“Good heavens!”

“There has never been a problem with safety here, at the house,” Chaca was quick to add. “And we have the Border Patrol as well. Those people are very good at their jobs.”

“That makes me feel better,” Mina said.

“The baby, you are happy about it?”

Mina drew in a long breath. “So happy!” she said. “Every day is like a miracle. I can’t wait until I’m really showing.” She grinned. “I’m looking forward to maternity clothes. I guess that sounds sappy.”

“It sounds like a woman in love who very much wants her child.”

“It’s like a dream, you know. I fell in love with a cowboy. I expected to live in a small house and do laundry and cook…”

“I do those things for you,” Chaca said with a smile. “So you have time to sit and dream about the baby.”

She laughed. “Well, I write a lot. So I’ll be in my room a good bit, especially while Cort’s away. Does he take these trips often?”

Chaca looked hunted. She didn’t reply, busying herself with the preparation of the omelet.

“Chaca?” Mina prompted.

Chaca took the completed omelet off the stove and slid it onto a platter. She turned off the burner before she brought it to the small table where Mina was sitting. “He is almost never home, as a rule,” she confessed, flushing a little. “It is a big responsibility, the business. When his father was home last, he took much of the burden off the señor. But since the talk of divorce, Vic has been helpless. He does nothing, so Cort must now do it all. It is a shame. When Parker lived at home, he also helped with the business.” She finished setting the table and poured coffee into a cup for Mina. “It is too much for one man. I would like to say this, but I only work here.”

“I’ll say it,” Mina promised.

“If he would only delegate,” Chaca sighed. “He has competent people who run the real estate business, but he must involve himself in every part of it. Like this labor strike. He has negotiators and a business manager who could solve it themselves, but he trusts no one to do it except himself.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Mina promised.

Chaca smiled. “We will hope for change, then. Here, eat your omelet before it gets cold.”

“The coffee is good,” Mina said.

“It is decaf,” came the dry reply. “Caffeine is not good for the baby.”

Mina just laughed.

VIC CAME OUT of his room near bedtime. Mina was in the guest room with the door open, working away at the computer. It was a wonderful coincidence that she was working on a book set in Texas, and here she was in the best place to research it. Life, she thought, was funny.

She was deep in the middle of a shoot-out between rustlers and cowboys in the modern day setting when Vic paused at the doorway, frowning.