Feeling sick, she drove up the long dusty driveway to the front of the ranch house. A wooden porch surrounded the dwelling with wide windows on both sides of the front door. She parked her car, grabbed her handbag and got out. Her legs trembled, whether from the long drive or her nerves she wasn’t quite sure. She wiped her sweaty palms on her trouser legs and walked with purpose to the front door, her boots thumping up the five steps to reach it.
She knocked and waited, running her hands over her long brown hair that hung in a ponytail down her back, trying to smooth away any stray hairs. A young woman came to the door, her bright blue eyes full of curiosity. “Can I help you?” she asked, wiping her hands on a dish cloth.
“Hi, I’m Laura Hamilton. I believe Mr Jake Carter is expecting me?” she smiled, sticking out her hand in greeting, while trying to subdue her shaking.
The woman ignored her hand, her face going completely white. She swayed slightly on her feet. Forgetting her own nerves for once, Laura grabbed the woman’s arm in concern, scared she was going to faint. “Are you okay?” she asked with a worried frown.
“You weren’t due until tomorrow!” the woman cried in distress.
“I’m very sorry to cause you any trouble. My plane time was changed. I did email Mr Carter. Did he not tell you?” she asked hesitantly. The woman seemed so upset, Laura began to feel dreadful. “I can stay in an inn or something, if my arrival is inconvenient. I don’t wish to put anyone out.”
The woman gathered herself together and shook her head. “No, I couldn’t let you do that. Please come in.” She stepped back and Laura walked into a beautiful open plan living room, with wooden floors, a huge stone fireplace and soft comfy chairs. The whole feeling was welcoming. Laura fell in love with it instantly.
She was about to comment on the beauty of the home when she heard the sound of a door banging somewhere in the back of the house.
“Whose car is that outside, Kerry?” came a deep male voice. “I didn’t think we were expecting new guests till the weekend.”
The sound of heavy footfalls approached before a large man came into view. Laura sucked in a breath at the shock of awareness she felt racing through her body at his presence. She locked her knees and hoped she wouldn’t disgrace herself by slumping to the floor like a rag doll. The man was stunningly good looking! He stood well over six feet, his body thick with long lean muscles, obviously from long hours working outside on the ranch. His deep blue eyes were very much like the woman who opened the door, whom Laura had heard him call Kerry. Oh, God, she thought, this must be Jake and the woman was his sister, Kerry that he’d told her about. Suddenly she felt very inadequate.
Laura was surprised to see that the left side of his face was scared. It ran from his left temple, right down his cheek to his well defined lips. Thankfully, his eye had been left intact. He’d not mentioned anything to her about any kind of disfigurement. Maybe he’d been worried the knowledge would put her off meeting him. The thought warmed her heart. She would show him that it didn’t matter to her at all. Even with the scar, he was an incredibly handsome man. It gave him character, if anything and made her feel rather like a little sparrow next to a powerful hawk.
He stopped short when he saw her standing there, his face frozen in what she assumed was shock. Maybe he hadn’t seen her email Determined not to come across as a shy wall flower, even if she was one, she stepped forward. “Hi Jake? I’m Laura. I’m sorry I am a day early. I hope it’s not too inconvenient. I did email you, but it looks like you didn’t get it.” She held her hand out to him, looking him directly in the eyes and smiling brightly. “Anyway, it’s wonderful to finally meet you! Your home is even lovelier than you said. You must just love living here.” She forced herself to stop talking before she sounded even more stupid than she already did. Nerves always did make an idiot out of her.
He stared at her hand, then at her face. “Who the hell are you?” he snapped. “And why are you talking to me like we’re best friends? Guests don’t book in here, they book in at the customer care cabin over by the guest cabins. Kerry can direct you. In future, I’ll thank you not to intrude on our family home again. We always make it clear that main house is off limits to guests. We do need a private life you know!”
Her smile faltered. “But I’m Laura Hamilton,” she stammered out, puzzled. She could understand he thought she was arriving the next day, but she’d already explained she was early. What was wrong with him? He’d seemed so nice in his emails. “You told me to come straight to the main house. I’m supposed to be staying here in your home with you for three weeks! You said you were looking forward to it” She tried not to get upset, but could feel herself on the verge of tears. She was tired, the drive and jet lag were beginning to creep up on her and now Jake Carter was acting like he’d never heard of her. It was all too much!
“I beg your pardon? What the hell are you talking about?” he snarled at her, losing his patience. Without even waiting for an answer, he turned to his sister. “Who the hell is this lunatic and why did you let her in the house instead of directing her to the guest customer service cabin? Although, on second thought, I’m not sure we want this crazy woman staying on the premises. Perhaps it’s best to refund her and send her home. She probably escaped from some nut house anyway!”
“How dare you!” Laura huffed, angry now. If he’d changed his mind upon seeing her, he could at least have the good grace to just admit it instead of making out he had no idea who she was and that SHE was crazy. “You asked me here for three weeks. I have the emails on my phone to prove it.” She began fumbling in her bag for her phone. “I would never have come had I known what a rude, grumpy man you are, instead of the sweet guy you pretended to be! Really, you could just say you’ve changed your mind, instead of this ridiculous charade. Honestly, why join a dating agency if you weren’t happy to meet someone. It’s not my fault that agency won’t work with photos. You must have known it was a risk, being sight unseen!”
Jake held his hand up to stop her tirade, refusing to take the phone she was trying to thrust in his face. “Hold up there. You have the wrong place. I have not, nor would I ever join a dating agency. You must have driven to the wrong address.” He shook his head in relief.
“But, this is the Twisted Tree Ranch and you are Jake Carter, are you not?” Laura asked, wondering why he was insisting on this pretence of not knowing her. A strangled sound from behind her drew her attention.
Laura turned to look at Kerry, who was still standing frozen by the front door. Her face held a look of horror and guilt, as she looked from Jake to Laura. A sinking feeling came over Laura. Something was seriously wrong with this picture.
“I am so sorry,” Kerry whispered looking back and forth between Jake and Laura. She twisted the dishcloth in her hands so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Laura closed her eyes as the truth began to slowly dawn on her. It would seem that Jake Carter didn’t know anything about her after all.
“What are you apologising for? What the hell is going on?” Jake thundered as he stepped closer to his sister.
Kerry took a deep breath. “I was going to tell you at dinner,” she continued. “Try and break it to you gently.”
His eyes glinted dangerously. “What are you talking about? Break what to me gently?”
Kerry swallowed several times. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Jake’s expression turned darker and darker the longer the silence went on. He advanced on her, his hands curling into fists.
“What. Have. You. Done!” he gritted out slowly.
Laura just wanted to disappear. If there was ever a moment she wished the ground could open up and swallow her, this was it. Humiliation swept up her cheeks, turning them a fiery red. Kerry looked ready to bolt. “Laura is at the right address. I signed you up with a dating agency.” She said the words so fast, Jake shook his head as if to clear his hearing.
“You did WHAT!”
“Jake, please, you have to understand. I was only t
hinking of you!” Kerry rushed to explain. “You haven’t been the same since you know what and I thought it was about time you got your life back. I want my old brother back. The one that could laugh and enjoy himself. I miss that side of you.” She broke off as her brothers face went from slack with shock to out and out murder.
“Are you out of your mind?” he roared. “How could you do this to me? My life is none of your business!” He ran his hand through his dark hair, making it stick up in all directions which just added to his furious look. He looked at Laura from head to toe, as if seeing her for the first time. She flinched at his rude perusal. He waved his hand up and down to indicate her person. He laughed rudely. “This is what you come up with to turn me into the perfect brother? This plain little English prim and proper lady with a Pollyanna complex? This is the person that’s supposed to put me right?”
Both women gasped at his harsh comments. Laura had never been so humiliated in her life. She knew she was no oil painting, but had never had anyone rude enough to tell her that to her face. She blinked her eyes furiously, determined this angry man’s words would not reduce her to tears.
He stalked toward Kerry, anger in every stride he took, until he stood toe to toe with her. He glared down into her upturned face. “I do not need you sticking your nose in my life, sister,” he spat poking his finger at her face. “You get that woman on the next plane home, do you hear me? And don’t you ever, EVER interfere like this ever again.” He didn’t even wait for a reply before he stormed out of the house, banging the door behind him.
Kerry closed her eyes and took a deep breath. His reaction had been worse that she’d feared. What had she been thinking? Dan’s face popped into her mind’s eye. She knew exactly what she’d been thinking and it hadn’t all been about her brother. She looked at Laura still standing frozen to the spot, her face was stricken and humiliated though she was trying hard to hide it. Kerry felt even worse. She’d dragged a poor innocent woman across the globe to be shouted at and ridiculed.
“I am so sorry,” she said again. “I shouldn’t have lied to you. I’ve made a terrible mess of things. I’m so, so sorry.” She felt the tears sliding down her face, but didn’t seem to have the energy to stop them.
Laura dragged her eyes to Kerry’s stricken face. Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to add to the young woman’s suffering. She walked over and gently patted her heaving shoulders. “You must have had a very good reason for doing what you did,” she said quietly. She couldn’t believe it was with any malicious intent that Kerry had lied to bring her here.
Kerry sniffed. “I thought so at the time, but really I think I was being very, very selfish.” Laura pulled out a clean tissue from her jacket pocket and handed it to Kerry, who took it gratefully. “He wasn’t always like this you know. He used to be so happy and sweet and kind. You would have liked him. Things happened and he changed. I really did want to do something to help him find his way back from this nightmare he lives in, but it wasn’t the only reason.” She clammed up, not really wanting to tell someone she didn’t know about Dan. It was just too personal.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain,” Laura said, her heart going out to Kerry, seeing her obvious misery. Thinking back on what had just happened, she could understand Jake’s anger, but it was no excuse for the very personal and hurtful things he’d said to her. He had to be a man in the deepest of pain, for only people hurting so badly would hit out at someone they didn’t even know. She sighed. Something really bad was going on in this wonderful warm house. It wasn’t really her business and she would be leaving soon anyway, but her soft heart went out to the troubled siblings all the same.
”Is there somewhere I can rent a room nearby?” she asked Kerry. “I just can’t face driving too far today. It’s been a long journey as it is and I’m starting to feel it.”
“You can stay here,” Kerry offered.
Laura shook her head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, under the circumstances.”
“Please, I’ve put you to so much trouble. The least I can do is offer you a room. This is my home too, so if Jake doesn’t like it, he knows what he can do!” Kerry’s eyes gleamed with determination and anger. “I think it’s the least he owes you too. It was me that cooked up this scheme, not you. You didn’t deserve the way he spoke to you.”
Laura could see that Kerry wouldn’t be swayed from her decision. Part of her was grateful not to have to find somewhere else to stay when she was already feeling so tired and another part of her kind of wished she didn’t have to see Jake Carter again.
She smiled gratefully at Kerry. “Well, if you’re sure, I’ll get my things out of the car.”
*****
Jake slammed out of the house and into the nearest stable. He pushed a wheel barrow to the entrance of the first stall, setting it down with a satisfying thump. He grabbed the pitch fork hanging on the nearby wall and started attacking the dirty hay, throwing large forkfuls into the wheel barrow. He needed good hard graft to work off his temper.
How could Kerry betray him like this? He’d thought she of all people, understood how he felt. She’d been there through his whole awful ordeal. She knew what it had cost him and yet here she was trying to fix him up with someone, like he wasn’t broken. How could she not see how she was cruelly highlighting to him everything he’d lost? All his hopes and dreams, the whole rosy future he’d thought he’d have. All of it had been swept away by the betrayal of two people he’d trusted and believed loved him. The memories pushed at his mind and heart, driving him to work harder and harder in an effort to shove them away.
“What bug crawled up your butt, boy?” came a gruff voice from behind him. Jake grunted and refused to answer. He was not in the mood to speak to anyone. He should have known Bill Handley wouldn’t be ignored. The gruff older man knew him far too well to be intimidated by Jake’s black scowl.
“Come on, spit it out. No use holding it all in,” he pushed.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Bill,” Jake growled, wiping the sweat from his forehead and continuing to attack the hay in the stall with furious stabs of his pitch fork.
“Well the way I see it you have two choices,” Bill drawled. “You can tell me what’s wrong, by far your easiest choice or I can follow you round for hours and sing,” Bill threatened with a grin, for everyone knew that Bill sang at the top of his voice, horrendously off key and only ever knew a couple of lines of a song, which he repeated over and over for added pain.
Jake growled. He really didn’t want to discuss what had happened in the house, but he knew Bill was as stubborn as an old goat and really would drive him mad with his singing if he didn’t comply. He wouldn’t leave Jake alone until he got the whole sorry story and he wasn’t the sort of person Jake could intimidate away.
Sighing, he paused in his work and considered how to start to explain what Kerry had done. The whole thing was completely humiliating! If he hadn’t walked out when he did, he may well have strangled her for this.
“You may as well spit it out, ‘cause I’m not going nowhere till you do,” Bill assured him.
“It’s Kerry!” Jake choked out.
“What’s she done now?” Bill asked, raising his bushy grey eyebrows.
Jake swallowed hard several times. “She joined a dating agency on my behalf,” he gritted out.
Bill stared at him in surprised shock for several seconds before throwing his head back and laughing till he cried.
“I’m so happy to amuse you, old man,” Jake snapped.
“Come on, boy, that’s funny! Best laugh I’ve had in years!” Bill said wiping the tears from his cheeks. “What kind of profile could she have put down for you? Grumpy, mean spirited horse rancher seeks someone special to sweeten him up? Has she lined you up with multiple dates?” He bent over, gasping for breath.
“You don’t get it. It’s worse than that. There is an English woman in the house, right now, who thought she was coming to meet me for rom
ance.” Jake felt a twinge of guilt. He’d been incredibly rude to the woman. After all, it hadn’t been her fault Kerry had done what she’d done. She was as much of a victim of Kerry’s scheming as he was. He remembered the shocked look on her face. She’d obviously had no idea he didn’t know about her coming. He’d just been so damn mad that he’d been put in such a position, he’d let his mouth run away with him and taken it out on her too.
“You mean they sent someone to stay here?” Bill whistled, finally sobering up. “For how long?”
“Three weeks I think, but it doesn’t matter,” Jake insisted, pushing the guilt aside. “She’s not staying anyway. I told Kerry to send her home.”
Bill’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t just send that poor woman packing,” he exclaimed.
“Why the hell not?” Jake didn’t like the look on Bill’s face. The man had acted like a father to him and Kerry ever since their father had died when they were still quite young. He had stepped back from that role as they reached adulthood, but when he felt it was necessary, he would still sometimes pull that authority figure from his back pocket. Now looked like it was one of those times.
Because that poor girl has travelled a long way, thanks to your sister, based on a lie. The least we can do is see to her welfare. You can’t just order her to leave, Jake. I taught you better than that.” Bill’s grey eyes had turned to chips of steel.
“I can’t have her here, Bill. I’ll pay her damn airfare back to England, but she’s not staying here.”
Bills eyes narrowed onto Jakes face. He bit his lip in contemplation. Jake looked away. He hated the feeling that Bill could see right through him. “What’s with you, boy? Why are you so insistent on getting rid of this girl?” he mused. Then his brow cleared. “Ahhhhh,” he grinned. “She must be something special to get you all rattled this way.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Jake denied.
“No, don’t bother trying to deny it. You wouldn’t be itching to send this girl packing if she didn’t bother you in some way,” Bill grinned. “Maybe Kerry did a smart thing after all.”
Wild Fire (The Fairy Tale Match Series) Page 2