when he was foaled. They thought he was a dummy, and
'wanted to put him down."
"A what?"
"A dummy's a foal that was deprived of oxygen during
the birthing." He shook his head as he watched the horse
enter the stable. "I didn't think so. I was right. His lineage
indicated he had every chance to be good, and he has been.
Never a disappointment. Always runs his heart out, even
when he's outclassed."
"You've got good reason to be proud of him."
"I guess."
Alex wasn't fooled by his pretended indifference. "Do
they always run the horses full out like that?"
"No, they're breezing them today, seeing how they run
against each other. Four days a week, they're galloped once
or twice around the track. Comparable to a jog. Two days
after breezing them, they're just walked."
He turned and headed toward a saddled horse that was tied
to a fence post. "Where are you going?"
"Home." He mounted with the loose-limbed grace of a
range cowboy.
"I need to talk to you," Alex cried in consternation.
He bent down and extended his hand. "Get on." From
beneath the brim of his hat, green eyes challenged her.
She pushed her sunglasses higher on the bridge of her nose
and approached the horse with an outward show of confidence
she didn't actually feel.
Clasping Reede's hand was the tough part. He hauled her
up with very little effort, though it was left to her to get
situated between his buttocks and the sloping back of the
saddle.
That was disconcerting enough, but when he kneed the
horse forward, Alex was thrown against his broad back. Out
of necessity, her arms encircled his waist. She was careful
to keep her hands well above his belt. Her mind wasn't as
easy to control. It kept straying to his damned, well-worn
fly.
"Warm enough?" he asked her over his shoulder.
"Yes," she lied.
She had thought his long white duster with the steep pleat
in the back was all for show. She'd never seen one outside
a Clint Eastwood western. Now, however, she realized the
coat was designed to keep a rider's thighs warm.
"Who were you meeting in the bar last night?"
"That's my business, Reede. Why did you follow me?"
"That's my business."
Impasse. For the time being, she let it go. She had a file
of questions she wanted to ask him, but it was difficult to
keep her mind on her task when her open cleft kept bumping
into his hips with each rocking motion of the horse. She
blurted out the first question that came to mind. "How did
you and my mother get to be such close friends?"
"We grew up together," he said dismissively. "It started
out on the jungle gym on the school playground and evolved
as we got older."
"It never became awkward?"
"Nope. We had no secrets from each other. We'd even
played doctor a few times."
" 'I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours'?"
He grinned. "You must've played doctor, too."
Alex didn't rise to the bait, knowing that he was trying to
sidetrack her. "I guess the two of you eventually grew out
of that stage."
"We didn't play doctor anymore, no, but we talked about
everything. No subject was taboo between Celina and me."
"Isn't that the kind of relationship a girl usually has with
another girl?"
"Usually, but Celina didn't have many girlfriends. Most
of the girls were jealous of her."
"Why?" Alex already knew the answer. She knew even
before he shrugged, a move that rubbed his shoulder blade
against her breast. Alex was hardly able to speak. She had
to force herself to ask. "It was because of you, wasn't it?
Her friendship with you?"
"Maybe. That, and the fact that she was by far the prettiest
girl around. Most of the girls considered her a rival, not a
friend. Hold on," he warned her before guiding the horse
into a dry gully.
Inertia pushed her forward, closer to him. Instinctively,
she hugged his torso tighter. He made a grunting sound. She
asked, "What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"You sounded . . . uncomfortable."
"If you were a guy sitting astride a horse taking a steep
incline and were being crammed against the pommel of the
saddle so that your manhood pushed into your lap, you'd be
uncomfortable, too."
"Oh."
"Jesus," he swore beneath his breath.
Until the ground leveled out, there was an awkward silence
between them, broken only by the horse's clumping tread as
he carefully picked his way over the rocky ground. To hide
her embarrassment and keep the cold wind off her, Alex
buried her face in the flannel-lined collar of his coat. Eventually,
she said, "So, Mother came to you with all her problems."
"Yes. When she didn't, and I knew something was wrong,
I went to her. One day she was absent from school. I got
worried and went to her house during lunch break. Your
grandmother was at work, so Celina was there alone. She'd
been crying. I got scared and refused to leave until she told
me what was wrong."
"What was the matter?"
"She got her period for the first time."
"Oh."
"From what I gathered, Mrs. Graham had made her feel
ashamed of it. She'd told her all kinds of horror stories about
Eve's curse--crap like that." There was disapproval in his
voice. "Was she that way with you?"
Alex shook her head no, but didn't remove it from the
protection of his collar. His neck was warm, and smelled like
him. "Not that severe. Maybe Grandma had become more
enlightened by the time I reached puberty." Until Reede
reined in the horse and dismounted, Alex hadn't realized that
they'd reached a small frame house. "What about Mother?"
"I consoled her and told her that it was normal, nothing
to be ashamed of, that she had officially become a woman."
He looped the reins around a hitching post.
"Did it work?"
"I guess so. She stopped crying and--"
"And . . .?" Alex prodded him to continue, knowing that
he had omitted the most important part of the story.
"Nothing. Swing your leg over." He reached up to help
her down, taking her around the waist with sure, strong hands
and lifting her to the ground.
"Something, Reede."
She clutched the sleeves of his coat. His lips were drawn
into a thin, stubborn line. They looked chapped and consummately
masculine. She remembered looking at the newspaper
picture of him kissing Celina when he crowned her homecoming
queen. As before, Alex's stomach swelled and receded
like a wave far out in the gulf.
"You kissed her, didn't you?"
He made an uneasy movement with his shoulder. "I'd
kissed her before."
"But that was the first real kiss, wasn't it?"
He released her and, crossing the shallow front porch,
thrust open the door. "You can come in or not," he said
over his shoulder, "it's up to you."
He disappeared through the door, leaving it open. Despondent
but curious, Alex followed. The front door opened
directly into the living room. Through an arched opening on
her left, she could see a dining area and kitchen. A hallway
on the opposite side presumably led into a bedroom, where
she could hear him rummaging about. Absently, she closed
the front door, removed her glasses and gloves, and looked
around.
The house had the stamp of a bachelor. Furniture had been
arranged for comfort and convenience, not with any decorative
flair. He'd set his hat on a table and tossed his coat
and gloves onto a chair. Other surfaces were clear, but the
bookshelves were cluttered, as though straightening up
amounted to cramming anything lying around onto a shelf.
There were cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling that caught
the sunlight as it poured in through the dusty Venetian blinds.
He caught her looking up at one of the cobwebs as he
reappeared, carrying a pair of aviator sunglasses. "Lupe
sends one of her nieces out here every few weeks. It's about
that time." It was an explanation, but hardly an excuse or
apology. "Want some coffee?"
"Please."
He went into the kitchen. Alex continued to walk around
the room as she stamped circulation back into her frozen feet.
Her attention was drawn to a tall trophy in one of the built-in
bookshelves. "Most Valuable Player" was engraved on it
in block letters, along with Reede's name and the date.
"Is this the right color?" He had moved up behind her.
When she turned he was holding a mug of coffee out to her.
He had remembered to add milk.
"Fine, thanks." Inclining her head toward the trophy, she
asked, "Your senior year, right?"
"Hmm."
"That's quite an honor."
"I guess so."
Alex noticed that he resorted to that catchall phrase when
he wanted the conversation to end. He remained an enigma
in all other respects. "You're not sure it was an honor?"
He dropped into an easy chair and thrust his feet out in
front of him. "I felt then, and still feel, that I had a good
team backing me up. The other nominated players were just
as valuable as me."
"Junior?"
"He was one of them, yeah," he replied, instantly defensive.
"But you won the award and Junior didn't."
His eyes glared at hers. "Is that supposed to be significant?"
"I don't know. Is it?"
He gave a scoffing laugh. "Stop playing lawyer games
with me and say what's on your mind."
"Okay." She leaned against the padded arm of the sofa
and considered him carefully as she asked,' 'Did Junior resent
your getting named most valuable player?"
"Ask him."
"Maybe I will. I'll also ask Angus if he minded."
"Angus couldn't have been prouder the night of the awards
banquet."
"Except if his son had been named most valuable player
instead of you."
Reede's expression turned stony. "You're full of shit, you
know that?"
"I'm sure Angus was proud of you, glad for you, but you
can't expect me to believe that he wouldn't have rather seen
Junior get the trophy."
"Believe whatever you goddamn want to. It makes no
difference to me." He emptied his coffee mug in three swallows,
set it on the low coffee table in front of him, then stood
up. "Ready?"
She set her coffee down, too, but she made no move to
leave. "Why are you so touchy about this?"
' 'Not touchy, bored.'' He leaned down to put his face close
to hers. "That trophy is a twenty-five-year-old, tarnished
piece of junk that's good for nothing except to collect dust."
"Then, why have you kept it all these years?"
He plowed his fingers through his hair. "Look, it doesn't
mean anything now."
"But it did then."
"Precious little. Not enough to get me an athletic scholarship,
which I was counting on to go to college."
"What did you do?"
"I went anyway."
"How?"
"A loan."
"A government loan?"