied like rabbits in the canyon. Those and stinging scorpions were part of the terrain, along with lizards and coyotes.
“Two people slept in that bed. Both pillows have hollows and the sheets are rumpled and you are sleeping with Creed Riley.”
“Sleeping, yes. But that’s all that went on,” Sage said.
It wasn’t a lie. They had only slept in the bed the night before and she didn’t have to explain the other times when they’d done things to melt all the snow in the canyon. She sure wasn’t going to go into the story of what had happened on the sofa while John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara fought their way through an old Western movie.
“Are you freakin’ crazy?” April hissed.
“Probably. It won’t be easy to see him leave,” Sage admitted.
“Not that! You got him into your bed and you didn’t have sex? Are you blind?”
“Not last time I checked,” Sage said.
“You have seen him, haven’t you? I mean, you don’t look at him and just see a cowboy trying to buy the Rockin’ C. You do see those big old arms, that cute little butt, and those dreamy green eyes, don’t you?”
“I see Creed,” Sage said.
“Are you gay?”
Sage sputtered and almost choked on her own spit. “Why would you ask a fool question like that?”
“You haven’t had a boyfriend in years. You’ve been shut up with that hunky man for almost two weeks and you sleep as in shut your eyes and snore? God, Sage, you just fell off your pedestal I’ve had you on all these years. You must be gay. Admit it. Come on out of the closet.”
“I am not gay. I like men.”
I love Creed. Now where in the hell did that come from?
April sat down on the end of the bed beside Sage.
“Well, thank God. Do you need me to give you some lessons in what to do with a sexy cowboy when he gets into your bed?”
“I think I can handle it.” Sage grinned.
April slapped her on the arm. “You rat! You had me going. He didn’t sleep with you at all, did he? You wouldn’t do that when you’re trying to run him off. We both know Grand would never sell the Rockin’ C. She’s just giving you a taste of what could happen so you will get on the ball and find a husband.”
“You are smarter than the average rich kid,” Sage said.
“Not much or I would have figured it all out before I blew a gasket.”
* * *
Ada had been antsy since she awoke that morning. She had married when she was eighteen and had gone to live on the Rockin’ C the day after her wedding.
Those were the days when Lawton’s father had just taken over the Canyon Rose, and the Christmas party had been an institution long before then. She’d attended ten or more parties before Lawton was even born. Fifty-plus years she’d looked forward to that party every year, and this year, she was sitting in Shade damn Gap, Pennsyl-shittin’-vania.
Listening to Sage describe April’s dress just made her more homesick. Seeing the picture on her cell phone of Sage and April posing together in their new sexy dresses in front of the cheval mirror made her want to throw herself down and cry like a jilted bride.
Missing the party where Lawton threw his daughter over his shoulder like a sack of chicken feed, hauled her upstairs kicking and screaming, and then brought her back to the party with a buttoned up flannel shirt over that dress—well, hell, that was the toughest thing she’d ever done or would do in her lifetime.
And he would do that when she appeared at the top of the staircase and started down into the ballroom. Hell, she wouldn’t make it to the fifth step before his boot heels sounded like drums on those oak steps and he had her over his shoulder. No way would Lawton let April wear something that revealing to the party, and Ada was going to miss the fun.
Essie peered over her sister’s shoulder at the dress with the deep, plunging neckline. “I’m durn sure glad I never had a daughter.”
“One dress sure changed your mind in a hurry,” Ada said.
“That ain’t a dress. It’s two Band-Aids stuck to a hanky. Lord, do girls really wear such things out in public? I wouldn’t have worn something like that to bed with my husband.”
“Times is different,” Ada said.
“Must be. Wonder what her momma is going to say about it.”
“Her momma won’t be the problem. It’s Lawton that’ll throw a shit fit.”
“He needs to. Why, if she got to dancing her boobs would fall out of the thing. That thing that Sage has got on is too tight and it’s wintertime and there’s a durn blizzard out there so it’s got to be cold. It’s above her knee and ain’t got the first sign of a sleeve in it. She’ll catch a cold and that cowboy you was crazy enough to trust will have to take care of her. He’ll be going in her room with a hot toddy and her laying up in her bed in nothing but a nightgown.”
Ada studied the picture. “You think so?”
“I swear it ain’t got enough material in it to sag a clothesline, Sister.”
“A person can always hope, can’t they?”
Essie slapped her on the shoulder. “Ada Presley!”
“Or we could pray.”
Essie giggled. “God would be so shocked if He heard you praying for anything that He’d faint dead away.”
“I go to church every Sunday except when I’ve got hay to haul.”
“Going to church and praying are two different things.”
“And I suppose you know all about the fine arts of praying?”
Essie sighed. “If you’d had to
