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cards have that same little diamond shape at the edge? Is that called a full house?” Everyone, again with groans of despair, threw their cards into the center of the table.
    Abby grinned and took the money. But before her cards were slipped back into the deck, Linc took them and frowned. “You could get shot for cheating at cards, you know.”
    “Me?” She blinked and asked in all innocence. “When did I cheat?” She took the cards and suddenly, with nimble fingers, was able to shuffle them better than any dealer he’d ever seen, before laying them out in a smooth, perfect semi-circle near the center of the table.
    Linc’s dark gaze narrowed threateningly. “You said you had a flush.”
    Abby shook her head and grinned as she counted her winnings and, in exaggerated innocence, returned, “If I remember correctly, what I said was, ‘if all the cards have that little diamond thing, is that called a full house’?”
    Jeb was laughing so hard he had to wipe his eyes with the backs of his hands, while Lilly grinned.
    “I knew I didn’t make a mistake sending you off to school,” she told Abby.
    Linc’s gaze narrowed threateningly. “I owe you for that.”
    “Yeah?” she turned to sneer in his direction. “Why don’t you try and collect it, mister.”
    * * * *
    An hour later Jeb and Linc sat alone at the table discussing the ranchers and their problems. “It don’t take no genius to see someone wants them out. The question is why. What they hell is there to gain by it?”
    Linc shook his head. “Something must be on the land or under it. Keep an eye out for any strangers, will you?”
    Arizona City was a crossing point over the Colorado River for wagon trains heading into California. Immigrants by the hundreds came regularly through the town. Jeb shook his head. “People come and go all the time. That won’t be easy.”
    “You’re right. We’ll just have to keep watching.”
    “What’s with you and the little lady?”
    “She thinks she hates me.”
    Jeb grinned. “Does she? Now, why would a sweet little thing like that think she hates you?”
    He shrugged. “’Cause a lady don’t admit to some things, I guess.”
    “What kind a things?”
    “Mind your own business.”
    “She’s gonna be my step-daughter. Her momma ain’t gonna be happy to see her hurt.”
    “You asking what my intentions are?”
    “Mostly I try to stay out of things that ain’t none of my business. And I would this time, ‘cept for her Momma.”
    “I’m gonna marry her.”
    “Damn, boy!” Jeb said a bit louder than either had expected. His shock was obvious. “So what’s she so upset about?”
    “She doesn’t know it yet.”
    * * * *
    Abby was tired. That man was so aggravating. He’d totally ruined this visit for her. All she wanted was to leave this small town and head back to New York. If she never saw him again she’d be the happiest woman alive. Only, she couldn’t leave. Not until the wedding. Abby wished her cousin, Vinnie, would hurry back.
    As soon as Vinnie and her husband Jack returned from San Francisco, her mother and Jeb would marry. Jack was yet another Knight brother and he and Vinnie, after marrying only a month back, had gone off to sell his place and pack up his belongings. They were buying a ranch near Phoenix. Apparently, the Knight men found the women in her family particularly attractive. Too bad she couldn’t say the same for the last brother. All he seemed to do was aggravate her beyond bearing.
    Abby watched him walk his horse into the barn. In a minute, he’d come around front and make himself comfortable on the porch just to aggravate her. And she knew he did it to aggravate her. What she couldn’t understand was why? Did he want her to hate him? It sounded ridiculous to be sure, but she couldn’t think of a reason why he purposely chose to annoy her. Well, tonight, all of that nonsense would end. It didn’t matter what he did, she would show him only cool distain. Eventually,