LITMIR.BIZ

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ball were Micah Steele, Eb Scott, J. D. Langley, Emmett Deverell, Luke Craig, Guy Fenton, Ted Regan, Jobe Dodd, Tom Walker and their wives. The guest list read like a who’s who of Jacobsville, and there were so many people that the organizers had rented the community center for it. There was a live country-western band, a buffet table that could have fed a platoon of starving men, and enough liquor to drown a herd of horses.

      Leo had a highball. Since he hadn’t done much drinking in recent years, his four brothers were giving him strange looks. He didn’t notice. He was feeling so miserable that even a hangover would have been an improvement.

      Beside him, Marilee was staring around the room with wide, wary eyes.

      “Looking for somebody?” Leo asked absently.

      “Yes,” she replied. “Janie said she wasn’t coming, but that isn’t what your sister-in-law Tess just told me.”

      “What did she say?”

      Marilee looked worried. “Harley Fowler told her he was bringing Janie.”

      “Harley?” Leo scowled. Harley Fowler was a courageous young man who’d actually backed up the town’s infamous mercenaries—Eb Scott, Cy Parks and Micah Steele—when they helped law enforcement face down a gang of drug dealers the year before. Harley’s name hadn’t been coupled with any of the local belles, and he was only a working-class cowboy. Janie’s father might be financially pressed at the moment, but his was a founding family of Jacobsville, and the family had plenty of prestige. Fred and his sister-in-law Lydia would be picky about who Janie married. Not, he thought firmly, that Janie was going to be marrying Harley….

      “Harley’s nice,” Marilee murmured. “He’s Cy Parks’s head foreman now, and everybody says he’s got what it takes to run a business of his own.” What Marilee didn’t add was that Harley had asked her out several times before his raid on the drug lord with the local mercenaries, and she’d turned him down flat. She’d thought he bragged and strutted a little too much, that he was too immature for her. She’d even told him so. It had made her a bitter enemy of his.

      Now she was rather sorry that she hadn’t given him a chance. He really was different these days, much more mature and very attractive. Not that Leo wasn’t a dish. But she felt so guilty about Janie that she couldn’t even enjoy his company, much less the party. If Janie showed up and saw her with Leo, she was going to know everything. It wasn’t conducive to a happy evening at all.

      “What’s wrong?” Leo asked when he saw her expression. “Janie’s never going to get over it if she shows up and sees me with you,” she replied honestly. “I didn’t think how it would look…”

      “I don’t belong to anybody,” Leo said angrily. “It’s just as well to let Janie know that. So what if she does show up? Who cares?”

      “I do,” Marilee sighed.

      Just as she spoke, Janie came in the door with a tall, good-looking, dark-haired man in a dark suit with a ruffled white shirt and black bow tie. Janie had just taken off her black velvet coat and hung it on the rack near the door. Under it, she was wearing a sexy white silk gown that fell softly down her slender figure to her shapely ankles. The spaghetti strips left her soft shoulders almost completely bare, and dipped low enough to draw any man’s eyes. She was wearing her thick, light brown hair down. It reached almost to her waist in back in a beautiful, glossy display. She wore just enough makeup to enhance her face, and she was clinging to Harley’s arm with obvious pleasure as they greeted the Ballengers and their wives.

      Leo had forgotten how pretty Janie could look when she worked at it. Lately, he’d only seen her covered in mud and flour. Tonight, her figure drew eyes in that dress. He remembered the feel of her in his arms, the eager innocence of her mouth under his, and he suddenly felt uneasy at the way she was clinging to Harley’s arm.

      If he was uncomfortable, Marilee was even more so. She stood beside Leo and looked as if she hated herself. He took another long sip of his drink before he guided her toward Harley and Janie.

      “No sense hiding, is there?” he asked belligerently.

      Marilee sighed miserably. “No sense at all, I guess.”

      They moved forward together. Janie noticed them and her eyes widened and darkened with pain for an instant. Leo’s harsh monologue at the hardware store had been enough to wound her, but now she was seeing that she’d been shafted by her best friend, as well. Marilee said Janie didn’t know her date, but all along, apparently, she’d planned to come with Leo. No wonder she’d been so curious about whether or not Janie was going to show up.

      Everything suddenly made perfect sense. Marilee had filled Leo up with lies about Janie gossiping about him, so that she could get him herself. Janie felt like an utter fool. Her chin lifted, but she didn’t smile. Her green eyes were like emerald shards as they met Marilee’s.

      “H… hi, Janie,” Marilee stammered, forcing a smile. “You said you weren’t coming tonight.”

      “I wasn’t,” Janie replied curtly. “But Harley was at a loose end and didn’t have a date, so he asked me.” She looked up at the tall, lean man beside her, who was some years younger than Leo, and she smiled at him with genuine affection even through her misery. “I haven’t danced in years.”

      “You’ll dance tonight, darlin’,” Harley drawled, smiling warmly as he gripped her long fingers in his. He looked elegant in his dinner jacket, and there was a faint arrogance in his manner now that hadn’t been apparent before. He glanced at Marilee and there was barely veiled contempt in the look.

      Marilee swallowed hard and avoided his piercing gaze.

      “I didn’t know you could dance, Harley,” Marilee murmured, embarrassed.

      He actually ignored her, his narrow gaze going to Leo. “Nice turnout, isn’t it?” he asked the older man.

      “Nice,” Leo said, but he didn’t smile. “I haven’t seen your boss tonight.”

      “The baby had a cold,” Harley said. “He and Lisa don’t leave him when he’s sick.” He looked down at Janie deliberately. “Considering how happy the two of them are, I guess marriage isn’t such a bad vocation after all,” he mused.

      “For some, maybe,” Leo said coldly. He was openly glaring at Harley.

      “Let’s get on the dance floor,” Harley told Janie with a grin. “I’m anxious to try out that waltz pattern I’ve been learning.”

      “You’ll excuse us, I’m sure,” Janie told the woman who was supposed to be her best friend. Her eyes were icy as she realized how she’d been betrayed by Marilee’s supposed “help” with Leo.

      Marilee grimaced. “Oh, Janie,” she groaned. “Let me explain….”

      But Janie wasn’t staying to listen to any halfhearted explanations. “Nice to see you, Marilee. You, too, Mr. Hart,” she added with coldly formal emphasis, not quite meeting Leo’s eyes. But she noted the quick firming of his chiseled lips with some satisfaction at the way she’d addressed him.

      “Why do you call him Mr. Hart?” Harley asked as they moved away.

      “He’s much older than we are, Harley,” she replied, just loudly enough for Leo to hear her and stiffen with irritation. “Almost another generation.”

      “I guess he is.”

      Leo took a big swallow of his drink and glared after them.

      “She’ll never speak to me again,” Marilee said in a subdued tone.

      He glared at her. “I’m not her personal property,” he said flatly. “I never was. It isn’t your fault that she’s been gossiping and spreading lies all over town.”

      Marilee winced.

      He turned his attention back to Janie, who was headed onto the dance floor with damned Harley. “I don’t want her.

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