“He would not,” Brenda said firmly. “But you stop thinking like that. Morris is not taking you out. If he tries to, he’ll think he walked into a prickly pear cactus. My brother will have him roasted!”

Clancey managed a smile. “Your brother is a kind man,” she said quietly.

“He has a soft heart. It just doesn’t show.” She drew in a long breath. “Grace has him tied in knots,” she muttered. “She wants him to take an administrative position and give up raising cattle and living on a ranch.” She made a face and shook her head. “He’s been hung up on her for years, but she’s changed. She’s not the same woman he remembers from Houston.”

“She seems very nice,” Clancey said.

“She is very nice. But she’s so involved in her work that nothing else matters to her. If you want to know what I think, I think she’ll never get married. She has a job that makes her feel useful and gives her a purpose in life. She finds things wrong with the men around her to keep them from getting serious.” She glanced through the door to make sure her brother was still talking to Tad. She turned back to Grace. “She’d already talked Mike Johns, her fiancé, into giving up police work and anything to do with guns. He wasn’t happy about it. I’m not sure she would ever have married him. She was already very involved with church work. Colt said they’d had a nasty fight the day before Mike was killed, about his job.”

“That’s so sad.”

“It would be even sadder if she ended up with my brother,” Brenda said flatly. “You can see how unsettled he already is by her. She hates his job, she hates cattle ranching, she hates guns...but it’s all just excuses. Her heart’s where she left it, in the work she was doing in South America. No man in the world is ever going to be able to replace it. Colt hasn’t figured that out yet. I hope he will, before he lets her ruin his life.”

Clancey didn’t know what to say. Which was just as well, because Tad came running into the room to see if his milk was ready. Miss Kitty and the kitten were right behind him.

“It’s a parade,” Clancey teased, smiling at her little brother.

“Aren’t they cute?” he exclaimed. “Mr. Banks says that the kitten can stay here and I can come visit it and Miss Kitty whenever I want!”

“That’s kind of you,” Clancey said softly.

He grinned at her. “I’m very kind,” he pointed out. “Not that you ever notice it. Nasturtium,” he added deliberately.

THIRTEEN

“I am not a Nasturtium,” Clancey said belligerently.

“A likely story,” he returned.

“What’s a nas...nastu...?” Tad asked.