Calamity Janes by Sherryl Woods

Author:Sherryl Woods [Woods, Sherryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-15T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

L istening to the exchange between Ford and her mother, watching the two of them grinning at each other like co-conspirators, rattled Emma worse than the few stolen kisses she had shared with the man. She knew exactly what her mother’s agenda was: to get Emma and Caitlyn back to Winding River permanently. Apparently she was wil ing to enlist an unsuspecting Ford Hamilton in her plan, hoping that his methods of persuasion would be more successful than her own.

Emma stewed about that al during the trip to the mal , al during the movie and al during their outing for Mexican food before heading back to Winding River. Despite Ford’s speculative glances, he didn’t try to ferret out the reason for her silence.

In the car on the way home, though, she saw him glance into the rearview mirror as if to assure himself that Caitlyn had final y fal en asleep in the back seat. Then he turned briefly to Emma.

“Okay, spil it.”

“Spil what?”

“Something’s been on your mind al day. Tel me.”

Emma started to deny it, then sighed. They needed to get this out in the open. “It’s you and my mother.”

He shot her an incredulous look. “Excuse me?”

“I want to know what you were up to back at the house.”

“Up to?” he echoed as if the phrase had no meaning he could divine.

“Don’t you dare play dumb with me, Ford Hamilton. I saw you. I heard you.”

“Wel , if you saw us and heard us, why don’t you tel me what we were up to, because I’m clueless.”

“A journalist admitting he’s clueless,” Emma said scathingly. “That has to be a first. I figured if you didn’t know the facts, you’d just go right ahead and make something up.”

A scowl settled over his features, and for a minute Emma thought she had gone too far. She had promised to stop taking potshots at him. Her vow was only a few days old, and she was already breaking it.

Final y Ford turned to her. “Do you honestly believe that? Have I ever given you any reason to think I would do such a thing?”

Emma struggled to put fairness above her own history. “No,” she conceded reluctantly.

“Okay, then, why don’t you tel me about what you think your mother and I have done, and leave out the uncal ed-for slams against my character?”

She accepted the rebuke as her just deserts. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But it looked to me as if you were conspiring.”

Ford chuckled.

“I’m serious, dammit.”

His expression sobered, but she suspected there was stil a twinkle in his eye. In the dim light of the car she couldn’t see it.

“Don’t you think that’s a little overly dramatic?” he asked. “What were we supposedly conspiring about?”

“Me.”

“Keep talking.”

“She wants you to influence me into staying here, doesn’t she?”

“As if I could,” he said with another deep-throated chuckle. “Emma, is there a person on earth who could make you do something you don’t want to do?”

“No,” she said flatly.

“Wel , then, what are you so worried about?”

“You could try,” she said.

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