Seduced by Love, Claimed by Passion~Summer Box Set

by Helen Conrad

  Tyler strode down the street with Misty trailing behind, but he’d forgotten all about her. His mind’s eye still saw Becky and his heart thumped thinking about her. He had to face something about himself. The reason he kept away from her wasn’t because he didn’t like her. The reason he kept away from her was because he liked her too much.

  “Damn it,” he said ardently.

  “Whoa. What’d I do?” Misty said from behind him.

  He stopped and turned back to look at her. “Sorry,” he muttered, embarrassed. “I forgot about you.”

  “Great.” She fluffed her hair and gave him a sideways glance. “Remind me not to come to you for any self esteem enhancement.”

  He frowned. She was such a kid. But a very cute kid. “Come on. My truck’s still parked by Bert’s Café.”

  They found his red Ford 250 right where he’d left it and he opened the passenger door for her, then helped her vault up into the seat, before going around to the driver’s side and getting in himself. When he slid onto the seat, she was waiting for him.

  “I am so glad I got this chance to be alone with you,” she told him, looking for all the world like a spy hatching a conspiracy plot. “I really need to talk to you.”

  He reared back, wary. “Oh yeah? What about?”

  “Didn’t Mack and Jared tell you? I saw you going into Bert’s and I sent them over to tell you all about it and get your help.” She shook her head in disgust. “Those guys. What a couple of flakes.” She threw him a winning smile. “Here’s the deal. I need Becky kept busy for a few hours on Friday.”

  He frowned at her fiercely. “Not you, too. I will not kidnap your sister so that you can go out with Mack. He’s too old for you, and anyway….”

  “Mack?” Misty threw up her hands in protest. “This has nothing to do with me going out with anyone. It has to do with Becky’s birthday. It’s on Saturday and I want to throw her a surprise party Friday night.” Her eyes danced with excitement. “We’re going to turn her store into a virtual fairy land. Shane’s sister Marti has the greatest ideas for decorating. Giant snowflakes! But it’ll take a lot of work to set up and we need Becky out of the way while we do it.”

  He started the engine, a feeling of dread beginning to tickle his senses. “Why me?”

  “Why not you?”

  He could have given her a lot of reasons, but he was busy turning the truck toward the other side of town where Misty’s car was waiting at Phil’s garage, and she went on earnestly.

  “Tyler, you know you’re one of the few men in this town I would trust my sister with alone all that time. After all, you’re Shane’s best friend.”

  He almost snarled. When was that one going to die the natural death it so richly deserved?

  “And besides,” she added. “She’s always liked you.”

  “Oh yeah?” he muttered. “She has a funny way of showing it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  What did he mean? She’d been perfectly nice to him this afternoon. “Never mind,” he said for lack of any good reason other than pure panic.

  “You can take her out for a long late lunch or something. And a drive, maybe. If you could come get her at three o’clock, that would be perfect. We’ll coordinate watches and you can bring her back at six. Then you can lead her into the darkened store where we’ll all be hiding and…”

  “I won’t do it.”

  Her pretty mouth gaped. “What?”

  “I said, I won’t do it.”

  She shook her head. It was obvious Misty wasn’t used to being turned down by anyone. “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to.” He was going to hang tough on this one. “Get somebody else.”

  “Tyler!”

  “Get one of her old friends from high school.”

  “They’re all gone. Julie lives in San Diego, Cari is on a dig in Egypt, Maxine got married and moved to Hawaii. You’re the only one left from those days.”

  “Pretend I don’t live here any more either. And think of someone else.” He threw her a cool look. “Because I’m telling you, Misty, I won’t do it.”

  “Oh honestly! You’re being silly.”

  He pulled into Phil’s parking lot. “Where’s your car?” he asked her.

  She looked out. “I don’t see it.” Opening the car door, she jumped out, but Phil called to them from the service bay area.

  “Hey, Tyler. Hi Misty. Your car is about fifteen minutes away from being ready.”

  “Darn.” She looked back at Tyler, about to pull herself back up into the seat, but he said, “Why don’t you just wait here? I’ll pick up Trevor and drop him by on my way home.”

  She hesitated, and he knew it was because she hadn’t managed to talk him into taking Becky away on Friday yet. “Close the door,” he said. “School’s been out for ten minutes by now. I want to get over there.”

  “Oh, all right,” she said, slamming the door shut. “I’ll call you later to talk about…”

  But her words were lost as he pulled out of the driveway and back onto the street. He gave her a little honk and grinned as he sped off. He knew one thing for sure—he wouldn’t be taking any phone calls that night.

  His little sister Sandy was waiting alongside the road in front of the long, low concrete building that was the high school with a rebellious sulk on her face. He looked her over as he drove up. She certainly looked like a rancher’s child, her hair in two braids with straight bangs, her stance square and strong, her backpack swung over her shoulder like she would carry a saddle. She was wearing baggy jeans and an oversized sweat shirt, as though she wanted to make sure no one knew she might be developing into a real woman someday.

  And that was just fine with him, he told himself. The fewer people that knew about it the better. She stepped forward as he stopped and opened the car door.

  “You’re late,” she said, as though that was perhaps the worst thing that had happened to her in a very bad day.

  “Sorry,” he said, gazing out at the other teenagers scattered across the grass, waiting for rides as well. “Hey, is that Trevor Harris over there?”

  She turned and looked, nodding. “Yup. That’s him.”

  “Go get him.”

  Sandy looked up at her brother in horror, her face pale under the sprinkling of freckles that powdered her nose and cheeks. “What? No way.”

  Tyler frowned. “Come on, Sandy. Just go over and tell him I want to talk to him.”

  She looked at him as though he’d suggested she start wearing underpants on her head. Pulling herself up into the cab of the truck, she said, “No,” her lower lip sticking out in a statement of rigid defiance.

  Tyler looked at her in surprise. This was his buddy, his pal, the little sister who tagged along and wanted in on everything he did. He’d never seen her be shy before. She was such a little tomboy, she usually got along with boys as well as girls, from what he’d been able to notice.

  “What is the matter with you? Just go over and…”

  She was putting on a serious pout and she wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I can’t.”

  “You can’t? You can’t what?”

  She took a deep breath and stared straight ahead and said in a very low voice, “I can’t talk to him. He’s a junior. I’m a freshman.”

  He stared at her. “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” he muttered, adding an oath under his breath. Opening the driver’s side door, he rose so that he was half way out and called to the boy. “Hey, Trevor Harris. Over here.”

  The boy turned and looked at him for a moment, then jogged over. He was a good-looking kid in jeans, a JV letterman’s jacket, and a baseball cap that said “Word” across the front. But the main thing Tyler noticed was that he had dark brown eyes just like Becky’s. He couldn’t help but warm to the boy once he saw that.

  “Yeah?” Trevor said, blinking up into the truck.

  “I’m Tyler Carrington. Remember me? I’m giving you a ride to where your sister is getting her car fixed.
Hop in.”

  “Cool,” the boy said with a shrug, and did just that, giving a curt nod toward where Sandy was cringing up against her brother as he slid in next to her.

  It was a short drive and they didn’t talk much. Tyler asked Trevor about his favorite sports, and Trevor said he was playing football but he was thinking about quitting because it didn’t look like he was going to make varsity any time soon.

  “Hey, don’t quit because of that,” Tyler told him. “You can have a lot of fun on JV.”

  Trevor grunted. “Yeah, sure,” he said in a tone that proclaimed just how much credence he gave to that theory. “I’m thinking about switching to water polo,” he said. “I’ve been working out with the team some and the coach says they could use me.”

  “Hey, water polo’s a good game,” Tyler agreed, but he was thinking all the time what Shane would say to that. “I don’t know if there are many scholarships in water polo,” he offered.

  Trevor shrugged. “I’m not counting on athletics to get me through college,” he said. “I’ve got good grades.” He flashed Tyler a quick grin. “And anyway, Shane’s going to help me. He said he’d pay for any college I could get myself into.”

  “Did he?”

  “Yeah. He’s a great guy.”

  “Oh yeah. Shane’s something else.”

  “Yeah.”

  He pulled up in front of Phil’s.

  “Thanks for the ride,” Trevor said, swinging down.

  Tyler was about to say something else to him, but he saw Misty coming out of the office and he quickly changed his mind. “Sure thing. See ya’.”

  He pulled back out into traffic with barely a wave in Misty’s direction and headed for home, then glanced across the cab at his sister. She’d moved away from him on the seat but she was still hunched over as though she were in some sort of existential misery.

  “Why didn’t you say anything to him?” he asked her.

  “I didn’t have anything to say.”

  “Well, you could at least be polite.”

  She looked at him as though he didn’t have a clue. “He doesn’t want to talk to me. He doesn’t want to know I exist. He hangs around with…popular girls. Not girls like me.”

  “Girls like you?” He stared at her so hard, someone honked to get him back straight in his lane. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with you? Why, you’re the prettiest girl….”

  “Oh, Tyler,” she cried, trying to stop him. “You don’t know anything about high school.”

  That worked to shut him up. Didn’t know anything about high school? Hah. High school still hung around in his consciousness like a recurring dream. After all these years, you’d think those old emotions would have died. Didn’t know about high school?

  The memories came at him in waves--passing notes in class, dodging teachers in the hall, watching Becky in modern dance, scrimmaging with the football team, watching Becky play volleyball, running the track until you wanted to lose your lunch in the weeds at the side, asking Becky to the Homecoming Dance, his heart in his throat, scared to death that she would say no. Trying to pin the orchid corsage on her pink dress, his fingers trembling so that he was afraid he would stick her with the pin. Feeling so proud to escort her onto the dance floor. Watching her be the most beautiful girl in the place. Watching her fall head over heels for Shane.

  Oh yeah, he remembered high school all right. And you could have it. He glanced at his sister again, wondering if maybe she didn’t have a point.

  It bothered him that she didn’t feel pretty or popular, but he didn’t know what he could do about it. He could teach her to ride and to rope and to breed cattle, but it took a woman to puzzle out those feelings things. He knew without trying that he didn’t have the knack for it. And again, for the millionth time, he wished, fervently, that their parents hadn’t died in the small plane accident three years before. He was making do the best he could, but he knew instinctively that his mother and his father would have done a hundred times better.

  They came up over the rise and there was his ranch spread out before them like a gift from heaven. There was the low, Craftsman-style house his father had built with his own hands, and the barn, the bunkhouse, the stables, and the yard, bounded by the huge vegetable garden his mother had worked over the years, and her citrus trees. There was the Holstein herd his father had developed scattered across the green hills, and the acres of avocado trees—his main money-maker right now-- spread out across the south acres. There was the stream that always ran ice cold, even on the hottest summer days. And there was his stand of cottonwood trees, leaves shimmering in the breeze.

  His heart always leaped up at this view, and all his other problems faded. At least he had the ranch. Thank God for that. He looked over and caught Sandy’s gaze and gave her a big grin. She hesitated, then returned it, and he knew she felt the same way about the place that he did.

  Aw, what the hell. Today had been an aberration. He was back home and he was going to get back to work. He wasn’t going to think about Becky any more. Everything was going to be okay. He breathed a sigh of relief.

  Chapter Four

  “Pick up the phone! Pick up the phone!” Misty made a sound of pure exasperation and plunked the receiver back down in its cradle. “You’re driving me crazy!” she announced to it as she did so.

  “Who’s driving you crazy?” Becky asked as she came into the big old-fashioned kitchen with a stack of dishes in her hand.

  Misty whirled, looking guilty, and then she stepped forward quickly to help her sister with the dishes she was carrying down from their mother’s room.

  “I… uh…I was just trying to call Tyler and he will not answer the phone.” She turned on the water in the sink and began rinsing each plate in turn. “I know he’s there. He’s just being his usual anti-social self.”

  Becky carefully turned away and began wiping down the granite countertop before she spoke. “What are you calling Tyler for?” she asked, her voice carefully casual.

  Misty turned a bright smile her way. “I think I left my… uh… my gold charm bracelet in his truck yesterday. I just wanted to find out if he’d found it.”

  Becky stopped wiping and turned to look at her speculatively. “You know, I’m driving right past the Carrington ranch on my way down to Solvang to take a look at those new textiles. That would give me a good exc… I mean, it wouldn’t be any problem at all to stop by and ask him about your bracelet.”

  “Oh, never mind,” Misty said breezily, waving a hand in the air. “It’s not really that important.”

  “Your gold charm bracelet? Of course it’s important.” She caught the curious look her sister was giving her and she added quickly, “Maybe his phone is out of order or something. I should at least stop by and let him know that people can’t get through.”

  “Becky, he’s got a cell phone. But he’s not answering that either.”

  “Well then, maybe something’s happened to him.”

  Misty stared a moment longer, then shrugged, rolling her eyes as she turned her face away. “Whatever.” She started for the stairway. “I’m going to run up and say goodbye to Mom before I head back to class.”

  Becky nodded, grabbed herself a mug of coffee and sank into a chair at the Formica-topped kitchen table. The kitchen was large and comfortable, with a butcher-block island in the middle of the room and copper pots and pans hanging from the ceiling. An ancient pothos drooped its green strands almost to the floor from the top of the cabinets that lined one wall. A voracious grape ivy was making inroads into taking over the other side of the kitchen. Sunlight streamed in through plantation shutters. It had been the room where the family came together in years past. Since her father’s death and her own absence once she’d left for college, it hadn’t gotten the use it once had. But it was still the meeting point, whenever she came home. And now she was pretty much home for good.

  Absently, she pushed a curly strand back into the scarf she’d tied her hair back with and gaze
d at the single pink carnation in the bud vase she’d set in the middle of the table. She was feeling a bit pushed into a corner today. She’d gone in to work early, opening her store and getting some inventory problems out of the way, but she’d had to close at lunch in order to come home and check on her mother who was currently spending a lot of time in bed because of a small stroke she had suffered a few weeks before. Now she was waiting for the physical therapist to arrive for her mother’s daily session, so that she could get back to her store and prepare for an estimate she was working on.

  There was always too much to do and too little time to do it in. Misty came into the store a couple of hours a day to help. She’d been acting as a sort of part time secretary, keeping the books and making appointments and filling out purchase orders. But most of the work was piling up in Becky’s column. She’d taken on a lot, opening her own business this way, and so far a lot more money was going out than she had expected. She’d taken out a good-sized loan at the bank and it all had to be paid back sometime. Luckily, she’d had quite a few feelers from some of the more affluent members of the community, but so far, only one had come through with actual contracts and money.

  What bugged her most was that so many people seemed to assume that Shane was bankrolling her, that this was just a little hobby to keep her occupied while he was playing football. As if she would let Shane do any such thing! It was bad enough that he’d taken on her mother as his accountant, and that he paid her extravagantly for the work that she did for him. She knew that was purely as a favor to her, but it had been a blessing for her mother since her health had begun to fail a few years before. If it weren’t for Shane’s account, she would have only a few tax clients in April, and her finances would be in complete shambles.

  There was no denying Shane had been good to her and her family for a long time. No, there was no denying that. Still….

  Misty came bounding down the stairs just the way she’d done since she was a child, and Becky smiled. It was good to be home. She watched as her sister came into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, choosing a cold cut from the meat tray and biting into it.