Miss Greenhorn by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

with.
    â€œTell me you aren’t getting involved with that man you told me about,” Joyce Ann said suddenly. “A holiday romance is one thing, but you won’t do something silly like getting in over your head with a stranger, will you?”
    Christy’s heart jumped. Amazing, how easily her sister read her. “Of course not,” she protested. “I mean, there are a lot of men out here. George works with me at the dig. He’s a college senior and a very nice boy.”
    â€œBut he isn’t the one you’ve got your eye on. Who is?”
    She gave in to the need to tell someone. “His name is Nathanial,” she said. “He’s a miner.”
    â€œOh, my God! A caveman!”
    Christy burst out laughing. “No! He works in an office, not down a mine shaft. He’s tall and rugged-looking, and very smart. He has a huge computer.”
    â€œAnd money?” Joyce Ann asked shrewdly.
    â€œHe and his mother own this ranch,” she said.
    â€œA mama’s boy!”
    â€œNo!” She shook her hair back. “Joyce Ann, he’s a very mature—”
    â€œHow old?”
    â€œI don’t really know. I guess he’s in his middle thirties.”
    â€œSo is Harry.”
    â€œHarry is forty and paunchy and about as romantic as Jell-O!”
    â€œSpeaking for myself, I find Jell-O with whipped cream on top very romantic indeed.”
    Christy sat back in her chair, curling the telephone cord around her fingers. “Harry doesn’t love me, and I sure don’t love him.”
    â€œWell, don’t tell me you love the Arizona caveman,” Joyce Ann scoffed, “because you don’t fall in love in just a few days.”
    â€œDon’t you?” Christy asked sadly. “I don’t suppose it matters anyway, because he doesn’t seem to feel that way about me. He takes me places and then goes off and ignores me.”
    â€œDoes he?” There was new interest in her sister’s voice. “Gets mad, does he?”
    â€œHe seems to stay that way. And he looks at me in the oddest way.” She crossed her long legs. “Anyway, I don’t suppose he’d be interested seriously in a schoolteacher from the East. He’s rich and good-looking and has his pick of women. I don’t imagine he has any trouble finding them, either. This ranch always has women guests, and most of them are rich.”
    â€œRich doesn’t buy love.”
    â€œSo they say, but it makes it easier to digest, I’ll bet. Joyce Ann, how would you like to hear about the Hohokam ?”
    â€œNot long-distance, darling, you’ll go bankrupt. You can tell me about them when you come home. When are you coming home, Christy?”
    â€œIn another week,” Christy replied, feeling already the pain of parting from Nate. She’d only known him for a few days, but it felt like years and she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him.
    â€œDon’t sound so morose. Harry says he’s going to meet you at the airport with a dozen roses.”
    The thought of Harry with a dozen roses in his arms made her burst out laughing. She got Joyce Ann started, and then they began to reminisce about the old days, when their parents were still alive. Joyce Ann could be a pain, but it was so nice not to be alone in the world.
    As she said good night and hung up, she wondered how she was going to manage if she had to go home and fight off Harry’s practical proposal all over again.

Chapter Four
    T he next day was Saturday, and the team was given the weekend off. A trail ride was planned for guests at the ranch, along with a shopping trip to town, a small rodeo, and a camping trip that night in the mountains behind the ranch. It would be a full day, but all Christy saw were the regular wranglers. She hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Nate, and some of the joy and excitement went out of the activities because he wasn’t