“It wasn’t just the pancakes,” she admitted. “It was good catching up with you.”
He unfastened his seat belt and turned toward her. She wasn’t really so very far away from him. She caught a whiff of either soap or aftershave. Like lime, and manly. She fell under the spell of his dark eyes and the way his hair dipped over his brow. He’d tossed his Stetson into the back, and she could remember the feel of the thickness of his hair sliding through her fingers.
The tremble was back in her hands, and she felt she had to make conversation to hide her nervousness. “I like to do things that make me feel like a real person. This breakfast did that.”
He moved only slightly, but he was big and the cab of the truck seemed small. He was closer to her now as he reached out a hand and smoothed strands of hair from her wig away from her face. “You are a very real person, Lucie Fortune Chesterfield. I’ve always known that.”
“Even when the tabloids make me look like a cartoon?”
He smiled but didn’t move his hand from her cheek. She was both hot and cold and afraid to move.
“You could never look like a cartoon. You’re much too beautiful for that.”
Her father had called her beautiful, and her mother told her she was. But they were her parents. She accepted compliments as the polite conversation they were, but this was different. This one came from a man she’d once loved and was still sorely attracted to. She didn’t know what to say. Maybe it was better she said nothing, because they were both leaning toward each other.
Chase’s thumb swept across her cheek. “Ten years have given you refinement, polish and a generous spirit.”
He was going to make her cry. No, he wasn’t. She wouldn’t let him. When she found her voice, she whispered, “Ten years have made you wiser, stronger, motivated.”
“So this really was a get-to-know-you breakfast.”
“Maybe so.”
But then she asked herself the important question: Why were they getting to know each other when they were going to end something between them?
As if he sensed that question flitting through her mind, he said, “We may be clarifying that there was no marriage between us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a friendship.”
Clarifying that there hadn’t been a marriage? But they had been married, and they’d done what married people do. How did you just wipe that away forever?
Now he reached out his hand to the other side of her cheek and held her face between his palms. “Are you happy?”
“We all define happiness differently. But yes, I am. I have every earthly need met. I’m helping children, so they can have their own needs met. My family and I are closer than we’ve ever been. Amelia’s baby daughter is such a blessing, and I love her deeply. My only regret is that Dad isn’t here to see it all. Sometimes I wake up and my heart hurts because I want him to be involved in all this, too. The Fortune Chesterfields are changing, and I want him to see that change and be as excited about it as I am.”
“I can believe he’s with you, Lucie. I can believe he nudges you in the right direction when you might go in the wrong one. Energy is energy and it doesn’t disappear. Your father could be your personal guardian angel whispering in your ear.”
“And who’s your guardian angel?”
“My guardian angel is a college friend I lost. He died way too young, without accomplishing a quarter of what he wanted to. I feel him sometimes pushing me. Really, I do. And not in the direction my father wants me to go, but one that will give me the most fulfillment in life. Not money, but value. Value that can help horses and people, too.”
“As I said, you’ve matured.”
“And you have grown into a woman many men would be proud to be married to.”
His face was before hers, and hers was before his. Neither of them were blinking. Neither of them were breathing. If she didn’t breathe soon...
He brought his lips very close to hers. “Do you want to kiss?”
“If we kiss, we could be starting something instead of ending it. Is that what you want?”
“I want to know what’s beneath the Lady Fortune Chesterfield facade.”
Lucie thought about her task here for the Fortunes. She considered her upcoming mission in Guatemala and her responsibilities as a Chesterfield. She considered the way her mother had depended on her since her dad died. She didn’t have time for a dalliance.
Chase ran his hands down over her arms and held her hands. “Do you want an annulment?” he asked.
There was only one answer. “Yes. I’m committed to my life. I don’t see it changing. What about you? Do you want it?”
“Oh, yes, I want it. Starting over at my own place, with no one telling me what to do but me, taking responsibility for it all, the horses, the finances and management, the vet bills. I’ve been counting the years until I could do this.”
When he talked about the work, she could see it made him happy. “So one day you’re going to leave your dad’s and not go back again?”
“No, it won’t be like that. I’m grooming someone in my office to take over my position. Jeff has been apprenticing with me, and he can do it. He just needs to have the confidence that he can. I’ll stay part-time for a while until everybody gets used to the idea. Then I can slip away and just be used for consulting services.”
“We’re on the verge,” she said softly.
With his gaze unwavering, he agreed, “We are. I enjoyed breakfast, too. Maybe we can do this again.”
When he tilted his head, she thought he was going to kiss her. It wasn’t full-blown. He kissed her on the cheek. She still felt it all the way down to the toes of her boots. She almost grabbed him and laid one on his lips, but she’d been taught better. Decorum could be everything. She’d never been forward and she wouldn’t be now.
She hurriedly opened her door, slid over to it and dropped her legs around to take the giant step down from the running board.
When it seemed as if he was going to come around the truck, she shook her head vigorously. “No, you stay. I’m fine.” Shaky, but fine.
She could feel his eyes on her as she walked through the glass door into the bank of elevators and greeted the security guard. She pressed the button and the doors swished open immediately. She stepped inside. Fortunately there was only time for a small wave before they closed in front of her.
She breathed a sigh of disappointment, regret, but also joy. She’d enjoyed being with him. She’d enjoyed feeling alive with him. She’d enjoyed the fact that Chase Parker still turned her on.
* * *
At his desk later that afternoon, Chase tried to concentrate on examining the work records, evaluations, and overall résumé of Jeff Ortiz. Jeff was now Parker Oil’s CFO, and had done a bang-up job ever since Chase hired him three years ago. He was a good manager with great public relations skills. Not only that, he was intelligent, informed about the industry and would go far either at Parker Oil or for some other company who might try to steal him. He was Chase’s pick to replace him when he left. The feat would be getting his father on board with the idea.
Turning away from his computer, Chase thought about breakfast as he had on and off all day. He couldn’t shove Lucie out of his mind. Had it been easier ten years ago? He’d had no choice then. If she hadn’t been so young, maybe things would have been different. If he hadn’t been so young, maybe he would have known better what he wanted.
He took his cell phone from his belt, pulled up his contacts and studied her number. She’d given it to him in case he had to reach her about the paperwork...about the annulment...about ending something that had hardly started.
He jabbed the green phone icon.
He half expected her voice mail. After all, she’d said she was going to look at more properties this afternoon with a real estate agent. Bu
t he didn’t get voice mail. She answered.
“Hi, Chase.”
Her tone was cautious, but at least she hadn’t avoided his call. Without preamble, he asked, “Are you finished with business for the day?”
“I just got home.”
He hesitated only a moment. “We have about an hour of daylight left. How would you like to see the ranch I plan to buy?”
Her silence lasted a few moments and he realized he was holding his breath. But then she answered, “I can be ready as soon as you get here. But you’d better pick me up on a different level this time. Let’s try level two.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he assured her.
When he ended the connection, he wondered how she lived her life like this. She had to think about every twist and turn in the road, and how the public would view it. When did she ever get to do what she wanted to do? Would she be wearing her wig again?
Standing, he pushed in his desk chair and realized he couldn’t wait to find out.
Ten minutes later, when she ran to his truck and hopped inside, he saw instead of a wig she was wearing a baseball cap with a large bill that practically hid her face. Jeans, a plaid shirt and boots rounded out her outfit. She didn’t look royal, and he supposed that was the idea. She used a persona for her public appearances.
Who was the real Lucie?
They didn’t speak until they were well out of Austin. He noticed her checking the rearview mirror a few times. He had checked it, too. From what he could tell, no one had followed them. She seemed to relax the farther from Austin they drove.
Finally she said honestly, “I was surprised you called...about your ranch.”
She was obviously wondering why he’d asked her to come along. He wasn’t entirely sure. “Maybe I just want a second opinion on the place.”
“No one else has seen it?”
“No one else.”
“How many horses do you plan to run on this property?”
“I’m bringing five over from the Bar P. I adopted two out last month, but I’d like to triple or quadruple that. A lot has to happen first, though. Some horses have to be quarantined. Others need their own pastures. There are no wild mustangs, per se, in Texas. That’s the way most people think about horse rescue. But in stiff economic times, people are abandoning horses on private and public lands. As far as the wild mustangs go, the Bureau of Land Management has adoption events in Texas. I purchased a few, gentled them, and then sold them.”
“It’s a wonderful idea. What made you start doing it?”
“Dad added property to the Bar P when I was a teenager. It was a rundown ranch. The owner was selling. Two of his horses were malnourished and hadn’t been cared for. I convinced Dad to let me take them on that summer. I turned them around. One of them became Mom’s favorite to ride. After Dad’s stroke, I guess I needed an outlet for living there again, something else to keep me occupied while I was there. So I began rescuing horses.”
“I looked you up online yesterday.”
He cut her a glance. “Oh, you did.”
“There’s an article about you in one of the Texas magazines about being the most eligible bachelor in Austin.”
He kept silent to see where she was going with this.
“It’s just—with your money, looks and reputation, you could be leading the good life.”
“Fast cars, bars, clubbing every night?”
“Something like that.”
“That might have been me in my teens and early twenties, but it isn’t now. Scotland changed me, Lucie. Didn’t it change you?”
“Before Scotland, I was never impulsive or reckless the way you were. I think maybe I let you sweep me away to prove that I could be. The thing was, after the humiliation the whole episode caused my parents, being sent home from the trip in disgrace, I was never that way again.”
Had she reverted to type, or had she just curbed her passionate tendencies? Maybe that was something he wanted to explore.
Lucie’s face wore an interested expression as he veered onto the gravel lane to the ranch. Suddenly the thought that this was a bad idea assaulted him. The ranch was run-down. The main barn needed to be refurbished. The second barn with its apartment on the second floor needed a makeover, too. This property was certainly nothing like the Bar P or the Chesterfield Estate in England. He’d seen video clips of her home. What was she going to think?
“I have to repair the fence, of course.” He nodded to the worn stakes and supports along the road.
“Lots of caretaking involved,” Lucie commented as if she knew.
“It will be a lot of work at the outlay, but then upkeep won’t be so bad. The land alone is worth the price. With the rest, I’ll add to its value.”
As the truck bumped along, the barns and then the house came into view. They could see the forest beyond now and Lucie was looking in that direction.
As they parked at the house, they both climbed out.
“I’m going to have the house sided, of course,” Chase said. “I’m thinking tan with brown shutters.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Pale yellow siding with black shutters would be more inviting.”
He grinned. “I knew there was a reason I brought you along.”
They went up the three porch steps to the house. The porch was a large one, rounding three sides.
“It’s locked, of course,” Chase explained. “But you can peek inside. It’s empty, so you won’t see much. The plank flooring is good, if a little worn. In time, I’ll redo the kitchen.”
Lucie peered in the window, devoid of shades or curtains. “The living room looks nice-sized,” she noticed.
“There are four bedrooms upstairs. One’s a little small. The whole place has that original ranch house feel.”
She stepped back from the door and glanced toward the barn.
“Do you want to explore a little? The barns aren’t locked.”
“Sure. Old barns can be like treasure chests. They take you back into another era.”
“Exactly.”
They were on the same page with that. The early 1900s feel of the barns and the house was the reason he liked them so much. If he had his way, he’d restore all of them as much as he could and keep the original wood and architecture.
He went ahead of her and opened the heavy, creaking barn door. She came up beside him and when she passed him, the light perfume she wore teased him. Once inside, however, the smell of hay, old wood and rusting tools was evident. There was a loft with an old, rickety ladder propped against it.
“I wouldn’t use that ladder to look around up there,” she warned with a smile.
“I brought my own in to have a look around. But when I own the place, I’d like to replicate the original.”
Basically the barn was one open space.
“You’ll need stalls, right?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. Lean-tos and a fenced corral. I’m looking into enlarging the second barn.”
“Wow. You have your work cut out for you.”
“I do and I can’t wait to start. I want to do some of the work myself, especially in the house.”
They were standing close to each other near a support beam. He had one hand on the support and his other he dropped by his side. She was standing right in front of him, close enough to touch. Dim light shone in the foggy windows. Last light from a long day shadowed the barn. The hushed atmosphere inside made him aware of his breath as well as hers.
He tipped up the bill of her cap. “This really doesn’t disguise you very much. The wig does a better job.”
“It hides my hair, though, and part of my face. It works, Chase.”
Her life seemed to be all about what worked, what fit in, what didn’t stir the pot. What if he stirred the pot?
A beep made them both start. It was as if someone had walked into the barn and caught them there.
Lucie stepped away from him and said, “My phone. I’d better check to see who it is.”
Slipping it from her pocket, she said, “It’s Amelia. I have to take this. She and I never ignore each other’s calls.”
Chase didn’t have a brother or sister, but he understood that if he did, he wouldn’t ignore their calls either. He turned away and walked to the other side of the barn to give Lucie some privacy. The idea of kissing her had revved him up. Better if she didn’t understand just how much.
Chapter Four
Lucie was abominably rattled. She knew Chase had been about to kiss her and she’d wanted him to do it. Good sense hadn’t stepped in. Recklessness had almost taken over. Thank goodness Amelia had called.
She was breathless when she glanced at Chase, who’d turned away and walked across the barn. She answered her phone. “Hi, Amelia.”
“I’m sorry I was so distracted yesterday morning. It was late last night until I realized I hadn’t called you back. So I made time right now. The baby’s sleeping and Quinn’s out in the barn. Are you at your place?”
Her place. Only it really wasn’t hers, because she’d be flying away again soon.
“No, I’m not at the apartment. I’m exploring a ranch.”
Amelia sounded puzzled. “For the Fortune Foundation?”
“No, not for them. I’m with...” She couldn’t go into a long explanation with Chase in the same room, so to speak. “I’m with a friend.”
“I’m so glad you’re making friends in Austin. Are you with Ella or Viv?”
“No, not them. Amelia, I really do want to chat. We have a lot to talk about. But now isn’t a good time.”
“I entirely understand. Maybe midnight would be better, when the day is calmed down. The problem is, then Quinn wants all my hours—”
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