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“Now Damaris. The last time we were together you called me Grandma K.”

“Yes, ma’am. Grandma K.”

“Good. Now why don’t you and I go sit in the other room while Nate sets the table. You don’t mind eating in the kitchen, do you?”

“Wherever you want to eat is fine with me.”

“Nate, you know where everything is. And no paper plates, either.” To Damaris she said, “He doesn’t like to clean up and always tries to use paper plates. Sometimes I let him.”

Damaris shot him a ‘uh-oh, should I be worried?’ look over her shoulder as she left the room.

Honestly, who could tell with Grandma?

*

To Damaris’s relief, Grandma K started off asking her about her horses. Grandma K had been a barrel racer back in the day. In fact, she’d only quit riding in her late eighties when she moved into town after her ranch became too much for her to handle on her own.

“Did I hear you have a new stud?”

“Yes, his name is Thunder. He’s a grullo paint. Let me show you some pictures.” She took out her phone and found the latest photos of the horses, showing them to Grandma K.

“He’s a beauty. I had a blue roan years ago and your Thunder reminds me of him. He wasn’t a paint, though. Wish I still rode but the family would have a fit.” She eyed Damaris. “I don’t suppose you’d—”

“No way, Grandma K. Nate would kill me. But I’ll ask him to bring you out to visit. Would that be all right?”

“Better than nothing, I suppose. Speaking of Nate, why don’t I see any pictures of you two? Or at least of Nate? I’ve seen a few men, but I’m guessing they’re your brothers since you resemble each other.”

Crap. She should have thought of that. Luckily she had some from a few weeks before when she’d asked Nate to take her to the annual Hill Country Horse Breeders Association dinner and dance. “Here’s one of us at the horse breeders dinner.” Grandma knew all about the dinner since she’d been instrumental in the founding of the association. Besides barrel racing Grandma K had raised cutting horses for a while, along with taking part in a variety of other ventures.

Damaris found the picture and turned the phone so Grandma K could see it. Damaris had gone with Nate since Marshall and Chase were both taking their wives and had hassled her about going solo. She didn’t want to go with any of the men they found to take her, so she’d asked Nate to take her, and he’d agreed. The photo was one someone had snapped and sent to her, of the two of them dancing and laughing. They looked happy, and totally relaxed with each other.

Grandma K looked at it for quite a while until Damaris began to grow uneasy. “You look like you’re having fun. You make a nice couple,” she finally said, handing the phone back to Damaris.

Damaris scrolled through and found a couple of Nate. One of him riding, which made Grandma laugh, and another of him leaning against his car waiting for her to go somewhere. She couldn’t remember where, but she remembered the picture. “You can tell he loves that car like it’s his baby,” Damaris said.

Grandma K laughed. “He surely does. I wonder what he’d choose if he had to pick between that car and his airplane.”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask him.”

“Hey, you two. The table is set,” Nate called from the other room.

Thank God. Before she put up her phone, Damaris looked at the first photo surreptitiously, wondering what Grandma K had seen that was so fascinating. She didn’t find it.

Chapter Ten

After lunch Grandma took Nate aside when Damaris went to the bathroom. “I thought you and Damaris were dating?”

“We are. Why?”

“Damaris showed me a picture of you two at the horse breeders dinner. She found a couple more, but it seems like there should have been more. You’re totally in love with that girl. Now as for Damaris, I’m not so sure about her.”

Neither was he, so he said nothing.

“Have you slept with her yet?”

“Grandma! What the hell?” Why had he thought Grandma would back off when he’d told her that wasn’t her business? When had she ever backed off from something she wanted to know?

She waved a hand. “Oh, don’t be such a prude. I haven’t gotten to my age without being aware of what goes on between a man and a woman. Answer the question.”