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Chapter 2

Communication. - Linda Rorex; USA

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“HE’S HERE TODAY. ANDstaring at you.” Daphne Rolland leaned close to Orchid’s ear, probably speaking low so her daughter, Powell, wouldn’t hear.

Orchid had been babysitting Powell a good bit since Daphne’s mother had had a knee replacement. It had gotten infected, and she was probably going to have to have it replaced again. She’d been off it for several months, and if they couldn’t get the new infection under control, she would be off of it for several more.

“I know. I saw him.” She tried to keep disinterest in her voice as she pursed her lips deliberately.

She had to admit the baseball player’s interest was flattering. And in a deeper part of her heart, away from prying eyes, she could admit there was something about him that made her eyes want to wander over and latch onto him.

It wasn’t because he was handsome, and it wasn’t because he was a famous baseball player. He had something else, something she couldn’t explain. But she figured it was probably something that appealed to the fleshly part of her, since he wasn’t the kind of man she wanted to end up with.

“I bet he’ll ask you out again. It’s been at least a month since the last time,” her twin sister, Lavender, said with a smirk, casting a furtive glance at Powell, who had knelt down and was petting a mama cat.

“I hope not. I feel bad telling him no all the time. You’d think he’d get the hint.”

“You have to admire a man who is determined,” Daphne said, with a little bit of wistfulness in her voice.

It made Orchid think of Powell and who her father might be. Daphne had never said, and Orchid hated to pry. Just the fact that Powell didn’t know made her think that there was some secret Daphne was hiding.

“I think you don’t want him to take the hint.” Her twin sister, who knew her better than anyone else in the world, lifted her brows and gave her a knowing look.

When they had a rare break, Orchid didn’t usually wish the auction would hurry up and get started again, but they were finished with the calves and removing some animals around the back. Lavender and she were helping to load the animals that were sold, and right now, they were just waiting.

She didn’t want to have to answer her sister, though, so she was tempted to step out and go see if the people in the back needed help.

But that was cowardly, and cowardly was not a word she wanted to use to describe herself.

“I think there’s probably something in every woman that wants to be chased the way he seems to be chasing me.” And that was true. She could admit that she was flattered. “But...”

“Why don’t you say yes?” Daphne asked, truly perplexed. She didn’t usually make it to the auction, hadn’t in a long time, since her dad had been killed in a farming accident and she and her mom had been alone on the farm, and especially since her mom’s knee replacement.

In fact, Orchid thought this might be only the first or second time she’d seen Dwight.

“He might be a nice person, but he’s always bragging. Not, not exactly bragging, but he just talks about things that take a lot of money, like fancy restaurants and trips, which I assume he probably took with other women, and I’m sure he knows that I know that, so it’s kind of like he’s not only bragging about where he’s been but that he’s been there with other women. Maybe he doesn’t mean to, but it doesn’t impress me. It’s a turnoff.”

“Yeah. That’s yucky.”

“I don’t really think he means it to be, but he just doesn’t realize how it’s coming across.”

“I think he’s trying to impress her, and he doesn’t know how to do it. Maybe those kinds of things impress the girls he’s used to being around.” Lavender had a certain amount of sense in her words.

And Orchid had admitted that to her before. She looked at Daphne. “Lavender might be right, but that doesn’t change the fact that those are the things he thinks would impress me, which means that he doesn’t know me.”

“But he wants to get to know you! How can he if you won’t talk to him?”

Orchid’s eyes slid toward the stands. Dwight sat with Boone and Roxie Stryker and some of their kids. She didn’t even know that he knew Boone and Roxie. Of course, as much as he’d been hanging around Sweet Water, it made sense that he would have met the owners of the ranch that gave Sweet Water its name.

They were engaged in conversation, but as she watched, Dwight’s eyes scanned the area where she was standing, almost as though he knew she was there, and they landed on her.

Normally she would be embarrassed at being caught staring, but...she didn’t jerk her eyes away like she was tempted to do.

Instead, she gazed steadily back at him.