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  She’d talked her brother into putting up flyers around town, but the personal touch never hurt. The more word spread about the reopening, the better her chances were of getting more customers to come to the shop.

  “We’ll be sure to do that,” DJ promised. “I’m sure that Allaire will find something she likes, she always does.” He grinned at her. “She can be your first customer.”

  “I’m afraid that Cody’s already beaten her to that,” Catherine said with a laugh, gesturing at Cody.

  When she said the name, DJ glanced toward the man sitting at the table for the first time. Recognition suddenly flashed in his eyes.

  “Cody?” he repeated. He asked uncertainly, “Cody Overton?”

  “Yeah, that’s me,” Cody replied without any sort of fanfare.

  DJ made up for it for both of them. Grasping Cody’s hand, he pumped it up and down enthusiastically several times.

  “How the hell are you?” he cried with genuine pleasure. “I haven’t seen you since—well, forever, I guess.” Not content to just let it go at that, DJ did his best to try to pinpoint the time. “High school, wasn’t it?”

  Cody nodded. “That’s about right.” Debating with himself for a minute or so, he asked the question that was on his mind. “Did I hear you say something about bringing Allaire?”

  Ordinarily, he didn’t pry into other people’s lives, but since DJ’s brother Dax had gotten engaged to Allaire at the same time that he had slipped an engagement ring on Renee’s finger, it made him wonder how the other couple was faring. Had DJ taken to escorting his older brother’s wife around?

  Nodding, DJ said, “Yes, you did. Allaire’s my wife.” The surprised look in Cody’s eyes was impossible to miss. Explanations were apparently in order. “I guess you didn’t hear. Dax and Allaire divorced. Dax got married again and he’s really happy this time, so things worked out for the best for everyone,” he assured his newest patron. His words echoed back at him just as he remembered hearing the news about Cody’s wife’s untimely death. “I never had a chance to tell you how really sorry I was to hear about Renee,” he said solemnly to Cody.

  “Thanks,” Cody replied crisply. He really didn’t want to get into that now. Not here. Actually, not anywhere. Especially not around the woman sitting opposite him at the table. He closed the topic by saying, “She would have been happy for you. She always thought you had a thing for Allaire.”

  DJ laughed softly, not bothering to deny what had been an open secret to everyone but his older brother. “I always said Renee was a class act.” He placed a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “Well, I’ve got to get back to mingling,” he told them. “Really great seeing you again, Cody. Order anything you like,” he told them, beginning to back away. “Dinner’s on me.”

  “Oh, no, that’s all right,” Catherine began to protest.

  Already moving on to another table, DJ paused for just a moment longer. “One thing you’re going to be learning, Catie, is that nobody argues with the owner. That’s one of the perks of being the owner,” he told her with a wink.

  The next moment he was gone, absorbed by the din and the crowd.

  “Well, I guess that means I still owe you a dinner out,” Catherine said, leaning forward so that Cody could hear her.

  “You don’t owe me anything,” Cody told her briskly. “You gave me that coin purse to send to Caroline, remember?”

  The smile on her lips told him that she remembered, all right. “How did that work out, anyway?” Catherine asked. “Did your sister receive her gift in time?”

  He remembered the call that morning and struggled to block the anger that accompanied the memory. “Yeah, it got there, all right.”

  He didn’t sound very happy about it. Not that she expected him to do handsprings; she knew better than that. But she had seen him several notches happier on a couple of occasions.

  “Something wrong with it?” she asked, wondering if the gift had met with an accident while en route or if his sister ultimately hadn’t liked the purse.

  “No, nothing was wrong with it.” Why was she asking? He was fairly certain that he hadn’t given anything away with his expression. “As a matter of fact, Caroline called this morning to thank me for it, so I guess I should pass that thanks on to you since you were the one who insisted I take it.”

  “Okay, there’s nothing wrong with it, but there is something wrong,” Catherine insisted. “I can see it in your eyes.”

  No, she couldn’t, he thought in protest. He always kept a tight rein on his emotions. “Just the lighting,” he finally said with a shrug.

  Catherine looked at him pointedly. “You know, if someone had asked me, I would have bet money that you didn’t lie. I guess I would have lost that bet, huh?” There was a look of disappointment on her face.

  Cody opened his mouth to protest, to insist that he wasn’t lying, but the words never rose to his lips. Instead, he sighed in resignation.

  He supposed there was no point in denying it any longer. “It’s just that I wish she’d wake up.”

  He was going to have to elaborate on that one. “Come again?”

  Instead, Cody just repeated what he’d just said. “I wish she’d wake up.”

  “About what?” she coaxed.

  For an unguarded moment, anger flashed in his green eyes. “About that damned worthless piece of garbage she’s married to.”

  Watching him intently, Catherine came to her own conclusions. For Cody to say that with such feeling... Only one of two things could have prompted those words from him.

  She took a guess. “Does he abuse her?”

  He laughed shortly. It was the sound of complete frustration. “She won’t tell me—”

  “But you suspect it.” The waitress returned to refill their glasses. Catherine paused, waiting for the woman to leave again before she continued. “Why?” she pressed the second the waitress turned away. Was Cody just being overprotective or was there something concrete he was basing all this on?

  “Why?” he echoed almost in contempt, but his ire was directed at the man who wasn’t there. “Because every time I talk to her, Caroline sounds like she’s afraid of her own shadow. She keeps her voice low, like she’s afraid he’ll overhear her. It’s not that she’s saying anything bad, I just get the feeling she’s not supposed to talk to anyone. And she goes along with that,” he lamented angrily.

  Taking a breath, he continued, “She never used to be like that. She was a fighter who didn’t take anything from anyone. At least—” he scrubbed his hand over his face “—she used to be like that. It’s as if the bum just sucked out her soul and left this quaking shell in its wake.” There was bitterness in his voice. “She called today to thank me for remembering her. She was hardly on the phone for two minutes when I heard him bellowing for her. I could almost hear her jump. She said she had to go and then hung up before I could say anything else to her.”

  That did sound like someone who was being at least mentally abused, if not physically as well.

  “Well, if she were my sister and I really thought she was being abused by her husband, I’d drive up to wherever she was and make her come back with me until I could sort everything out—and meanwhile have the bastard arrested for domestic abuse.”

  The answer, coming from her, surprised him. He studied Catherine’s face for a long moment, his eyes searching hers.

  She meant what she’d just said, Cody realized. She might look like she’d be easygoing, a person who just floated along with things, but she really did have more than her share of spunk—just the way he’d initially thought.

  He liked that.

  Liked the fact that she’d also just displayed that she had a very strong sense of family. “And that’s what you’d do if it was your sister?” he asked.

  She nodded with enthusiasm, then said, “Hell, I’d do it if it was your sister.” Which brought her to another question. “You want me to go see her, talk to her for you?”

  There was just no
end to the surprises with this woman. And with each discovery, he found himself liking her more and more.

  “You’d really do that?” he pressed.

  There was no hesitation—or any bravado for that matter. Just a simple conviction. “Sure, if you think I could help. People should always be willing to help other people in trouble,” she told him simply. “So,” she said after a moment’s pause, “do you want me to go see her, talk to her?”

  “No,” he said. Not that he wasn’t grateful, but this was his battle to fight, not hers. “Besides, you’ve got a grand opening to get ready for,” he reminded her. “I’ll give Caroline a little longer to come around and start acting more like her old self.” And then he shrugged. “Who knows, maybe I’m just overreacting. I never did like that guy,” he freely admitted. And then he lowered his voice so that he was almost talking to himself. Catherine leaned in even closer. “And to be honest, I do feel a little responsible for her being with him.”

  There was only one interpretation as far as she could see. “You set them up when you didn’t like the guy?” Catherine asked.

  But even as she put the question to him, she couldn’t imagine him doing anything like that.

  “No, nothing like that,” he said quickly. “It’s just that I think she married Rory because she didn’t want to be alone.” He saw by the question in her eyes that he had some backtracking to do.

  “Our parents were killed in a hit-and-run accident when I was eighteen. After I got married, my sister suddenly found herself all alone in a house that had once held four people. She felt abandoned, and when Rory asked her to marry him, I guess she just jumped at it, because she needed someone of her own. She thought Rory was that someone,” he concluded with a deep, disgruntled sigh.

  Cody usually just kept everything under wraps and part of him was really surprised that he was unloading this way to another human being. But there was just something about this particular human being that seemed to draw the words out of him.

  “I should have insisted she come live with us. Renee thought it would be a good idea. I went along with it, but I have to admit I was a little relieved when Caroline turned the offer down. I was being selfish.” When he looked up at her, Catherine could see the guilt in his eyes. “I wanted to be alone with Renee. I felt like we were still on our honeymoon and I really wanted that feeling to last.”

  She’d known there was a softer side to this man. The fact that he could agonize over something he felt he could have done differently—rather than just shrug it off—proved it.

  “You weren’t being selfish,” she insisted, putting her hand on top of his, unconsciously forming an unspoken bond. “You were just being a newlywed. There’s nothing wrong with that.” She found it touching and sensitive, but she had a feeling that if she said anything to that effect, it would only irritate him, so for the time being, she kept that part to herself.

  Instead, she painted a slightly broader stroke. “The fact that you even offered to take your sister in shows that your heart was in the right place.”

  A lot of good that did Caroline now, Cody thought darkly as guilt scratched away at him. He could tell just by her tone and the things that Catherine was saying that the young woman was really trying hard to absolve him of that.

  He did his best to pay her back by attempting to lighten the mood. “Are you always this Pollyannaish?” he asked her.

  “Always,” she told him. “I find that it helps get me through the day—and I’ve got a feeling that my positive attitude is going to come in real handy once I open Real Vintage Cowboy for business.”

  Catherine was well aware that she had a big, uphill battle before her. Most new businesses failed before the end of their first year.

  She didn’t intend to.

  “The what?” he asked, realizing that his mind had drifted off for a second even though his eyes had been all but nailed down on one view.

  Catherine.

  He caught himself looking at her as if he hadn’t seen her before. Was it just him or was she actually getting prettier as they sat here?

  “The store,” she reminded him tactfully. “Real Vintage Cowboy,” she repeated. “That’s the name I gave it, remember?”

  “I do now,” he admitted. His wince was exaggerated as he went on to ask her, “You sure you want to go with that name?”

  She didn’t understand why he didn’t like it and she certainly wasn’t about to be dissuaded from using it. She really liked the name she’d come up with. And he had been her inspiration.

  “Yes, I’m sure I want to ‘go with that name.’ I named the store after this really grumpy cowboy I recently met,” she told him, tongue in cheek. “And besides, I think it’s very appropriate. They both seem to represent something that’s a little old, a little new, a little reliable, a little unpredictable.” Catherine was looking at him pointedly as she went over the various diametrically opposing traits she’d witnessed him display.

  “You get all that out of a single name, huh?” he marveled with an echo of a laugh punctuating his question.

  Catherine nodded. “Yup. Pretty good, don’t you think?”

  “Haven’t given it that much thought,” he lied. “I just think it’s a mouthful, that’s all.”

  She leaned her head on her upturned palm and asked, “Okay, I’ll bite. What would you call it?”

  He thought for a second, then said, “The Place.”

  She waited for more. There wasn’t any. “‘The Place’? That’s it?” she asked, stunned.

  He didn’t see the problem. “Yeah. I figure that’s enough.”

  Catherine shook her head. “Good thing it’s my store and not yours” She laughed softly. The look in her eyes reinforced the sound.

  It took Cody more than a couple of seconds to rouse himself before he could go back to eating his dinner. Not that there was much room left in his stomach, not after it had all but tightened into a knot the way it had just now.

  Chapter Eight

  All through dinner, Catherine had been trying to find a way to broach the subject that DJ had inadvertently introduced when he’d stopped by earlier. But here she was, more than halfway finished with the meal and the question still sat there in her mind like an impenetrable fortress that had no visible point of access.

  Finally, she decided that if she wanted to know anything, she was just going to have to leap into the center of it like a paratrooper jumping out of an airplane.

  “Renee was your wife?”

  She kept her tone mild, upbeat. Even so, she saw Cody’s shoulders instantly become rigid. When he raised his head to look at her, she found that she was looking into the eyes of a man who had completely closed himself off again.

  Well, you started this. Get on with it, Catherine silently ordered herself. There’s no turning back for you anymore.

  “Yes.” The single word sounded heavy with emotion, as if he was telling her that if she continued down this path, it was at her own risk.

  Catherine pushed onward. She pressed her lips together, summoning courage and hoping that her words didn’t wind up reopening any wounds.

  “DJ said he was sorry about what happened.” Her throat almost felt as if it was raw as she quietly asked the key question that had been preying on her mind, “What did happen?”

  His face was utterly expressionless as he answered, “Renee died.”

  Catherine’s breath immediately evaporated from her lungs. She wasn’t exactly sure what she’d expected Cody to say. Something along the lines, she realized, that the woman, unable to put up with his sullenness any longer, had left him.

  This put an entirely new spin on the matter.

  She could feel her heart quickening as it overflowed with sympathy. “Oh—”

  He’d heard that sound before, that sharp intake of breath that occurred before the woman who’d uttered the single word suddenly launched into an emotion-dripping speech aimed at helping him heal—and at obtaining his undying gratitude and loyalty
in the process.

  Ain’t gonna happen, he thought with a vengeance.

  Served him right for thinking that Catherine was different from the others.

  Cody cut her off before Catherine could say anything further. His eyes narrowed as he asked, “You’re not going to turn into one of those women who feels sorry for ‘the poor helpless widower,’ are you?”

  Catherine could almost hear the sneer in his voice. “Well, I am sorry for your loss and for the grief you’ve obviously gone through,” she told him.

  She saw that Cody had moved back his chair and realized that he was getting up to leave. She talked faster, hoping to get him to change his mind with her words. It was all she had since she had no intentions of attempting to hog-tie him or throw herself in his path, blocking his exit.

  “But I hardly see you as a ‘helpless’ anything. You’re obviously fending for yourself. You’ve got that ranch of yours where I hear that you’re making a decent living training quarter horses.”

  Almost against his will, Cody lowered himself back down onto his chair, then moved it back until his legs were squarely under the table again. But he wasn’t completely settled in.

  Yet.

  His eyes narrowed again as he studied her. “How do you know I train quarter horses?” he asked. “Or that I even have a ranch, much less that I’m making—how did you put it—a ‘decent living’ at it?”

  “Word gets around,” Catherine told him matter-of-factly.

  Especially if you ask, she added silently. She’d had her older brother, Craig, find out a few basic things about Cody for her, which he did just to make sure that she was safe around “this character,” as he referred to Cody.

  But Cody didn’t need to know that part—especially since, she had a feeling, it would probably make him withdraw into whatever shell he was in the habit of residing in. The Cody Craig had told her about wasn’t generally regarded as a “social” creature.