Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [56]
“Just tell me it’s not that cowboy who delivered you here the other day.”
“It’s no one,” Maggie lied, and hoped her expression didn’t give her away. She couldn’t tell Mary Theresa about Thane, about how she couldn’t stop thinking about him, about the way her heartbeat elevated each time she saw him. No. Instinctively she realized that if Mary Theresa had a hint that she was attracted to him, there would be a price to pay. A dear one. She tossed the magazine aside and found her boots.
“Oh, right.” M.T. slid into a pair of black shorts and a red tank top. As she was stuffing the hem of her shirt into the waistband of the shorts, she said, “You never asked me any more about Mitch.”
Oh, God. “Mitch isn’t one of my favorite topics.”
“Good. Because there’s nothing going on, you know.” Mary avoided Maggie’s eyes as she found a rubber band and a couple of clips. With one clip in her mouth, she deftly wound her hair into a French braid that she snapped off with the rubber band and pinned to her head.
“I didn’t think there was.” Maggie forced her feet into her boots.
Mary flashed her thousand-watt smile as she sprayed her hair and shoulders with perfume. “Okay, end of subject.”
Amen, Maggie thought, and wished she believed it. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
Mary twisted off the radio and they headed outside.
The ride to the stables was thankfully short and silent. Mary Theresa, ten miles above the speed limit, had the radio blaring and drove with one hand; the other, casually holding her cigarette, hung out the driver’s side window. She was careful to turn her head and exhale out the window as well.
“Mom knows you smoke,” Maggie observed as they turned off on the lane to the ranch. The BMW bucked and bounced down the gravel lane, its underbelly scraped by weeds growing in the center strip between the twin ruts made by hundreds of tires over the years.
“So?”
“I don’t know why you try so hard to hide it.”
Mary Theresa slowed and tossed her sister a look that silently called her an idiot. “There are lots of things Mom and Dad don’t know about me. That’s the way I like it.”
“Fine. I was just saying—”
“Okay, I’ve heard the lecture before.” Angrily, Mary Theresa stood on the brakes, and the car slid to a stop near Flora’s garage. “I don’t need to hear it again.”
“I didn’t mean that—”
“Forget it.”
“No—”
“Just get out, okay?” Mary Theresa was really ticked off. “You know, Maggie, I’m sick and tired of your holier-than-thou attitude.”
“Get real.”
“You know, I’ll bet you’re out here doing it with some lowlife cowboy!”
“What!” Maggie’s jaw dropped open. She gaped at her twin in disbelief. “I’m not—”
“Well, if you’re not, then quit hanging out here. Find a boyfriend and grow up, will ya?”
Maggie’s blood started to boil. She held her tongue. No reason to get into it. She reached for the door.
“You could do better,” Mary Theresa said, “than some piss-poor hired hand who—”
“Who isn’t related to me?” Maggie cut in, her temper boiling. “Sorry. But I think our cousin or brother or what-ever-you-want-to-call-him is taken.” She said it without thinking, and Mary Theresa’s face drained of color. She gasped and could barely speak.
“I’m not…I mean I—”
Maggie climbed out of the car. She was already regretting her sharp tongue even though Mary Theresa had asked for it. “I’ll find a ride home.”
“Oh, God, Maggie, please, it’s not—” A tear started to drip from beneath the edge of Mary Theresa’s sunglasses. But Maggie wouldn’t listen. She slammed the door shut and stormed down the short hill to the paddock near the stables. Why had she let Mary Theresa draw her into an argument? Why? Why hadn’t she kept her damned mouth shut?
Thane sauntered out of the stables. A half smile was tacked onto his face, softening the contours of his square jaw. “Bad day?”
“Don’t ask.”
He whistled under his breath. “Okay, I won’t. From where I stand, you’ve got a pretty good life, princess.”
“You don’t know anything,” she retorted, then saw a light of amusement fire in his cool gray eyes. That damned self-satisfied smile didn’t move an