Free Heartbreaker by Diana Palmer Page A

happier working somewhere else.”

    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    “What did Justin say?” she asked.

    He chuckled. “That he could run his own feedlot without Hammock’s help, and that he wasn’t firing a good worker because of Hammock’s personal issues.”

    “Well!”

    “I understand that Hammock is pulling his cattle out of the feedlot and having them trucked to Kansas, to a feedlot there for finishing.”

    “But that’s horrible!” Tellie exclaimed.

    “Justin said something similar, with a few more curse words attached,” Grange replied. “I felt bad to cause such problems for him, but he only laughed. He said Hammock would lose money on the deal, and he didn’t care. He wasn’t being ordered around by a man ten years his junior.”

    “That sounds like Justin,” she agreed, smiling. “Good for him.”

    He shrugged. “It doesn’t solve the problem, though,” he told her. “It’s only the first salvo. Hammock won’t quit. He wants me out of your life, whatever it takes.”

    “No, it’s not about me,” she said sadly. “He doesn’t like being reminded of what he lost. Marge said so.”

    Grange’s dark eyes studied her quietly. “He didn’t want you to know about my sister,” he said after a minute. “I ticked him off that first day we went to lunch, by telling you the family secret.”

    “Marge said that she would have told me herself eventually.”

    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    “Why?”

    She smiled. “She thinks I’d wear my heart out on J.B., and she’s right. I would have. He’ll never get past his lovely ghost to any sort of relationship with a real woman. I’m not going to waste my life aching for a man I can’t have.”

    “That’s sensible,” he agreed. “But he’s been part of your life for a long time. He’s become a habit.”

    She nodded, her eyes downcast. “That’s just what he is. A habit.”

    He drew in a long breath. “If you want to stop seeing me…”

    “I do not,” she said at once. “I really enjoy going out with you, Grange.”

    He smiled, because it was obvious that she meant it. “I like your company, too.” He hesitated. “Just friends,” he added slowly.

    She smiled back. “Just friends.”

    His eyes were distant. “I’m at a turning point in my life,” he confessed. “I’m not sure where I’m headed.
    But I know I’m not ready for anything serious.”

    “Neither am I.” She leaned her head against the back of the seat and studied him. “Do you think you might stay here, in Jacobsville?”

    “I don’t know. I’ve got some problems to work out.”

    “Join the club,” she said, and grinned at him.

    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    He laughed. “I like the way I feel with you. J.B. can go hang. We’ll present a united front.”

    “Just as long as J.B. doesn’t go and hang us!” she exclaimed.

    Five
    G range liked to bowl. Tellie had never tried the sport, but he taught her. She persuaded Marge to let the girls come with them one night. Marge tagged along, but she didn’t bowl. She sat at the table sipping coffee and watching her brood fling the big balls down the alley.

    “It’s fun!” Tellie laughed. She’d left the field to the three experts who were making her look sick with her less-than-perfect bowling.

    “That’s why you’re sitting here with me, is it?” Marge teased.

    She shrugged. “I’m a lemon,” she confessed. “Nothing I do ever looks good.”

    “That’s not true,” Marge disputed. “You cook like an angel and you’re great in history. You always make A’s.”

    “Two successes out of a hundred false starts,” Tellie sighed.

    “You’re just depressed because J.B.’s ignoring you,” Marge said, cutting to the heart of the matter.

    “Guilty,” Tellie had to admit. “Maybe I should have listened.”

    “Bull. If