His hip sent out a sympathetic twinge. “A few times.”
Obviously having been listening in on the conversation Esther Mae stuck her head through the open window of the concession stand. “Is that how they got Rose into the courthouse when she testified?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Oh, I can only imagine how terrifying that had to be.”
“It’s not for the faint of heart.”
“And our Rose certainly isn’t that,” Norma Sue added. And as if their words had summoned her, Rose drove over the cattle guard and headed straight for them.
Max was the first out. “Sorry we’re a little late. The car had a flat!”
Rose looked flustered. “Max helped me fix it, though. So he’s my hero.” She popped the trunk and Zane went to help her. What was it with this county and flats?
“You did good, son,” he said. “I’ll check out your car before you leave here.”
Rose looked up at him. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I do and I will,” he said. “I’ll also make sure the flat tire is fixed so you’ll have a decent spare.”
“No, thank you,” she said stubbornly.
“Aren’t you going to be making deliveries with your jelly all across the county next weekend?” That’s what Max had told him.
“Yes, but I’m capable of keeping my car in good repair. And teaching Max.”
“The flat came from a nail,” Max said, jogging to stand beside them. “I set the tire beside the porch so you can come out and get me and we can take it to Prudy’s Garage and get it fixed.”
“I’ll do that. And while we’re at it we can go over a few other things about car maintenance.”
“Sure thing, Dad. Hey, I gotta run, I’m supposed to get the programs from the office and some other stuff before the people start arriving.”
“Look,” Rose snapped the minute Max was out of earshot. “I can take care of my own car. I don’t need you taking charge. I can deal with you wanting to get to know Max, but that’s it. Do I make myself clear?”
She pushed her hair back from her face and glared up at him, her cobalt eyes flashing in the sunshine. “Perfectly clear,” he said. “I was just trying to help.”
“Well, don’t.”
Puzzled, Zane watched her wrestle a large box of jelly into her arms. His first inclination was to take it from her, but given her current mood she might haul off and clobber him for it. “You look tired,” he said instead. Maybe that was it. He’d taken up so much of her time the night before she’d been up extra late working and now she was paying for it…and taking it out on him.
“Gee, thanks,” she snapped, and marched past him.
Zane nudged his hat off his forehead and watched her cross the grass toward the concession trailer before he grabbed the other box of jelly and followed her.
“Hi, girls,” she said, sliding her box onto the wide counter that spread down the length of the concession trailer. “Better late than never.” She gave him a scathing glance as he walked up beside her and set his box in front of Adela.
She smiled at him and plucked a jar from his box. “Oh, this does look wonderful. The color is perfect.”
The light caught the color and it glistened translucent and ruby red. Zane didn’t know much about jelly except that he liked it on toast and this looked delicious.
“Oh, and look,” Esther Mae cooed, peering into the box. “The jar skirts are so cute. I love the tiny cactus print.”
“Thanks,” Rose said. “I think they’re cute, too.”
Zane was officially in woman territory. “I’m assuming jar skirts are the material on the lid,” he said.
Esther giggled. “Well, sure. Don’t this look like Norma Sue in a skirt? Short and round.”
“Watch it, now,” Norma Sue barked, stuffing her fists on her hefty hips. “Looks more like you if you ask me.”
Zane grinned. “I get the idea. Only women would put skirts on jars.” All the ladies laughed except Rose. They were standing close enough for him to smell her sweet scent and yet it felt like they were oceans apart.
Despite every reason not to, he wanted to pull her into his arms. She looked up at him and took his breath away. He took a hard step back. He tore his gaze away from her and found Norma Sue grinning at him. Esther Mae and Adela were smiling, too.
Rose began unloading jelly from the box. Each jar made a resounding thunk as she slapped it onto the counter. Her skin had a tinge of pink.
“So tell us, Rose,” Esther Mae said. Excitement over what he knew they’d all seen in his eyes rang in her voice. “Was it thrilling when Zane was protecting you, or were you terrified? I’d have been terrified.”
“Not me,” Norma Sue said. “Look at this man.” She scanned him with an approving look. “A strapping strong man willing to give his life to protect me—nope, I would have surrendered to his care and not worried at all.”
Zane fought off the old guilt her words yanked into the moment.
Adela was watching him carefully. He looked away only to meet Rose’s gaze. She knew exactly how incorrect that assessment of his abilities had been when it came to her safety.
“I wasn’t scared,” she said without hesitation, her eyes holding his. “Zane…is very good at his job.”
Her words, forced as they sounded, were like a dunk in ice water. “I’ve got to get to work,” he said, holding back his denial. He tipped his hat and headed toward the open field. She’d lied to the ladies. He knew it and she knew it and it twisted his gut knowing that she’d told those ladies an untruth to protect his reputation. She’d almost been shot because he’d not done his job. But the only way to tell that was to call her a liar and he wasn’t going there…at least not in public.
Rose had worked most of the night after Zane left her house. It was either that or waste the night tossing and turning. Having Zane in her house, sitting beside her on the couch looking at photos was hard enough on her. Realizing that Max was trying to push them together had been torment.
There was absolutely no way Zane had missed the way Max had orchestrated their positions on the couch. Nor could he have missed the hopeful looks their son had given them several times through the evening.
Arriving here and finding Zane—looking far too handsome for anyone’s good—was the last thing she needed. Yes, she was irritable. Who wouldn’t be?
She’d bit her lip and pulled in her emotions as she watched Zane storm across the pasture. He had a limp. The realization caused an unwanted pain in her heart. The same thing happened when Max got a scrape or a bump. It wasn’t the limp, but how he got it.
Instantly her mind flew and she wondered if it was from throwing himself in front of someone, protecting them with his own life. Because she knew without doubt that he’d done it more than a few times during his career. That he would do it without hesitation when it came to protecting whomever he was assigned to.
She remembered his expression moments after her assassination attempt. They were in the garden outside the safe house. He had forbidden her to go out there, said it wasn’t safe. But she’d been inside that house for too long and on that day she’d slipped outside just for a moment. When he came out to get her he’d been angry, but she’d kissed him, teasing him for being a worrywart. He was looking at her, smiling when the bullets started.
Rapid fire. They sounded more like taps hitting the window behind her and she didn’t realize what she was hearing. But Zane did, throwing her down on the ground beneath him, covering her then rolling her behind a table that he’d flipped on its side somehow. She still couldn’t fathom everything that happened in those mere seconds before he practically hauled her inside the house.
Afterward he was barking orders over the phone, and within moments he had her crouching in the floor-board of the SUV as he expertly raced them out of the neighborhood.
He hadn’t talked to her the entire time they were on the road. But she could see in his eyes that he was tortured over t
he whole thing. He was gone the next morning. Until he’d shown up here she hadn’t seen him or heard from him again.
Somehow, because of her anger, all these years she’d forgotten how heroic he’d been. How troubled he’d been over what he’d surely viewed as failure on his part.
Forgotten that he would have died for her that day.
She’d forgotten it all the next morning when he’d walked away. All she could think in that moment besides the fact that she was terrified and abandoned was that she’d caused him too much trouble disobeying his orders and he was now done with her.
Thinking about it now, she couldn’t move.
“You could fry bacon on the look in his eyes when he’s watching you,” Esther Mae said.
Rose snapped to attention, shook her head. “He just naturally has an intense look in his eyes. Comes from intimidating all those criminals in his job.”
“Shame on you, Rose Vincent.” Norma Sue chuckled. “Your eyes are a whole lot younger than ours and you know good and well that the two of you have something going on between you. Everybody sees it.”
“There isn’t anything between us.” Anymore. There wasn’t and wouldn’t be now. Other than Max.
Her tightly wound emotions unraveled as they all studied her, their expressions rapt with intention. The intent to do matchmaking. She knew it well. “Don’t,” she snapped, looking sternly at each one of them. “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. I know what’s best for me and what you three are thinking is not it. I’m telling you, it isn’t. You have no clue what you’re doing here.”
“You think too much,” Norma Sue said.
“That’s right,” Esther Mae harrumphed. “Just because you have a past together where you, well…” She blushed slightly. “Okay, where you got things out of God’s order. Doesn’t mean things can’t be put back in order.”
Rose went back to frantically pulling jelly jars out of the box.
“What about Max?”
Adela’s soft words drew Rose to look up. “He’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
No. “He and Zane are building a lovely relationship,” she said, trying hard not to give away the terror she was feeling at the as yet unspoken threat. She yanked the empty box from the shelf and stepped away from the concession trailer. Cars were starting to stream across the cattle guard, lining up in the pasture waiting for Zane to direct them to the right parking spot. He took her breath away—it was true, no way around it. Everything about the man’s physical appearance appealed to her. The way he moved, the way he looked, the way that he just stood there and people took notice. As she stared at him he looked across the distance. The ambient temperature rose by leaps in a flash of those golden eyes. She took a deep breath and turned away.
“Honey, that man is in love with you,” Norma Sue said, and her friends echoed her.
Rose groaned. “Stop it. I need to move my car,” she said. “When I come back, no more talk about this. Please. No. Don’t look like that. I’m serious. Listen, I know you three have the best of intentions, but you have to promise me you’ll back off. Max already stands the chance of getting hurt because he wants so much for me and Zane to get together. Your encouragement could make things worse. Do you understand?”
The ladies looked at each other and their rapt expressions faded.
“Promise me you won’t encourage my son in this,” Rose repeated. She felt a small bit of relief when they nodded. “Okay, good,” she said, and then she hurried to her car, where she collapsed in the front seat. Pulling the door closed, she welcomed the silent interior…but even the silence didn’t calm the turmoil inside her. Despite what everyone thought, Zane was not in love with her…he was in love with their son.
Chapter Twelve
Rose felt hot and tired as she tromped through the field with four buckets of fruit on Monday. She was working overtime because she had prickly pears ripening too fast to pick. And Max, who had planned to help her today, had awakened that morning and told her that Norma Sue had called to get his help with some baby calves. His desertion was surprising, but she knew that he was good for his promise to make it up to her.
She’d just reached Max’s torching table, as he liked to call it, when Zane drove up the lane. If she’d assumed her day couldn’t get any worse she’d been wrong.
The day before at church, he’d worn a tan-colored sports coat with his jeans, and the red shirt beneath the tan jacket had set his own burnished skin off to perfection. She couldn’t help but notice. She and every other single woman in Mule Hollow would be blind if that were the case.
Max had opted to sit with Zane during the service. He and Gil sometimes sat together in the front pew, so it shouldn’t have bothered her so much that he chose to sit with his dad versus her. But it seemed everything about Zane in their lives was bothering her.
That had been yesterday. Today he was dressed casually in a soft chambray long-sleeved shirt that had been washed so much it was as pale as a water-color sky and the formfitting jeans he wore were almost as pale. And she had absolutely no business paying so much attention to his appearance.
The man had never confirmed he was going to try to get custody of Max. That was always on her mind…She shouldn’t have been ugly to him on Saturday. She should have been on her best behavior when he was around, but it was impossible. She felt like a firecracker ready to explode when he was near. If he was going to try to take Max then he would have a fight on his hands.
“You look like you could use a hand,” he said as he removed his aviator shades, revealing eyes that glinted warmly in the sunlight.
Get a life, Rose!
“No, I’m fine.” She wasn’t.
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “I can see that. You have ten buckets of fruit there. You look exhausted.”
“What exactly is it with you always telling me I look exhausted. I’m not exhausted. And I said I was fine, so I’m fine.”
He raised a brow and took a pair of gloves from his back pocket. “Grumpy, too.”
“Wait just a minute—what are you doing?”
He slipped one glove on. “I’m helping you. I should have been here earlier but I ended up having to go into the office for Brady because Dottie had a doctor’s appointment.”
“Yes, she called and told me she had had a few pains and that Brady had insisted on taking her in. Wait. What do you mean you would have been here sooner?”
“Max asked me to come help you. He said you could really use a hand. That he had something else he had to get done and felt guilty for leaving you stranded. He said that you were going to be ‘working like a dog.’ Those were his exact words. How could I refuse?”
Ohhh, that boy! She forced a smile, feeling the strain as she held in a scream of frustration. “I’m perfectly fine. If I’d needed help I would have asked someone.”
He cocked a brow and tugged on the other glove. “Yup. Max said you would deny to your dying breath that you needed the help.”
“Where does he come up with this stuff?” she grumbled. “We have been set up and I, for one, don’t intend to fall for this. I am perfectly capable of handling my business and you know it. So please, go back to your day off and do whatever it was that you planned to do before your son pulled a fast one.”
“I knew exactly what he was up to.” His gaze bored into hers with an intensity that sent shivers coursing through her.
“Why are you leading him on?” She plopped a hand to her hip, pinching her side to remind herself to hold firm. “You,” she started, and sucked in a breath as the word broke off on the end. “You cannot encourage this behavior. You know as well as I do that he’s trying to push us together. It’s been bothering me ever since he invited you to eat with us last week.”
“You noticed that, too. I was wondering if that’s what’s been upsetting you.” He took a step closer, bringing him so near she had to tilt her chin up to look at him.
“Y-yes, that was it,” she said. He was so close the wonderful w
oodsy scent of his aftershave enveloped her. She wanted to run for cover but refused to cede ground.
“Is that all?” he asked as his gaze shifted to her lips.
Standing her ground might have been a very foolish decision…but like a moth to flame her gaze fluttered to his lips.
Oh, no, you don’t!
She spun away and snapped her goggles down over her eyes and snatched the small gas torch. She fumbled to get the flame started. “Go away, Zane.” The words came out surprisingly strong considering.
He took the torch from her and instantly had the flame leaping to life. “Hand me a piece of fruit.”
She glared at him, snatched up a pear and dropped it into his gloved hand. “Suit yourself. Now, if you will excuse me, I have more tuna to pick.”
His chuckle followed her into the barn, where she retrieved her last four buckets. If he wanted to work, then work he would, she thought as she marched from the barn.
The tuna in his hand was burned to a crisp. “Don’t burn all my profit up while you’re helping me,” she snapped. “Oh, and if you’re going to insist on this charade, put on a pair of goggles.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” he teased as he reached for Max’s goggles.
“Good.” She bobbed her head. “I’ll let you work and will finish up out there.”
A slow smile bloomed across his face. “You do that. I’m not going anywhere.”
His words caused her heart to stall. “Okay, then,” she said, turning her back to him and that smile and trying hard to blot out the way those four little words made her feel.
“And, Rose,” he said, drawing her to look over her shoulder at him. “If you need me, just call.”
“I won’t,” she said firmly, and marched out into her cactus patch more than determined that she would not need him.
Not ever again.
What was he doing? Zane wondered again as he watched Rose sashay madly into the pasture and disappear behind a massive stand of cactus. Coming out here had been a bad idea. But he hadn’t been able to convince himself not to come.
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