Emmett

Guy, the eldest, stood beside his father and glared at Melody. But Amy and Polk, the younger kids, made a beeline for their favorite person in the office.

“Hi, Kit!” they said in unison. “Hello, Melody. Can we sit and watch TV with you for a while?”

“Please?” Amy ventured, looking up at Melody with eyes that were the same shade of green as her father’s. “We’ll be ever so good. Emmett has to get our airplane tickets and Polk and I don’t want to go to the airport. We got to be in the parade in the rodeo!”

“You all look very nice,” Melody told them.

Guy ignored her.

Polk had already turned on the TV and was staring at the screen. “Aw, gee, Big Bird isn’t on right now, Amy,” he said miserably.

Melody glanced at the kids, noticing again how much they all favored their father. Guy came closest. He was tall, too, with a lean face and dark hair. Amy looked a lot like her mother, Adell, except for those green eyes. All the kids had them.

The last time Emmett had been in the office, he’d savaged Melody. The San Antonio rancher hated her and made no secret of the fact. He didn’t approve of her working for Logan, who was a relative of his as well, but by blood, not marriage, as Melody was. Melody had had several days to remember and burn over his attitude. She was through being intimidated by him. He might be almost a generation older than she was, but he wasn’t going to walk on her feelings anymore.

“Amy and Polk want to stay with you while I go to the airport,” Emmett said icily. He didn’t mention leaving Guy, because Guy disliked Melody as much as Emmett did.

Melody cocked an eyebrow, and tried to stay calm. She was melting with fear inside, but she wasn’t going to let him know it. “Am I being asked?” she replied formally.

Emmett’s pale green eyes glittered at her. “Yes, if you want the whole ten yards.”

“In that case, Amy and Polk are welcome to watch TV while you’re gone,” she said, triumphant with her small victory.

Emmett didn’t like the challenge in her dark eyes, or that tiny smirk. If those kids hadn’t been giving him hell all morning, he wouldn’t even be here. He was surly with bad temper.

“You won’t help them run away or anything?” he asked, with a sarcastic, pointed reference to her part in his ex-wife Adell’s sudden departure with Melody’s brother, Randy.

He wasn’t going to do that to her, she promised herself. She wasn’t going to let him play on her conscience. Her eyes settled on the tabloid and it triggered a memory; something Kit had elaborated on since her return from Emmett’s house in San Antonio. She smiled sweetly and picked up the tabloid. “Have you seen the latest on that ax murder, Mr. Deverell?” she asked, and stuck the gory front page under his arrogant nose.

He turned green instantly. “Damn you…!” He choked before his mad dash to the restroom.

Melody and Polk and Amy and Kit chuckled helplessly. Guy glared at them and walked out to find his father.

“He has a stomach of glass,” Melody pronounced, recalling Kit’s revelations about how easily Emmett could be made ill with even talk of gory things. Amazing, for a rancher who was also something of a rodeo star. It was one of many paradoxes about Emmett that would have fascinated a less prejudiced woman. She took the paper and stuck it into her purse. She could use it as a talisman against future attack by Emmett. “Make yourselves comfortable, kids,” she told Amy and Polk.

“That was a dirty trick.” Kit laughed.

“He deserved it. Nasty, arrogant beast,” she muttered, glaring at the door into the hall as if he were hiding there waiting to pounce. “If he can’t take it, he shouldn’t dish it out.”

Kit was trying not to laugh too hard. Logan joined them, affectionately slipping an arm around his wife. “If we can’t dish what out?”

“Melody made Emmett sick,” Amy volunteered. “Look what’s on educational television, Melody! It’s Reading Rainbow!”

“Good, good,” Melody said absently.

“How did you make Emmett sick?” Logan asked curiously.

“Never mind. We women have to have our secret weapons, especially when it comes to people like your cousin Emmett,” Kit told him. “Melody, I’ve given you a number where we can be reached if you need to contact us.”

“I’ll only use it if there’s an emergency,” Melody promised.

Kit smiled at her. “I know that.”

“And don’t let Tom give you fits,” Logan told her. “He’s not a bad man. It was my fault. I should have told him he was being volunteered to handle my clients that afternoon, but I was in a rush to get married.”

“I remember.” Melody chuckled. “It’s okay. I’ll manage.”

“If you can’t, you might turn those kids loose on him,” Logan suggested.

“Don’t give her any ideas. We have to leave, right now,” Kit said mirthfully, tugging at her husband’s arm. “Take care, Melody.”

“Yes, and don’t let my cousin walk on you,” Logan added. “You’re my secretary, not his paid babysitter. Keep that in mind.”

“I will.”

“So long.”

They walked out the door just as a pale, subdued Emmett was coming back in with Guy at his heels.

“That wasn’t fair,” Guy said angrily, glaring at Melody.

“You kids did it to him,” she pointed out. “Kit told me all about it.”

“We’re family. You’re not!”

“Yes, she is,” Amy argued. “She’s our aunt. Isn’t that right, Emmett?”

He looked even worse. “I’ll be back for Amy and Polk about three o’clock,” he said without answering the question.

“But isn’t she our aunt?” Amy persisted.

“She’s our stepaunt,” Polk told her.

“Oh.” She was satisfied and went back to watching TV. “Do take care of Emmett, Guy, and don’t let him get run over by any buses.”

“I don’t need taking care of,” Emmett muttered. “But she might,” he added with a glare at Melody.

“Watch it,” Logan advised sotto voce. “She slipped that tabloid into her purse.”

“Turncoat!” Kit gasped, hitting her husband’s shoulder.

“We men have to stick together,” Logan told her, chuckling. “In today’s world, there’s nothing more endangered than a male. Any day now, the women’s lib movement will start passing out hit lists and organizing death squads to wipe out men.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Emmett sighed. “The way it looks, we’re evolving into an Amazon society where men will be used to procreate the species and then efficiently be put to death.”

Melody eyed Emmett. “What an interesting idea.”

“Shame on you!” Kit chuckled. “Honestly, the radicals just get all the publicity. Most women’s libbers just want a fair shake—equal pay and equal rights. What’s so terrible about that?”