Tyler by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd
Published: 2014-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Hi, Aunt Nell,” they chorused. “Can we watch that new science fiction movie on the VCR?”

“Sure. Go ahead,” she said with forced tolerance, but her heart was breaking. “Where’d your mother go?”

“Uncle Tyler’s taking her into town,” Curt volunteered disinterestedly as he searched for the right videocassette. “I sure like Uncle Tyler.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jess agreed.

So it was “uncle” already, Nell thought, groaning inwardly. She made some brief excuse and left the room before the boys could see the tears forming in her eyes.

After that day Nell started avoiding him again. Not that it was necessary. Tyler cut her dead every time he saw her, his eyes hard and accusing, as if she’d betrayed him somehow. Nell began to wilt emotionally.

Margie and the boys left, but she and Tyler had seemed to spend a lot of time together during that visit, and Margie had been very nervous and standoffish around Darren. So any hope Nell had that her sister-in-law might be interested in her old flame was washed away almost immediately. It was Tyler Margie wanted, and Nell didn’t have a chance anymore. Not with Tyler nearly hating her for what he thought she’d done. As if she could have borne the touch of any man’s hands but his; it seemed impossible that he didn’t know that.

After Margie left, a morose Darren McAnders began to seek Nell out to talk about the way Margie had avoided him. He was hurt, just as she was, and their common pain brought them together as friends. She even found an odd kind of comfort in his presence.

It was an odd turn of events all around, she thought as she walked with Darren to the corral fence to see two new mares Tyler had bought. Darren was turning out to be a friend.

“You’re looking moody lately,” Darren remarked as they watched Chappy work one of the unbroken mares on a lunging rein. He glanced at her and smiled mischievously. “And the boss is explosive. The men are betting on how long it’s going to be before he throws a punch at somebody just to let the pressure off.”

She flushed. “It’s complicated,” she said.

He propped a boot on the lowest rail of the corral fence. “It’s pretty funny for me to be offering you a shoulder to cry on, when I was your worst enemy at one time. But times have changed and so have I. And if you need somebody to listen, here I am, honey.”

She looked up at him tearfully. He was different, all right. A new man altogether. She managed a smile.

He smiled back and pulled her against him to give her a friendly, totally platonic hug.

But Tyler happened to be looking out the window in the bunkhouse and he saw them. And what was a platonic hug didn’t look that way to a man already trying to cope with emotions he was feeling for the first time in his life, and eaten up with unfamiliar jealousy, to boot. Tyler let out a string of range language, turned and stormed off to where he’d tied his horse.

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