The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

on your own from here on in. She's afraid Maggie's going to take off the minute our backs are turned."

    Rafe's eyes met Margaret's. "Maggie's not going anywhere, are you, Maggie?"

    Under the combined scrutiny of Bev, Tom, her father and her lover, Margaret felt herself turning pink. "Well, I had thought I might stay a few more days but that decision is subject to change if the pressure gets to be too much," she informed them all in dry tones.

    "Pressure?" Rafe assumed an innocent, injured air. "What pressure? There's no pressure being applied, Maggie, love. Just bear in mind that if you take off this time, I'll be no more than fifteen minutes behind you and I won't be real happy."

    "In that case, I suppose I might as well stay. As it happens, I have a social engagement here on Monday evening."

    That succeeded in getting everyone's attention.

    "What social engagement?" Rafe demanded. "You don't know anyone here in Tucson except me."

    "That's not quite true, Rafe. I also know your sister and her friend Sean Winters. I've been invited to a showing of Sean's work."

    "You're going to some damned art show?"

    Margaret smiled serenely. "I thought you might like to escort me."

    Rafe's brows came together in one solid, unyielding line. He slammed the trunk shut. "Like hell. We'll discuss this later."

    Connor Lark turned to his fiancée. "Something tells me the children won't be bored while we're gone, dear. I think they're going to be able to entertain themselves just fine without us."

    Bev glanced curiously from Margaret's cool, deliberate smile to Rafe's thunderous scowl. "Something tells me you're right, Connor."

    Rafe stood beside Margaret as Connor drove away from the house. When the car was out of sight he took Margaret's arm and turned her firmly back into the foyer.

    "Now tell me what the hell this business is about attending an exhibition of Winters's work."

    "It's very simple. Julie and Sean invited me last night before they left. I accepted." She took a deep breath. "On behalf of both of us."

    Rafe propped one shoulder against the wall in the negligent, dangerous pose he did so well. He folded his arms across his chest. "Is that right?"

    Margaret cleared her throat delicately. "Yes. Right."

    "What the devil do you think you're doing, Maggie?'

    "Manipulating you into giving your sister's choice of a husband a fair chance?" She tried a smile to lighten the atmosphere.

    "Trying to manipulate me is right. At least you're honest about it. But you should know me well enough by now to know I don't like being manipulated, not even by you. And what the hell do you mean my sister's choice of a
husband
? She told you she's actually thinking of marrying that damned artist?"

    "They told me their plans last night. I think they have every intention of following through, Rafe, with or without your approval. You'd better learn to accept the situation graciously or risk alienating your sister."

    "Damnation." Rafe came away from the wall and plowed his fingers through his hair. "Marry him? I didn't know they were that serious. I thought Winters was just another boyfriend. Julie's always got one or two trailing around behind her."

    Margaret eyed him with a feeling of sympathy. "You've been looking after her for so long you may not have noticed she's grown up, Rafe. Julie's an adult woman. She makes her own choices."

    "Some choices. She hasn't even been able to choose a job she can stay with for six months at a time. The guy's an artist, Maggie. Why couldn't she have found herself a nice, respectable…" His voice trailed off abruptly and he slid a quick glance at Margaret.

    "A nice, respectable businessman? Someone who wears three-piece suits and ties and travels two weeks out of every month? Someone who needs an attractive, self-sacrificing hostess of a wife to entertain his guests while he closes big deals?"

    Rafe winced. "Is that what you thought I'd turn you into? The boss's wife?"

    "It's one of the things I was afraid of, yes."

    "You should have said something."

    "I tried. You never listened."

    "I'm listening now," Rafe said evenly. His gaze locked with hers. "Believe me?"

    Margaret nodded slowly. "Yes," she said, "I think I do."

    Rafe nodded once. "Okay, that's settled. But that doesn't mean I'm going to approve of Winters."

    "Rafe, they don't need your approval. They're quite capable of getting married without it."

    "You think so?" Rafe's mouth twisted. "What if Winters finds out Julie doesn't