Now and Forever by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

here every other quarter so he can pay his tuition. Please, Tish?”
    â€œWe’ll see,” Tish replied uncertainly, her heart freezing just at the thought of facing another battle with Russell.
    â€œI’m going to wear something real slinky,” Eileen went on as if the whole matter was settled. She leaned toward Tish with excitement burning like brown coals in her eyes. “I’ll show it to you when we get home. It’s blue and clingy, and off the shoulder, and if I wear a heavy wrap I may get out of the house before Russell makes me change.”
    Tish shook her head in defeat. “Now I know what I’ve missed most,” she laughed.
    It was late afternoon when Nan dropped Tish and Eileen off at Currie Hall. Mattie insisted on fixing her usual gigantic supper, even though the girls protested a lack of appetite. Tish wore a casual light blue shirt-waist dress to the table, a carryover from childhood when Russell refused to allow a pair of feminine legs in pants to sit near him. Schooled as her nerves were, though, they still shivered when she caught Russell’s mocking gaze as she sat down next to Eileen.
    â€œHas Dwight Haley already left?” Eileen asked while they ate.
    Russell nodded. “He had to get back to Dallas. He bought your Angus bull,” he told the young girl with a half smile.
    â€œBig Ben?” Eileen wailed. “Gosh, Russ,I raised him from a nubbin, and he was the only Angus for miles and miles. Everybody’s got Herefords,” she grumbled.
    â€œThat’s why you haven’t got Big Ben anymore,” he replied cooly, sipping his coffee and grimacing at the scalding temperature. He set the cup down. “I couldn’t risk having him get in with my breeding stock. I’ll let you have one of the Hereford calves to pet.”
    â€œSure, Russ, you’ll let me have it to pet until it gets 200 pounds on it,” she groaned, “and then one night I’ll find out I’m eating it for supper. That’s cruel.”
    â€œCruelty can be a kindness, kitten,” he said abstractedly as he glanced at Tish, who quickly dropped her gaze to a mound of mashed potatoes and gravy.
    â€œHow would you like it if I sold one of your old Apps without telling you first?” Eileen was still grumbling.
    â€œDepends.”
    â€œOn what?”
    â€œOn how much you got for him.” Russell grinned.
    â€œOh, Russ,” Eileen said, capitulating with a smile.
    Tish watched the byplay between brother and sister while she savored the taste of her steak and onions. Russell was so good to look at, she thought. Had that arrogant tilt of his head always been so attractive, and why hadn’t she ever noticed the way his dark hair curled just a little at the ends where it lay against his muscular neck? Her eyes traveled to his profile, chiseled and commanding in that dark face, his nose straight, his brow jutting, his jaw square and stubborn…
    His head turned suddenly, his dark eyes narrowing, glittering, under a black scowl when he caught her eyes on him. She quickly dropped her gaze to her plate and hated the sudden heat in her cheeks.
    Pushing back her far-from-empty plate, she rose. “I’m going to sit on the porch for a while,” she said, leaving before anyone could ask why she hadn’t finished her supper.
    She almost ran for the sanctuary of the long, wide porch, vaguely aware of the soft, deep laughter behind her.
    She plopped down in the comfortable porch swing and rocked it into motion, listening to the sound of hounds baying mournfully in the distance, the sound of crickets closer at hand. Her heart was slamming at her ribs from that fiery encounter with Russell’s eyes. She crossed her arms across her breasts, feeling a sudden sweet chill with the memory. Frank has blond hair, she told herself, and blue eyes, and I can have him if I want him.
    â€œTish!” Eileen called suddenly, breaking in on the