She set Tiny down on the porch to let her sniff the strip of leather. She latched on to it immediately and plopped down to start chewing it. “It’s safe for her to eat?”
“She’s not going to eat it, only chew it. Throw it away when it gets soggy.”
She nodded, still watching the pup. But Tiny appeared to lose interest in the rawhide and stood up and moved away from them, sniffing at the floorboards. Guessing what would happen next, Violet quickly scooped up her pet and took her to the side yard. She heard Morgan laughing behind her.
When she came back and took her seat again, she said, “Your father was looking for you.”
“I’m not surprised. I was scouting the town to figure out where I want to build my emporium. Nashart grew while I was gone. There’s one intersection on the main street now that’s filled with stores and businesses on all four corners, but there’s another partial intersection with only one street coming in perpendicular to the main road, so I bought the property on the other side. It took a while to convince the mayor to sell me what will one day be a whole street and half a block on either side of it. Since he has no plans in the works yet for that section, it was just a matter of haggling. And it’s perfect, or will be by the time I’m done with it. I won’t need it all, but now I can control what gets built there. Now I can have that talk with my pa.”
She raised a brow at him. “You were holding off until you bought the land first? Why?”
“Because Pa could have stopped me cold if he knew my intention. He and Mayor Quade are poker buddies. He could easily have pulled a few strings to get Quade to refuse to sell me any part of town. Quade did in fact ask me a few times if Zachary approved of my buying such a large parcel.”
“How did you answer?”
He grinned. “I didn’t. I smooth-talked him away from Pa’s opinion by stressing how pleased my mother is going to be with the new business.”
She chuckled. “So you implied that because your mother was in favor of it, of course your father must be, too?”
“Something like that. But I also assured him that what goes up on that street will be businesses the town doesn’t have yet, which will draw a lot more people to Nashart—and a lot more women.” He laughed. “Which is what sold him and got me a good deal. Nashart has always been short on women who aren’t already married—and the mayor is a widower.”
“It sounds like it’s really happening. I confess, I find it hard to believe that a cowboy-turned-miner will now be happy working in a shop.”
“This is just the beginning. I’ll have to do a lot of traveling, to purchase all the things I want to sell. I’ll start with the big cities in the East, and eventually I may want to travel to Europe.”
So he did have bigger plans than spending every day in a shop in Nashart. “That sounds exciting. France is known for fine craftsmanship in furniture. And England—”
She stopped, not wanting to remind him of her future plans, but the simple word England had done it. He remarked, “Maybe I’ll visit you in London on one of my business trips. But in the meantime, would you like a tour of town tomorrow? I can show you where I plan to build. We can make a day of it and have lunch in town.”
Spend the whole day with him—alone? But she’d made her stand about that, so she replied, “I’ll see if my father is up to it.”
“Charley doesn’t need another bouncy ride this soon. And you’ll have the whole town as chaperones. It’s not like I have a bedroom there to lure you into—though I could arrange for one. . . .”
She could tell he wasn’t teasing because she saw the desire in his eyes. Her pulse started racing at the thought of being in bed with him again. No, she wouldn’t let herself be that reckless. But she did want to go to town with him, so she teased, “I suppose it will be a good time for you to test your chaperoning skills.”
He laughed, but then she gestured toward the approaching dust cloud. “Since you’re likely to get cornered for that ‘talk,’ I think I’ll take Tiny down for another spin around the side yard, then visit her littermates.
“Good luck,” she added as she walked down the stairs.
“If it gets loud, cover your ears!” he called after her with a chuckle.
She didn’t think he was teasing. She did expect it to get loud, so she moved toward the back of the house so she wouldn’t hear it. But the two men’s voices grew loud enough for her to recognize an angry tone, if not the exact words, until there was a really loud yell: “The hell you did! No son of mine is going—”
“Pa, it’s a done deal. It’s what I spent a year working for. And I’m damn well old enough to make my own bloody decisions!”
Violet’s eyes flared when she heard him say “bloody.” His use of the Britishism made her grin.
“Not in my house, you don’t!” Zachary yelled before a door slammed and it got quiet.
That wasn’t the least bit amusing. Had Morgan just been kicked out of his own home? He could probably use a little encouragement.
She headed back to the porch, but slowed her steps when she saw that Zachary was still there, not Morgan. She was put on the spot when the older man pinned her with angry eyes. “Did you put him up to this, gal?”
She slowly continued forward. “I haven’t known your son for very long. His decisions have nothing to do with me. However, I do know he’s starting a new business. It’s for his mother, your wife. He told me about all the times he and his brothers had to ride to town and then return here only to tell Mrs. Callahan that what she’d ordered and was waiting for hadn’t arrived yet, and how disappointed she was. He wants to make sure she’s never disappointed again. That’s why he went searching for gold and silver ore, because he knew you wouldn’t finance such a venture. Or would you have loaned him the money?”
He sat back in his chair with a sigh. “You spend your whole life building something to leave to your children, and then they don’t want it,” he grumbled. “I probably wouldn’t have been open to his idea—unless he explained it like you just did. All for his ma, huh? I can’t rightly argue with that, much as I love that gal.”
“Maybe you should tell Morgan that.”
“Maybe you should mind your own business, missy.”
What an ornery old cuss, Violet thought. If she’d known him better she might have made a sharp reply, but she said nothing more and left him to stew over what he should or shouldn’t have said to his son.
She went upstairs to see if her father was awake. He probably was, considering all the noise she could hear emerging from an open door a few doors down the hall from her room. She set Tiny inside her room, then went to investigate. She stopped in the doorway to see Morgan slamming a bureau drawer shut and throwing a pile of clothes on the bed, where his saddlebags and a valise lay open.
“You probably don’t need to do that,” she remarked.
He glanced at her but didn’t stop what he was doing, and there was anger in his tone—just not for her. “Nothing is changing my mind, certainly not that old coot. I love him, but he’s still treating me like a boy. Hell, I crossed that bridge five years ago. I think Pa failed to notice.”
She smiled. “I’m sure he noticed. But parents will always treat their children like children and try to do what’s best for them. They aren’t always right. However, I think he’s come around. You probably don’t need to take a sword and shield to dinner, either.”
He stared at her a moment, then laughed and walked over and pulled her into his arms, hugging her. “So you’re my good-luck charm now? What the heck did you tell him?”
Words caught in her throat, being this close to him again. All she wanted to do was kiss him. She came so close to putting her arms around him and doing it.