by Seton, Cora
“This isn't your company anymore!”
“Really? My name’s still on it.”
Words failed her as she watched him walk away. Numbly, she pushed through the doors into the office and found everyone gathered around Edie, who sat at her old desk. Celia, the receptionist she’d hired soon after Daniel and Edie absconded, stood at the back of the crowd, her expression bewildered.
“I know it wasn’t the best way to break things off with Ted,” Edie was saying. “But Daniel’s so impetuous. He couldn’t wait any longer. We got married and we traveled around the world for an entire year. You wouldn’t believe all the things we did.”
“So why are you back here?” Claire said and cringed as everyone turned to stare at her. Was that strident sound really her voice?
Edie sat up straight and pursed her lips. The other employees eased away to their own cubicles. “Life can’t all be fun and games. It’s time for us to get back to work.”
This couldn’t be happening. Daniel couldn’t just march in here and take things over. These were her clients now – it was her business.
But was it? The building’s owner had been all too happy to transfer Daniel’s lease to her when Daniel left, and most of the clients were thrilled to learn their projects wouldn’t be disrupted. As lead designer, she’d been their contact at the company, anyway. But did that make the business – the clients – hers? She had no idea what a court would say.
Just turn around and walk out the door. You don’t need the money. You were about to shut it down anyway, she told herself, but her fingers curled into fists as she scanned the office. She'd taken over Daniel's desk while he was gone, but now it was bare, her personal things piled into a box. Shit – her computer was gone. “Edie?”
“No need to shout, I’m right here.”
“Where the hell is my computer?”
“You mean Daniel's computer? He took it with him. He needed it for his meeting.”
His meeting. Claire realized Edie meant her meeting – with the Wilcoxes. "He's taking my meeting?"
“You're not employed here anymore." Edie lifted an eyebrow in obvious distaste. "We went on vacation, Claire – we didn’t hand you our company lock, stock and barrel. Now we're back and you're not needed. Thank you for stopping by and picking up your things.” She focused on a pile of paperwork on her desk, but Claire knew every other eye in the office was turned toward her. Watching her reaction. Waiting to see what she would do.
Claire’s stomach gave an uneasy lurch. What the hell should she do? Daniel had stolen her money, but she couldn't prove it. Once he was gone, the office by all rights should have closed. She kept it open. Did it cross the line for her to take his clients and profit from them? She wasn't sure. All she knew was if she stayed and made a scene she might lose whatever credibility she had in this town now that she'd been fired from Ledstrom Designs. Finally, she found her voice. “Fine, I’m out of here. You can have your stupid client list and your stupid building. Wherever I set up my office, the clients will find me.”
Clients? What clients? Wasn't she planning to walk away from interior design?
Not anymore.
“Whatever, sweetie. Just remember – all your current contracts are property of Ledstrom Designs.”
Claire started toward the door. She had to get out of here before she did something stupid – something violent. Like heaving Edie through the front plate-glass window.
She barged out onto the street, fury propelling every step. She’d earned those contracts, every one of them. Even the projects that started back when Daniel was boss were all her work. Daniel couldn’t just take them from her.
Except he had.
She came to a stop on the sidewalk outside the building, nearly colliding with a man hurrying by with a briefcase in his hand. After all her hard work, late nights, and worry over the bottom line, Daniel was going to screw her over. He was going to win.
She couldn’t let him do that.
Not again.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jamie looked up from mucking out Walter’s stall late Monday morning to see Claire standing near the stable door. Dressed in her city things, she looked pale and strained, with dark smudges under her eyes. He dropped his shovel and moved toward her, but she held up a hand.
“Don’t.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t know where else to go, but so help me God, Jamie, if you touch me I’m leaving.”
What the hell? Jamie leaned his shovel against the stall. Whatever had happened in the past twenty-four hours had shattered Claire and he longed to pull her into his arms and comfort her. Unfortunately, he knew too well that look in her eye. She didn’t want that kind of comfort. “What happened?”
She scanned the back wall of the stable like maybe the answers were written there. “He came back. Daniel came back.”
Jamie’s jaw tightened. “Ledstrom?”
She seemed surprised he knew the name. She really had no idea how much energy he’d put into knowing as much about her as he possibly could. He’d seen their picture in the paper several times last year – Claire and Daniel at a charity auction in the city. Claire and Daniel at an art gallery opening. Then he’d read in the paper that her weasel-faced pretty-boy boss had suddenly left town with his ditzy secretary. Ethan had come to him then, worried about his sister, but Claire had taken over Ledstrom Designs and carried on her work without missing a beat. Jamie had breathed a sigh of relief, figuring she didn’t care for Daniel, after all.
Now the bastard was back.
“What’s he want?”
“My business.”
“He can’t take your business away from you.”
“Yes, he can.” Claire’s eyes were huge in her face. “Because it's actually still his.”
“If he walked out on his clients he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”
“You don’t understand. I took over all his contracts. I kept working just the same way we always had. I even kept his name on the business – I couldn’t afford to make up a new sign, get a new website and all that. It was just easier to keep it. I just never thought he’d come back!”
“Why not? Because he stole another man’s wife?”
She turned away. “He stole something else, too.”
“What?”
She shook her head. “I don't want to tell you.”
Jamie balled his fists. She didn’t have to. It was as plain as day – Daniel Ledstrom had stolen her heart.
And now he was back. He had to act fast or the bastard might coerce Claire back into his bed. Now that he'd slept with her, Jamie had no intention of letting another man near her. She was going to be his wife. He planned to spend the rest of his life with her. Ledstrom wasn't going to screw that up.
"I thought you were quitting interior design. You said you were shutting down the company anyway."
"I was, but…not like this."
No, not like this, Jamie thought. Not when the bastard she'd loved but left her was coming back to steal the business from her. Her competitive spirit was rearing its head again. He knew Claire. She could walk away from a business, but she could never stand to have it taken from her. If he didn't side with her, she'd count him as an enemy. He thought hard.
“I was never his client.”
“What?”
“He can’t say I was on his list. I knew you way before you ever went to Billings. Design my house, and start over again. New company, new name. Clients will line up to work with you based on your merits alone.” At the end of the day he didn't care if she designed interiors or organized trail rides. He just wanted her close by.
"What if no one wants to work with me anymore?"
Jamie forced himself not to take a step and pull her into his arms. He kept his voice even. “You're terrific at what you do – everyone will want to work with you. You’ll be fine.”
"There aren't enough clients in Chance Creek – I need to be in a city like Billings."
> "There are plenty of clients here – real clients with real houses, not fancy-schmancy condominiums." He spit out the word like it tasted bad.
Claire shot him a look. "I live in a condominium." She tapped a finger against her arm. "No, it won't work – there isn't enough money around here to keep a design business afloat."
"Then work with me on the ranch," he said desperately. Damn it, why did Ledstrom have to come back now just when he was getting somewhere with Claire?
She turned on him. "No – don't you see? That's exactly what he wants. To eliminate his competition. I can't let him do that."
Jamie ached to pound Daniel Ledstrom into pulp. Instead, he said carefully, “What are you going to do?”
She tapped her finger some more.
“The Whitfield contract."
Jamie raised an eyebrow.
"Carl Whitfield's building a huge log mansion for Lacey. He's going to need an interior designer. I planned to go after the contract before you guys bought me out. I'll go after it now." She smiled triumphantly. "I can use your house as a practice run. Go get me your blueprints. I'm going to design the best log home interior Montana's ever seen, show it to Carl, and nail that contract.” She turned fever-bright eyes toward him. "And then I'm going to bury Daniel and Ledstrom Designs."
CHAPTER SIX
Claire checked the mirror in her ensuite bathroom to make sure she looked neat and professional. A millionaire like Carl Whitfield was used to dealing with the best of the best.
For the last two weeks she’d lived in the Big House on the ranch, spending most of her time at the huge table in the great room with Jamie’s blueprints scattered about her, along with fabric swatches, sell sheets and her own handwritten notes. She’d pecked away at her laptop, creating a 3-D rendering of her designs in a CAD program. It turned out Jamie had been planning for years for the day he bought land and began to build. The minute he signed the paperwork with Ethan, he got on the phone to the contractor he wished to use. Luckily, Tom Bends had a gap in his schedule he was all too happy to fill in this slow economy, and construction started right away. Jamie already had ideas for the flooring, and in many of the rooms wanted the huge log walls to remain visible, but he had left the kitchen appointments and many other details to her. Plus he had asked her to pick out most of the major furnishings.
She’d done all this and more, and once she’d shown Jamie her results and he’d praised her to the skies, only asking for one or two minor changes, she’d polished her presentation and called Carl to ask for a meeting.
Lacey Taylor was once Ethan's fiancée. She'd left him – thank God – after she'd discovered the extent of the ranch's debts. Claire didn't think she could have stood Lacey as a sister-in-law. Lacey latched on to Carl Whitfield, a millionaire and wanna-be rancher who'd managed to piss off almost everyone in Chance Creek. Things had settled down some, and Carl and Lacey intended to get married after Lacey finished her four months in a live-in counseling program in Bozeman. Apparently she had unresolved traumas from her childhood she wanted to work on before marrying Carl. Ethan had hinted something like that before the wedding, but who would have believed Lacey Taylor had grown up enough to make such an adult decision? Carl wanted to surprise her when she returned by having his mansion built and decorated. If she could score this contract, she’d be well on her way to establishing Cruz Designs as a company worthy of notice.
She’d called every one of her old clients the day she’d left Ledstrom Designs, apprised them of the situation and told them that unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to work with them on any current project they had with Daniel's company. It killed her to give up all the work she’d done, but she knew many of the clients would seek her out in the future once they found Daniel wasn't as good a designer as she was.
If she was honest, though, it was killing her to work inside while living on the ranch. She watched Jamie through the large floor-to-ceiling windows as he worked with the horses in the corrals. Ethan came and went, tending the cattle now that he and Autumn were home from their honeymoon. Autumn spent more time indoors, but even she worked in the kitchen garden.
Claire was the only one chained to a desk in the beautiful summer weather. Once or twice she'd ridden out at night with Jamie to see the building site, but she put him off whenever she could. It was so hard to turn Storm around and come back inside afterward.
Why was she torturing herself like this? Why not admit defeat and leave interior design to Daniel?
Because she refused to be defeated by a man like that. Not a second time.
She glanced at her reflection in the mirror again. Her suit was finely tailored, her hair brushed to a shine. Her makeup was understated but flattering. And Jamie's elegant ring set the whole outfit off.
It glittered there as a constant reminder of what she really wanted. For Jamie to be the kind of man she needed him to be. A man who would stick by her through thick and thin. Now that their bet had kicked in and he wasn't touching her, she was more conscious of him than ever. Every time he came near her she held her breath, wanting him to take her into his arms. But then he would lose the bet, and she didn't want him to lose, did she?
Because then the ranch and Jamie would be off limits to her for good.
She wanted him so bad. Wanted to make love to him again.
Focus, Claire.
Time to go score one of the biggest interior design contracts in Montana.
* * * * *
A half-hour later, she sat at a scarred wooden table in Linda’s diner, waiting for Carl Whitfield to join her, alternately checking her laptop to make sure it was set to show him her portfolio and playing with the engagement ring.
The door opened, and Carl came in. At forty, he’d already made his millions and bought the spread next door to the Cruz ranch to live out his dreams of being a cowboy. When he’d arrived, everyone laughed at his shiny new boots and string tie, and they’d been angry at the way he bought his place for a song when he could have afforded to pay much more, but no one could turn up their noses at the way he was boosting the local economy with his building projects. And he sure seemed to love Lacey.
“Hi, Claire, how’s it keeping?”
“Hi, Carl. Thanks for meeting me.”
“A man’s got to eat.” He smiled. “Plus I never turn away the chance to spend time with a pretty woman.”
Claire cringed, but kept a smile pasted on her lips. “Would you like to see what I’ve been planning for Jamie’s house? That will give you a chance to see what I can do with a log home.”
“How about we order first, then get down to business.”
She took a breath and willed herself to calm down. She’d done a hundred of these meetings, so why was she acting like she was fresh out of school? “Sure, that sounds great.”
Tracey Richards, the young, blonde waitress, stopped by the table and handed menus to each of them, her high pony-tail swinging. “Should I give you a few minutes?”
“I know what I want,” Carl said. “A BLT, heavy on the mayo, a side of fries and a slice of apple pie.”
“How about you, Claire?”
Tracey had been several classes behind Claire, but she remembered her from high school, and besides, everyone knew everyone in Chance Creek. She scanned the menu. “Tomato soup and grilled cheese for me. Plus coffee when you have a minute.”
Tracey hurried away, came back a moment later with coffee for both of them and hustled off again. Linda’s Diner was a standby in Chance Creek, and was always busy at lunchtime on weekdays.
“All right, show me what you’ve got,” Carl said.
Swallowing another wave of nervousness, Claire slid the laptop over to where he could see the screen and pushed a button. “Here’s a mockup of the interior of the log home Jamie’s building. Of course, it’s nothing compared to the size of yours….”
“I should hope not. I plan to build the biggest house in Chance Creek. Only the best for my bride.”
She wished he did
n’t feel the need to talk quite so loudly. The last thing she wanted was a crowd to form around their table. “Of course. I’m sure yours will be twice the size of Jamie's.”
“Twice? Try four times the size. Ten thousand square feet.”
Ten thousand? With just him and Lacey rattling around in all that space? And the cost to heat it!
Claire composed herself. “That is a big house.” Carl nodded smugly. “Think of what I’m showing you as just a hint of what I could do for you.” She clicked another button. “Here’s the entryway. Notice the slate floors…”
“Everyone has slate floors. I plan to import marble from Bologna – it’s dark, imposing. Just the thing to let everyone know they aren’t dealing with a country bumpkin.”
“Oh, well that sounds nice.” Marble from Bologna? She scrambled to note that down.
“What else you got?” Carl scanned the diner as if he was losing interest already. Claire hurried to show him the next image she'd mocked up.
“Well, here’s the great room…”
“Great room? That looks like a closet to me. My great room’s going to be bigger than Jamie’s whole house. Of course he’s just a hired hand.”
“He’s not just a hired hand,” Claire blazed. “He’s part-owner of the Cruz ranch now.”
“Ah, yes. I heard something about that.”
She bet he did. Carl had tried to buy the ranch out from under them before Jamie saved the day. She had the sudden, uncomfortable feeling that he might be here with her now as an act of revenge, rather than because he really meant to hire her.
“Anyhow, if you’ll look at the furnishings.” She gave herself a mental shake. So what if he didn't come expecting to become her client? Her presentation ought to speak for itself. Winning him over would be an even bigger victory than the one she'd planned.
“Yes, yes, very nice for Jamie, but you have to understand, Claire, that if you want to work for someone like me you’ll need to play on an entirely different level." Carl pushed the laptop away as Tracey appeared with their lunches. She set down their plates. “This looks terrific, honey. Thank you.” He took a large bite of his sandwich.