Night Thunder by Jill Gregory Page B

back, not saying anything, not even looking at her anymore.
He’s lost interest,
she thought with a stab of hope.
Good.
    Corinne pushed back her chair suddenly. “I’m going to powder my nose,” she announced. She grabbed Josy’s arm. “Come with me.”
    Josy hadn’t traveled to the ladies’ room in a pack since high school, but she was only too glad to escape. Corinne charged through the door showing a cowgirl holding a lasso and dragged her inside the small two-stall restroom, which reeked of drugstore perfume and cigarettes.
    “Sorry Roy pushed you into dancing with Ty,” she said immediately. “He meant well, but . . . it was a bad idea from the start. Roy and I have tried setting Ty up with lots of girls since he moved to Thunder Creek, but he’s not into dating these days, not at all. I’m sorry if he took it out on you—we’re the ones he’s really annoyed with.”
    “I did get the impression he’d rather be doing almost anything other than dancing with me.”
    “That’s no reflection on you, honey, believe me.” Corinne had whipped a deep pink lipstick from her purse, but she paused after snapping off the cap. “Ty lost his wife two years ago. She was with the police department in Philadelphia just like him, and this criminal got loose in the station house and grabbed a gun. It hit Ty really hard. She was pregnant at the time. Ever since then he’s blocked out just about everything except for his work.”
    “I’m sorry . . . that’s awful.” Josy was stunned.
    “Yeah.” Corinne looked grim. “It was awful. Roy says he and Ty have always been close, but now Roy can’t even get through to him. Ty won’t let his brother or his sister get close to him anymore either. He’s basically shut down his personal life.”
    “That’s too bad.” Josy thought of the frown on Ty Barclay’s face the first time she met him in the stairwell. “He must have loved his wife very much,” she said slowly.
    “Oh, he did. According to Roy, they had this fairy-tale thing. This magic . . .” Corinne glided the lipstick carefully over her mouth. “But even so . . . he’s got to get over her sometime, right? When he moved here, we gave him a few months to settle in, and then we figured he’d want to meet some women, start getting back into the swing of things, but he only went on one or two dates and he never called either woman back again. And, honey, I assure you, there’s plenty of girls in this town who’d love the chance to help him forget his wife. But he’s not having any of it.”
    “I’m sure he will when he’s ready.”
    “It’s been two years. To tell you the truth,” Corinne sighed, “Roy and I are starting to think he won’t ever be ready.” She dropped the lipstick back into her purse. “That’s why I didn’t want Roy to bulldoze you two into dancing together. I had a feeling Ty wouldn’t like our pushing him toward someone again. So if he seemed standoffish or . . . rude, or anything like that, it’s not
you
. It’s him. He might be drop-dead gorgeous, smart, and the best shot I’ve ever seen, but right now, Ty Barclay is poison for any woman’s ego.”
    “My ego’s intact, Corinne. Don’t worry about it.”
    “I heard Chance Roper threw his hat into the ring.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    Corinne finger-combed her hair and her eyes danced. “He came into Bessie’s Diner today and pumped Roberta for information about you. Told her all about how he saw this knockout blonde on Main Street, and how he carried your groceries even though you wouldn’t give him the time of day.”
    “Oh, God. So what they say about small towns is true. News travels fast.”
    “Speed of light.” Corinne chuckled. “A new woman in town is always big news. Most of the ones who stay at the dude ranch don’t get to meet many people beyond the ranch hands there. Tammie and Wood don’t mind some flirtation between the guests and the employees—they think it adds to the business. But you