“You and me,” she said flatly.
Luke sighed. He pushed his hand through a thick head of hair. “Madeline, you are obviously the most reasonable of the three. Emma is—I honestly don’t know what the deal is with her. Libby isn’t thinking straight with this family reunion thing. But you seem to get it. And you don’t want the ranch.”
“Oh, I get it,” she said coolly. “You think that your father did something really dumb, but he deserves a second chance. And you must think I am really dumb and that you can be nice to me, and feign interest in me, and I will just eat out of your palm. Well guess what, Luke? I think that because my father abandoned me, because he lived his whole life without knowing if I was okay or not and basically left me to the world to sink or swim, that I deserve everything he had.”
She was aware, of course, that she had never thought that until this very minute, but that was beside the point.
“That is not what I was saying—”
“Luke, hi!”
A woman with honey blond hair had suddenly appeared, startling both Madeline and Luke. She had a baby on her hip, a little girl with beautiful blond curls and a car clutched tightly in her hand. Luke, Madeline noticed, looked shocked. He came awkwardly to his feet, his gaze flicking to Madeline and back to the woman.
“Hi, Julie. I didn’t see you.”
Madeline stood up, fumbling with her purse.
“I’m sorry, I’ve interrupted,” the woman said apologetically. “I just thought you might want to meet Violet, Luke.”
Madeline found her wallet easily in her bag, thanks to her superior skills of organization, and quickly pulled out two twenty-dollar bills. She tossed the bills on to the table.
“Madeline, wait—Julie, this is Madeline Pruett. She’s here from Orlando. And this is Julie Daugherty. She and I go way back—”
“Lovely to meet you,” Madeline said, and smiled as pleasantly as she could. “Thanks for the company, Luke.”
“Don’t go,” he said quickly.
“Please!” Julie agreed. “Don’t let me run you off.”
“Not at all. I was just getting ready to leave. I’ve had as much buffalo as I can saw off and I have a horrible headache,” Madeline said, and smiled at the baby to avoid looking at Luke.
“Oh dear,” Julie said.
“Pleasure to meet you. Good night.” Madeline had to pass Luke to get out, brushing against his hard shell of a body that only served to make her angrier. He put his hand on her arm as she passed, but Madeline walked briskly on, proud of herself for making a bold exit.
But she was fuming, her heart pumping, and she couldn’t resist a small pause at the entrance of the restaurant to look back. Luke and the woman were still at the table, only Luke was now holding the little girl. And a gorgeous smile illuminated his entire stupid face.
ELEVEN
Luke’s grip of the steering wheel was white-knuckle tight as he drove back to Elm Street. He was furious with himself—he’d handled that business with Madeline with about as much finesse as a toddler handling a fluffy white cat.
He had some very mixed emotions about that woman. On the one hand, there was something very alluring about her. All day long, she’d come across as the only truly reasonable one among them. She asked smart questions, was reserved and thoughtful. And she was cute, goddammit. So damn pretty with big blue eyes and dark shaggy bangs. She was a Maddie, definitely. Not a Madeline. If the situation were different, if it had been any other time, any other place on earth, he would be very interested in pursuing her.
But the situation was not different, and on the other hand, Luke thought she would be the toughest of the three in trying to negotiate some sort of deal on the ranch.
What difference did it make? He’d messed it all up. He had no intention of bringing up the ranch when he saw her in the Stakeout. He really had believed she looked as if she could use some company. He had enjoyed the meal, really enjoyed it. She was funny, sawing away at a steak big enough to feed a family of four. He’d found her charmingly quirky with her ugly houses and little-girl soccer teams. Then he’d gone and tried to make some sort of point, and bam, just like that, he’d messed up any goodwill.
But how was he supposed to know that Grant Tyler had been such a dick of a dad? He might have been able to smooth over his gross mishandling of a delicate situation, but then Julie had shown up with her baby.
Luke had always known that Julie would make some beautiful babies. He’d been so rattled by Julie’s sudden appearance with that little girl and the way things had ended with Maddie that he hadn’t been able to think what to say when Julie had invited him to dinner later this week.
He’d said okay.