“Are you ready, Ivy?” the auctioneer asked.
She turned to him and nodded. The crowd grew silent immediately, as if everyone was holding their breath. Noah couldn’t help but wonder what Ivy was thinking. She’d clearly been nervous at the beginning, but…now? Was she glad to be back in the spotlight? Scared? He didn’t know. He only knew that she looked as if she’d been made for this moment.
Before he knew it, the bidding was hot and heavy, from men and women alike. Women wanted a replica of the dress; the men wanted…
Noah knew just what the men wanted, and he’d be damned if he’d let them have it. The bidding was at $125. He could do better than that. This was for a good cause. Besides, he was not going to let some other man spend hours leering at Ivy.
“Five hundred,” he said.
A number of people looked at him. Ivy looked at him. “A man has to support his employees,” he said.
Someone laughed, then coughed. Some of the richer ranchers even hung in there for a few more rounds, but when the bidding was over, the children’s auction was seven hundred dollars richer, and Ivy was his.
Just for the evening, he reminded himself.
She came down the stairs slowly, holding her dress up so that she wouldn’t trip. She was wearing silver heels with straps that made him want to see her wearing nothing but those shoes. But the dress looked good on her, too. It shimmered as she walked. A few people slid their chairs to the side to clear a path for her to reach him.
When she arrived, she looked nervous, like a long-legged foal struggling to figure out what to do with itself. Then she smiled.
“Here I am. Do you want the meal or the dress?”
He let his eyes drift over her from head to toe. “The dress is nice, but…”
I want to see you without the dress, he thought. That wasn’t right. She’d agreed to this only to help children.
“But I’ll take your company for a few hours.”
She laughed. “Not much of a treat. You see me all the time.”
“But usually I’m just ordering you around and making you fix things, feed things or dig things.”
“Yes, you’re a harsh boss, Noah.” Her laugh…he wanted to do whatever it took to make her laugh again.
“You did a good thing,” he said, his voice low. Not a line to make a woman laugh, but it needed to be said.
“I just stood there.”
But he’d seen her falter. “It couldn’t have been easy.”
“I was a little nervous,” she conceded. “But once you started bidding, I knew I didn’t really have to be the image. I could just be me.”
“So…” He stood to pull out her chair. “Tell me about you,” he said as if this was a real date. A first date.
“You know about me. I was a skinny girl with braids and an attitude. I had some bad things happen. I got lucky and made it in modeling, some wonderful things and some terrible things happened and now I’m here.”
“For now,” he said, unable to stop himself.
She tilted her head in acquiescence. “For now. Tell me about you.”
“Not much to tell. I was raised on the same ranch I still live on. My family had money and the means to send me to a good college. I married, had a child, divorced and now I’m here.”
“For always.”
He mimicked her nod of agreement. “For always. But tonight we’re both here. You did well. The women are excited, their husbands are excited and the ball has never been this lively.”
“Alicia and her crew outdid themselves on the decorations.” The entire ceiling was covered in red and silver balloons with royal blue ribbons hanging down. There were red flowers and white candles in gold holders everywhere.
“They did, but I don’t want to talk about Alicia’s crew. I bought your time, and I know there’s more to you than I know. You like horses with attitude. You like flowers. Daisies?”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t, but you had a pot of them on the coffee table in your cottage. And you like…kittens?”
She laughed. “Everyone likes kittens. Even a lot of people who don’t like cats like kittens. How did you reach that conclusion?”
“You had a cat calendar on your wall.”
“Oh, that. It was all that was left in the store. Not many people buy calendars in the middle of the year.”
“So you don’t like cats?”
She gave him a you’re-just-being-silly look. “I like cats. And…I don’t know. I like dark chocolate and teddy bears with white fur and the scent of oranges. Now you.”
“Whoa, I haven’t finished.”
“Hey, Noah, do you think you could spare a minute to come play with us?”
He and Ivy both looked toward the area where the band was setting up.
“You’re a musician?” she asked. “I didn’t know that.”
“Can’t tonight. I’ve got a seven-hundred-dollar date,” he told the man, who laughed as Noah turned back to Ivy. “I play…a little, as they say. I had a garage band in college. Not that good.”
“You could play now so I could hear.”
“Are you trying to get out of our date?”
“It’s not a date. It’s a business transaction.”
“Then let’s do business,” he whispered. “On the dance floor.”
“Oh…I’m not a good dancer.”
“I am. It only takes one. I’ll do all the heavy lifting and the leading.”
“A musician and a dancer,” she teased. “Who knew these things? You’ve been hiding your light in the barn, I think, Noah. And I’m not sure all the heavy lifting in the world can make up for my deficiencies on the dance floor.” But she allowed him to lead her into the dance.
True to her word, Ivy had two left feet. She blushed every time she stepped on his toe. But she was charmingly game to keep trying.
“You’ll get it in time, sweetheart,” he said, knowing that there wouldn’t be another time.
“You’re very good and very understanding,” she said as he lifted her into his arms to keep her from falling. “I don’t know how you can stand this, and…oh, your arm must be killing you. I didn’t even think…”
“Shh,” he said, stopping dead at the edge of the dance floor and sliding his hand beneath her hair, the exquisite pleasure of touching her arcing through him. “Ivy, it was only a cut. I’m fine, and I’m totally enjoying this. You’re a delight to dance with.”
She shook her head, laughing at that as the dance ended. As they waited for the next one to start, the dance floor began to get crowded.
“You’re a good sport, Ivy,” someone called, which made her blush more.
Sandra and her partner drifted near. She was looking blue fire at Ivy. Then she stopped. “Seven hundred dollars, Noah? For a woman who can hardly even look at your child? Who can’t even dance? It’s…I’m tired of this. You’ve been moping around for years because of Pamala, who was almost just like Ivy. And now this. You know she’s not right for you. You are so totally blind. You don’t even know what’s good for you.” She shoved hard between Ivy and Noah, heading off the dance floor. But her shoe caught on Ivy’s dress as she rushed forward. The sound of tearing fabric was loud now that everything had stopped while people turned to see what the commotion was about.
Then Ivy was falling, her leg giving way beneath her as Sandra shoved. She reached out to catch herself just as Noah and several other people rushed forward, but the stampede of moving bodies got between them, making it impossible for him to reach her. The concerned crowd tripped her up more. She hit the floor, her hands stopping part of her fall, but her face catching against a buckle on Melanie’s shoe.
Noah felt sick. “Everybody back,” he ordered, pushing and sliding to Ivy’s side. He dropped to his knees. “Ivy, don’t move,” he said. “Not until I determine whether you took a hit to the head.”
She started to shake her head. “Don’t,” he ordered.
“I’m…okay,” she sa
id. “Really. I’m okay. Just a little shaken. My head didn’t even touch the floor. I can get up.”
But the ripped hem of her dress was tangled, and he lifted her into his arms.
“Look. Her face,” someone whispered.
“Not her face,” another person said. “Her fortune. She’s a model.”
“No. Don’t worry. I’m not—” she said, but Noah started to carry her away.
“Hush,” he told her. “Don’t try to explain. Just rest. I’m getting you home.”
She lifted her head and looked at him, then stared at where her cheek had been resting against his chest. “I’m—I bled on your good jacket,” she said.
“To hell with the jacket. I’ll get a new one. Just…”
“But—”
“Ivy, for once, don’t argue. Just let me do this. Just rest.”
Noah was so angry that he could barely speak. She had gotten hurt because Sandra was angry at him. At him. The anger wouldn’t stop swirling.
He gently put Ivy in the SUV and drove home, both of them silent.
“It’s my fault she was upset,” Ivy said as he lifted her out of the vehicle. “Noah, I can walk.”
“Tomorrow. I’ll let you walk tomorrow.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To my house. If you wake up in pain, I want to be near, so I can hear you. Don’t argue. I need to do this.”
So she didn’t argue as he carried her to a spare bedroom, sat her on a chair and cleaned her wound. Then and only then did he speak. “What you said before…you’re wrong. I’m to blame for not seeing how jealous of you Sandra was becoming. She was upset with me. You’ve had too many irresponsible men cruising through your life, Ivy. I’m sorry.”
She reached up, touching her palm to his cheek. “You sound so sad. Did my face get that damaged?” She didn’t sound at all alarmed about the possibility that she might have another scar.
“No.” He shook his head. “I looked you over pretty good. You were bleeding, but the wound is more of a scrape. In a few days you’ll never know you had it. Now, get some rest. There are spare pajamas in the drawer. They’re mine, so they’ll probably fall off you. And there’s a robe in the closet. I’ll bring some clothes from the cottage for you to wear tomorrow. Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Will you be okay?”
No. He was beginning to think that hiring Ivy was both the best and the worst thing he’d ever done.
“You’re an admirable man,” she said. “Putting up with my stumbling, giving all that money to Alicia so that I wouldn’t have to sit with some strange man.”
He stared at her. “You’re the only one who would believe that my buying you tonight was a charitable move. I got to dance with the prettiest woman at the ball.”
“But it’s midnight now,” she whispered.
It wasn’t. It was only eleven o’clock, if that. But he knew what she meant. Cinderella would be leaving the ranch soon.
“Good night, Ivy. Sweet dreams,” he said, kissing her on the forehead.
“Sleep well,” she said. But that, Noah knew, would be impossible. Ivy was sleeping in his house. He had never felt so fortunate or so miserable. This was, he knew, as close as he would ever get to her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
IVY HAD TO DO SOMETHING good for Noah. That business with Sandra last night…that had been her fault. She’d known that Sandra wanted Noah, and now that Noah was socializing again, women were lining up to take a number and stake their claims.
Ivy winced at the thought of another woman kissing Noah, but that was wrong of her. A wife would be good for him and Lily. She just…couldn’t think about that too much.
Still, she wanted to leave him with something good, to do something that would make a difference in his life. But what? What could she do? She’d helped him with the playdate, but he would have managed that on his own eventually. She’d been a good hand, but so were Brody and Darrell and probably Ed with the broken leg.
Wasn’t there anything special she could do, some gift she could manage? He’d done so much for her, helping her to fit in here when she’d never fit before. He’d helped her make friends she hadn’t even known she missed having. Maybe she’d even be able to use what had happened here to build a new career helping ordinary women feel good about themselves. So yes, Noah had given her a lot. How could she reciprocate?
But when the next day came, she was still wondering. She was wrestling with a radiator cap on a truck and not doing a great job of it when Bruiser’s whinny made her look up and smile. That was Bruiser’s “hey, hello there” whinny.
That was when Ivy finally hit on one good and lasting thing she could do for Noah. Bruiser was going to have to go unless someone could tame him. The fact that the horse liked her and tolerated Noah wasn’t enough. She wasn’t staying, and with a ranch to run and a daughter to raise, Noah didn’t have enough time to devote to a horse everyone thought was a lost cause. Maybe she didn’t have enough time to complete the task, either, but she was going to try. She’d gotten Bruiser to let her on his back the other day. And while he’d been skittish at first, eventually he’d settled down. Of course, no one knew that. They would have tried to stop her.
Now she would have to be more open about it. She needed to expand Bruiser’s horizons.
So Ivy saddled up Bruiser and rode him around the pen. For the next few days she did the same thing. Eventually Noah broached the subject.
“Is this smart?” he asked.
“Maybe not, but I’m hoping you won’t order me to stop.”
“Like I ordered you to stop pestering me about a job?” he asked with a smile.
“Yes. Kind of like that.”
“Just…be careful, Ivy,” he warned. “I’m glad you and Bruiser have bonded, but I worry that you’ll miss him too much when you’re gone.”
“I’m willing to risk that,” she said. “He needs this.” But she didn’t let Noah in on her plan.
The next day she called Darrell over. “Have you ever ridden Bruiser?”
He shrugged. “A few times. He threw me on my butt, of course, and he was so scared and spooked that we didn’t push it. Noah was going to sell him and it didn’t seem as important as the other things we needed to get done at the time.”
“But you take care of him more than Brody. Would you be willing to ride him again?”
“What are you up to, Ivy?”
“An experiment. I’ve seen Bruiser around you. He lets you brush him, but he’s nervous and hard to handle. He lets me do those things without any fuss. I want to try something, but…you should first know that I never had any education in how to train a horse. My father was city born and bred. He learned as he went, and the horses he bought weren’t the best. They were already trained but past their prime when he got them. So while I know horses and ranching basics, I don’t know how to train horses. I’m pretty sure that what I want to do is outside the realm of normal.”
“What do you propose to do?”
“Have you work with me. We’ll brush him together. Then we’ll ride him together. He won’t buck me off, so maybe he’ll get used to you, too, if we do it enough.”
“You are one crazy lady, Ivy,” Darrell said. “But I’m game. I can’t say what Noah will think of this plan, though.”
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
Noah was coming in from checking irrigation lines when he looked up to see Ivy seated on Bruiser with Darrell right behind her, his arms around her waist.
It was the first time he’d seen a man other than himself ride Bruiser without getting thrown. It was also the first time he’d seen another man touching Ivy. Her long blond hair fanned out in the wind, whipping against Darrell’s chest and shoulders.
Noah’s gut clenched. He admired Bruiser, who was so attached to Ivy that he allowed Darrell to ride him, he admired Ivy for caring enough to try and he admired Darrell, an experienced horseman, for going along with this unconventional tactic. But a
ll that admiration warred with snarling jealousy.
He fought the jealousy and watched them make a triple circuit of the pen. Then Darrell dismounted, opened the gate and remounted. They made a circuit around the barn and pen and returned to where they had begun.
When they had dismounted and seen to Bruiser, Noah walked up to Ivy. “Did helping Darrell make friends with Bruiser just become another ranch duty?”
“I asked Brody’s permission. He didn’t object.”
Noah shook his head and gave her a wry smile. “I think I might have mentioned that Brody has a soft spot where you’re concerned.”
“I’m grateful for that, but…he’s a good horse, Noah.”
“I know that, but I don’t know if this will work once you’re gone. And I really don’t want you to get hurt if I have to let him go. Ivy, you know I can’t promise I’ll be able to keep him.”
“I know,” she said solemnly. “But I want to try to help you be able to, if it’s at all possible. The two of you need each other.”
“Ivy…” Noah drawled. “You know Bruiser put up with Darrell mostly because you were up there with him. He’s a smart horse. That doesn’t mean he’ll let Darrell ride him alone.”
“We’ll see. Soon.”
“Don’t get your heart broken, Ivy. If it weren’t for Lily, I’d promise to keep him, but I can’t risk her.”
“I don’t want you to risk her. But at the very least…if this doesn’t work and you have to sell Bruiser…I want him to actually be salable.” Her voice broke slightly, and he knew she was worrying about what would become of the big horse if he was sold.
Noah reached out and brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear, then slid his palm down her cheek, not caring if anyone saw. “I’ll try my best to keep him, but just…don’t love him too much, Ivy.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “I’m trying very hard not to love him.”
For half a second she stared up into his eyes and he thought maybe they were talking about something else, something that made his heart feel raw and broken and…amazingly enough, hopeful. But that was just dumb stuff, wishful thinking.
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