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telling her about Wildcat Bluff. She hadn’t had much in the way of expectations of the place coming up here. Of course, she could have listened to Trey’s smooth baritone all day—and well into the night.
    “Impossible to stay undiscovered,” Trey said as he sighed and shook his head. “With all our natural resources it’s impossible to stay under the radar. Water. Timber. Coal, gas, oil. Cattle. Not to mention our soil’s so fertile it’ll grow most anything.”
    “Wonderful.” Misty was impressed.
    “Yeah. On the other hand, somebody or other is always after what we’ve got.”
    “Like Dallas and Fort Worth?”
    “We’re on the Red River. You know how fast those cities are growing and needing water. The state and feds are looking at us, too.”
    “I know the drought’s bad, but we’ve got lots of lakes in Texas.”
    “They’re already tapped into, so folks are eyeballing the rivers. The Colorado River in Arizona and the Rio Grande down in South Texas used to be big rivers not so long ago. Not now. Water’s siphoned off to the farms, towns, you name it.”
    “But the Red River’s not that big to begin with. Won’t they just leave it alone?”
    He shrugged as he made a sweeping gesture toward Main Street. “We’re protecting the land like we’ve always done, so we’re good so far.”
    “I’m glad.” She imagined an unbroken line of brave warriors watching over and taking care of the Comancheria.
    He had set her mind to spinning. Could a fight over water rights affect Texas Timber? If the water table dropped too much, tree seedlings might not be able to take root. That’d have a major impact on business. If someone else wanted the water, they might want to get rid of Texas Timber. Other natural resources could also be at the root of the company’s problems. After she checked in at the B&B, she’d jump on her computer and see what else she could find out, now that she had a new lead to follow.
    Trey had just proved his worth. He was a lot more than a handsome face and a hot body. He had a steel-trap mind to go with all his other assets.

Chapter 4
    “Why don’t you park on Main Street and take a gander at Old Town?” Trey was genuinely having a good time with Misty. It wasn’t often he got such pleasure from delivering his tourist spiel. Misty already seemed like more than just a tourist to him. He had things to do, but he wanted to keep her with him a while longer.
    “Are you still my guide?”
    “You know it.” He pointed toward the Wildcat Bluff Hotel, where fresh fir wreaths with huge red bows decorated each window in the redbrick two-story building.
    “What a lovely place. Maybe I should’ve stayed here.” She parked in front of the hotel’s grand entrance of cream brick keystones and brass planters with Christmas-tree-shaped rosemary bushes.
    “Ruby’ll do right by you.” He noticed two ladies stop and pointedly look in the window at him before they scurried on down the boardwalk. What was that about? And then he remembered. He was still shirtless. Not only that, but he was sitting in a vehicle with a good-looking woman in front of a hotel. He could just imagine how this story was going to develop as it spread around Wildcat Bluff. He chuckled at small-town life. At least it wouldn’t hurt his reputation.
    “Is that really a saloon?” Misty gestured next door as she leaned forward for a better look.
    The sound of boot-scooting country music floated through old batwing-style doors. Strings of blinking Christmas lights and star-shaped ornaments festooned a row of plate-glass windows with the words “Lone Star Saloon” painted in gold in old-fashioned curlicue script. A wooden cigar store Indian at one side of the doors had been irreverently adorned with a bright red Santa hat.
    “Yep. Old Town hasn’t changed much since the 1880s. The Lone Star Saloon still serves the same function. Food. Drinks. Dance hall. Live country bands on weekends.”
    “Sounds like