Heiress for Hire (Cuttersville #2)(12)
Author: Erin McCarthy

"Here, let me see her," Amanda said, holding out her hand.

Danny gave her the box.

She whacked him on the arm with it. "Watch your tongue. Her bag is fake. I would never carry fake."

Danny laughed. He threw his arm around her shoulder and gave her a shake that nearly sent her sailing off her shoes. "Honey, you’re a one-of-a-kind, that’s for sure. Just plain original."

Growing up an only child, Amanda had never experienced roughhousing with siblings. Nor had she ever been with a lover whose moves weren’t calculated, skilled. Danny’s touch was just friendly, casual. Nice. It actually felt nice in a strange, aw-shucks kind of way.

She added Knock-Off Barbie to the cart. "I think I’ll get her just to feel superior."

"How you going to pay for that? I thought you were out of money." Danny’s smile faded into concern. "Maybe you should be saving your cash for food."

Oh my God. He was right. She had forgotten she was poor. She was so used to spending money like there was a steady supply of it that it had never occurred to her that she couldn’t have whatever she wanted in this store. Fifty-seven dollars was the sum total in her wallet and all that stood between her and starvation.

And while staying thin was a priority in her life, she had to eat something.

There was no money for a Barbie, Star Trek or otherwise. Or an umbrella and little Hello Kitty Post-it notes.

Giving a laugh that she hoped sounded more genuine than it felt, she put the doll back on the shelf. "You’re right. I completely forgot that I’m destitute." And that she was a little bit scared. Who was Amanda Delmar without her trust fund?

"What’s destitute mean?" Piper asked, looking up from the Breyer pony she was studying.

"It means I don’t have any money."

"I don’t have any money either," Piper said with a shrug.

This laugh was more genuine. "Then I guess we’ll be destitute together."

"Well, I’m not destitute," Danny said. "It would give me a great deal of pleasure to buy you both a Barbie."

"Why?" Amanda asked in suspicion. She hadn’t even flirted with him. Not much anyway. And he wasn’t hinting that he could think of a lot of ways she could pleasure him in return. That was the way it usually went. Men spent money; men wanted something—sex, power, her inheritance. They always wanted something.

It was why her favorite T-shirt said I THINK, THEREFORE I’M SINGLE.

He shrugged, studying her a little too carefully. "I just want to, that’s all. Do I have to have a reason to want to buy you a Barbie?"

If she were any judge of character—which was questionable, given Logan—Danny had no ulterior motive. He was just being nice.

Danny Tucker didn’t fit into her understanding of men. He was an anomaly. A big one. In boots and a baseball hat.

"You don’t have to do that, Danny. It’s a waste of money to buy me a doll." For the first time, maybe she could understand that. Money could be spent wisely on necessities, or frivolously. A Barbie for a twenty-five-year-old woman with no income was beyond frivolous. It was a cry for counseling.

"Which would you rather have—the umbrella or the Barbie? Because I’m buying one or the other." Danny leaned on the handle of the cart, his green T-shirt pulling forward at the neck. "Think of it as a gift for being my personal shopper."

"But you don’t need a personal shopper," she whispered, feeling raw and vulnerable in a way that she just detested. "You can dress yourself."

He nodded, slow and sure. "And undress myself." He grabbed the Barbie box she had returned to the shelf and added it to the cart.

"I don’t know what to say." He was making her extremely uncomfortable.

"Seems to me you ought to just say thank you and be done with it." He cocked a grin and winked.

Smart-ass, she mouthed to him so Piper couldn’t see.

But when he laughed, she said, "Thank you."

And popped her umbrella back open and strolled up the aisle.

Chapter 4

Willie Tucker was licking the salt off a margarita when her cell phone rang. She and the women in the church traveler’s group were having a nice, late dinner at the local Mexican restaurant after a day touring the basket factory. She should have turned off her phone when she came into the restaurant. It always drove her bonkers when people were chatting on those things while they were sitting with other people.

Besides, no one would be calling her but her husband, Daniel. Or Danny, though that would be rarer still. And only because of an emergency.

Damn. She dug out her phone, hoping if someone had died it was her brother Bart. Never could stand Bart.

Caller ID showed it was Daniel, alright. "Excuse me, ladies, it’s my husband, and I’m afraid it might be something important."

"Unlike when my husband calls," Karen Ditko laughed. "I set foot out of the house, and suddenly he’s helpless as a baby."

Daniel wasn’t like that. They’d been working the farm together for thirty years and didn’t run to each other for foolishness. Her heart picked up its pace.

"Hello?"

"Hey. You busy?"

"I’m having dinner with the girls. Anything wrong?"

Daniel paused, and Willie gripped the edge of the table.

"It’s nothing. I just thought maybe tomorrow you might want to skip the afternoon shopping and come on home early. Something’s popped up with Danny."

"Why?" Her fear turned to annoyance. Daniel wasn’t usually cryptic. "What’s the matter with Danny? He sick?"

Not that she could imagine Danny getting sick or laid up. He was as healthy as their soybean crop this year. He was a good boy, too, but she knew he was getting a little restless lately. Lonely. She hoped he hadn’t done anything stupid. Like get involved with that blond piece of work who’d blown into town with Boston Macnamara.

Willie wasn’t blind. She could see that those long legs had drawn Danny’s attention. Danny and every other man in town under the age of ninety.

"Not exactly. He just has some news."

Why the hell was her husband being so guarded? Danny was either dying or his house had burned to the ground. It had to be a disaster, plain and simple, for Daniel to sound like he did. Like he’d been kicked in the family jewels. "What news?"

"I think this is the kind of news that Danny needs to tell you himself."

Oh, God, Danny had run off to Vegas with the blonde. "Daniel, I think you’ve lost your mind. You cannot call me and tell me Danny has news and expect me to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out what it is. Tell me. Now."