“I want to be like you, Daddy,” Sarah said simply, and there was the sweetest, warmest light in her green yees.

Blake smiled at her fully for the first time, his white teeth flashing against his dark tan. “Well, well. I guess I’ll have to teach you how to ride and rope, then.”

“Oh, yes!” Sarah agreed. “I can ride a horse now. And I can rope anything. Can’t I, Merry?”

Meredith almost agreed, but Blake’s eyes were making veiled threats.

“You’d better wait a bit, until your daddy can teach you properly,” Meredith said carefully, and Blake nodded in approval.

“I hate to wait,” Sarah muttered.

“Don’t we all,” Blake murmured, but he didn’t look at Meredith as he started toward the car. “Let’s find someplace that sells food.”

They found a small convenience store with rest rooms just a little way down the road, where they bought coffee and soft drinks and the fixings for sandwiches, along with pickles and chips. Blake drove them back to the park, which was beginning to fill up.

“I know a better place than this,” he remarked. “Sarah, how would you like to wade in the river?”

“Oh, boy!” she exclaimed.

He smiled at Meredith, who smiled back. “Then let’s go. We’re between the Canadian and the North Canadian rivers. Take your pick.”

“The North Canadian, then,” Meredith said.

He turned the car and shot off in the opposite direction, while Sarah Jane asked a hundred questions about Oklahoma, the rivers, the Indians and why the sky was blue.

Meredith just sat quietly beside Blake as he drove, admiring his lean hands on the wheel, the ease with which he maneuvered through Jack’s Corner and out onto the plains. He didn’t try to talk while he drove, which was good, because Sarah wouldn’t have let him get a word in edgewise, anyway.

Sarah’s chatter gave Meredith a breathing space and she used it to worry over Blake’s unexpected proposal. He wanted her to move in with him and Sarah, and she was more tempted than he knew. She had to keep reminding herself that she had a lot to lose—and it was more than just a question of her reputation and his. It was a question of her own will and whether she could trust herself to say no to Blake if he decided to turn on the heat.

He wasn’t a terribly experienced man, but that wouldn’t matter if he started kissing her. She still loved him. If he wanted her, she wasn’t sure that all her scruples would keep her out of his bed.

And being the old-fashioned man he was, she didn’t know what would happen if she gave in. He’d probably feel obliged to offer to marry her. That would ruin everything. She didn’t want a marriage based on obligation. If he grew to care about her, and wanted her for his own sake and not Sarah’s…

She forced her mind back to the present. It didn’t do to anticipate fate. Regardless of how she felt, it was Blake’s feelings that mattered now. He had to want more than just her body before she could feel comfortable about the future.

Chapter 7

Blake drove over the bridge that straddled the Canadian River, but he didn’t stop on its banks. He kept driving until finally he turned off on a dirt road and they went still another short distance. He stopped the car under an oak tree and helped Meredith and Sarah Jane out into the shade.

“Where are we?” Meredith asked, disoriented.

He smiled. “Come and see.” He took Sarah’s hand and led them through the trees to a huge body of water. “Know where you are now?” he asked.

Meredith laughed. “Lake Thunderbird!” she burst out. “But this isn’t the way to get to it! And this isn’t the North Canadian or the Canadian. It’s in between!”

“Don’t confuse the issue with a lot of facts,” he said with dry humor. “Isn’t this a nice place for a picnic?” he went on. “We have shade and peace and quiet.”

“Who owns this land?”

He pursed his lips. “Well, actually, it’s part of what I inherited from my uncle. It’s only fifteen acres, but I like it here.” He looked around the wooded area with eyes that appreciated its natural beauty. “When I need to think out something, I come here. I guess that’s why I’ve never built on it. I like it this way.”

“Yes, I can see why,” Meredith agreed. Birds were singing nearby, and the wind brushed leafy branches together with soft whispers of sound. She closed her eyes and let the breeze lift her hair, and she thought that with Sarah and Blake beside her, she’d never been closer to heaven.

“Sarah, don’t go too near the edge,” Blake cautioned.

“But you said I could go wading,” the child protested, and began to look mutinous.

“So I did,” he agreed. “But not here. After we eat, there’s a nice place farther down the road where you can wade. Okay?”

For several long seconds, she matched her small will against his. But in the end she gave in. “Okay,” she said.

Blake got out the cold cuts and bread, and a heavy cloth to spread on the grass. They ate in contented silence as Sarah offered crumbs to ants and other insects, fascinated with the variety of tiny life.

“Haven’t you ever seen a bug before, Sarah?” Meredith asked.

“Not really,” the little girl replied. “Mama said they’re nasty and she killed them. But the man on TV says that bugs are bene…bene…”

“Beneficial,” Blake said. “And I could argue that with the man on TV, especially when they get into the hides of my cattle.”

Meredith smiled at him. He smiled back. Then the smiles faded and they were looking at each other openly, with a blistering kind of attraction that made Meredith’s body go hot. She’d never experienced that electricity with anyone except Blake. Probably she never would, but she had to get a grip on herself before it was too late.

She forced her eyes down to the cloth. “How about another sandwich?” she offered with forced cheer.

After they finished the makeshift meal, Blake drove them down to the small stream. It ran across the dirt road, and Sarah tugged off her cowgirl boots in a fever to get to the clear, rippling water. Butterflies drifted down on the wet sand, and Blake smiled at the picture the child made walking barefoot through the water.

“I used to do that when I was a boy,” Blake said, hands in his pockets as he leaned against the trunk of the car and watched her. “Kids who live in cities miss a hell of a lot.”

“Yes, they do. I can remember playing like this, too. We used to get water from streams occasionally in oil drums, when the well went dry.” Her eyes had a wistful, faraway look. “We were so poor in those days. I never realized how poor until I went to a birthday party in grammar school and saw how other kids lived.” She sighed. “I never told my parents how devastating it was. But I realized then what a difference money makes.”

“It doesn’t seem to have changed you all that much, Meredith,” he said, studying her quietly. “You’re a little more confident than you used to be, but you’re no snob.”

“Thank you.” She twisted the small gold-braid ring on her finger nervously. “But I’m not in your class yet. I get by and that’s all.”

“A Porsche convertible is more than just getting by,” he mused.

“I felt reckless the day I bought it. I was thinking about coming back here and facing the past,” she confessed. “I bought it to give me confidence.”

“We all need confidence boosters from time to time,” Blake replied quietly, his eyes on Sarah. “She’s slowly coming out of the past. I like seeing her laugh. She didn’t in those first few days with me.”

“I guess she was afraid to,” Meredith said. “She hasn’t really had much security in her young life.”

“She’s got it now. As long as I live, I’ll take care of her.”

The pride and faint possessiveness in his deep voice touched Meredith. She wondered how it would feel to have him say the same thing about her, and she blushed. Blake might allow himself to become vulnerable with a small child, but she had serious doubts about his ability to really love a woman. Nina had hurt him too badly.