“They can’t see us, can they?” Quinn asked.
“No. But something caught their attention.” Then they all turned to look east, and he saw what they had sensed. “Look over where the pasture rises in the shadows of those pines.”
Quinn moved closer to the glass to look where he directed. “Oh, you mean those dogs by the alien trees?”
That brought him an easy smile. “Lodgepole pines, not alien trees, and those aren’t dogs, they’re coyotes.”
She moved back slightly, as if to put more distance between herself and the animals. “They’re after the antelope?”
“They think they are.”
“Oh, my gosh, they’re going kill them?”
“No, the odds are very low the coyotes could even get close to them. Pronghorn antelope are the second fastest animal around, and no coyote stands a chance catching them on the run.”
Right then, the coyotes broke toward their targets, and the antelope became a blur as they darted west to the end of the trees and disappeared to the north. The coyotes slowed, acting confused as they circled randomly around the area. Then they loped off in the direction the antelope had gone.
Quinn whispered, “They’re going after them.”
“The antelope are probably already nearing the high country toward the federal lands. Now, why don’t you sit down at the table and relax? Breakfast is almost ready.”
Quinn followed his suggestion, and when Seth finally sat across the table from her with the platter of eggs and bacon between them, he avoided looking at her bandage. As she brushed a loose tendril of hair away from her face, he said, “Eat while it’s hot.”
She helped herself to the food but didn’t start eating right away. Instead, she looked across at him. “This place is really so different from anything I’ve ever seen in person before. It’s sort of scary, but kind of fascinating, too.”
“It has a way of drawing you in,” Seth murmured. It was also the first place he could remember feeling safe. That made such a difference for him as a teenager, taking away the edge of anger he’d had almost constantly while in the system. And along with safety came freedom. He’d embraced that, and his whole life had changed. Now he was back, and he found being anywhere else wasn’t even a consideration for him. He was here, now, and no matter why he’d come back, he loved it.
“I don’t suppose it’s a smart thing to just wander around outside here.”
“I wouldn’t say that. The antelope will run if they see you, and the coyotes are cowards, cleaning up after the others, mostly. They don’t want to meet you any more than you want to meet them.” He motioned to her food. “Please, eat.”
He watched Quinn taste the eggs, then reach for coffee to take a sip. Unexpectedly, she looked up at him and smiled, a soft expression that came out of nowhere. It caught him off guard to realize how pretty she was. He nearly did a double take, but instead reached for his mug and took a drink.
“I think I’ll just stay in the house,” she said.
“That’s a shame.” He put his drink down. “You’ll miss a lot if you do.”
She shrugged. “I won’t be here that long, anyway.”
He was taken aback by that, realizing he’d expected her to take the housekeeping job and be around for a while. Maybe after the accident, all she wanted to do was get out of there. He could understand that. “I could show you some of the ranch before you go.”
“I appreciate the offer,” she said, neither accepting it nor rejecting it, before she reached for a piece of toast. When Quinn finished her meal, she sat back with a sigh. “That was really good. Thank you.”
“I have to admit that you’ve just eaten most of what I can cook.”
That smile came again, nudging at him, and he pushed away the errant reaction as he finished off his coffee. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed breakfast at this table, let alone with a woman whose company, he’d admitted to himself as they ate and spoke, he enjoyed. But if she stayed to work at the ranch, he’d have to push aside any attraction he felt toward her. If she wasn’t staying, it was a dead end. Either way, it was moot point because her husband would probably show up soon, or she’d leave to be with him.
* * *
IT HAD BEEN so easy to eat and talk with Seth that Quinn had almost forgotten why she was here. Thankfully, her thinking was clearer after the meal. With that clarity came the idea of actually staying on as the housekeeper. It was starting to make sense to her. Seth had offered her a few days at the ranch to heal. Maybe it was also a chance to finally succeed with Michael’s Shield. So far, her pitches to tech executives had been rushed by necessity, presented to total strangers and shot down completely. This time, whether she won or lost, she’d know she’d done her best if she could take her time to get to know Seth before she approached him about the cybersecurity software. She’d make sure he was the right man to take it on. Maybe, if she did that first, she’d be able get through the pitch successfully.
Before her husband passed and was still working on the program, she’d had him run through the basics of it so she could understand it better. She’d memorized key information but understanding never came. Instead, she’d learned to quote what he’d told her with the passion she had to see her promise through. Even so, none of the other execs had let her get more than partway into her presentation. By staying to do housekeeping for Seth, she might be able to stretch a short stay into enough time to get to know him and to get her car back. When the VW was fixed, she’d have options about leaving if Seth rejected Michael’s work. She’d have the ability to go to Denver, where the last firm on her list was.
She stood, picked up her dishes and headed to the kitchen. She heard Seth’s chair scrape on the flagstone floor, then he came up beside her by the deep double sinks set into a large granite-topped island that overlooked the great room. “I feel better after eating,” she said as she swept the few scraps into the disposal sink. Quietly, she rinsed all their dishes, then put them in an oversize dishwasher.
“I should’ve taken care of the clean-up,” Seth said. “You aren’t working here yet.”
“Oh, of course I’m not,” she agreed, but was pretty confident all she had to do was say she’d like the position and Seth would hire her. An uneasiness at being manipulative to get to where she wanted to be nudged at her, but she offset that by promising herself she’d do a solid job housekeeping, do everything Seth needed help with. She needed time. Maybe this way, they could both win. “You made the food. I should do my part. If I was working here, who would I be working for, Mr. Caine or you?”
“Me.”
She closed the dishwasher and turned to Seth. “Can I ask how you’re related to Mr. Caine?”
“Sarge—he answers to Sarge.” Seth exhaled as he leaned back against the counter by the six-burner stove and faced her. “To make a long story short, I came here as a teenager in the foster care system. Sarge and his wife, Maggie, took me in, along with two boys, Ben and Jake, around the same time. Society had given up on us. Sarge and Maggie never did. They became the closest the three of us ever got to having parents.”
No wonder he was here. “If you want to interview me for the job, now’s as good a time as any. I mean, I feel okay, and it’s just a cut, not a concussion or anything.”
“If you’re sure you’re up to it, I’ll be in my office for a few hours. Come on in whenever you’re ready.”
She looked around. “Where’s your office?”
“There’s two offices here. One is directly across this room past the pool table. That door.” He pointed toward a single door straight across the room from them. “That’s the ranch office that Sarge used. Libby, my friend who’s redesigning the ranch, uses it now. I had an office set up for me in the east wing, the second door across from your bedroom.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes,” she said, and heade
d back to her room. She didn’t need time to do anything except get her nerves calmed as much as possible. After she’d checked her hair in the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face, being careful not to dampen the bandage, she sat on her bed to just breathe. The view through the back window was stunning with the clear blue morning sky and the rugged land in the distance. It was beautiful country, but her heart was hammering against her ribs.
She exhaled, reached over for her backpack and took a small leather box out of the side pocket that held the photo from the car. She held on to the box and just sat there quietly. It helped her center herself, holding on to it, and reassured her that what she was doing was the right thing. Even if she couldn’t fully understand Michael’s work, and never would, she knew from others who had known him well how brilliant he’d been. Cybersecurity was a top priority for corporations. The attempted hackings were persistent, unbelievably damaging and costly for the victims, but Michael had possibly found a loophole—that’s what she called it—that would trump 98 percent of hacking attempts. She wanted others to know, for Michael to have a legacy that was worthy of his memory.
The box was worn, a carryover from Michael’s college days when it went everywhere with him. It was all she truly had left of him in this world besides the car. The box was something she could hold on to and remember. She exhaled again, then tucked the box under her pillow so it would be there in the night when the loneliness was always worse.
She crossed to the door and stepped out into the hallway, then went to the door across from hers. Before she could knock on it, she heard Seth speaking from behind the barrier. “Owen, I told you I want as little as possible coming at me right now. I’m not available. I’m here for Sarge, period. Handle things the way you want to. I trust you. Just leave me out of it.”
Owen? That had to be the VP who had shown her the door at the corporate tower in Seattle. Whatever was going on, it was either frustrating Seth or making him mad, or maybe it was a combination of both. Either way, it wasn’t good.
When the silence behind the door remained unbroken by the time Quinn had counted to twenty, she finally rapped on the wood. A moment later, the door opened, and Seth was there, smiling at her. Whatever she’d overheard was obviously finished. “Come on in,” he said.
Quinn took a deep breath and stepped into a space that appeared to take up most of the front section of the east wing. With the front and side walls constructed of heavy logs, and the others done in rough plaster, the room’s style was somewhat rustic, but it was also touched with futuristic pieces.
From a long glass-topped desk to the left that held two large flat-screen monitors, to a series of strangely shaped naked bulbs suspended from a curving metal track on the ceiling, it looked sleek and modern. A large closed cabinet seemed oddly quaint with heavily carved doors and aged brass handles. The only homey thing in the space was a framed picture on the wall above one of the monitors. A large man and three teenaged boys wearing matching denim jackets were all smiling into the camera. It looked as if they were by a riding ring of some sort, and she knew one of the boys was a very young Seth.
Seth’s cell phone on the glass desk, chimed and he glanced at Quinn. “Sorry,” he said, as he reached for it and rejected the call. He put the cell facedown by the monitor again and turned to Quinn. A touch of annoyance was in his expression now.
“If you need to take care of something, we can do this later,” she offered right away.
He shook his head. “I’m here. You’re here. Let’s talk.”
She felt better about her decision to wait before making any pitch to him. He clearly didn’t appear to want to listen to anything to do with his business at the moment. “Okay.”
He flashed her that boyish grin and motioned to a stylized chair to her right that looked as if it belonged in some far-off galaxy. It was all sweeping chrome lines that were only softened by dark leather padding to prevent a human body from coming into contact with the hard metal frame. “Why don’t you take the recliner?”
She stared at it and wondered if she’d slip right off if she tried to sit on it. As if he’d read her mind, Seth said, “It won’t bite. Trust me. I use it all the time after workouts, and it’s great for relaxing. It helps the muscles.”
Oddly, Quinn did trust Seth, even though she barely knew him. There was something she sensed in him, a basic kindness and decency, virtues she hadn’t suspected she’d find in a self-made billionaire businessman.
“Here goes nothing,” Quinn said and went closer to the chair.
He stopped her. “Oh, hold on a minute. I should forewarn you about something before you sit down.”
She couldn’t help saying, “I’m not going to be transported to the mother ship, am I?”
He chuckled, a low warm sound. “No, but it will automatically adjust to your weight and height as soon as it senses your body on it. It’s all automatic and incredibly comfortable. Sit on it and put your feet up on the bottom rests, then your head back on the top support. It does all the work.”
“Okay,” Quinn said, then cautiously turned to sit. She swung her feet up and onto the padded lower section. She had barely settled with her head on the backrest when the chair did indeed start to move silently as its components slowly shifted along the length of her body. It finally stilled, and despite the strangeness of the contraption, it gave support where she needed, especially in her neck and shoulders.
“So, how does that feel?” Seth asked as he rolled a computer chair over to sit to her right.
Laying in the strange chair with Seth sitting by her seemed an odd setup, more like a patient meeting with a psychiatrist. But it worked, and she appreciated Seth’s concern for her comfort. “I feel like a relaxed spaceship captain.” She exhaled, nervousness still there despite the comfort of the chair. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“First, there’s something I should’ve asked you before. You never said if you contacted your husband.”
Quinn barely kept from grimacing when the throbbing behind her eyes suddenly flared up. She put her right hand over her left and felt the smoothness of the gold wedding band. “Daniel said I’m fine, so there isn’t any reason to change plans or worry anyone.” She couldn’t make herself tell Seth the truth. She couldn’t say those words that hurt more every time she had to say them. Michael is dead.
CHAPTER FOUR
SETH DIDN’T ASK a follow-up question. Her personal life wasn’t any of his business as long as the doctor had her emergency contact number. “Why don’t you outline your pertinent work experience for me?”
She kept her eyes on him while she spoke, her right hand staying over her left. “I guess the most important part of my work background is that I did housekeeping in some of the bigger luxury hotel complexes in San Diego while I was in college.”
He sat back in the chair and began to swivel slowly from side to side. “Here you’d need to cook basic meals for four people. Regarding cleaning, I just expect this place ordered and dusted. I’ll get someone in to do the upkeep on the log walls, so don’t worry about that. No need to do any cleaning in here or next door in my workout area. Any questions?”
“Does Sarge have a disability or is he just in temporary care with Julia?”
Seth stilled his chair. “Julia came home with Sarge as his caregiver when he was released from rehab after breaking his leg last year. But he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s before he fell, and Julia’s staying to take care of that as it progresses.” He actually surprised himself at how calmly he’d just described such a monumental fracture of his world.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know that has to be hard.”
He brushed that aside. “Was that your question?”
“Not completely. I wanted to know if he has any dietary restrictions. I can cook no salt, low salt, nonfat, low fat, vegetarian, even vegan if it’s needed.”
The list
that came so readily from her took him aback. “No, Sarge is basically a meat-and-potatoes man. But check with Julia, just in case.” He sat forward again. “Did you do dietary work before?”
Quinn hesitated and Seth saw her swallow before she said, “Not as a job, but I was the sole caregiver for my husband when he was sick.” Seth felt blindsided, never expecting her to say that. She stared down at her hands in her lap. “He…had special dietary needs because of his treatments. I learned a lot of specific ways to make food.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I hope he’s doing better?”
She seemed to be bracing herself before she said, “Michael passed away seventeen months ago.”
The room was dead silent, so devoid of sound that he thought he could hear his own heartbeat.
“I’m so sorry,” he said in a low voice. He didn’t know what else to say. He tried to gather his thoughts, and all he could think of was Quinn saying she was twenty-seven years old. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five when she was widowed. The photo he’d retrieved from the car for her, which he’d glanced at before giving it to her, was there vividly in his mind. Two people who looked so happy. Then it was gone.
He sat a bit straighter. Quinn was here alone, really alone, and he wanted to offer her something right then that he’d only considered in passing earlier. Now it seemed a very good idea. “Um, well, you know, since you don’t have a place in town and you don’t have a car, how would you feel about making this a live-in position for a while?” Seth saw her hesitate, and he gave her a second choice before she could answer. “Or I can get a rental car for you, and I’m sure Gabby could find you a room at her B&B when her repairs are done. It’s up to you.”
She finally looked at him. He couldn’t read her expression beyond the shadow of sadness in those blue eyes. “I think staying here until my car is fixed would be a good idea.”
He was relieved she wasn’t going to leave right away. “Okay,” he said.
Harlequin Heartwarming March 21 Box Set Page 72