“Just because you saved my life doesn't mean you get to tell me what to do for the rest of my life,” he said, looking peevish, but he couldn't help looking at her and grinning. “You look tired, Tan,” he said then, looking worried.

“You scared the hell out of me.” But she had one more thing to do on the way home before she could sleep. And she was disappointed, she had wanted to go on a ride with him. She had Tom coming for him, and he could lie down in the back and take it easy.

The doctor said he could leave at noon, because he had developed no complications and had no fever, and Tom came for them, as Tanya had asked. Gordon whistled from the wheelchair as he saw the bus arrive.

“Subtle, aren't we?” He grinned. “How am I going to explain this to Charlotte? Or are we totally blown out of the water?”

“I'd say she got a small clue last night, while I was clutching her arm in the waiting room, waiting to hear from the doctor. Actually,” Tanya said seriously, “she was very decent about it. I think she understood completely.”

“I hope so. Getting slashed in the middle of the night with you around wasn't exactly in my plans,” he said, still looking a little unnerved by it. But he seemed reasonably healthy, although she could tell the arm hurt. He wouldn't admit it, but he winced when he moved it. They had given him painkillers to take home, but he claimed that all he needed was a shot of whiskey.

She settled him in the back of the bus in one of the beds, and propped his arm up comfortably on pillows, and he grinned at her as she handed him a Coke, and they took off for the ranch, but after a while he glanced out the window and looked puzzled.

“I hate to tell you this, Tan, but your driver is going by way of China.”

“I thought you'd like a little scenic tour on the way back.” He didn't want to tell her he wanted a scenic tour of his bed, he was afraid to hurt her feelings, so he nodded, and kissed her.

“I just want you to know, I'm not going to let this affect our sex life,” he said, and she laughed.

“Let me tell you, about midnight last night, your sex life was the least of your problems.” Neither of them could believe what had happened.

She noticed just then that they had almost reached their destination. She glanced out the window and saw it. They had come around a bend, and were looking out over a bluff, just beneath the mountains. It was a place she had gone to with him the week before, and he recognized it as he looked out the window.

“What did you want to come back here for?” He looked amused and sat up, as he looked outside. “I love this place,” he said. He wondered if she was just being sentimental, and he leaned over and kissed her, but she was laughing.

“I hope so,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because I own it.”

“You what?” He looked completely confused by what she was saying. “You do not. This is the old Parker Ranch. I've known it for years. I brought you here last Sunday.”

“I know.” She looked extremely pleased with herself as she kissed him. “I bought it on Monday.”

“You're crazy.” He looked completely overwhelmed and for a minute she was afraid he'd be angry. “Why did you do that?” He wanted to believe all this, but he just couldn't. He had brought her to see a ranch on Sunday, and the next day, she bought it. It defied the imagination.

“You told me I should buy a ranch here.”

“So you did?” He stared at her. “Just like that?”

“The realtor said it was a great investment, and the price was fairly okay, so I figured I'd try it. I thought we'd do what you said. You can breed horses here, I can commute. You can do some stuff for Charlotte Collins. You help me run my little ranch. But we fix it up first. And well see. If we hate it, if you run off with some other rock star, if you decide to move to L. A. and give up broncos, I can always sell it. I figured we'd try it.”

“Oh, baby,” he said, and grabbed her close to him with his good arm. He knew it was for real now. No kidding. “You are amazing.”

“Will you help me do it?”

“Of course I will,” he said breathlessly, after what she'd done for him, there was nothing he wouldn't do now. She had proven herself in every way, and he knew he'd never forget it.

“I wanted to ride over here with you today, and show you.”

“I can't believe this.” He was still beaming as they pulled away and he looked at her again in amazement. “You really want to do this with me?” It was such a leap of faith for her, such a gift for both of them, it defied the imagination. He really did feel as though he'd died the night before and gone to Heaven. “How can you be so decent and so trusting?” he asked.

“Just stupid, I guess.” She smiled and took a sip of his Coke, and settled him back on his pillows. “Is there any reason that I shouldn't?”

“No, ma'am,” he said proudly, “you're going to have the best little ranch in Wyoming. When can we start fixing it up?”

“As soon as you can fly again,” she pointed to his broken wing, “it's ours next week.” It was hers of course, but she was going to share it with him. She figured she'd give it to him as a wedding present if they got married, but that was for later. She still had to get her divorce from Tony, and it wouldn't be final till Christmas. But after that… the possibilities were endless. The sky was the limit.

When they got to the ranch, and people saw the bus arrive, the whole staff was waiting outside his cabin, and they cheered as Tom helped him down the steps and into his cabin. Tanya was walking behind them. She was too afraid to hurt him if she moved his arm wrong. Everyone wanted to talk to him, tell him how glad they were that he was okay. They had brought him books and candy and food, and tapes. He had everything he needed. And now he had a woman who loved him, and the ranch he had always dreamed of. It brought tears to his eyes when he was finally alone with her again in his cabin.

“I still can't believe you. Nothing in my life has ever been like this.”

“Me too,” she said. “I love it here, and I want to be with you.”

“I'll come to L.A. too, whenever I can,” he reassured her.

“You don't have to if you don't want to.” She had learned that lesson now. She lived in a difficult world, and if he didn't want to be part of it, she wouldn't force him.

“I want to. You've seen my world, you're part of it now. I want to see your world too. We can have both, as long as we understand each other.”

“My world can be brutal,” she said sadly, “it'll hurt you terribly, even if you're careful. Nothing's sacred. I don't want them to hurt you.” But as it turned out, she couldn't stop them. The whole story was in the paper the next day, fed to the wire services, and it was on the front page of the tabloids, about how Tanya Thomas had gone to a ranch two weeks before, had an affair with a cowboy, and bought him a ranch a week later. It said how much she had supposedly paid for it, and added roughly a million dollars. And then it told the story of each of her husbands. Most of that was wrong, and all of it was ugly. The headline in the tabloids was A QUICKIE, OR HUBBY NO. 4? WHICH IS IT, TANYA? It approximated how much money he made a year, and how much she did, and it ridiculed her in every way. It cheapened him, it made her sound like a whore. It even made her look like a fool for singing the anthem at the rodeo, and they had the pictures they'd taken outside the bus there. It even told the story of how he'd been stabbed allegedly by another wrangler fighting over her in the corral. It made the knifing sound like a fight between two men vying for Tanya, and the article claimed she'd nearly been killed trying to stop them. She sat in her room at the ranch, feeling sick as she read it. The trouble was, there was always just enough truth in those stories to make people wonder. And she was worried about Gordon. What would he think of her when he read it?

“Don't read that shit,” Zoe said, furious at what they'd done to her. And then she couldn't help asking. “Did you really buy him a ranch? It's probably bullshit, but I wondered.”

“No, I bought me one. But he's going to help me. I think I've gotten smart enough not to try and drag him into my life. He's happy here. I don't want to spoil that, so I want to spend some time here.”

“That's fair,” Zoe said. “I just wondered. And Tan, I'm sorry.”

“Me too,” Tanya said miserably. “I used to wonder who talks, but I guess they all do. The cops, the press, the nurses, the ambulance drivers, the hairdressers of the world, and the tourists, the realtors, even friends sometimes. It's hopeless. Everyone supplies a tiny little piece of information and then they weave it into a knife and stab you with it, right through the heart.” She wondered how Gordon was feeling. Rotten probably. How could he not? They managed to make everything good look sleazy. She had stayed with him the night before, and cooked dinner for him, and she hadn't even left him till daylight. It wasn't much of a secret now that she was with him. And when she'd gone back to her own cabin, she'd seen the papers. The others were thinking about hiding them, but they knew there was no point. She'd find out eventually, and it was better to face it.

“I can't believe those bastards,” Mary Stuart said in fury to Hartley. He'd experienced it too, though never to that extent. And his success was different from Tanya's. Writers weren't usually devoured by tabloids, except for a few select ones. But Tanya was fair game, as far as they were concerned. And they loved to hate her.

She took the paper with her when she walked back to Gordon's cabin later that morning. The others had gone out for a last ride, and John Kroner had come over to go with them. He was riding with Zoe. Tanya was sorry not to go, but she wanted to be with Gordon. And now she wanted to talk to him about the papers. But the moment she walked in, she knew he'd seen it. There was something pained in his eyes, a kind of embarrassment, and she wondered if it was over between them. She looked at him long and hard. He was sitting on the couch, watching TV and drinking coffee. It had been on the news too, with a picture of him, and the slasher story, but she didn't know that. He couldn't believe how they could distort the truth that way. And as he looked at her, he wondered what she was feeling.