Page 18 of Westin

“Yep. All graduated and everything.” She glanced at him, a slight smile touching her sweet mouth. “You’re now looking at a girl with a bachelor’s in psychology.”

“What do you plan to do with it?”

She shrugged, taking a small bite of her dessert. “I don’t know. Daddy thinks I should go get my master’s, but it took me nearly five years to get my bachelor’s, so more schooling doesn’t seem like that much fun, you know? I’m ready to try something else.”

“Are you going to stick around the Rocking D for a while?”

She blushed a little as she stole a look at him. “That’s the plan. Right now, I’m helping Momma plan the Cattle Baron’s Ball.”

“Is she the chairwoman this year?”

“She is. It’s going to be the first week of April, so be sure you save the date.”

“I will.”

Her blush darkened as she took another little nibble of her ice cream. “What about you? I heard a rumor you might not be around much longer.”

“Where did you hear that?”

She rolled one shoulder as she tilted her head to look at Westin. “Around. Is it true?”

“I have no plans to move on.”

“Good.”

“Would you be upset if I left town, Rena?”

She turned slightly, concentrating on her cone even though she didn’t take another bite from it. Instead, she rolled it around in her fingers, some of the sweet cream dripping down onto the soft knitted yarn of her gloves. She lifted the finger to her mouth, sucking the sweetness out of the material.

Westin got up and tossed his own cone into a nearby trashcan, turning toward her again with his hands shoved into his back pockets. He watched her, found himself staring into her face the way he’d done over dinner just twenty minutes before. A part of him was looking for something he could recognize there, something beyond the jet-black hair and the familiar jawline. She was a pretty girl—even he could appreciate that. Slender and long-limbed, she reminded him a little of a colt still learning to get its legs under it. And her quick smile revealed more about her than he’d ever really wanted to know. It made the knife of guilt twist hard in his gut, forcing him to push the feeling down, to remind himself why he was here.

He had to remember. He owed her that much.

“I’m glad we did this, Westin,” she said, standing to toss her own cone. “I feel like we’ve had this friendship building between us for years.”

“We have.”

She moved closer to him, but she didn’t touch him. She just stood in front of him, allowing his body to block the freezing wind from touching her exposed skin. But he knew it was more than that, that her closeness was a question. A test maybe. She was offering him something that he couldn’t take.

“I should drive you home.”

She nodded agreeably, but there was a hint of disappointment in her eyes. “My father expressed a desire that I be home by midnight. But I had to remind him that I just turned twenty-one, and therefore I’m old enough to stay out as late as I’d like.”

“He’s overprotective. Perhaps it’s because you’re his only daughter.”

“Only child,” Rena said with something of a growl to her voice. “He reminds me of that every time I turn around. Because I’m the only child, I will one day inherit Rocking D and everything that comes with that. Responsibility is a heavy burden, Rena he tells me all the time. Like I didn’t know that.” She sighed. “I think he worries that I’ll sell the place, the whole kit and caboodle, the second he dies.”

Westin stiffened a little, working hard to keep his emotions from his face as he listened to her complain about things most people never have to worry about. Imagine, inheriting a whole ranch without having to fight for it, without having to work for it. What a burden!

“I’m not even sure I want it,” she said almost wistfully. “Rocking D has always been my dad’s baby. Sometimes I think it’s more important to him than I ever was.”

“Didn’t he inherit it from his father?”

Rena nodded. “It was the first ranch established in this county back when Colorado was still just a territory…” She rolled her eyes. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that spiel. Or how my granddad nearly lost it all in the seventies, which is how Asa Howard ended up with those three hundred acres butting up against Rocking D. My daddy has lamented that decision ever since I can remember, talking all the time about how he’s going to get those acres back if it’s the last thing he ever does.”

“I think he’d have to put Miss Dulcie in the ground first.”

Rena looked grief-stricken just at the thought. “Miss Dulcie is the sweetest woman in the world! I hope that’s not what it takes!”