Dodge the Bullet by Christy Hayes Page B

look what the cat dragged in. Or are
you here to check on my blisters?”
    “I brought a peace offering, Jenny, so you
can tuck your claws back in.”
    Sarah rolled her eyes from the kitchen. The
prospect of them flirting all evening didn’t help her mood. “Can
you two call a truce for one night?”
    Jenny stepped around the barstool and picked
up the wine Dodge had placed on the counter. “Hummm, this ought to
do for an apology. You didn’t buy this around here.”
    “It was a gift from a client in Chicago.
He’s a wine collector and sends me a bottle every now and again.
Trying to fancy me up.”
    Sarah looked up from the steaks. Every time
he opened his mouth it was like peeling away layers of an
onion.
    “Why would a cowboy have a client in
Chicago?” Jenny asked.
    Dodge took a seat in the barstool. Sarah
added the marinade he’d enjoyed to the steaks and assembled the
ingredients for a salad. She listened intently but tried to pretend
otherwise.
    “Former client. I used to be a futures
trader. Made him quite a bit of money awhile back. He parlayed it
into several million more. He shares the wealth with those who
helped him along the way.”
    Jenny smiled and sauntered past him into the
kitchen, searched the drawer for a cork screw and made a production
out of opening the bottle. “Futures trader, huh? Got any more
tricks up your sleeve?”
    Sarah remembered Todd struggling with
futures in college. Todd was the smartest person she’d ever known
when it came to business and the fact that he couldn’t wrap his
highly evolved mind around the futures trade made her think that
Dodge was, as she’d suspected, smarter than he let on. “Futures?
You mean like cattle and corn and stuff? That’s pretty risky,
right?”
    Dodge acknowledged her insight with a nod.
“The risk is worth the payoff when things pan out.” He took the
glass Jenny handed him and set it on the counter. “You familiar
with futures?”
    Sarah laughed uncomfortably. “No, no. I
remember Todd having to deal with it in college. He didn’t like it.
He was conservative with money, very risk averse.”
    “You can make a killing or lose your ass in
futures. A lot of people don’t have the stomach for it.”
    “Or the finances, I’d imagine.” Sarah felt
herself relaxing. She hadn’t had meaningful conversation with a man
or her boys in, oh…she didn’t know how long. And she’d missed it.
She enjoyed the insights and bluntness only a man could bring to a
discussion. And this particular man intrigued her more than most.
He had a look on his face, like he was studying her and she was a
little too interested in what he thought.
    “What did you do in college?” Dodge
asked.
    “Advertising.” Sarah watched the play of
light in those tawny eyes of his. He had a way of looking at her
that made it impossible to forget he was male. All male. “I stayed
as far away from business as possible.”
    “And here you want to run a cattle
business.” He pushed her glass of wine across the counter and
stretched his legs in front of him. “How are the fences
coming?”
    “Great. They’re scheduled to start tomorrow.
As long as the weather holds, they should be done by next
week.”
    Jenny leaned on the counter, offered a
tantalizing view of her ample chest. “So I take it you haven’t
lived in the valley your whole life then, cowboy?”
    “Been gone a long time. Just came back a few
months ago.”
    “Do you plan to stay?”
    He stood up. “There’s no place like home,
isn’t that what they say? What’s the score?” he asked the boys as
he moved into the den.
    He hadn’t answered the question, Sarah
noticed. Jenny passed her a look suggesting they thought the same
thing. Even as girls, as different as they’d always been, their
minds worked the same. She watched Dodge try to make conversation
with Kevin and Lyle. She wanted them to get along. They needed a
man in their life, although it seemed unlikely Dodge would be a
regular visitor,