“I’ll give you a hand,” Amy said, falling in line with her as she pivoted toward the house. “I thought your ride would put you in a better mood.”
“Am I that obvious?”
Amy grinned, pulling open the front door. “Only to me as I know you so well. Connor?”
“That man is driving me nuts,” she bemoaned, leading the way into the kitchen where she poured them each a glass of iced tea.
“Sweetheart, men were born to drive us women crazy. Life would be boring though if they didn’t.”
Amy’s endearment reminded Tamara of how Con had switched from calling her sweetie to little one after her disgruntled protest. He was thoughtful like that, which had made it so easy to fall in love with him right after a bad case of lust had replaced adolescent worship as soon as she was mature enough to know what those stirrings were whenever he was near. “I’d go for boring if he’d quit thinking of me as the kid he’d befriended twenty years ago.”
Amy hugged her with a light laugh. “Oh, Tamara, can’t you see? His little head has already acknowledged you’re a very desirable, grown woman. Their big heads are always much slower to respond to the obvious.”
“Really?” Tamara teased her in return. “How long have you been fighting your attraction to Jason?”
“That’s different.” Amy sniffed with a toss of her head. “I’ve loved a wonderful man already and was lucky enough to have his love in return. That’s harder to work through than what you and Connor are struggling with.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.” Tamara squeezed Amy’s hand. “I miss Dad too, but at least you now seem open to more, and I’m glad.”
“I’m taking it slow and he’s patient. I just hope his patience lasts until I’m ready.”
They left the kitchen together and padded down the hall toward the office as Tamara said, “Yeah, well my patience ran out, and I was all set to have a little fun by moving on. But, oh, no, he had to interfere.”
“And how did he go about that?” Amy asked, settling behind her desk as Tamara strolled over to the larger, ornate mahogany desk that was her father’s and now hers.
She flipped her stepmother a self-deprecating smile as she sat down. “He strode up to me and the man I’d hooked up with and looked at me with those bluer than blue eyes.”
Amy raised a slim brow and her lips twitched. “The jerk. No wonder you were doomed. So, now what?”
“Now I go back and try again and hope it’ll be easier to tell him no.”
When Amy left for the afternoon to attend a cattle auction with Jason, Tamara went back to brooding over Connor’s reluctance to move beyond friendship and her inability to think about anyone but him, to want no one but him. By the time she had finished eating a solitary dinner, she couldn’t get up any enthusiasm for changing out of her comfortable loose jeans and old college sweatshirt and into the short black skirt, let alone to return to The Barn.
After taking a batch of carrots out to Galahad and Lady, she curled up on the sofa in front of the television until she heard Amy return. Not wanting to answer questions about her change of mind, she turned in early, praying she slept better than she had last night.
“You have company,” Amy said the following afternoon, her announcement startling Tamara and she jerked, banging her head inside the oven she was scrubbing out.
Scooting back, she sat on her heels and looked up at her stepmother with a frown. “I’m not expecting anyone. Who is it?”
“Us.” Nan, Sydney and Avery breezed into the kitchen, the three of them wearing identical smiles that reeked of a conspiracy.
“Hi. What’s up?” Tamara asked, suspicion tightening her abdomen as she glanced at Amy and saw she was in on whatever was going on.
“This is an intervention.” Nan grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. “No need to change, it’s just us girls, pizza and wine. Emphasis on wine. Let’s go.”
“Where to?” Tamara couldn’t help but be pleased over the prospect of not spending another long evening brooding as she followed her friends to the front door.
“To our house,” Sydney answered. “Caden is at Connor’s playing poker with a bunch of other guys, so we have the place to ourselves.”
“And I, for one, am more than ready for some girl time that involves lots of wine. I swear, Grayson gets more and more protective instead of less now that my ex and his partner are going to jail.”
“What’s he worried about?” Tamara asked Avery as she waved goodbye to Amy and slid into the backseat of Sydney’s car with her.
“Who knows? He says he doesn’t trust them, but I think he just likes being bossy.” Av
ery sighed, but the small smile curving her mouth hinted she wasn’t all that put out by the sheriff’s demands.
“They all like being bossy. Haven’t either of you figured that out yet?” Nan swiveled to face Tamara and Avery from the front passenger seat as Sydney drove toward the Dunbar Ranch. “Which is precisely why I intend to stay footloose and fancy free, playing the field, committing to no one.”