The Texan's One-Night Standoff
Page 18
“About that—”
Irritation flashed across his features and Joy almost felt sorry for him. Not sorry enough to stop, though. “What time do you want dinner tonight?”
Before he could answer, she said, “How about six? If that works for you, we’ll keep it that way for the month. Otherwise, we can change it.”
“I didn’t agree—”
“Kaye said Holly and I should use her suite of rooms off the kitchen, so we’ll just go get settled in and you can get back to what you were doing when we got here.” A bright smile on her face, she called, “Holly, come with me now.” She looked at him. “Once I’ve got our things put away, I’ll look through your supplies and get dinner started, if it’s all right with you.” And even if it isn’t, she added silently.
“Talking too fast to be interrupted doesn’t mean this is settled,” he told her flatly.
The grim slash of his mouth matched the iciness in his tone. But Joy wasn’t going to give up easily. “There’s nothing to settle. We agreed to be here for the month and that’s what we’re going to do.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think this is going to work out.”
“You can’t know that, and I think you’re wrong,” she said, stiffening her spine as she faced him down. She needed this job. This place. For one month. And she wouldn’t let him take it from her. Keeping her voice low so Holly wouldn’t overhear, she said, “I’m holding you to the deal we made.”
“We didn’t make a deal.”
“You did with Kaye.”
“Kaye’s not here.”
“Which is why we are.” One point to me. Joy grinned and met his gaze, deliberately glaring right into those shuttered brown eyes of his.
“Are there fairies in the woods?” Holly wondered aloud.
“I don’t know, honey,” Joy said.
“No,” Sam told her.
Holly’s face fell and Joy gave him a stony glare. He could be as nasty and unfriendly with her as he wanted to be. But he wouldn’t be mean to her daughter. “He means he’s never seen any fairies, sweetie.”
“Oh.” The little girl’s smile lit up her face. “Me either. But maybe I can sometime, Mommy says.”
With a single look, Joy silently dared the man to pop her daughter’s balloon again. But he didn’t.
“Then you’ll have to look harder, won’t you?” he said instead, then lifted his gaze to Joy’s. With what looked like regret glittering in his eyes, he added, “You’ll have a whole month to look for them.”
Copyright © 2016 by Maureen Child
ISBN-13: 9781488002113
The Texan’s One-Night Standoff
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Charlene Sands for her contribution to the Dynasties: The Newports miniseries.
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