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inscrutable expression.
    She
made a face.  “Of course, if I knew then, what I know now, I’d have learned how
to mountain climb, instead.”  A new thought occurred to her.  “Hey, I’ll
probably need supplies, too.  What should I pack for --like-- five hundred
miles of roughing it?”
    Cade
kept staring.  “How in the hell do you survive?”  He finally asked, as if he
couldn’t imagine why she wasn’t dead a hundred times over.  “What do you do all day?”
    “I’m
a website consultant for a marketing firm.  That’s how I make my living.”  Well,
that and the generous trust fund from her grandparents.  “I have a feeling you
guys don’t have a big call for that here.”
    “I
do not know what that even is .”  He rubbed his forehead in resignation. 
“What am I supposed to do with you?  You’re going to fuck up my whole life.”
    “I
fuck up everyone’s life.  Especially mine.”  She should probably lie, but she
couldn’t find the energy.  “Not even I expected this big a fuck up. 
But, if it was going to happen, I’m not surprised it happened to me.  My father
always said I’d die doing something stupid.  He thinks I’m a scatterbrain.” 
She gave Cade an apologetic smile.  “I’m sorry to drag you into this, though.”
    His
jaw ticked.  “You do have a… uh… protector you can go to, right?”
    Addy
frowned.  “A protector?”  She repeated blankly.  His lyrical accent made it
hard to understand some of the words, so maybe she’d misheard that.
    Cade
looked frustrated with her confusion.  “ Yes .  A man who looks out for
you.  Who sees you fed and cared for.”
    “Oh.  Oh! ”  Now she got it.  “Shit, you think I’m a prostitute? ”  Her
mind boggled at the very idea.  “Really?  Me? ”  She didn’t know whether
to be insulted or flattered.  “No, I don’t do that.”
    Cade
seemed disappointed with her reaction.  “You have a husband, then?”  He looked
down at the floor and gave a snort.  “Of course, you have a husband. 
Your eyes do not have the look of a professional.”
    Okay,
that was almost certainly an insult.  “Hey, I could be a professional.”  A lot
of guys liked bigger girls.  She’d never met one, but she’d seen it on a talk
show.  “In fact, maybe I’m lying and it is my profession.  Call-girling
could totally be my calling, for all you know.”
    Cade
gave a long suffering sigh.  “So, is your husband the maypole of this
Yellowstone?”  He hesitated, searching for the correct word.  “Maypole?  Wait. 
May be .  May… or .  Is he mayor of Yellowstone?”
    Geez,
just when she thought things couldn’t get more depressing.  “No, I don’t have a
husband who’s a mayor or a maypole.  I’m incredibly single.  My epic failures
with men cause internet dating services to shut down when they see me coming.”
    Was
it her imagination or did he seem pleased by that dismal news?  “You have no
male?”  Cade put his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat.  “Are your
parents wealthy, then?  They must be, given your clothes and the odd way you
talk.”
    The
odd way she talked?
    “My
mother’s dead.  My father has money.  He lives in Palm Springs, with his sixth
wife, Mandi.”  That was the other name on the impersonally stamped Christmas
card Addy had received the year before, anyway.  Was Cade trying to make her
cry?  Because, this was really getting sad.  “We’re not close.”  Massive
understatement.  She’d disappointed him from the moment she was born and he’d
compensated by ignoring her for the past twenty-eight years.  “I told you, he
isn’t my biggest fan.  Dad’s not going to even notice I’m gone.”
    Cade
didn’t seem convinced.  “Surely, you belong to someone .”
    She
considered that for a long moment, wondering what he was up to with all these
questions.  “Hang on, are you trying to ransom me?”
    “I’m
trying to find somebody who will take you