Denim and Diamonds Read Online Free

paused and looked at Letty. Slowly he put down the biscuit and placed his knife next to his plate. “Are you okay?” he asked.
    “Sure,” she answered, smiling weakly. Actually, she wasn’t—the day had been exhausting. She’d tried to do too much and she was paying the price, feeling shaky and weak. “What makes you ask?”
    “You’re pale.”
    That could be attributed to seeing Chase again, but Letty didn’t say so. Their brief meeting had left her feeling melancholy all afternoon. She’d been so young and so foolish, seeking the bright lights, utterly convinced that she’d never be satisfied with the lot of a rancher’s wife. She’d wanted diamonds, not denim.
    “No, I’m fine,” she lied as Lonny picked up the biscuit again.
    “Mommy couldn’t find any chocolate chips,” Cricket said, frowning, “so we just baked the apple pie.”
    Lonny nodded, far more interested in his gravy and biscuits than in conversing with a child.
    “I took Cricket out to the barn and showed her the horses,” Letty said.
    Lonny nodded, then helped himself to seconds on the biscuits. He spread a thick layer of butter on each half.
    “I thought maybe later you could let Cricket give them their oats,” Letty prompted.
    “The barn isn’t any place for a little girl,” Lonny murmured, dismissing the suggestion with a quick shake of his head.
    Cricket looked disappointed and Letty mentally chastised herself for mentioning the idea in front of her daughter. She should have known better.
    “Maybe Uncle Lonny will let me ride his horsey?” Cricket asked, her eyes wide and hopeful. “Mommy had a horsey when
she
was a little girl—I saw the picture in her room. I want one, too.”
    “You have to grow up first,” Lonny said brusquely, ending the conversation.
    It was on the tip of Letty’s tongue to ask Lonny if he’d let Cricket sit in a saddle, but he showed no inclination to form a relationship with her daughter.
    Letty was somewhat encouraged when Cricket went in to watch television with Lonny while she finished the dishes. But no more than ten minutes had passed before she heard Cricket burst into tears. A moment later, she came running into the kitchen. She buried her face in Letty’s stomach and wrapped both arms around her, sobbing so hard her shoulders shook.
    Lonny followed Cricket into the room, his face a study in guilt and frustration.
    “What happened?” Letty asked, stroking her daughter’s head.
    Lonny threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know! I turned on the TV and I was watching the news, when Cricket said she wanted to see cartoons.”
    “There aren’t any on right now,” Letty explained.
    Cricket sobbed louder, then lifted her head. Tears ran unrestrained down her cheeks. “He said
no,
real mean.”
    “She started talking to me in the middle of a story about the rodeo championships in Vegas, for Pete’s sake.” Lonny stabbed his fingers through his hair.
    “Cricket, Uncle Lonny didn’t mean to upset you,” Letty told her. “He was watching his program and you interrupted him, that’s all.”
    “But he said it
mean.
”
    “I hardly raised my voice,” Lonny came back, obviously perplexed. “Are kids always this sensitive?”
    “Not really,” Letty assured him. Cricket was normally an easygoing child. Fits of crying were rare and usually the result of being overtired. “It was probably a combination of the flight and a busy day.”
    Lonny nodded and returned to the living room without speaking to Cricket directly. Letty watched him go with a growing sense of concern. Lonny hadn’t been around children in years and didn’t have the slightest notion how to deal with a five-year-old. Cricket had felt more of a rapport with Chase than she did her own uncle, and Chase had done everything he could to ignore her.
    Letty spent the next few minutes comforting her daughter. After giving Cricket a bath, Letty read her a story and tucked her in for the night. With her hand on the light