“Stay on Your Side of the Table,” They Told Her — Until the Rancher Held Out His Hand

At a lantern-lit dance in Merritt's Halt, every unmarried daughter and her father is angling to get near Gideon Merritt, the town founder's son. None of it lands — he's tired of being looked over like an inheritance that happens to have a face. Then Nora Beckett threads through the crowd with a tray of coffee cups, the one soul under the lanterns who isn't trying to be seen, hugging the outer dark with her eyes down. She's the only woman who walks clean away from him, telling him he oughtn't say such things to the help. Her indifference is the first thing all night that catches his attention. The man every girl wants finds himself drawn to the one who wants nothing from him.