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“He only has that power if I give it to him—which I won’t. You’re looking at a woman of the twenty-first century, Dad, and we’re too smart to let a man trifle with us.”
“Nevertheless, I’m having a talk with him.”
Her expression might have been outwardly serene, but Steffie’s insides were dancing a wild jig. “You’ll do no such thing,” she insisted.
“Apparently Charles Tomaselli doesn’t know what’s good for him.”
“Dad! We talked about this before, remember?” Her good mood was quickly evaporating. “Now I want you to promise you’re not going to interfere with Charles and me.”
Her father refused to answer.
“I’ll be mortified if you even bring up the subject of marriage to him.”
“But—”
“I’m trusting you, Dad. Now good night.” She stood and kissed his forehead before hurrying up the stairs to her own bedroom.
* * *
“I appreciate the ride to the airport,” Valerie said as they drove out of town early Saturday afternoon. Her sister’s flight was scheduled to leave at six, which gave them plenty of time for a leisurely trip into Portland. Valerie was going to meet with Rowdy Cassidy to tell him about her engagement and request a job transfer.
“I’m glad to do it,” Steffie assured her older sister. Now that Valerie had set the preparations for her wedding in motion, she was free to return to Texas. There were several tasks, besides the discussion with Cassidy, that she needed to take care of. She had to pack her personal things, deal with her furniture and put her condo on the market.
“Colby wanted to come with me, but his schedule’s full,” she explained wistfully. “That’s something we’ll both have to adjust to.”
“Heavy schedules?”
Valerie nodded. “I’ll talk to Rowdy about that while I’m in Houston.”
“Do you think he’ll agree to let you head up the West Coast branch of CHIPS?”
“It’s hard to say…. I don’t think he’s going to be pleased about my wanting to leave Houston, but he hasn’t got a choice.” Steffie noticed a hesitancy in her sister that she hadn’t seen earlier. “Rowdy can be hard to predict,” Valerie added. “He might be absolutely delighted for me and Colby. But there’s also a chance that he’ll be angry I took an extended leave of absence to plan my wedding.” She sighed. “I didn’t tell him the whole truth about why I didn’t return the day I said I would.”
“Why not?” Steffie prodded, briefly taking her eyes from the road when Valerie didn’t immediately offer the information.
“I know I should have, but it just didn’t seem right to do it over the phone. Besides, I’m afraid Rowdy might be…have been interested in me himself. At one point, I even thought I was interested in him! Good heavens, I didn’t know a thing about love until I met Colby. I don’t mean to hurt Rowdy’s feelings but I can’t give him any hope.”
“Do you want me to fly back with you?”
“Oh, no. Rowdy’s really a gentleman beneath that cowboy exterior.”
Steffie’s suspicions were raised. “Does the good doctor know how Rowdy feels about you?”
“I think he might. Then again, we’ve never really discussed Rowdy, and why should we? If you want the truth, I think Colby would rather forget about him.”
“Maybe he should take his head out of the sand.”
“Don’t you go saying anything to him,” Valerie said vehemently. “I mean it, Steff. What happens between Rowdy and me is between Rowdy and me.”
“Is Colby the jealous type?” Steffie remembered how she’d felt the day she saw Charles standing next to Wendy, the intern at the Clarion. Until that moment, she’d never thought of herself as jealous. Even now the blood simmered in her veins when she recalled how the little blonde had gazed up at Charles, her blue eyes wide with open admiration.
“I don’t know if Colby is or not. I only know how I’d feel if the situation was reversed.” Valerie seemed to consider her next words. “Before Colby and I became engaged he was dating a nurse named Sherry Waterman, a friend of Norah’s. Apparently he’d been going out with her for quite a while. Everyone was expecting them to announce their engagement. Norah seemed to feel otherwise, but that’s another story.”
“I swear Norah’s got a sixth sense about these things.”
Valerie nodded. “I think she does, too. At any rate, Colby and I decided that although we were attracted to each other, a long-term relationship was out of the question. Colby…asked me to hurry up and leave because my staying made everything so much more painful for us both.”
“He didn’t!” Steffie was outraged. “It’s a good thing he didn’t say that around me.”
