Free Return to Marker Ranch by Claire McEwen Page B

welcome.” She shrugged. “Hey, I need that water.”
    â€œRight.” He had to remember that this was a business arrangement for her. Not a friendship. That she didn’t see him the way he saw her. She’d never needed him for an oasis or a haven or anything.
    â€œSo is it okay to have Bill start working on the well?” she asked. “I’ll have his guys start laying the pipe down.”
    â€œSure.” Her eagerness to get started was one more reminder that her help today had been a simple trade.
    She climbed lightly up into her pickup, and he closed the door behind her. The window was down. She leaned her forearm on the frame, gazing up at him. “Look, Wade. I’m glad things are a little better between us. I’m fine helping you out with your ranch, and I’m glad that we’re solving the water issue.”
    She paused and he filled in the silence. “I’m glad, too.”
    â€œWhen you left Benson, you said some really hurtful things.”
    He winced at the memory. “I have wanted to apologize for them ever since.”
    She held up a palm to stop him. “Look, it was years ago. I don’t need that. But I got hurt then. It was hard for me. And I don’t want to go back there. I mean, I guess what I’m trying to say is that going to dinner...well, it would be too much.”
    â€œI understand.” And he did. He’d hurt her. How could he blame her for wanting to keep that door closed between them? “I just appreciate you being willing to help me out like this.”
    She sat up a little straighter, reached for the ignition. “All right, then.”
    â€œAll right.” He wished she didn’t look so relieved about this little chat. He wished he didn’t feel so disappointed “Good night, Lori.”
    She smiled briefly. A little sadly, he thought. “Good night, Wade.”
    He stood there in the dark, watching her taillights rock back and forth as she navigated the pockmarked drive. Watched them until she rounded the corner and disappeared, taking the light with her.
    Â 

CHAPTER NINE
    L ORI TUGGED AWKWARDLY at the dress her sister had insisted she borrow. The cool night air tingled on her skin as she and Mandy crossed the gravel parking lot behind the High Country Sports Bar. She was so used to her jeans, boots and a T-shirt that anything else just felt odd. Especially this dress, which was short, and pale blue and very fitted. Every time she looked down, she was a little shocked by all the cleavage it revealed.
    Mandy had also blown out Lori’s hair and styled it in relaxed curls, put makeup on her and added a nice bracelet. Lori’s only contribution to her outfit was a pair of cowboy boots with pink roses up the sides that she rarely got to wear. No way was she going to put on the high-heeled sandals Mandy had pulled out.
    She felt kind of silly, but Mandy had promised her that she looked gorgeous. And the stranger she saw when she looked in the mirror earlier was pretty. Lori could admit that. But she so rarely dressed up, all that pretty seemed like it belonged to someone else.
    Mandy gave her a nervous smile and pulled open the door of the bar. Music flooded around them. “Well, here we go!” she said in a bright voice. The kind of voice you’d use with children on their first day of school. Or when you were trying to talk yourself into the idea that something would be fun.
    They made their way across the room. The dance floor was packed, and the bar was crowded at least two deep. “Why don’t you go find Sunny and everyone and I’ll get the beers?” Lori offered.
    Mandy nodded and drifted off toward the tables. Lori made her way to the bar, getting jostled by people who were leaving with drinks, and jostled again as people who were taller than her pushed past. Even in her boots she barely made five foot four, and she was just about to resort to using her elbows on the