Native Silver (5 page)

Well, that was all she wanted now, all she was living for. She and Miki would do it together. Just
let the Santiagos try to stop them!

Then the defiance faded and she remembered
David Santiago, how she’d responded to him, how much . . . yes, darn it all, how much she liked him! It was impossible. She had to get thoughts like that
out of her mind. He was the enemy. She had to remember that. Otherwise, how could she win?

CHAPTER THREE

THE SANTIAGOS ALWAYS WIN

“The Santiagos have always won at the horse show,”
Lisa told her sister the next morning as the two of them sipped coffee in her bright, yellow kitchen.
 

Shawnee had driven over in her ancient blue
Camaro to have her first real visit with the rest of
her family since she’d returned home.
 

“It’s tradi
tional. It’s expected.” She rose impatiently, moving
to the oven to check on the chiles rellenos dish she’d prepared for lunch. “Besides, what chance do you
have? You’ve never won a show in your life.”

That was a sticking point, one Shawnee would
rather not face. “I’ve never wanted to win one like I
want to win this,” she answered softly, hoping the
tremor in her voice didn’t betray just how uncertain
she was. “And I’ve never had such a wonderful horse before.”

Lisa shrugged. “Well, the Santiagos have won before. Rose Santiago, the aunt, has won the title
for the last ten years or so, but this year, Allison is back, and I hear she’s going to carry the banner for
the family.”

Shawnee looked up in surprise. “Allison? David’s older sister?”

Lisa nodded. “You know she’s won all kinds of
titles in Europe. I’d say she’s pretty stiff competi
tion.” She made a pout with her full lower lip. “
Going up against her, all you’ll be doing is guaran
teeing a Carrington will lose to a Santiago. Again.”

But Shawnee hardly heard her. “So Allison is
back? What happened to the mid-European count
or duke or whatever it was she married?”

“She’s divorcing her husband, from what I hear. And she’
s
living
at Rancho Verde again.” Lisa’s eyes
glazed over with other thoughts. “I wonder if I could get her to come to the dinner party for the
Falwells next Thursday? We’re going to be short one
female . . .”

“Lisa! You wouldn’t have a Santiago to dinner in y
our house!”

Lisa looked at her sister as though she were a poor, misguided thing to be pitied. “I’ll have a
Santiago any time I can get one. They’re the biggest catch in the valley. David was here for the cocktail party we had for Will Sangrini when he announced his candidacy for Congress last fall.”

Shawnee knew that Lisa had dreams of a political
future for Brad and was busy laying the ground
work now.

“He’s a real charmer,” Lisa went on. “In fact, he’s out at the office with Brad right now, going over
some accounts.”

“David Santiago is here?” Shawnee jumped up
from her chair and looked about, as though she were afraid he would pounce out at her from the broom closet.

“Don’t worry. He came on business. He’s helping Brad with some equipment purchases for the dairy.” She shrugged. “He comes all the time. He never comes in, though.”
Lisa plopped down in her seat with a sigh of resignation. “Honestly, Shawnee,
you’d think they hailed from Transylvania or some
thing. They happen to be the most prominent
family in the Valley, and very nice people besides.”

“Oh yeah. I know that. But how did they get that position, Lisa? You know very well they got it by stealing Rancho
Verde from us, or had you forgotten that?”

Lisa shrugged. “Every family goes through its ups
and downs. Granpa Jim is the only person who
talks about ‘stealing’. No one else seems to know about that
. But, honey, the past is in the past.
Don’t let it poison your life.”

Shawnee closed her eyes, trying very hard to relax, to respond to her sister’s comfort. She didn’t want to fight, not on her first visit since coming home. She slipped down into her chair again. She wanted to have a nice talk with her sister and to
clear her mind of all thoughts of David.

But it wouldn’t clear. It hadn’t for hours now.
Late last night, trying vainly to fall asleep, and then in the morning, while taking Miki out for a run and then putting him through a light session of schooling, no matter what she did or where she went, the afternoon swim on Santiago property was never far
from her mind. And when she remembered the circumstances, the cool water on her naked skin,
the sunlight on his, she felt a gasping quiver
run through her body, a feeling that thrilled and
frightened her at the same time.

“David’s on the Californio Days Board, you
know,” Lisa added irrelevantly, and Shawnee knew
she was ready to discuss every member of the Santiago family at length. “And Stewart got married ages ago. The word is, he dotes on his wife. She’s some kind of wine country heiress, so they spend most of their time up there. Napa Valley, I
think. But I’m sure they’ll be here for Californio Days.”

Shawnee nodded absently. She really had very
little interest in David’s brother Stewart. Though he’d been around more than David in the old days,
she’d never had much contact with him.
But since all of the Santiagos had gone to private schools, shunning the public high school where she and Lisa got their education, they’d never mixed socially.
She remembered Stewart as a smiling, good-natured
boy, handsome, but hardly as exciting as
his brother David.
 

Exciting. Had she really thought that? Yes. As
she rose to help Lisa set the table for lunch, she had
to admit it was true. David was exciting. Even when she’d
only seen him from a distance, riding near the
borders of his land or driving one of his many sports c
ars through the little town of Destiny, passing
Shawnee walking home from school on the dusty
roads or down to the soda shop for an afternoon Coke, he’d looked exciting.
 

He was a forbidden temptation, even then.

“Is Brad going to join us?” she asked, counting
out silverware.

“I think so. I know he meant to. Set a place for him, anyway.”

Lisa’s home looked like something out of a fashionable magazine. In her elegant living-room, the walls were papered in muted beige velveteen
and the furniture was all chrome and rich, deep
burgundy, set out stylishly on a thick, tan carpet.
The dining area was glassed over like a greenhouse room, letting natural sunlight stream in to enhance
the rubbed cherry wood of the table. The chairs
were padded with ivory linen and tiers of greenery spilled from raised planters all along the walls.

“Here’s Brad now,” Lisa announced from the kitchen.

Shawnee heard the back door opening as she set the lemon-yellow napkins alongside the lime-green
place-mats.

“Where’s my favorite sister-in-law?” Brad’s affection for her was reserved but solid, and she turned with a smile to meet the hug she knew she would get as a greeting. The big man took her up in a bear-like embrace and she laughed, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, before her eyes connected with the dark gaze of the man who’d come in behind him.

Time stood still again. Funny how that always seemed to happen when she looked into his eyes. Lisa went on bustling about them, offering David a choice of beer or lemonade, and Brad introduced the two of them, not knowing they’d met before, and all the while, they were carrying on their own silent communication, quite apart from what was going on in the rest of the world.

“
Hi
,” his gaze was saying to her. “
We meet again
.”

“
Yes,
” hers answered. “
Unfortunately.”

“
Oh, come on, this isn’t so bad
,” his replied. “
But do we tell them
?”

“
Tell them what
?” Defensively.

“
About how we met
.” Amusedly.

“
Not a chance
.” Decisively.

“
Then we pretend to be strangers. And we have the fun of beginning all over again
.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your family reunion,” he said aloud in answer to Lisa’s invitation to stay for lunch, but he said it in the tone of one hoping to be won over.

“Don’t be silly,” Lisa insisted, pleased as Punch. “There’s plenty of food and plenty of room. You take a seat over there, right by Shawnee, and I’ll get you a place setting.”

Shawnee sank down into the chair David held out for her
, and then sat staring at Brad while he
talked on and on, her face set in a fixed smile she was sure looked totally inane, her mind full of the
man beside
her.

He was dressed very casually, in stone-washed jeans and a light, bulky knitted cotton sweater of a natural wheat color that made his arms look dark in contrast, the biceps bulging slightly where the short sleeves revealed them. And she saw all that without ever looking fully at him, except for the brief conversation she’d had with his eyes when they’d first come face to face.
 

She was dressed in a light violet sundress that suddenly seemed all too shear, all too low-cut. She could feel his gaze wash over her, exploring, admiring, and she wished she could run from the room.

She bit her lip, trying to get herself together. What was the matter with her? Just the day before, he’d seen just about everything there was to see of her, and she’d lived through it.
 

But now he was so close, she could almost feel the warmth of his breath against her naked shoulder. Just the thought of it sent a slicing gasp through her body.

Could he tell how he was affecting her? She risked a sidelong glance and caught sight of his face turned towards her. He knew, all right. Her fork slipped from her fingers and clattered on to her plate.

She was reminded, suddenly, of the only time she’d come this close to David when she was a teenager. She’d despised him from afar all her life, sure that he was a thieving jerk, just like the rest of his family. And then he’d done something that had shattered her comfortable hatred and made her think twice. He’d come to her rescue
like an old-fashioned caballero and he’d made a fatal impression on her imagination, one that she’d been trying to erase ever since.

Bound and determined to help out her family, Shawnee had taken a part-time job as a carhop at Merle’s, a drive-in restaurant, while still in high
school. “I’ll make enough in tips alone to pay for my
first year at college,” she’d dreamed naively. “And it’ll be
fun seeing all the kids after school as they come in
for sodas and hamburgers.”

It hadn’t quite worked out that way. The job was
hard and exhausting, and though most of the
patrons were nice people, there were a few who gave her trouble. One particular gang of young toughs took to hanging around every afternoon,
torturing her with rude comments and lewd sugges
tions. Complaints to Merle didn’t help.

“It comes
with the territory, honey,” he told her. “Learn to live with it.”

She tried, but she dreaded afternoons. One day
one of the boys became even more obnoxious than
usual. When she ignored his request for a kiss, he jumped over the door of the open convertible and
tried to show her what he wanted.

He was young, but tall and husky, and the arms that hung from the sleeveless shirt looked huge and
strong as they reached out and took her by
the waist. Shawnee tried to twist away, but he
tightened his grip. She tried to speak, but the
words seemed to clog in her throat. There seemed nowhere to look to for help and panic rose in her
chest. And that was when David stepped in.

“Hi, boys. How you doin’?” There was a pause as Shawnee fought to get free while the boy who held her
looked up to see who’d spoken. “I’d appreciate it if you’d
keep your hands off my girl.”

His voice
was deceptively friendly, but underneath they could all hear the barely leashed contempt. Shawnee felt the arms releasing her and she turned
to blink into David’s smile.

He must have been about twenty-five at the time. He was wearing dark slacks and a sports coat, and her first thought was that he was right to call the others
boys. David was a man. His male maturity was etched in every line of his body. Next to him,
the others looked hardly old enough to be let out on th
eir own.

He didn’t know who she was at the time. They’d never met,
and very likely he’d never even heard her name. So
he was coming to the aid of a stranger, out of the blue, pretending to be her protector. That was an honorable and unusual thing for a young man to do. It sure didn’t fit the image she had of the Santiagos. She remembered frowning at the time,
confused.

“I’ve seen you fellows around town before,” he
went on. “I guess you didn’t know . . .” there was an
almost imperceptible pause as he glanced at the name plate pinned to her chest, “. . . Shawnee was
my girl.” He took a step forward and draped an arm
lightly around her shoulders.