He could hear the smile in her voice, and he wanted to drive over to her office right now, so he could see it in person. “No jeans allowed, Ms. Landry. Evening attire is mandatory.”
“Hmm. I think I’ll buy a dress in a nice shade of puce, with a big orange sash and a matching feather boa.”
“I’ll bring smelling salts in case I need to be revived from the shock. And I’m looking forward to meeting your family this weekend.”
“That’s only because you have no idea what you’re getting into.”
“You’re not going to scare me off, Allison. I’ll see you Saturday at noon.”
Carol came in a few minutes later, as he was reviewing Derek’s product presentation.
“You look cheerful,” she said. “Got something fun planned for tonight?”
“For Saturday.”
“Yeah? What?”
“I’m going to meet Allison’s family. And next weekend she’s coming with me to the charity ball.”
Carol was silent, and he glanced up after a moment to see her grinning at him.
“What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Rick and Allison, sitting in a tree—”
“Cut it out, Carol.”
“I just never thought I’d see the day, that’s all. In all seriousness, boss, it’s nice to see you so happy. Keep it up.”
She left before he could say anything else.
“You were right,” Rick said forty-eight hours later. “I had no idea what I was getting into.”
It was a gorgeous April afternoon, the sky an endless blue, the air alive with the scents of springtime. Here on the Landry farm there was a restless, joyful urgency everywhere, in the huge farmhouse kitchen where dozens of people were talking, laughing and cooking, and out in the fields where there was work to be done, party or no party.
Allison had taken him outside to meet her father, and somehow that had led to him sitting in a low metal seat hitched behind a tractor, with Allison sitting in an identical seat next to him. Between them were two large trays of tomato plants. Allison’s father was on the tractor seat, twisted around so he could give them instructions.
“So you understand what you’re supposed to do, right? I’m going to drive across the field making holes in the turf, and you’re going to grab the plants and stuff them in the holes. Be gentle with the roots, but quick. Got it?”
“Uh…”
“Great,” Joe Landry said, turning back around and starting up the tractor.
“Don’t worry,” Allison said, grinning at him. She was wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes baseball cap and she had a smudge of dirt on one cheek. “You’ll get the hang of it.”
She grabbed two plants from the tray and held them out. He took them gingerly.
“They’re not made of glass,” she said. “Gentle but quick, remember? Okay, here we go.”
“Ready?” Joe called out over the rumble of the tractor.
“Ready!” Allison called back.
The tractor started to roll.
Half an hour later Rick was covered in dirt and the spicy scent of young tomato plants. They’d planted several dozen rows, with Allison’s sister Jenna replacing the trays every time they crisscrossed the field.
“Good job!” Joe called out, grinning at them as he turned off the tractor and jumped to the ground. “Dinner’s in an hour and a half, kids. Allison, why don’t you show Rick around the place?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Allison agreed, rising quickly and gracefully to her feet while Rick extricated himself from the low seat a little more slowly.
“Would you guys mind if I join you?” Jenna asked. “I forgot what it’s like to have the whole family milling around in the kitchen, and I need a break before I go back in there.”
Allison laughed. “Is that why you volunteered for tomato duty?”
“Pretty much.”
“My sister lives in Chicago and missed the last few family gatherings,” Allison explained, and something clicked in Rick’s mind.
“Jenna Landry,” he said, snapping his fingers, and looking at Allison’s sister with new respect. “You were lead guitarist for the Red Mollies.”
Jenna, a tall, dark-haired beauty with Allison’s blue eyes, cocked her head at him. “I’m impressed,” she said. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for the indie rock type.”
Rick grinned at her. “Actually, an army friend of mine had a huge crush on you. He listened to ‘Runaway Heart’ every night before he fell asleep.”
Jenna winked at him. “I bet it gave him good dreams,” she said in the husky voice that had probably haunted the dreams of thousands of men.
“Don’t practice your wiles on him,” Allison admonished her sister, brushing dirt off her jeans. “He’ll fall hopelessly in love with you, like they all do, and then you’ll break his heart.”
The three of them started to walk down the path beside the tomato patch, toward the fenced in pasture behind the barn. There was something invigorating about the scent of freshly turned earth in the fields on either side of them. The promise of summer was like a kiss against his skin.
“How about it?” Jenna asked, drawing his arm through hers. “Are you up for having your heart broken?”
The nice thing about having Jenna on one arm was that it gave him an excuse to offer his other arm to Allison. She took it, and her warmth seemed to radiate through him as they made their way toward the barn.
“Let’s see if I survive today before I put my heart on the chopping block. Do you always put your party guests to work?”
“Only the ones we like,” Allison said, grinning up at him under the brim of her baseball cap. “You should take it as a compliment. Dad doesn’t trust just anyone with his precious tomatoes.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t take the day off, to enjoy the party.”
Allison shook her head. “There speaks someone who wasn’t raised on a farm. There’s no time off in the spring. Winter is our time to relax. But he’s done for the day—out here, anyway. Now he’ll shower and change and Mom will put him to work in the kitchen.”
They reached the fence, and the three of them leaned against the top rail to look out at the grassy expanse of the pasture.
“What’s this used for?” he asked, just as a brown horse came into view, trotting purposefully toward them. His black mane and tail rippled like silk.
“There’s my beauty,” Allison said in a voice he’d never heard her use before. He glanced down at her, startled, to see her taking a handful of sugar cubes out of her pocket. She put them into her baseball cap and held it out. The horse nosed into the cap and tossed his sleek brown head after he finished the treat.
“Remember when you used to ride Merlin bareback? I dare you to do that right now,” Jenna challenged her, and Rick saw the sibling dynamic assert itself between the two women.
“I could do it with my eyes shut,” Allison said loftily, grinning at her sister.
“Less talk and more action. I double dare you.”
Allison handed Rick her baseball cap and climbed the fence, balancing herself against the top rail as she ran a caressing hand along the animal’s proud neck. He wore neither saddle nor bridle.
“Uh…Allison? Are you sure this is really a good—”
She wasn’t listening to him as she threaded her fingers into the horse’s mane, climbed to the top of the fence, and threw her leg over his back. She seemed to whisper something into his ear and the two of them were off across the field, the horse cantering and Allison laughing as she hung on with her hands and her knees.
Rick stared after them. They seemed to be in perfect harmony, the two of them alike somehow in their fearless, joyful grace. He’d never seen her like this—so exuberant, so confident in her physicality.
So sexy.
“She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said under his breath, remembering the second the words were out of his mouth that he wasn’t alone.
He glanced down at Jenna. “Is ther
e any chance I didn’t say that out loud?”
“Nope.” She was staring at him, wide-eyed. After a moment she grinned and pointed a finger at him. “You’ve got a crush on my little sister,” she said.
He thought about denying it, but who was he kidding? The fact was, he did have a crush on Allison.
“It’s possible,” he admitted. “But I haven’t been making a lot of progress.”
“It’s not personal. I mean…Allison doesn’t date. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know that,” Rick said, resting his forearms on the top rail of the fence. “But I don’t know why.”
Jenna shook her head. “I don’t know, either. We’re close in a lot of ways, and I love her with my whole heart, but you’ve probably figured out that Allison doesn’t like talking about herself. She’s always made her life about other people. Whenever I ask her about it, she’s tells me she’d rather focus on work.”
“That’s what she told me, too.”
Rick looked toward the pasture again. Horse and rider were far across the field. “What was she like in high school?”
“A lot like she is now, although I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t around much when Allison was a teenager. I left home when I was eighteen, and she was fifteen.”
“You left because of your music?”
“That’s right. What a cliché, huh? I used to think of it like a headline: ‘Rebellious Teen Leaves Home To Start Rock Band.’”
“You made a success of it. The Red Mollies were huge for a while.”
Jenna shrugged. “We put out some good music, anyway. I loved writing songs, loved being on the road and doing shows… It’s what I’d dreamed of my whole life. But I always felt guilty that I wasn’t here more for Allison and my parents when Megan got sick. She got diagnosed about a year after I left. My brother Jake had joined the army and was stationed down in Georgia, so he couldn’t get home much. I came back every month or so, but I could have done a lot more. I could have taken a break from the band to be here for my family.”
“Your band was probably like family, too. You didn’t want to leave them in the lurch.”
“That was part of it, sure. But if I’m being honest with myself…well, the reality is I let Allison carry a burden I should have made lighter for her. I didn’t realize how much she would give up, to be the person everyone could count on.”
Rick glanced at her sharply. “Give up? What did she give up?”
Jenna rested her elbows on the fence rail.
“She had this boyfriend, a guy who went to school with her. Allison went to Fisher Academy, did you know that? On a full academic scholarship. She was always crazy smart, always at the top of her class. We were so proud when she got into Fisher. It wasn’t easy for her, either. Those rich kids didn’t exactly make her feel welcome. That’s why we were so surprised when she started dating one of them.”
He was trying to stay focused on what Jenna was saying but he was dealing with an unwelcome rush of emotion. Was he actually feeling jealous of Allison’s high school boyfriend? God, how pathetic could he get? “What was his name? The boyfriend, I mean.”
“Paul, I think. Allison was crazy about him. You know, the way a teenage girl is crazy about her first love.”
“Sure,” Rick said. Another pulse of jealousy made his jaw tighten. He wished he could have known Allison back then, when she was capable of feeling like that. She was so different, now—so self-contained, so determined not to give herself away. “What happened to Mr. Wonderful?”
“Allison broke up with him. She never talked about why, and my parents were pretty focused on Megan at the time, so I don’t think they worried too much about it. I always wondered if maybe…”
“What?”
“If maybe she broke up with him because of Megan. So she could focus all her time and energy on her, and on my Mom and Dad. So she could take care of her family.”
Was that what had happened? Was that the reason Allison didn’t date now—because she’d fallen in love once and let the guy go? Was she still carrying a torch for her high school sweetheart?
Allison was coming back toward them now and he had a sudden urge to grab hold of her and kiss her, as if he could force love out of the depths of her soul.
Love?
No, not love. That was too big a word, too big a feeling…and something he had no business even thinking about. The rush of possessiveness he’d felt just now was proof of that.
His father had been possessive and jealous, full of rage and hate. Rick’s determination to escape that bitter legacy meant he’d never be husband or father material. There was no way he’d risk putting any woman through what his mother had been through.
So he would never take a chance on forever. But he wanted Allison, wanted her to be his for a few weeks or a few months. He wanted her in his bed, giving him her sweetness and warmth and passion and desire.
He hated knowing that she’d felt that way for someone else, so many years ago—and that she’d locked those emotions away forever. Locked away her heart so that no man could ever touch it again.
Allison maneuvered the horse back to the fence and dismounted neatly and gracefully.
“Wow, that felt good,” she said, sitting on the top rail and grinning down at them both. “Sorry I deserted you there for a while. Did you make any progress with Rick?” she asked her sister.
Jenna shook her head. “Nope. He’s a hard nut.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it. He deserves better than to get his heart stomped on by the likes of you.”
She looked so beautiful sitting there with that smudge of dirt on her face, her blue eyes a shade darker than the sky. He loved the way the sunlight made her brown hair gleam with gold, and he loved the way her small, firm breasts filled out her T-shirt. Before he could stop himself he reached up and brushed her cheek with the pad of his thumb.
She froze, her eyes wide and startled.
“Dirt,” he said, his voice a little rough. He cleared his throat. “You had a smudge of dirt on your cheek.”
She was staring at him, her lips parted.
“I think I’ll head inside and check on my birthday cake,” Jenna said into the sudden, charged silence, and Rick was vaguely aware that she had left them, walking briskly back toward the house.
His eyes didn’t leave Allison’s as he put his hands on her waist. He intended to help her jump down from the fence, but instead he moved closer and let his hands slide up her torso, slowly, just brushing the outside of her breasts. Then he did hoist her off the fence, setting her carefully on her feet.
Her cheeks were red and her breath was coming faster than usual, but she was meeting his eyes and she didn’t shy away. He looked down at her, not kissing her the way he wanted to, not moving a muscle.
He wasn’t pushing, and she wasn’t running.
It felt like a beginning. And as he fell deeper into her blue eyes, Rick realized that he wanted more than Allison’s passion.
He wanted her trust. And he was willing to do whatever it took to earn it.
Chapter Nine
Allison had never felt so grateful for the cheerful, noisy chaos of her family. She knew Rick was coming in behind her as she pushed through the screen door into the kitchen, but since they’d already done introductions when they first arrived, she didn’t need to say anything but hello in answer to the chorus of greetings.
She saw her cousin Ben, a freshman in college, collar Rick and start talking to him eagerly. She was pretty sure an impassioned conversation about “Magician’s Labyrinth” was underway. She was glad to be able to lose herself in the cluster of people around the big table, nibbling on the appetizers her mother had set out for everyone.
After only a minute or two, though, she looked for him again. He and Ben were talking over by the counter. Rick turned his head and their eyes met. She flushed and looked away.
Something in his expression made her feel a little dizzy.
It wasn’t the fevered d
esire she’d seen at Hunter Hall. This was…well, she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was, but it made her feel languid and restless at the same time, a combination of feelings she’d never experienced before.
Thank God she was talking with Aunt Beth, so all she had to do was listen and nod at appropriate moments. Her heart was thumping and her skin felt warm.
She saw out of the corner of her eye that her dad had approached Rick and captured his attention, and she couldn’t help feeling curious about their conversation. She said something vague to Aunt Beth, who turned her attention to someone else, and Allison moved closer to where her dad and Rick were sitting at the kitchen table.
Rick looked comfortable in worn jeans and a short-sleeved polo shirt. His black hair had started the day off neat but had long since taken on the tousled look she preferred. She wished she could run her fingers through it, brush it off his forehead. She wished she could touch him the way he’d touched her outside, easy and knowing and sensual.
Allison drifted a little closer, and overheard them talking about community supported agriculture, of all things. Rick turned his head and met her eyes again.
“Hey,” he said, smiling and holding out his hand.
After just a second’s hesitation she took it, and as Rick tugged her closer so she could be part of the conversation, she knew he couldn’t possibly realize what a big deal this was for her. Just to take a man’s hand like this, letting her nervousness crackle across her skin without letting it stop her. To move through the anxiety, the self-doubt, and to even tighten her hand around his a little, as if to affirm that she was choosing this contact, this link, to a man she knew was more than a friend to her.
But for this moment, she didn’t need to define what Rick was in her life. She was holding his hand, and that was enough.
She realized her father had asked her something.
“What?”
“I said you should be the one to tell Rick how CSA works. Considering you were the one who helped us implement it here.”
It was hard to focus with her awareness so centered on her right hand, with Rick’s warm, strong fingers wrapped around hers.
The Millionaire's Wish Page 12