Free Long, Tall Texans: Calhoun by Diana Palmer Page B

about Calhoun's rough treatment made her miserable. She loved him and it hurt terribly that he could treat her that way. But she had to pretend that nothing was wrong, so that Misty wouldn't start asking questions that Abby didn't want to answer.
    They parked in town and went to the first address on Misty's list. It was an apartment above a sweet shop, on the corner across from the bank. Misty didn't like the place, because there was only one bedroom and she wanted her privacy.
    Abby deliberately put the implications of that remark in the back of her mind and added that she didn't like the view. It was too close
    to the center of town, and there was a good deal of traffic on Saturday night.
    The second place they went was just right. The room being rented was upstairs in a private house owned by a Mrs.
    Simpson, who was friendly and bright and welcoming. That turned Misty off completely. She didn't want an old busybody watching out for her. But Abby was rapidly coming to the conclusion that Misty was going to do some entertaining once they were on their own, and her association with the Ballengers made her balk at the thought of Misty's plans.
    "I'll take it," she told Mrs. Simpson, "if you don't mind having just me instead of both of us, and if you aren't in a hurry for me to move in. It will be a few weeks...."
    "That will work out fine. I'm going off to my sister's for a week or so, anyway." Mrs. Simpson smiled broadly, her blue eyes fighting up. "My dear, I'd be delighted." She leaned forward while Misty was still upstairs grumbling about the lack of privacy. "Your friend seems very nice, mind you, but I'm rather old-fashioned...."
    "So am I," Abby whispered, putting her finger to her lips when Misty came downstairs again.
    "No, I'm sorry, it won't do," she sighed.
    "I have the perfect solution," Abby told her. "I'll take this one, and you take the other one. It'll be great. We can visit each other, and we'll both have our privacy."
    Misty raised an eyebrow. "Well...it might be nice at that. But you said you wanted to room with me."
    Mis. Simpson excused herself, asking Abby to phone her later about a date for moving in.
    Abby moved with Misty to the door. "Let's face it," she told her friend, "you want to entertain men, and I'll have Calhoun and Justin all over me if they find out about it. I'm sure you don't want them on your case."
    Misty shuddered delicately. "Are you kidding? Calhoun, maybe, but not Justin! That man doesn't have a humorous bone in his whole body."
    Abby remembered how amused Justin had been about Calhoun's behavior, but she just nodded her head.

    "Let's have coffee," Misty suggested. She drove them back into town in her little sports car and parked beside the bank.
    The two women had just gotten out of the car when Tyler Jacobs and his sister Shelby came around the corner looking somber and disturbed.
    Abby greeted them. "Tyler. Shelby. How are you?"
    "This isn't a good time to ask," Shelby sighed, but she smiled. She was a dish. Short dark hair framed her elfin face, and she had eyes that were an odd shade of green, almost glassy in color. Her mouth was perfect, and she was tall. She would have made a fortune as a model, but her parents wouldn't have heard of such a profession for their only daughter.
    Tyler was like his sister in coloring. He had thick dark hair, almost black, and an olive complexion and the same odd-colored green eyes. He was as big as Calhoun, but slender. Whipcord-lean and dangerous-looking. He wasn't handsome at all, but he had character, and women usually found him irres-tible.
    Misty turned to see where Abby had gotten to and smiled delightedly at Tyler.
    "Well, hello," she drawled. "Fancy seeing you here."
    "Hello, Misty," he said, smiling lazily. "You look devastating, as usual. What are you two doing in town on a Sun-day?"
    "Looking for an apartment to share, originally." Abby sighed. "But we wound up with one each, across town from the other. I'm renting from Mrs.