The door opened and she stood stiffly in the doorway, blocking the entrance. “Downstairs might be more comfortable,” he suggested, gesturing down the narrow staircase.
She hesitated, then reluctantly nodded.
Grady relaxed slightly, and wondered how much this peace was going to cost him. Being on the outs with his only sister distressed him more than he cared to reveal.
Savannah followed him down the stairs and took a seat on the sofa. “You owe me an apology, Grady.”
“All right, all right,” he said, raising both arms in surrender. “I apologize.”
“How about apologizing to Laredo?”
That was going too far, but Grady was smart enough to see that arguing the point wouldn’t serve his purpose. “I want to discuss Laredo,” he said again, and because it was impossible to hold still, he stood up and resumed his pacing. This next part was the most difficult. “I’m worried about you,” he said.
“I’m thirty-one years old and I don’t need my brother treating me like a child. You’re not my guardian. I was mortified today, Grady. Simply mortified.”
His behavior had embarrassed him, too, but he hadn’t been able to prevent it. Walking into the house and finding Savannah in a man’s arms had been a shock.
“I apologize,” he muttered again. He walked the full length of the room and turned back.
“Then why did you act like...like a bull on the rampage?”
Grady didn’t know what to tell her other than the truth. “I’m afraid you’re going to be hurt.”
“My life is none of your concern.”
On the contrary, he thought, what happened to her was very much his concern. He was her brother. She was naive about men—especially con artists like Laredo Smith—and whether she realized it or not, she needed him. At least he could be counted on to keep a level head. “Savannah, you’re setting yourself up for heartache, getting involved with a drifter.”
She sighed as if to say he clearly had no concept of how she felt. Perhaps he didn’t, but that didn’t change the facts.
“Laredo’s been the perfect gentleman,” she explained calmly. “I was crying and he comforted me.”
“He made you cry?”
“No.” The word was filled with exasperation. “I told him about Richard, and I always cry when I talk about Richard.”
Grady’s jaw tightened at the mention of his younger brother, but he didn’t want to discuss him now. He crossed to Savannah and squatted down in front of her. “Savannah, look at me.”
“I like Laredo.”
“I know you do, and that’s what troubles me.”
“But why? Haven’t you seen how hard he’s worked in my garden? He’s done nothing but show me kindness.”
Grady ground his teeth in frustration. “There are things about him you don’t know,” he said as gently as he could.
“Grady, look at me, really look. My youth is slipping through my fingers and I’ve been given this...this precious gift, this blessing, a chance to love and be loved. I’m not going to let you or anyone else ruin it for me.”
“Love.” The word felt like acid on his tongue. “You love him? You hardly know him!”
She lowered her gaze to her clenched hands. “I could love him, I know I could, and he could love me, too. He understands me and I understand him.”
“You’ve known him what? Three days? Four? Savannah, for crying out loud, what’s happened to you?”
She looked at him then, and to his amazement she smiled. “Something wonderful, Grady, something really wonderful.” She touched his arm and nearly blinded him with the brilliance of her smile. “I feel alive, truly alive for the first time in years. I’d forgotten how good it felt.”
“Savannah, Savannah,” he moaned. She made this so damned difficult.
“Grady, please be happy for me.”
“I can’t.”
“Then don’t ruin it for me, please. That’s all I ask.”
He stood, feeling the pain of what he had to tell her until the words felt like bricks loaded on his back. “You can’t trust him.”
“How can you say that?” Her face wore a look of pure puzzlement. “Laredo’s been nothing but trustworthy.”
“You can’t trust him,” Grady repeated.
“I’d trust him with my life. Do you honestly think I’m such a bad judge of character? He’s patient and generous, and for you to say otherwise proves you don’t really know him.”
“You’re naive. He’ll use you, and when he’s finished, he’ll leave you to face the consequences alone.”
His words were followed by a shocked angry silence. Then she said, “That comment was unworthy of you.”
Well, she’d wait a long time before he’d apologize. He hated what he had to tell her next. Hated to be the one to destroy the fairy tale she’d built around this cast-off cowboy. “Ask me where I was this afternoon,” he demanded.
Savannah blinked. “Where were you?”
“I stopped off at Cal Patterson’s to make a phone call.”
“You couldn’t do it here?”
“No. Cal’s got the names and phone numbers of all the district members in the cattlemen’s association.” He waited until the information sank in.
“You tried to find out about Laredo,” she said, and her voice dropped to a whisper.
“Savannah, listen to me. It gives me no joy to tell you this, but your precious Laredo Smith was fired from his last job.”
She remained outwardly calm, but Grady noticed her clenched hands in her lap. “I talked to Earl Chesterton myself,” he continued. “Smith was fired and for a damn good reason.” If that didn’t convince her of the truth about this man, nothing would.
A moment of shocked silence followed, or what he mistook for shock. To his amazement, Savannah slowly smiled. “Oh, Grady, how worried you must have been, but there was no need. I already knew all about that.”
Four
Grady wasn’t looking forward to talking to Frank Hennessey, but he’d delayed his visit to the sheriff long enough. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he drove toward town, and his thoughts darkened with his fears. It bothered him that his sensible, intelligent sister had been taken in by a lowlife like Smith.
One thing Grady couldn’t tolerate was a thief. As far as he was concerned, stealing what belonged to another was about as low as a man could go. His feelings, no doubt, were influenced by what Richard had done. From the time his younger brother was an infant, he’d been spoiled and coddled by their parents. Savannah was guilty of catering to him, as well—along with everyone else. Even in high school, when Richard should have been maturing and accepting adult responsibilities, he’d made it an art form to pawn off his obligations on others. From early childhood Richard had charmed his way through life. How that boy could talk, Grady recalled cynically. He’d often watched in astonishment as Richard, so glib and smooth, managed to get out of one scrape after another. Nothing had been his fault. Someone else was always to blame. His brother had continually found ways to shift the responsibility for his failures and problems onto other people.
Richard was a charmer, a ladies’ man and a smooth talker, but Grady had never suspected his brother was a thief. Then he’d learned the truth. After the shock of the theft had worn off, Grady had been left to face the reality of their dire financial circumstances. He’d even blamed himself. He should never have taken Richard to the Brewster bank or let him know where he kept the key to the safe-deposit box. But Grady had trusted him. And learned the hard way that it had been a mistake.
He wasn’t willing to make a second mistake, especially not where his sister was concerned. Savannah was all the family he had left, and he wasn’t going to lose her.
In the beginning Grady’s opinion of this outsider had been tainted by Savannah’s attitude. For the first time in more years than he could remember, she’d challenged his judgment. So Grady’s natural inclination was to dislike the man she’d favored, against his advice. But he had tolerated Laredo Smith’s presence. He’d even taken some good-natured ribbing from Wiley and Caroline Daniels about being unreasonable. Given time, he might have put the drifter on the payroll himself. As Wiley and Savannah had reminded him often enough, they needed extra help.