“I must have fallen asleep,” she said, gathering the sheet more securely around her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. There is nowhere I’d rather be.”

“Really?” she asked skeptically. “You seemed to be in an awfully big hurry earlier. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”

He sighed. “I was hoping you had.”

“Not that the distraction wasn’t fascinating,” she said, “but I have a very good memory.”

“Apparently,” he agreed, thinking of more than her interest in his earlier activities. She also had a very long memory when it came to her late husband’s prejudices.

“So?” she prodded.

He regarded her with feigned innocence. “So?”

She nudged him sharply in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t play dumb, Grady. I want to know what had you so distracted over dinner. What happened when you were with Hank and Dooley? Did it have something to do with the fence?” Sudden understanding spread across her face. “Was it deliberately cut?”

The woman was too smart for her own good and Grady wasn’t about to lie to her. “Yes,” he said tersely.

“But who…?”

He noticed that she didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that he might be responsible. That was progress, he supposed.

“We’re going to find out,” he told her. “As soon as I get home, I’m going to start making calls.”

“Which explains why you were so anxious to get out of here earlier,” she concluded.

“Exactly.”

“Make the calls from here,” she said. “I want to know what you find out.”

He nodded and reached for his jeans. When he was dressed, he glanced back at her tousled hair and the rumpled sheets. It looked as if much more had gone on in that bed, he thought with regret. Apparently Karen could read him even better than he’d realized. Her expression faltered.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He bent down and kissed her thoroughly. “You don’t ever have to be sorry for not doing something you’re not ready for. I can wait.”

Her gaze searched his. “Can you?”

“For you? Absolutely.”

She returned his gaze, her expression earnest, her brow puckered. “I can’t promise I will ever be ready.”

“You will be,” he said with total confidence. He believed that as he hadn’t believed in anything else in a very long time.

Karen took her time before following Grady downstairs. She needed to think about what had happened…and what hadn’t. She also wanted to absorb Grady’s easygoing acceptance of all of it. The lack of pressure-the willing restraint-had been a surprise. She’d always believed him to be a man who simply took what he wanted. In fact, hadn’t she counted on it earlier, expecting him to ride roughshod over her doubts, leaving her no choice but to make love?

But, then, there had been a lot of things she’d thought about Grady that she was discovering to be untrue. He was kind and thoughtful and unfailingly decent, at least in his treatment of her. She was beginning to doubt that he had ever been the thief and scoundrel Caleb had accused him of being.

More surprising than Grady’s behavior in the past few hours was her own. She had nearly made love with a man she’d been taught to distrust. More significant, she couldn’t seem to make herself regret it. In fact, if she was feeling any regrets at all, it was that she had faltered along the way and still didn’t know what sort of magic she might have found in Grady’s arms.

She moaned and covered her face. What was happening to her? How had she let this happen? How had she allowed it to go so far? And why didn’t she feel the least bit guilty about any of it?

Because she had no answers-and was fairly certain she wouldn’t like any of them, anyway-she hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, then joined Grady downstairs just as he hung up the phone. His expression was grim.

“What?” she said at once. “Have you found something?”

“Only that Tate McDonald is a very wealthy absentee owner, that your other neighbors are in debt, but no more so than any other small rancher, and that if anyone has a vested interest in ruining you, it’s me.” He shrugged. “That’s the consensus, anyway.”

“Well, we both know that’s not true,” she said.

He gazed into her eyes. “Do you know that?” he asked, his expression intent.

Karen nodded slowly, her gaze never shifting from his. “I do,” she assured him, startled to find that she meant it.

Satisfaction spread slowly across his face. He touched her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. You’ve more than proved yourself to me.” She reached for the pot of still-warm coffee and poured two cups. “Now we just have to determine who’s out to destroy me and ruin your reputation at the same time.”

He grinned. “Simple as that, huh?”

“I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” she said, getting a notebook and pen from a drawer by the refrigerator. “We just have to be systematic and logical.”

“In that case, I need that pie you promised me,” Grady declared. “I can only be logical on a full stomach.”

When she started to stand, he waved her back to her chair. “I can do it. Do you want some?”

“Of course.”

He cut two big slices, retrieved the ice cream from the freezer and added huge dollops on the pie. She grinned at the size of the portions.

“Obviously you’re planning on a long night,” she commented.

“A very long night,” he agreed.

One they wouldn’t be spending together in bed, she thought with more than a little twinge of regret. Oh, well, the die had been cast earlier in the evening, anyway, and it was for the best. They’d both decided that. At least for now.

She took a bite of pie, savoring the burst of apple and cinnamon and sugar on her tongue, then picked up her pen. “Let’s start with this McDonald person, since he’s a stranger. What have you found out about him?”

“Just what I told you, that he has a lot of money and he’s dabbling in ranching.”

“You’ve never had any dealings with him?” she asked.

“None at all.”

“Then we can assume for the moment that there are no grudges.”

“How about you? Have you had any run-ins with him?” Grady asked.

“Never met him.”

“Okay, then, how about the Fletchers? They’ve been the Hansons’ neighbors for years. Have they always gotten along?”

“Always,” Karen said, but her expression turned thoughtful. “Of course, there might have been a problem when Caleb decided to marry me. I think Maggie Fletcher had her eye on him, and her father really wanted the match.”

Grady nodded. “Jealousy. That’s always a good motive for revenge, but Maggie doesn’t strike me as the type of woman to go around poisoning cattle or cutting fences. How about you? What do you think of her?”

Karen considered the woman who’d made no secret of her infatuation with Caleb. Tall and slender, with a no-nonsense manner, Maggie had always been polite, if distant, with Karen. There had never been any question of them becoming close friends. Even if Caleb hadn’t stood squarely between them, their personalities were unsuited. Maggie wore a perpetually dour expression, made worse by the realization that she would never have the man she loved.

“I feel sorry for her,” Karen said. “I think she really did care for Caleb. I know she was distraught at the funeral.”

“Would she have tried to ruin him for not marrying her?”

“No,” Karen said slowly. “She might go after me, but never Caleb. I was the one she blamed for destroying her chances with him.”

Grady’s expression turned thoughtful. “Then she could be seeking revenge on you now,” he suggested.

“But why? Caleb’s gone. What does she have to gain?”

“She might still be hoping for some sense of satisfaction that she was right all along, that you were wrong for Caleb and that she would have been the better choice,” Grady said.

“I suppose,” Karen said, but it didn’t ring true.

“But that wouldn’t explain the earlier incidents. Remember, those happened before Caleb died.”