Man of Ice by Diana Palmer

to Tucson and take that job. You’ll do them proud.”
    “What will you do?” she asked. “There must be a way, someway…!”
    “If there was, I’d have found it in five years’ time,” he said. He turned away from her and started toward the door. “We’d better make an appearance.”
    “Wait.”
    He paused with his hand on the lock.
    She ran her hands through her hair, drew a finger over her mouth, opened the top button of her blouse and drew part of the shirttail out.
    He understood what she was doing. He pulled out his handkerchief and gave it to her. She drew it lightly over the corner of her mouth and handed it back.
    Then he unlocked the door, to find Leslie sitting on the bottom step of the staircase. She eyed them suspiciously and when she saw Barrie’s attempts at reparation, she made an impatient sound.
    “Sorry,” Dawson murmured. “We forgot the time.”
    “Obviously,” Leslie said shortly, glaring at Barrie. “I did come here to talk about land.”
    “So you did. I’m at your disposal,” Dawson said. “Would you like to talk over a cup of coffee?”
    “No, I’d like to drive into town with you and see some of the sights,” she said. She glanced at Barrie. “I suppose she’ll have to come, too.”
    “Not if you’d rather have my undivided attention,” Dawson said surprisingly. “You don’t mind, do you, honey?” he added.
    Barrie was unsettled, but she forced a smile to her tight lips. “Of course not. Go right ahead. I’ll help Corlie bake a cake.”
    “Can you cook?” Leslie asked indifferently. “I never bothered to learn how. I eat out most of the time.”
    “I hate restaurant food and fast food,” Barrie remarked, “so I took a culinary course last summer. I can even do French pastries.”
    Dawson was watching her. “You never mentioned that.”
    She shrugged. “You never asked,” she said coolly.
    “How odd,” Leslie interjected. “I thought engaged people knew all about each other. And she
is
your stepsister,” she added.
    “We’ve spent some time apart,” he explained. “We’re still in the learning stages, despite the engagement. We won’t be long,” he told Barrie.
    “Take your time.”
    He hesitated, and Barrie knew why. She didn’t want to give Leslie any excuse to taunt him. She went forward, sliding her arms around his waist and trying not to notice how he stiffened.
    “Remember that you’re engaged,” she said in a stage whisper, and went on tiptoe to put her lips to his.
    They were as cold as ice, like the eyes that never closed, even though he gave the appearance of returning her caress.
    “We’ll expect something special on the table when we get back,” he said, and gently put her away from him.
    Barrie felt empty somehow. She knew he wasn’t capable of giving her a full response, but she’d hoped for more warmth than he’d shown her. He looked at her as if he hated her. Perhaps he still did.
    Her sad eyes made him uncomfortable. He took Leslie’s arm with a smile and led her out the door toward the garage behind the house.
    * * *
    “Trouble in your engagement already?” Leslie mused as they drove out of town in Dawson’s new silver Mercedes. “I notice that you’re suddenly very cool toward your fiancée. Of course, there is a rather large age difference between you, isn’t there?”
    Dawson only shrugged. “Every engagement has a few rough spots that need smoothing over,” he said carelessly.
    “This one was sudden.”
    “Not on my part,” he replied as he slowed to make a turn.
    “I begin to understand. Unrequited love?”
    He laughed bitterly. “It seemed that way for a few years.”
    Leslie stared at him curiously, and then all at once she began laughing.
    His eyebrows lifted in a silent query.
    “I’m sorry.” She choked through her laughter. “It’s just that there were these rumors going around about you,” she confessed. “I don’t know why I even believed them.”
    “Rumors?” he asked,