LITMIR.BIZ

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was waiting for him to explain his comment. He was forced to lie so that the woman wouldn’t think he was being flippant about the Superette. He really liked Annie Tierney. She was friendly, always saw the good in everyone and had a kind soul. In his opinion, Julia could have stood to learn a few things from her mother.

      “Then where did you hit your head?” Annie asked.

      “At the ranch,” he told her, trying to ease away from the topic. “Last week,” he added to forestall any further questions.

      “Oh, well mind you watch yourself,” Annie cautioned. “Head injuries aren’t something to just be shrugged off.” And then the serious look on her face vanished as she told him, “I just put on a kettle in the back. Would you care for some tea?”

      “No, but thank you for the offer.” Since he knew it seemed rather odd that he’d come into the grocery store without buying anything and was now leaving empty-handed, he told the older woman, “I just came by to have a word with your daughter.”

      “Oh.” The thin face lit up, completely erasing the very few lines that were evident. “Well, then by all means, have words,” Annie said encouragingly. “Don’t mind me. I’ll just be in the back, having my tea,” she told them as she made her way out of the store and retreated to the storeroom again.

      “She’s a very nice lady,” Liam commented to Julia, watching her mother leave.

      Well, there at least he would get no disagreement from her, Julia thought. That was possibly the only area that they wouldn’t clash over. For the most part, he had the very annoying ability of making her want to say “black” whenever he said “white.”

      “Yes, she is,” Julia agreed quietly, deliberately avoiding making any eye contact with him.

      Liam obviously had no such inclination. Instead he turned to look at her. Julia could tell by his expression that the temporary truce that had been silently called while her mother had been in the immediate vicinity was officially over.

      “What would she say if she knew?” he suddenly challenged.

      Okay, maybe she just wasn’t sharp today, Julia thought shortly. What the hell was he talking about now?

      “Knew about what?”

      He looked at her as if she’d suddenly turned simple. She caught herself wanting to strangle him.

      “That you’re seriously thinking about trying to get the Fortunes to bring their big-city blight right here to Horseback Hollow.”

      “If you’re still referring to my wanting to encourage Wendy and her husband to open up their second restaurant here, she would probably say, ‘Go for it, Julia.’” She raised her chin like someone bracing for a grueling battle. “My mother has always been very supportive of my dreams and I’ve had this one for a very long time.”

      His eyes became blue laserlike slits as he regarded her. “So you’re telling me that it’s your dream to destroy Horseback Hollow?”

      She wasn’t saying any such thing and he knew it, Julia thought angrily. How could she have ever been attracted to this Neanderthal? She must have been out of her mind.

      “No,” Julia contradicted with feeling, struggling not to raise her voice and yell at him. The last thing she wanted to do was to have her mother overhear her giving Liam a piece of her mind—even if he did sorely need it. But she’d had just about all she could take of his holier-than-thou pontificating. “It’s always been my dream to build the town up.”

      He laughed shortly. “Right now, that’s the same thing from where I’m standing.”

      And just who had died and made him the reigning authority on things like this?

      “Well, then, maybe you’d better move and get the sun out of your eyes because you certainly aren’t seeing things clearly.”

      “The town’s doing just fine as it is,” he insisted. What was wrong with her? “Why can’t you see how destructive it would be to allow outsiders’ interests to take over Horseback Hollow? What do we need with another restaurant, anyway?” he challenged her.

      Just how blind was he? she wondered, frustrated. “Does the term ‘freedom of choice’ mean anything to you?” she returned frostily.

      His mouth curved in a humorless smile. “Only if it means I’m free to ignore you.”

      “Go right ahead,” she declared, gesturing toward the door. “But you’re going to have to do it outside my store.”

      The next moment she’d suddenly put her hands against his back and began to push him toward the door.

      She managed to move Liam a few stumbling feet only because she’d caught him by surprise. But once he regained his balance, Liam employed his full weight as a counterforce and there was no way she could budge him more than a couple of shaky inches.

      “I just want to say one more thing—” he began.

      Exhausted by her effort to move him any farther toward the door, Julia dropped her hands to her sides. “I’ll hold you to that,” she told him sharply.

      “How are your folks going to feel when this store is forced to close down?” His tone was surprisingly mild as he put the question to her. He looked like a man who felt he’d scored his winning goal and was just waiting for the fact to sink in with the opposing team.

      Julia, however, looked at him as if she thought he’d just lost his mind.

      “Why would this store be forced to close down?” She wanted to know his rationale.

      Like a parent introducing a new concept to a child, he began to patiently explain. “Hey, chain drugstores aren’t going to be the only thing that’ll be turning up here once you open the floodgates and start ‘building the town up.’ Big chain supermarkets will be horning their way in here, too.” Liam paused to look around the grocery store that had remained relatively unchanged for most of his lifetime. He found that rather comfortingly reassuring. “And this store, with its neat little aisles and limited selections will be boarded up faster than you can say ‘I told you so,’” he concluded.

      “I wouldn’t be saying ‘I told you so.’” There were small, sharp daggers coming from her eyes, all aimed at his heart—if he actually had one. “That would be your line,” she retorted.

      “Yes,” Liam agreed, grinning from ear to ear. “It would be.”

      The strange thing about that grin, Julia later recalled, was that it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. In her experience, any smile or grin that was genuine in scope always included the eyes. Without the eyes being involved, the person who was smiling was only trying to fool people as to his mind-set.

      Sometimes, she couldn’t help thinking, they were out to fool themselves, as well. The first time she noticed the difference between real smiles and ones that were entrenched in deception, consciously or otherwise, was when she’d caught a glimpse of her own face in the mirror on her wedding day.

      Her eyes hadn’t been smiling then, either. At the time, she was doing what she felt was the “right thing.” It had taken her three years before she’d admitted that to herself.

      “Look,” she told Liam, “either buy something or leave. I’ve got work to do and I don’t have time to let you go on badgering me like this because you’re so small-minded you can’t see that you either progress or wither and die on the vine. And you might be content to let Horseback Hollow stagnate, but I want it to flourish.”

      He looked at her for a long moment, as if he was debating saying anything to her or not. Finally he said, “There’s a third alternative in that multiple choice of yours.”

      She didn’t see it and couldn’t imagine what his point was. “Enlighten me,” she told him.

      He laughed at her choice of words. “That’ll take a lot longer than

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