Weslin nodded, smiling like he got the message, loud and clear. “She left her mark on your face.”K.C. laughed and went after the lipstick with a cocktail napkin. “What do you like about them?”Weslin asked, and when K.C. gave him an incredulous glance, he shrugged it off. “No, I’m serious.”
“Hell, I like their spirit, their heart.” Weslin looked at him as though he found the answer to be intriguing. K.C. decided to take the reaction at face value; he’d said something interesting. If Weslin had been a woman, K.C. would have known better. Women weren’t interested in what he said so much. It was more the way it was said. That and the way he listened. K.C. glanced at the dance floor. Watching people dance always made him tap his toe, itching to get out there and enjoy the music with some sweet partner. He leaned across the table. “A woman’s heart is different from a man’s. It’s not a matter of soft, even though there is that softness about some women. It’s more like extra room, maybe a secret chamber. They always seem to have a little hope in reserve.”
“Heart.” Weslin seemed to be turning the word over in his mind, like a questionable coin. Finally he smiled. “That’s not the part most men would name.”
K.C. shrugged as he sipped his whiskey. “I generally just say I’m a leg man and let it go at that, but you did say seriously.”
“And I don’t threaten you.”
“Threaten me?”
“Seriously.” Weslin chuckled, sat back sipping on his bourbon and water. He was a good-looking cowboy, a little on the thin side with slender, elegant hands, but the kind of a guy a woman would surely notice. “My life is full of women, too,” he said, as if he’d read K.C.’s mind. “Women I love. Women I hate. Women I hate to love. I know just what you mean by a woman’s heart. There’s a gentleness about them that scares some men, I think. You’ve got it just right, though: gentleness and stamina. Unbelievable combination, but there it is.”
K.C. raised his glass in fraternal agreement. “If we were talking about horses, we’d call it try. Some guys don’t appreciate that, either. They say they do, but the first thing they wanna do is break her, break her in, which means break her spirit.”
“And when that doesn’t work out, they come to you.”
“We talking about women or horses now?”
Weslin smiled. “We’re talking about soft hearts and gentle creatures. Do you ever get tired of trying to make amends for other men’s mistakes?”
“It’s probably fifty percent of my business, ”K.C. said. As for women, he figured it wasn’t possible for one man to make amends for the mistakes of another. He’d gotten himself in trouble over it a time or two and given up trying. Thought he had, anyway. He sure as hell meant to.
“You’re the kind of man a guy wants to introduce to his sister.”
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