Falling for the Texas Tycoon

by Karen Rose Smith

  “No, I want to talk to you about Lisa.”

  Alan guessed he knew what was coming. He also guessed he wasn’t going to like it.

  Chapter Six

  “What did you say to Lisa to upset her?” Brian demanded, hands on his hips, shirtsleeves rolled up his forearms, his tie pulled to one side.

  “I didn’t say anything to upset her,” Alan replied defensively. “After Christina and Sherri left, Lisa and I went for a ride. We groomed the horses and she realized she’d lost her locket.”

  “Lost her locket?” Brian looked concerned.

  “We found it again, but afterward she took off for the house.”

  Brian’s silence was almost as unsettling as his question had been.

  “I know that locket’s important to her,” Alan prompted, “because Carrie gave it to her. Maybe she can have a heavier chain put on it.”

  “I’m sure she’ll do that. Look, Alan, there’s something I have to ask you. I look on Lisa as if she were a…a niece, and I don’t want her to get into a situation with you that she can’t handle.”

  “Do you regret bringing her along?”

  “Not yet I don’t, but I soon will if what I suspect is true. Is something going on between the two of you?”

  Alan didn’t like being given the third degree, but in the situation they were in, Brian had every right to ask questions. He seemed to see himself in the role of Lisa’s protector, and Alan wondered exactly how he’d come to be that.

  “I’m attracted to her and she’s attracted to me. But it’s more than that, too. I like being around her. She’s fresh and blunt and doesn’t take any flack from me. But I get the feeling she doesn’t trust easily. Am I right about that?”

  “You’ll have to talk to her about trust. But I will tell you she’s vulnerable. She’s young and she’s just starting to build her future. Don’t mess with her without good reason, without some strong feelings behind it or without awfully good intentions.”

  “For all that bravado, she’s not experienced, is she?” Alan was too curious not to ask.

  Brian’s cheeks flushed. “That’s not a question for me to answer. Tell me something, why are you even looking at Lisa when you can have almost any woman you want?”

  “That’s the thing, Brian.” He still didn’t understand what had happened himself. “In the past couple of years, one-night stands and get-away weekends just don’t cut it anymore. I find myself restless, but not wanting to go out. I don’t want to get into the same conversations about my work. I don’t want to go to bed with a woman and then in the morning still feel…empty. So I quit doing it. I quit wanting to do it. But when I met Lisa… There’s something about her that intrigues me. For all the reasons you’ve stated, I’ve told myself to stay far away from her.”

  “Are you going to do that?”

  Alan ran his hand over his face, then stuffed it into his pocket. “I was just going to concentrate on business, but Christina asked Lisa to go along car shopping with us tomorrow night.”

  “They hit it off?”

  “It seems like it. Hell, they’re close to the same age.”

  “Not exactly. There’s a big difference between seventeen and twenty-one. Lisa hasn’t been as—” He stopped abruptly.

  “Hasn’t been as what? Finish what you were going to say.”

  Brian let out a sigh. “Lisa hasn’t been as sheltered as Christina. She had to grow up fast after her parents died.”

  “She told me her aunt didn’t want her. Is that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “But she really wasn’t clear about why she came back to Portland and teamed up with you and Carrie.”

  “That’s her story to tell.”

  “You want me to be patient,” Alan muttered, frustrated that he couldn’t get more information from Brian.

  “I’m not sure I want you to be anything where Lisa’s concerned. You’re seventeen years older!”

  “Yeah, I know. That fact hasn’t escaped me. And it hasn’t escaped Lisa, either. She’s already informed me she doesn’t want to get involved with anyone, so all of this might be moot.”

  He could only hope that his fascination with Lisa was a passing fancy. Tomorrow morning he’d wake up and it would be over. He could go on his way as if he’d never met her.

  Fat chance.

  When Sherri dropped off Christina the following afternoon, Alan knew there was trouble.

  Christina came into the kitchen and warned him, “Mom wants to talk to you.”

  Peering out the window, Alan could see Sherri was still sitting in her car. “Then why didn’t she come in?”

  “She’s on her way somewhere and didn’t want to bother getting out.”

  That didn’t sound like Sherri. She never hesitated to come into the house. But then his gaze fell on Lisa, who was already talking to his daughter about what dealerships she wanted to go to.

  He had to admit, he’d been surprised by Lisa today. She had related both to the investors they’d showed properties to as well as to the agents showing the properties. She already had a surprisingly good knowledge of the financial determinates, as well as the property values. She’d stayed in the background while he and Brian had talked about the development of the golf resort, but she was well versed on subjects ranging from the benefits of walking eighteen holes to what products a pro shop should carry. She’d done her research. Besides that, everyone she talked to just seemed to relate to her.

  Except…he and Lisa had not related today. They’d kept their distance. Since his talk with Brian, he was sure there were too many obstacles between them.

  That was solid reasoning, yet it didn’t sit well with him. Not well at all.

  As he strode to Sherri’s sedan and put his hand on the roof of her car, she looked up at him with a frown he’d seen often in the last years of their marriage.

  “Do you think it’s proper to take this Lisa Sanders along to the dealerships?”

  “I don’t think ‘proper’ has anything to do with it. Christina asked her to go along. Didn’t she tell you that?”

  “She told me, but I wondered if she had some prodding.”

  Attempting to keep the lid on his temper, he managed to say evenly, “Christina liked Lisa, but I think she believes Lisa will be on her side if she and I disagree.”

  “And just what does it matter what Ms. Sanders thinks?”

  “Sherri, don’t make a mountain out of this.”

  “I’m not making a mountain out of it. I’m just asking a few questions. Is she your latest cuddle-bunny?”

  “She is not.”

  “You’re going to tell me your association with her is strictly professional?”

  He’d never lied to Sherri and he wouldn’t start now. “I’ve got to admit, she’s a bit intriguing.”

  “Intriguing? Are you having a midlife crisis? She’s young enough to be your daughter!”

  “Lisa is twenty-one. I would have had to have been seventeen when I fathered her.”

  “Which is not an impossibility.”

  The silence between them was filled with the vibrations that had characterized so much of their marriage. “I’m not going to get into an argument about this. Christina wanted her to come along and I didn’t see any harm in it. Other than that, I don’t think it’s any of your business.”

  “What affects our daughter is my business.”

  “Do you want to take Christina car shopping? I can just turn the whole situation over to you.”

  Sherri looked as if she was honestly considering it, then shook her head. “No, Christina would never forgive me. She wanted to do this with you. Just don’t let her get anything too big or too powerful or too low to the ground, or one of those SUVs that can roll over.”

  “You’ve just eliminated most of the cars being sold now.” He’d always tried humor with Sherri, but it had never taken very well. It didn’t now, either.

  She sighed. “You’ll let her do whatever she wants. I just know you
will.”

  “I’ll make sure she buys a car with a suitable number of air bags and safety features.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  After another sigh, she shifted her car into gear. “I wish she was four again.”

  Alan knew exactly what his ex-wife meant. In some ways he did, too. But Christina was developing into a beautiful, wonderful, intelligent woman, and he couldn’t wait to see what she’d accomplish. As he watched Sherri drive away, he knew their marriage had been a mistake…but having Christina hadn’t been. She was a blessing he’d always be thankful for.

  “She likes the yellow one,” Lisa said to Alan as they watched Christina run her hand over the hood of the small sporty car.

  “You do, too. I can tell.”

  When Lisa’s gaze met his, he could see she was surprised by his observation. “Well, don’t you?” he repeated.

  “I was trying to remain impartial.”

  He gave a wry laugh. “You can’t hide excitement, and that sparkle in your eyes goes along with liking a car a whole lot.”

  “You don’t like it?”

  “Her mother’s not going to like it. It has a good safety rating for a car that size, but Sherri will think it’s too sporty, too fast, too small.”

  “It’s the one Christina wants,” Lisa assured him.

  “Yeah, and that’s part of it, too. Should I get her what she wants? Maybe we should have gone to the used dealership. Maybe I should require her to pay me something out of every check she earns this summer. You’d think this parenting thing would get easier after seventeen years.”

  “Being a parent has got to be the hardest job in the world.”

  “It’s certainly the most baffling. Maybe a boy would have been simpler.”

  “And if you’d had a boy, you might have thought a girl would have been simpler.”

  “All I know is, when she drives off in that car, I’ll wish I was still driving her,” he grumbled.

  “You can’t put her in a protective bubble, Alan. She has to make her own decisions and choices and mistakes.”

  They were both wearing jackets, but he swore he could feel heat as their elbows brushed. “How did you get so smart?”

  “I’m not smart. I just made my share of mistakes.”

  He knew if he asked her what those mistakes were, she wouldn’t tell him. She would become evasive or change the subject. Because she didn’t trust him? Or because she wanted to trust him, yet was afraid to?

  Although they were standing in the middle of the car lot with bright shiny vehicles all around, his daughter about fifteen yards away, Alan looked into Lisa’s big green eyes and just wanted to wrap her in his arms. When he’d held her in the barn, she’d felt so good. Oh, yeah, physically she’d turned him on in ways he hadn’t been turned on in years. But his reaction hadn’t been just physical, and he didn’t think he was deluding himself about that.

  Was he having a midlife crisis?

  After the salesman finished showing Christina the intricacies of the car, she came over to Alan, grinning from ear to ear. “I really like that one, Dad. Really, really. And it even has OnStar, which should give you some sense of security about it. If I’m in an accident and my air bag goes off, they’ll send emergency services.”

  “The other cars we drove had it, too.”

  “Yeah, I know, but they weren’t yellow and this one’s great on gas. What do you think?”

  He thought he was a father with an almost perfect daughter whom he’d loved dearly from the moment she was born. “I think if that’s the car you want, then that’s the car we’ll buy.”

  She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a huge hug.

  Over his daughter’s shoulder, Alan caught sight of Lisa watching them. He could have sworn he saw her wipe a tear from her eye.

  I can’t be falling for him, Lisa scolded herself with dismay as she sat beside Alan in his SUV, heading toward the ranch. He had a daughter who was obviously the light of his life. He’d quit college to take on the responsibility of being a husband and a father. He’d never understand that she’d given up her baby to go to college, to make a life different from the one she’d known on the streets. He’d just never understand.

  When she was eighteen, she’d made the only decision she thought she could make, the one that was right for her baby. How could she have provided food and shelter, as well as paid for doctors’ visits? How could her baby have had a future with her low-paying jobs? Still, looking back at it now, she wondered if she’d just been selfish…if she’d taken the easy way out.

  Giving up a child isn’t the easy way out. But even as her heart told her that, she still felt guilty.

  “She should be home by now,” Alan said.

  “You couldn’t follow her. She’d think you don’t trust her.”

  Alan’s cell phone chirped and he slipped it from his jacket pocket.

  When Lisa saw his smile, she knew Christina had arrived home safely.

  He didn’t talk long. After he closed the phone and slid it back into his pocket, he said, “She’s not sure her mom likes it, but she certainly does.”

  Suddenly he turned off the road into a convenience store parking lot. “I told Maude I’d pick up a dozen eggs. She’s afraid she’ll run out for breakfast.”

  “And I can use some nail polish remover. I forgot mine when I packed.”

  In the glow of the dash lights, his gaze went to Lisa’s hands. She’d polished her nails yesterday before they’d left, a light mauve that would go with all the clothes she’d brought along. But one was already chipped, and that wouldn’t do, with meeting clients again tomorrow.

  Reaching out, he covered her hand with his. “Thanks for coming along tonight. It meant a lot to Christina. Sometimes she doesn’t trust my opinion or her mother’s.”

  “It was fun. I’ve never test driven new cars before.”

  “Yours wasn’t new when you bought it?”

  Uh-oh, dangerous territory. She should just keep her mouth shut when she was with Alan, so she wouldn’t get into trouble or reveal too much. She’d saved money ever since she’d started working, because she’d known she would need a car when she graduated. As a graduation present, however, Brian and Carrie had given her money to add to her savings for a down payment. She never could have afforded a new one.

  “Brian helped me pick out a good used car.”

  “That’s the first car you’ve ever owned?”

  She nodded. “Not every teenager can have a car of her own, Alan.”

  “No, I suppose not. I guess I took for granted the way I was raised, and Christina does, too.” His hand still holding Lisa’s, he asked, “But you don’t take anything for granted, do you?”

  The tingles that were shooting up her arm were electric. Her pulse seemed to be pounding in her ears. Who would have thought holding hands with a man could be so…so exciting? Yet he’d asked her something very serious and she had to answer him.

  “No, I don’t take much for granted,” she responded. “Maybe that’s because one day I had a great life, two parents who loved me, and the next I didn’t.”

  After a long pause, he admitted, “When my mother died, we were all devastated. But Neal and I had each other and Dad. Our lives basically didn’t change.”

  Alan and Lisa were leaning toward each other now. It just seemed natural. How could they have so many differences between them, yet she could still feel connected to him? She couldn’t know a man in a week and he couldn’t know her.

  A pickup truck veered into the parking lot, its headlights glaring into Alan’s SUV. He released her hand. “Come on, let’s get what we need and head back to the ranch, or Brian will send out the calvary.”

  Lisa wondered what that meant.

  In the convenience store, she and Alan went their separate ways. He crossed to the refrigerated cases, while she found the cosmetics aisle. Five minutes later, nail polish remover, makeup swabs, a magazine and her favorite
chocolate candy bar in hand, she found Alan talking to a short, husky man by the milk case.

  “All set,” she said with a smile.

  Alan was holding the dozen eggs. “I got sidetracked. I hadn’t seen Fred for a while. Fred Gordon, this is Lisa Sanders.”

  Fred’s ten-gallon hat seemed way too big for his head. He shook her hand. “Good to meet you. Are you a friend of Christina’s?”

  Lisa saw the expression on Alan’s face. Fred Gordon had jumped to the conclusion that she was young enough to belong with Christina’s group of friends, and Alan might be taxiing her around.

  She didn’t want to embarrass the man, yet she didn’t know what Alan would want her to say, either. So she merely replied, “I’m visiting from Portland.”

  “Kids these days surely get around. I didn’t leave the county till I was thirty. Well, it was good seeing you, Alan. Don’t be a stranger. Just because Neal buys a horse from me now and then, doesn’t mean you can’t, too.”

  “I’ll remember that,” Alan answered with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

  When Fred Gordon had walked away, Lisa lowered her voice. “I didn’t know what to say.”

  “You handled it nicely.” Alan’s tone was cool and polite and held none of the warmth she’d felt from him when they’d been sitting in the car holding hands. She supposed the reality of the situation had hit him with his friend’s comment. If he cared what other people thought…

  Did she care what other people thought? She never had in the past. But she realized that wasn’t true anymore. She cared what Brian and Carrie thought. She cared what Alan thought.

  Her heart hurt because she never wanted to tell him about the mistake she’d made and how selfish she’d been.

  At midnight, Lisa still wasn’t asleep. She stood on her balcony, watching a light snow falling. She smiled at the sight—it hardly ever snowed in Portland. A few flakes blew here and there, swirling around, and she shivered because she’d come outside in her robe.

  Restless and needing space beyond her balcony, she went into her room, put on jeans, a sweater and sneakers, and grabbed her leather jacket. The house was silent. Night-lights glowed here and there, illuminating her way. She slipped out a sliding glass door in the dining room and found herself on the brick patio.