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dark eyes, made them deep and hypnotic.

    “Me, too,” she said, flushing a little. He really was good-looking.

    Grange shrugged. “Maybe we can do it again.”

    She did smile then. “I’d like that.”

    He nodded at J.B. and left them to go to the counter and pay for his meal. J.B. sat down in the chair Grange had vacated and looked at Tellie with mingled anger and concern.

    “Don’t worry, J.B., he didn’t spill any state secrets,” she lied as she sipped tea. “He only said your father had done something to foil a romance years ago, and he wanted to know how to get in touch with the elder Mr. Hammock. He said he wanted to know for a friend of his.” She hoped he believed her.
    She’d die if he realized she knew the whole terrible secret in his past. She felt sick at her stomach, imagining how he must feel.

    He didn’t answer her. He glanced at Grange as the younger man left the café, and then caught Barbara’s eye and ordered coffee and apple pie.

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    Tellie was trying not to react at the surprise of having coffee with J.B., who’d never shared a table in a restaurant with her before. Her heart was beating double-time at just the nearness of him. She had to force herself not to stare at him with overt and visible delight.

    Barbara brought coffee. He grinned at her and she grinned back. “Dating in shifts these days, huh, Tellie?” she teased.

    Tellie didn’t answer. She managed a faint smile, embarrassed.

    J.B. sipped his coffee. He never added cream or sugar. Her eyes went to his lean, darkly tanned hands.
    There was a gold cat’s-eye ring on his left ring finger, thick and masculine, and a thin expensive watch above it on his wrist. He was wearing a lightweight gray suit with a cream Stetson. He looked expensive and arrogant, and seductive.

    “I don’t like the idea of your going out with that man,” J.B. told her curtly.

    “It wasn’t a date, J.B., it was just lunch,” she said.

    “It was an interrogation,” he corrected. “What else did he want to know?”

    She knew she’d never get away with lying. “He wanted to know about your father,” she said.

    “What about him?”

    “If he was still alive. I told him he wasn’t. That was all.”

    “What did he say?”

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    “Not much,” she returned. She searched his green eyes. They were troubled and stormy. “Just that a friend had asked him to find out about your father, over some romance of yours that went bad years ago.
    He didn’t say anything specific,” she added without looking at him. He usually could tell when she was lying.

    His face tautened as he looked at her. “I never meant anyone to know about what happened except Marge and me,” he said tightly.

    “Yes, I know, J.B.,” she replied, her voice weary and resigned. “You don’t share things with outsiders.”

    He frowned. “You’re not an outsider. You’re family.”

    That, somehow, made things even worse. She met his eyes evenly. “You sent Jarrett out to get my graduation present. You’d never do that to Marge or the girls. And you lied about being at the graduation exercises. You were in the office with some businessman and his daughter. I gather that she was a real looker and you couldn’t tear yourself away,” she added with more bitterness than she realized.

    His eyes almost glowed with anger. “Who told you that?”

    “I took classes in ESP in college,” she drawled facetiously, and with a bite in her voice. “What does it matter how I know? You lied to me!”

    His indrawn breath was audible. “Damn it, Tellie!”

    “Why can’t you be honest with me?” she demanded. “I’m not a kid anymore. You don’t have to protect me from the truth.”

    “You don’t know the truth,” he said curtly.

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