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trying to drive her to the emergency room himself. To this day I hate rain.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said kindly. “I lost my parents several years apart, but it was pretty rough just the same. Especially my mother.” He was silent for a moment. “She killed herself. Dad had only been dead six months when she was diagnosed with leukemia. She refused treatment, went home and took a handful of barbiturates that they’d given her for pain. I was in my last few weeks of college before graduation. I hadn’t started until I was nineteen, so I was late getting out. It was pretty rough, passing my finals after the funeral,” he added with a rough laugh.
    â€œI can only imagine,” she said sympathetically.
    â€œI’d already been running the ranch and going to school as a commuting student. That’s where I met Adell, at college. She was sympathetic and I was so torn up inside. I just wanted to get married and have kids and not be alone anymore.” He shrugged. “I thought marriage would ease the pain. It didn’t. Nobody cares like your parents do. When they die, you’re alone. Except, maybe, if you’ve got kids,” he added thoughtfully, and realized that he hadn’t really paid enough attention to his own kids. He frowned. He’d avoided them since Adell left. Rodeo and ranch work had pretty much replaced parenting with him. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed it until he got hit in the head.
    â€œDo you have brothers or sisters?” Melody asked unexpectedly. She hadn’t ever had occasion to question his background. Now, suddenly, she was curious about it.
    â€œNo,” he said. “I had a sister, they said, but she dieda few weeks after she was born. There was just me. My dad was a rodeo star. He taught me everything I know.”
    â€œHe must have been good at it.”
    â€œSo am I, when I’m not distracted. There was a little commotion before my ride. I wasn’t paying attention and it was almost fatal.”
    â€œThe kids would have missed you.”
    â€œMaybe Guy would have, although he’s pretty solitary most of the time,” he replied. His eyes narrowed. “Amy and Polk seem very happy to stay with anybody.”
    So the truce was over. She stared at him. “They probably were half-starved for a little of the attention you give rodeoing,” she returned abruptly. “You seem to spend your life avoiding your own children.”
    â€œYou’re outspoken,” he said angrily.
    â€œSo are you.”
    His green eyes narrowed. “Not very worldly, though.”
    She wouldn’t blush, she wouldn’t blush, she wouldn’t…!
    â€œThe eggs are getting cold,” she reminded him.
    The color in her face was noticeable now, but she was a trouper. He admired her attempt at subterfuge, even as he felt himself tensing with faint pleasure at her naiveté. Her obvious innocence excited him. “I have to make a living,” he said, feeling oddly defensive. “Rodeo is what I do best, and it’s profitable.”
    â€œYour cousin mentioned that the ranch is profitable, too.”
    â€œOnly if it gets a boost in lean times from other capital, and times are pretty lean right now,” he said shortly. “It’s the kids’ legacy. I can’t afford to lose it.”
    â€œYes, but there are other ways of making money besides rodeo. You must know a lot about how to manage cattle and horses and accounts.”
    â€œI do. But I like working for myself.”
    She stared pointedly at his head. “Yes, I can see how successful you are at it. Head not hurting this morning?”
    â€œI haven’t taken a fall that bad before,” he muttered.
    â€œYou’re getting older, though.”
    â€œOlder! My God, I’m only in my thirties!”
    â€œEmmett, you’re so loud!” Amy protested sleepily from deep in her blankets.
    â€œSorry,