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He looked sheepish. "Thanks. Reckon you might tell Mr. Craig?"
She closed up. "I haven't heard from him."
"You could write him, though, couldn't you?" he persisted.
She had to agree that she could, although she didn't really want to. She sighed. "I suppose I could,
considering what a happy surprise those grades are going to be for him. I'll do it."
"Thanks, Miss Jessup. And not only for that, but for believing in me," he added solemnly.
"Nobody else ever thought I was worth their time."
"You're worth my time," she said with a smile. "Mr. Craig believes in you, too."
"That's what keeps me going," he told her. "That job next summer. I'm going to work so hard, Miss
Jessup. I'm going to learn all I can before I go back. I'll make Mr. Craig proud of me."
"Indeed you will," she said.
"Gotta go. I'm taking a night course in Spanish," he added, surprising her. "They speak it on the ranch,
you know, and mere's a
couple of Mexican hands. See you, Miss Jes-sup!"
She waved and then caught her breath at his ambition. To think that only a few short months ago, he
might have ended up in juvenile hall for good, and then in jail. How many children like Kells never
made it because they had no one to encourage and believe in them?
She felt good inside. If she only pulled one child out of the hopelessness of poverty, her job was
worthwhile. Why couldn't that hard-nosed cowboy in Jacobsville understand that, she thought
furiously.
Then she remembered that he'd asked how she'd feel about working in Jacobsville, and what she'd told
him. She'd said that she couldn't do such a job anywhere except Houston, and that was baloney. Of
course she could. But she was frightened. She didn't want to fall in love and get married. She wanted
to depend on one person, herself. She couldn't imagine risking her heart.
She went on down the street to her car, feeling despondent and miserable. If only she'd never met
Luke Craig!
It wasn't easy to ignore Kells's request about that letter to Luke. In the end, Belinda was all but forced
by her conscience to send him a note. It was friendly, not too intimate, and factual.
It took her twenty tries before she had the right words. She mailed it and waited.
But the reply didn't come in the way she expected. After a particularly long session in court with a
client, she dragged herself up the steps to her apartment and found a familiar face leaning against the
wall near her door. He was wearing a navy suit with a tie, and he looked more sophisticated than any
rancher she'd ever known.
"Luke!" she exclaimed.
He chuckled and scooped her up in his arms, kissing her hungrily right there in the hall. Her raincoat,
her valise, her pocketbook were scattered like grains of corn while she kissed him back. It was only
then that she realized how much she'd missed him.
"No need to ask if you missed me," he murmured before he kissed her again. "How about supper?"
"I'm famished," she said breathlessly. "But I don't have anything to cook..."
"There's a nice restaurant down the street. I've made reservations," he said. "Put your gear inside and
freshen up."
She was reluctant to take her arms from around his neck, and she laughed at her own feelings. "It's
good to see you," she said, trying to act normally as she paused to scoop her stuff from the floor.
"It's good to see you, too," he replied with a smile. "You look worn."
"It's been a long week." She searched his eyes before she put her key in the lock and opened the door.
"It's been a long several weeks," she added honestly.
"I know."
She put her dungs in a chair and turned to him. He looked tired, too. He was devastating to a heart that
had gone hungry for the sight of him. For several seconds, she just stood mere and looked at him.
He did the same. In her beige dress and high heels, with her dark blond hair in soft waves down to her
collar, she looked lovely.
"If you want supper at all," he said huskily, "you've got ten seconds to stop looking at me like that
before I do something about it"
She wanted him to. She really did. But mere were things to settle first, so she dropped her gaze with a
shy smile. "Okay," she said. "I'll freshen up."
While she fixed her makeup and added a touch of perfume, he stared down at the computer on her
desk. A piece of new software was lying near it, with a scruffy-looking dog on the cover of the box.
He grinned.
"Bought a dog, I see," he drawled as she came back into the living room.
She saw where he was looking and laughed self-consciously. "It sounded cute. And it is."
"Told you so. Ready to go?"
She nodded, grabbing her purse.
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