The Cowboy

the good news?"
    "That you and Bev are involved? Yes, he did."
    Connor scowled slightly. "I don't know about
involved
. I'm not up on all the new terminology. Is that what they call plannin' to get married nowadays?"
    Margaret swallowed. Rafe had been right. This was serious. "You're planning marriage?"
    "Yes, we are." Bev looked at Margaret with a faint air of challenge. "I hope you approve."
    "I wish you both the best," Margaret made herself say politely. "You'll understand that the news has come as something of a shock. I had no idea you two had even met until Rafe mentioned it."
    "Take it easy, Maggie, girl," Connor said gently. "There were reasons I didn't want to talk about it until now."
    "Reasons?" She pinned him with her gaze.
    "Now, Maggie, lass, you know what I'm talkin' about. The situation 'tween you and Rafe here has been a mite tense for some time."
    Margaret arched her brows and slid a long, assessing glance at Rafe. "Tense? I wouldn't say that. I wasn't particularly tense at all during the past year. Were you tense, Rafe?"
    "I had my moments," he muttered.
    She nodded. "Well, I did try to warn you about stress, didn't I? As I recall, I gave you several pithy little lectures about your long hours, nonexistent vacations and general tendency to put your work first."
    "I believe you did mention the subject. Several times, in fact."
    Margaret smiled coldly. "Come now, Rafe, you can be honest in front of Dad and your mother. Admit the full truth. Toward the end there I was starting to turn into a full-blown nag when it came to the matter of your total devotion to work, wasn't I? I think I was even beginning to threaten you that if our relationship didn't get equal time there wouldn't be a relationship."
    Bev shifted uneasily in her chair, her eyes swinging to Connor.
    Margaret's father whistled soundlessly. "Oh, ho. So that's the way of it, is it?"
    Rafe gave Margaret a repressive stare. "I had my hands full last year when we met, if you'll recall. I was juggling a couple of companies that were valued in the millions. Things are different now. I'm making some changes in my life."
    "Such as?"
    "I've cut way back on the juggling, for one thing." He flashed her a quick grin.
    Margaret was not amused. "I find that hard to believe."
    "Hey, I'm down here in Arizona with you, aren't I?" He smiled again. "Two full weeks, maybe three if I get lucky. You have my full attention, Maggie, love."
    "Not quite. You're in the middle of negotiating a deal with my father, remember?"
    Connor chuckled. "She's got you there, Rafe. We are supposed to be talking business off and on, aren't we?"
    "Speaking of this little matter of selling the company you built with the sweat of your brow, Dad, just what is going on?" Margaret pinned her father with a quelling glare.
    "What can I tell you?" Connor shrugged massively. "It's the truth. If I can get a decent offer out of Cassidy, here, Lark Engineering is his."
    "But, Dad, you never told me you were thinking of selling."
    "The time has come to enjoy some of the money I made with all that brow sweat. Bev and I plan to do a lot of traveling and a fair amount of just plain fooling around. I'm even looking at a nifty little yacht. Can't you just see me in that fancy yachting getup?"
    "But the company has always been so important to you, Dad."
    "It's still important. Maggie, girl, I'll be perfectly truthful with you. If you'd stayed in the business world, shown a real interest in it, I'd probably have turned it over to you one of these days. But let's face it, girl, you aren't cut out for that world. And now you've got yourself a fine new career, one you've taken to like a duck to water. I'm glad for you, but it leaves me with a problem. I've got to do something with the firm."
    "So you're just going to hand it over to Rafe?"
    "He's not exactly handing it over," Rafe muttered. "Your father is holding me at gunpoint. You ought to hear what he's asking for Lark."
    "I see." Margaret felt some of the righteous determination seep out of her. Everything was already beyond her control. Rafe was in command, as usual. Things would go his way. A curious sense of inevitability began to come over her. Determinedly she fought back. "Where's the ubiquitous Hatcher?" Margaret asked, glancing meaningfully around the pool. "Surely you haven't dismissed your faithful, loyal, ever-present assistant for two solid weeks?"
    Rafe took a swallow of tea. "Hatcher is going to drop by occasionally to brief me on how