Now he had to deal with these two.
The station wagon turned into the garage and the truck coughed to a stop by the tree.
“That would be Lita.” He gestured to the wagon. “And it looks like Frank’s wife has brought Katya in the truck with her.” Matt hesitated then said, “They’re going to want to meet you.”
“Sure.”
“Jessica...” He wasn’t sure how to warn her. But then, she’d met Frank. Maybe he wouldn’t have to.
She gazed up at him, her eyes full of amused understanding. “Don’t worry. I’ll take everything they say with a grain of salt.”
“You’ll need a whole shakerful.”
“Really? What did you tell them?”
Matt rubbed beneath his hat brim, then settled it more firmly on his head. “Trust me. It doesn’t matter.”
Lita, her arms full of brown grocery sacks, got to them first. “What is your woman doin’ here already?”
Jessica’s eyebrows rose.
“I had to hear about it from them two.” Matt’s housekeeper jerked her head toward the black pickup.
Katya and Carmen were emerging from the truck, their bearing regal and full of purpose. Matt started to sweat.
He cleared his throat. “Lita, this is Jessica Fremont. Her son, Sam, is over there playing with Sally.”
“I see ’im.” Lita was a sturdy woman. She’d traveled a lot of miles on the road of life and it showed in both her face and her manner. “Have you been in my kitchen?”
Jessica shook her head.
“Good. I don’t want you messin’ around in my kitchen.”
“I wouldn’t dream of intruding in your domain unless invited,” Jessica said, sounding as aristocratic as Matt had ever heard her.
“I ain’t gonna invite ya.” Lita carried the groceries into the house.
With a fixed smile, Jessica turned to him. “The gruff housekeeper with the heart of gold?”
“Just the gruff housekeeper.”
“Ah.”
Audible squabbling drew their attention to the two women who approached.
Carmen was wearing her usual black, but her iron-gray hair was piled on top of her head and held in place with the antique tortoiseshell combs that were her prized possessions. She’d brought her special tea-leaf-reading china cup with her in its elaborately painted box.
Katya had gone full-out in her long purple skirt with the embroidered apron and matching head scarf. Long ago, she and Krinkov had decided that they trusted solid gold more than banks. Judging by all the rattling and clanking as she walked toward them, she’d decided to wear her entire life savings in honor of the occasion.
Even though he dreaded the coming confrontation, Matt was touched that they’d made the effort to dress up.
“It’s too bright out here to see her aura,” Carmen was saying.
“I don’t need to see her aura, I need to see her palm,” Katya retorted. “You just want to get her inside so that you can force her to drink that swill of yours.”
“Old fraud.” Carmen pasted a gap-toothed smile above her generous chins. “Matthew, you did not tell us she had arrived.”
“If you could actually see anything in the tea leaves you would have known.” Katya smiled even wider, showing off her impossibly white dentures.
Matt introduced everybody, wondering just who to protect from whom.
“Let me see your left hand.” Though Katya was still showing her teeth, it sounded like a demand.
“I’m not married,” Jessica murmured.
“I know that, child.”
“She has no ring, of course you know it,” Carmen scoffed. “Everybody knows it. Come, Matthew. Let us get inside out of the heat.”
“Yes,” Katya readily agreed, to Matt’s surprise. Those two rarely agreed on anything. “It’s so hot, she won’t be wanting to drink tea.”
The look on Carmen’s face left no doubt that refusing tea was not an option.
“I think afternoon tea is a lovely custom,” Jessica said, moving toward the house. “In fact my mother-in-law has frequently said that if men practiced it more often, there would be far fewer wars. Make them balance a cup of boiling water on their laps and they’d behave much more civilly to one another.”
As Matt grappled with this image, they all moved into the den. But instead of sitting on the leather couch there, Carmen headed for the kitchen and everyone followed her.
“So.” Lita guarded the doorway. “You’re gonna mess up my kitchen. I knew it.” She nodded toward Jessica. “Anybody can see that one needs food.”
Matt thought Jessica looked just fine, but his life wouldn’t be worth two bits if he said so in front of the others.
“Out of the way, Lita,” Carmen ordered. “We have business to attend to.”
Silently Lita moved to the side. Behind her, the scarred kitchen table was already set with cups, napkins and a generous plate of gingersnaps.
Matt tried to get close enough to Jessica to warn her to avoid eating them if she had any shaky dental work, but couldn’t.
A whistle from the teakettle announced boiling water.
“Huh,” Carmen said, and went to make her tea.
“Come and sit under the light,” Katya urged Jessica.
As she walked toward the table, Matt tried to follow her, but Katya barred his way. Shaking her head, she whispered, “Spend this time with the boy. Win his heart and you’ve won half the mother’s.”
* * *
JESSICA WAS GOING with the flow.
She’d been prepared to humor the two women, anyway. And even if she hadn’t, the queasy I’m-surrounded-by-females-and-something’s-bound-to-go-wrong expression on Matt’s face was impossible to ignore.
He was obviously fond of these women. He allowed them incredible license, something she understood. Hadn’t she done the same thing with Rachel?
“Sit,” Katya ordered.
Jessica sat and obediently held out her hand. She hadn’t had her palm read in ages. Now, what was the standard line? A tall, dark and handsome man would come into her life? With Matt around, that wasn’t much of a stretch.
Not that she thought of him that way.
Why not? asked a faint voice within her. Jessica smiled to herself. She hadn’t heard that voice in a long time.
Bracelets clinking together, Katya ran her fingers over Jessica’s hand. “You have a soft palm and short nails, so I know that you work indoors—perhaps with typing?”
A fishing expedition. Jessica shrugged. “Or I could be a musician.”
Katya frowned and shook her head. “There is no triangle with your life line. Besides, you have money. Musicians rarely have money unless they are famous. I have not heard of a famous musical Jessica Fremont. Therefore, you are not a musician.”
Pretty good logic. “I could play piano as a hobby,” Jessica offered.
Carmen laughed and swished boiling water in the teapot. Lita didn’t crack a smile.
“But you do not.”
Katya gazed at her so intently that if Jessica actually were an amateur musician, she’d deny it. “No.” Okay, fine. She’d play along, but she wasn’t going to reveal any information.
“You have had tragedy in your life,” Katya began.
“Ha!” was Carmen’s comment as she spooned loose tea into the pot. “She’s not married and she has a son.”
“There’s some as what wouldn’t think that was such a tragedy,” muttered Lita.
“Come here, both of you!” Katya angrily jerked Jessica’s palm toward them. “Do you not see the deep crease that crosses her life line?” Her heavily ringed finger poked Jessica’s hand.
Carmen waved her off. “Go ahead with you. We’ll see what the tea says.” She removed a
white teacup from a box lined with green velvet.
Her feathers still ruffled, Katya settled back into the wooden chair. “You see how the two lines are entwined there? There will be another man in your life.”
“A tall, dark and handsome one?” Jessica couldn’t resist.
Katya gazed at her, her eyes nearly black. “Or a short blond one who likes tiny horses.”
“Oh.”
“You see this?” She pointed.
Jessica saw lines. Moisturizer time.
“The lines part,” Katya said.
Actually, Jessica did see a Y across her palm. She nodded.
“You will have to make a difficult decision soon. You will be parting ways with someone.”
Maybe Katya was referring to the rift she’d had with Rachel this past week, Jessica thought before she could stop herself. Honestly, almost anyone would be faced with a difficult decision at some point. She should just humor the women and not take any of this seriously.
“When is your birthday?”
“August 17.”
Katya nodded. “Leo. I see the strength in your palm.”
She continued to examine Jessica’s palm, though she didn’t say much more, and when Carmen brought over a stark white cup with tea leaves swirling in it, she relinquished Jessica’s hand without protest.
That wasn’t much of a reading, Jessica thought, more troubled by Katya’s serious expression than she wanted to admit.
Carmen raised her eyebrows. “Well?”
“Read the leaves.”
The two of them exchanged a look.
They were spooking her. Jessica reached for a cookie. “I haven’t had gingersnaps in ages,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. She dunked the cookie into her tea, then bit into it, savoring the spicy flavor. “Wonderful. These beat biscotti in my book.”
She thought Lita’s florid face softened a fraction, but was probably imagining it. The woman did unbend enough to join them at the table.
Jessica was halfway through her second cookie when a thought occurred to her. “Will crumbs interfere with reading the tea leaves?”
Carmen shrugged silently as she set a cup down in front of Katya. Both women sipped their tea and watched her.
Intimidated, Jessica drank her tea too fast and scalded her tongue. She also swallowed a few leaves but decided not to mention that.
Setting her cup down, she asked Carmen, “Is that okay?”
“Hold the cup in your left hand with the handle positioned in front of you.”
Jessica did so and noticed that the cup had strange symbols inside it.
“Swish the leaves around in your cup clockwise three times. That’s it. Try to get them up to the rim without spilling.”
Jessica did so, and Carmen handed her the saucer. “Now turn the cup over and count to seven.”
She counted and barely got out the word “seven” before Carmen took the cup and stared into it.
“I see three,” she said at last.
Katya gave a stiff nod.
Carmen’s gaze locked with hers. “You said nothing of three.”
“The twining was so tight, I did not notice the third line at first.”
“Three what?” Jessica asked.
“You and two others,” Katya answered.
“Two men?”
“Two strong-willed people,” Carmen said.
“Men are usually mule-headed,” Lita said.
Carmen slowly shook her head. “There is another. A very strong influence in your life.”
Jessica immediately thought of Rachel, but they couldn’t know about Rachel, could they?
This was ridiculous. They were guessing, waiting for her to react and give them clues.
“She, too, is strong,” Katya said.
Carmen looked troubled.
Katya smiled faintly. “Exactly. I believe she bends to her own will and not another’s.”
“That would explain it.” Carmen’s brow smoothed. “And that could be good.”
“Do you see a ring?”
“In the bottom of the cup,” she said with obvious disappointment. “And a saw... But—” Carmen smiled at last “—I see a star. Whatever she dreams for is within her grasp.”
“Then she better be dreaming for the right thing,” Lita said.
They all looked at Jessica. “I...I just want to raise my son the best way I know how.”
“That is good, but you want more. Your palm says so.” Katya smoothed out Jessica’s hand and pointed to the tiny lines crisscrossing the base of her thumb. “All those lines on the Mount of Venus tell me that you hide your feelings and true self. Is that so?”
Jessica pulled her palm away. “The world wouldn’t be a very pleasant place if everyone went around revealing all their feelings without considering the effect on others.”
“Did I not tell you she had bent her will?” Katya’s dentures gleamed triumphantly.
Enough was enough. Abruptly Jessica stood. “Lita, could I take some of your gingersnaps to Sam? He usually has a snack around this time and he’s probably hungry.”
“He’ll need milk.” She went to the refrigerator.
Jessica took that as permission and filled a napkin with cookies.
The other two were silent and Jessica knew they were going to talk about her as soon as she left the room. Fine. Let them talk. It was just talk. They couldn’t know anything from the dregs of a cup of tea and a few lines on her palm.
Lita gave her a huge glass of milk. Jessica murmured some polite nothings and gratefully escaped.
No one was under the tree when she got outside, so Jessica headed toward the barn, smiling when she heard her son’s laughter.
The tiger wasn’t in sight, which was a relief.
Jessica stepped inside the barn and saw the afternoon sunlight streaming through the jagged opening caused by the elephant. Unfortunately the hole was right beneath a beam, and what boards didn’t break outright probably stressed the beam. It wasn’t one of the main supports, or Matt would have been in trouble. Still, the damage needed to be repaired as soon as possible.
“Hi, Mom! Look what else Matt’s got.” Sam was sitting on the metal railing of a stall. Inside was a zebra.
Nothing surprised Jessica anymore. “Would this be the zebra who has a crush on a mule?”
“The same.” Matt had propped a foot on the railing.
He was close enough to catch Sam if he fell or the zebra turned hostile, but not close enough for Sam to realize why he was there, she noted, sending him a grateful smile.
“I brought you cookies and milk, Sam.” Jessica handed him the cookies first. “These are gingersnaps. You can dunk them.”
“They’re horse snacks!” Sam immediately held one out to the zebra. “Here, Shelby.”
Matt moved imperceptibly, sliding his hands along the railing, but the zebra took the treat without incident. Sam gravely reached into the next stall and offered one to the mule.
“Would you give this one to Sally?” Sam gave Matt a cookie and he reached over to the little horse in the stall next to the mule.
“Does Lita know you feed her cookies to the animals?” Jessica asked.
“Hope not.” Matt gave a wry grin.
“They’re good.”
“You ate one?” he asked in surprise.
“Two, actually.”
“You must have great teeth.”
Jessica laughed. “The cookies are meant for dunking. If they were any softer, they’d fall apart in your milk. Or in my case tea.”
“So you drank the tea,” Matt said. “And you’re still speaking to me.”
“Had my palm read, too.”
“How did it go?”
“I’m entwined with strong people.”
“I’m entwined with nobody yet.”
She slid a glance toward him. “I think they’re working on that part.”
“You noticed.”
Jessica leaned against the railing, watched Sam dunk cookies and alternately share them with the zebra and mule, and vowed not to tell him he should wash his hands. “I didn’t see any other wallets stuck in the tree, so I’m guessing you don’t invite women here often, do you?”
“Very funny.”
“Do you?”
Matt shook his head.
She smiled and patted him on his arm. “It’s probably for the best.”
He grinned and leaned against the railing. “I’ll point out that you invited yourself.”
Technically she had. Jessica thought about that. “I can see that people have a tendency to do that to you. The animals, too.”
“I don’t mind,” he said quietly. “I’m grateful to have a place they can come to.” He gazed around the barn. “Be nice if it were in better shape.” He pointed to the last stall against the back. “Had a leak that ran right down the rafters and rotted out this whole back section before we realized it.”
“Not to mention the, uh, elephant damage.”
“Not to mention it.” He squinted at the hole. “Too bad she didn’t go for the rotten part.”
The entire structure wasn’t in the best condition, but Jessica figured he already knew that. “See the beam that runs across the top of the loft?” She pointed. “I’d need a ladder to check it, but it’s been stressed by the damage. You should get this fixed pretty quick, especially if the other end of it is rotten. I left my laptop in the kitchen, but I can give you an estimate on repairs.”
Matt shook his head. “Thanks, but—”
“No, I want to,” Jessica interrupted. It was suddenly important that she show him she had some skill. “I’m really good at this. For some reason, I have a knack for estimating materials and labor. Back when we were first married and couldn’t stand being apart for a minute, I used to follow Sam’s father around to the various construction sites.”
He turned to face her, still leaning against the railing. He looked at her for several moments. “I can’t visualize you doing that.”
The Rancher and the Rich Girl Page 11