* * *
“I had a good time,” Mark said on their drive home. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“You’re welcome.”
He gave her a teasing smile. “All that worry for nothing.”
She nodded. “I guess I shouldn’t have sweated the visit so much. Dirk really enjoyed meeting you.” In fact, her brother had seemed more sad that Mark was leaving than that she was going as well.
“I liked meeting him, too. He’s a special kid with a very special sister. You’ve done a hell of a job, Darcy.”
“I don’t deserve any praise.”
“Sure you do. You’ve worked your butt off to provide for your brother. Just in the past six or eight months you’ve uprooted yourself, moved to an unfamiliar town and enrolled your brother in a wonderful, but very expensive school. You’re strapped for cash and determined that he get the best education he can.”
While she appreciated the praise, she didn’t understand it. “He’s my brother. What else would I have done? You took care of your sister.”
“My situation wasn’t anything like yours. Maddie was already in high school when our folks died and, except for the usual teenage stuff, didn’t require anything extra of me. You took on taking care of Dirk when a lot of more prepared people would have walked away. And you’ve helped me a lot.”
“Me?” She turned toward him. “What are you talking about?”
“I came back to Whitehorn physically on the mend, but the rest of me was a mess. I hadn’t worked through all my conflicting emotions about Sylvia. I wasn’t ready to be back in the world. I wanted to hide and lick my wounds. You got in the way of that. I owe you.”
“I was just being a friend. You don’t owe me anything.”
She didn’t want his gratitude or a debt. She wanted something more permanent. Hope fluttered in her chest and no matter how much she told herself it was dangerous, the light, tickly feeling wouldn’t go away.
“About Christmas,” he said. “You’re going to spend it with Dirk?”
“Yes.” She bit her lower lip. “Do you have plans?”
“Not really.”
“Do you want to come with me? You don’t have to,” she added hastily. “I mean it’s going to be a big crowd and I know that’s not your thing.”
“I’d like to go,” he told her.
“Good.”
The fluttering in her chest increased. She was sinking in fourteen kinds of trouble and didn’t know how to keep herself from drowning.
“What time do you want to head to the school?” he asked.
“About nine in the morning. That will put us there around ten. They eat at two, and we can come back after dinner.”
“Works for me. I’ll call Maddie before we leave.”
“Where is your sister?”
“Somewhere in Texas. There’s a series of rodeos in the area, so she’s actually settled down for a few weeks. She has a lot of friends there.”
“Do you see her much?”
“No. Maddie likes to be on the rodeo circuit. For some reason she isn’t one for staying in the same place.”
“Was she like that as a child?”
“Some. She always loved horses.”
