Texas Tender by Leigh Greenwood Page A

anything more likely to give Mara the wrong impression about his feelings for her than being alone with her in the moonlight. To make matters worse, Alma McGloughlin had spent the entire evening staring at him with a dazed look that had the power to instill terror in his heart. He’d seen that look before. It was the
I’m going to be your mother-in-law
look that had been fatal to so many incautious young men. But Will wasn’t incautious. Despite his rather easygoing attitude, he had a highly developed sense of self-preservation. He and Mara were now sitting in the yard facing away from the house. They were close enough to the house to cause no anxiety to her parents but far enough away to be able to talk quietly without being overheard.
    â€œYou won’t have to buy a ranch or cows for your bull,” Mara was saying. “Daddy has everything you need right here.”
    What was it about women that took them from seeing a man they liked straight to planning the weddingand the next twenty years, all in less than twenty-four hours? Mara had never even asked if he was single. No one had. It was time he shifted the focus of the conversation. “What was it you saw in Carl that made you fall in love with him?”
    Mara’s blissful expression turned to confusion, tinged by melancholy.
    â€œCarl is a sweet boy, but he’s so immature.”
    She was trying to sound grown-up but only succeeded in sounding insincere.
    â€œMaybe, but what was it you liked about him originally? You can’t have forgotten it already.”
    Mara’s lips pushed forward in a pout. Before she could make the expected objection, her expression changed. She took her lower lip between her teeth, dropped her gaze to her hands, which had begun to twist in her lap.
    â€œI don’t know. I just liked him,” she said.
    â€œDid you look forward to being with him?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhy?”
    She looked away. “He was always doing sweet things.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLike telling me how pretty I was, how he dreamed about me, how he couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life with anyone except me.”
    â€œIs that important?”
    â€œYes, but—”
    â€œWhat did you like to do when you were together?”
    â€œWe’d take rides. Sometimes we’d find a place to sit and talk.”
    â€œWhat did you talk about?”
    She blushed. “He’d talk about the flowers he’d bring me, or the pretty dresses he’d buy for me. You probably think that’s silly.”
    â€œWhy would I think that?”
    â€œDaddy and Webb said real men didn’t talk about flowers and women’s clothes.”
    â€œIs that what you think?”
    â€œI don’t know.” She looked confused. “Van says the same thing.” She looked embarrassed. “He laughed at me when I asked him what kind of flowers he’d give a girl.”
    â€œDo you like Van?” The quiet of the evening seemed to be affecting Mara. She became more contemplative as the sun sank out of sight and the sky turned orange shot through with blood red.
    â€œHe’s okay.”
    â€œBut you feel more comfortable with Carl?”
    Mara nodded.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œVan makes me feel like a little girl. He thinks all the things I say or do are silly. He says I’ll think differently when I’m a woman.”
    Will had a poor opinion of Van, but now he added stupidity to his list of shortcomings. He didn’t know if Van didn’t want to marry Mara or if he was just after her father’s ranch and considered her a necessary part of the bargain.
    â€œEverybody’s ideas change a little as they grow older, but there’s nothing wrong with what you feel now,” Will said. “It certainly doesn’t mean you’re silly.”
    â€œDaddy says I’ll understand when I get to be Van’s age.”
    â€œI’m older than Van,