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    “Sure I do. I’m a liability you assumed because I had no family and you felt sorry for me,” she replied.

    “I felt sorry for you,” he conceded. “But I’ve always included you in family activities, haven’t I?”

    “Oh, yes,” she agreed. “I get to have Christmas and summer vacation and all the other holidays with Marge and the girls, I even get to go on overseas trips with them. I’ve never doubted that I was part of Marge’s family,” she said meaningfully.

    He frowned. “Marge is part of my family.”

    “You’re not part of mine, J.B.,” she replied. Her heart was breaking. “I’m in the same class as your big-boobed blondes, disposable and unimportant. We don’t even rate a handpicked present. You just send out the secretary to buy it, and to lie for you when you avoid events you’d rather not be forced to attend.”

    He glared at her. “You’ve got the whole thing upside down.” He cursed under his breath. “Damn Grange! If he hadn’t barged in…!”

    Something was fishy here. “You know him!”

    His lips made a thin line. “I know him,” he admitted reluctantly. “I went to see him at the feedlot when I realized who he was. But I barely had time to say anything to him before Justin showed up. I didn’t go back.”

    “Who is he, J.B.?” she asked, but she was sure that she already knew the answer.

    “He’s her brother,” he said finally. “He’s the brother of the woman my father kept me from marrying.”

    Three
    T he look in J.B.’s eyes was painful to Tellie, who loved him with all her heart, despite the knowledge Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    that he was never going to be able to love her back. She could almost feel the pain that rippled through him with the words. The woman, the only woman, he’d ever loved had killed herself, because of him. It was a pain he could never escape. And now the woman’s brother had shown up in his own town.

    “Why is he here, do you think?” she asked.

    J.B. sipped coffee. “Revenge, perhaps,” he said tautly, “at first.”

    “Revenge for what?” she asked, because she knew the answer, but she didn’t want him to realize how much Grange had told her.

    He glanced at her appraisingly. “It’s a story that doesn’t concern you, Tellie,” he said quietly. “It’s ancient history.”

    She finished her own coffee. “Whatever you say, J.B.,” she replied. “I have to get back to work.”

    She stood up. So did he. “How are you going to get back to the feedlot?” he asked abruptly. “Didn’t you ride in with Grange?”

    She shook her head. “It was Dutch treat.”

    “Are you coming to the barbecue Saturday?” he added.

    It was the end of roundup, one that he gave for the ranch hands. Marge and the girls, and Tellie, were always invited. It was a comfortable routine.

    Tellie had never felt less like a routine. “No, I don’t think so,” she said abruptly, and was pleased to see his eyelids flicker. “I have other plans.”

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    “What other plans?” he demanded, as if he had the right to know every step she took.

    She smiled carelessly. “That’s not your business, J.B. See you.”

    She went to the counter and paid Barbara. When she left, J.B. was sitting there, brooding, his face like steel.

    It wasn’t until that night Tellie finally had time to digest what she’d learned. She waited until the girls went to bed and then cornered Marge at the kitchen table where she was piecing a quilt.

    “Do you know a family named Grange?” she asked Marge.

    The older woman blinked, surprised. “Grange? Why?”

    That wasn’t an innocent look Marge was giving her. Tellie folded her hands on the table. “There’s a man named Grange who came to work at the feedlot,” she said. “He’s tall and dark-eyed and dark-haired.
    J.B. was going