Designs on the Cowboy

by Roxann Delaney

  “Why, Dylan Walker, I haven’t see you around for a—”

  “Yes, what a surprise,” Glory said, effectively cutting off the chitchat she suspected her grandmother would launch into without any encouragement. After that would come the invitation to Sunday dinner, and she certainly didn’t want to go there. “Why don’t we step into the office?”

  But Louise didn’t seem to hear. “Dylan, are you thinking of letting Glory work her magic on that wonderful old house of yours?”

  Glory quickly spoke before he had a chance to answer her grandmother. “If you’ll just come with me, Dylan...”

  He looked from one woman to the other, his attention finally settling on Glory. “I just have a couple of questions.”

  “I really think we’ll be more comfortable in my office,” she tried again. After a brief hesitation, he followed her. “You’ll have to excuse everything. We haven’t had a chance to do much with the building. In fact, we aren’t officially open yet.”

  He removed his hat, revealing his dark hair, and continued to stand. “Nice desk.”

  It took a moment for her to realize what he’d said. “It was my grandfather’s.”

  “I thought so.” He turned and pointed to the door. “That old wood burner out there, too?”

  “Why, yes.” She knew she shouldn’t be surprised that he remembered one or the other. Her grandfather’s leather shop had been famous for miles in every direction. The workshop, where he’d done the leather work, still stood behind the building. It had been her favorite place to visit when she could escape from the pressures at home, but Gramps had been gone for many years, and she’d barely been able to step inside his workshop since he’d died.

  “It’s nice of you to remember, Dylan. He had to give up the leather shop when the palsy got too bad to work.”

  Dylan placed his hat on the desk. “Erin’s first saddle was one he’d made. I still remember how perfect the tooling was on it.”

  “Gram still has many of the things he made.” And so had she, but she’d sold the last of them—her saddle—to Dylan’s sister to get the money needed to pay the back taxes on the building so her grandmother wouldn’t lose it.

  Pushing the old memories deeper into her mind, she took a seat behind the desk and folded her hands on top of it. “What can I do for you, Dylan?”

  “Like I said, I have a couple of questions.”

  Determined to be pleasant, she smiled and dipped her head in a nod. “Of course.”

  He continued to look at her, long and hard, making her skin prickle. “What experience do you have to complete this job my sister hired you for?”

  It was her turn to stare. “I have a degree in art, if that’s what you mean.”

  It was clear by his frown that he hadn’t expected that kind of answer, but it didn’t stop him. “Did my sister give you any instructions as to what to do if I refused to let you do any work on my house?”

  Now she was in familiar territory. “As a matter of fact, she did warn me that you might not be receptive to having me there. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter if you’re there or not or whether you even want me there. I’ve been hired to do a job, and I intend to do it.”

  He was silent for a moment, as if thinking about what she’d said. “When do you plan to start?”

  Now they were getting somewhere. “As soon as possible.” His frown deepened, but she continued. “There won’t be any real work at first. I’ll need to take a look at the house and all the rooms, and take measurements of them. If you have specific ideas—”

  “I don’t. This wasn’t my idea.”

  There was nothing she could say that would change things, so she didn’t reply.

  “How long will that take?” he asked.

  She tried to quickly calculate the time and came up with a figure. “An hour, maybe an hour and a half, for the walk-through. Ballpark, of course. I’ll have a better idea of how long the real work will take after that, but I suspect it will take at least a month, probably two.”

  He nodded, and she hoped the squint of his eyes and twist of his mouth was an indication that he was giving it all some thought. But there was no way of telling. She didn’t know him well enough.

  “Then you don’t need me around for anything, right?”

  The air in the room seemed much stuffier than when they’d first walked into the office, and she wished there had been a window to open. She’d also noticed that her heartbeat had kicked up a notch, the moment he’d stepped inside the shop, and it hadn’t let up yet.

  “If you don’t want to be involved in the decisions, I can’t force you to.” She wasn’t crazy about the idea of redecorating a house when the person who lived in it didn’t have some kind of input, but it appeared that was the way it was going to be. She’d just have to hope that when she finished the job, he wouldn’t hate it.

  “Fair enough.”

  “So I have your permission to start?”

  “Let’s say I won’t keep you from doing the job my sister hired you to do. How’s that?”

  It wasn’t great, but it would do. “That’s all I need. I’ll start tomorrow morning.”

  She pushed away from the desk and stood. He followed suit, and she realized that to seal this business agreement—or the possibility of it, anyway—he would expect to shake on it. With a temerity she didn’t feel, she stuck out her hand. She could have sworn that she saw one of his heavy, dark eyebrows lift just the slightest over his gorgeous green eyes, but he didn’t hesitate when he took her hand in his.

  They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, the warmth of his grasp making her slightly dizzy. She was certain it wasn’t more than a second before he moved, yet didn’t release her hand.

  With his other hand, he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled something from it. He placed it on the desk, and she recognized her business card. “Interesting,” he said.

  Completely lost in his green eyes, all she could say was a nearly incoherent “What?”

  “The card,” he answered. “The Glory Be part.”

  Her mind was working in slow motion. “Oh. Yes. Well, it was...catchy.”

  Finally, he released her hand, picked up the card and returned it to his pocket. “Just in case.”

  “Y-yes. Just in case.”

  She watched as he replaced his hat, touched the brim of it with his index finger and turned to open the door and walk out of the office.

  She was thankful her chair was available when her knees gave way.

  * * *

  DYLAN DIDN’T INTEND to notice the time as he parked the utility tractor next to his brother’s barn. But when he did, his first thought was to wonder if Glory had started what she’d called her walk-through.

  He wasn’t completely convinced that he should have given her the okay to start working, but he really hadn’t been given a choice. Erin had made sure of that. Did he really want Glory traipsing through his house when he wasn’t there? Not that he thought she’d take anything or snoop around. But the idea of her being there alone just didn’t sit well with him. Maybe he should check on her, just in case. At least if Erin called, he could tell her what was going on, and that should keep her off his case.

  After shutting off the tractor, he climbed down and headed for his pickup.

  “You’re leaving already?” his brother called to him. “Hayley’s stopping by with one of Kate McPherson’s coffee cakes.”

  Dylan shook his head and opened the door of the truck. “Can’t. I’ve got to get...” He needed an excuse. “I have an appointment I need to get to.”

  He was just sliding behind the wheel when Luke appeared at the door and closed it. “What kind of appointment? Are you sick?”

  “Nah, nothing like that. Just...” He wasn’t quite sure what or how much t
o tell his brother, so instead, he answered with, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

  Luke stepped away from the truck as Dylan turned the key and started the engine. “You’re sure you’re all right?” Luke asked.

  “Positive,” he answered, knowing how much worry he’d caused his brother over the years.

  “Okay.” But Luke didn’t look completely convinced.

  With a quick nod, Dylan put the truck in gear and pulled out onto the road. During the short drive, he tried to think of how he might be able to get out of this crazy decorating deal his sister had dreamed up, but he knew the effort was useless. He knew Erin well enough to know that she wasn’t going to let this go. And maybe she was right. Maybe he needed this. Maybe they all did. But that didn’t mean he had to like it.

  Turning into the long lane at his house, the first thing he noticed was the late-model sedan parked in front. With Glory nowhere in sight, he guessed she’d already gone inside. Climbing out of his truck, he headed for the enclosed porch, where he opened the wooden screen and stepped inside. For a moment, he hesitated, while his memories played their usual trick on him. His mother had had a green thumb, and the porch had always been filled with plants and flowers, often hiding the muddy boots and well-worn jackets and coats. The greenery was gone now, but it always took him a moment to accept it.

  At the door that led from the porch to the kitchen, he noticed how badly it needed a coat of paint, much like everything else around the house. Since the death of his parents in a car accident, fifteen years before, he and his brother had focused on making the ranch the best they could, believing that was what their mom and dad would have wanted. But he’d ignored the house. Erin was right. It needed some work.

  Opening the door, he stepped into the kitchen and stopped. Glory stood at the kitchen table with a camera in her hand, while she made notes on the papers in front of her.

  She greeted him with a smile and put her pen on the table. “I hope it was all right that I let myself in. I looked around for you, and knocked on the door several times, but when no one answered...” She finished with a shrug.

  He felt the first embers of anger, but quickly put them out. What did he expect her to do when he wasn’t around? “I forgot you were going to be here,” he said, but it was a lie.

  “This house is amazing,” she said, taking a step back away from the table and looking around the room.

  In that briefest of moments, he saw the place through the eyes of a stranger. Embarrassed that he’d let things go so much, he wasn’t sure what to say. “The folks weren’t into fixing things up fancy.”

  “No, it isn’t that. It’s just... Well, to begin with, I haven’t seen wallpaper like this for, oh, I don’t know how long.”

  He took in the pattern of green ivy on the wall, and then the rest of the room. None of the appliances were anywhere near new. There was nothing as fancy as a dishwasher, and a large chest freezer took up most of one wall. But he’d never cared before, so why should he now?

  “This table and chairs,” she said with a sigh, from behind him.

  He turned to look at the old chrome-and-vinyl kitchen set where his family had eaten every meal. “Yeah, it probably needs to be thrown out.”

  “Not necessarily,” she said, but she frowned. “They’re definitely retro, and people are looking for this type of thing. I wish they were in better condition.”

  He immediately stiffened at the slight. “The wallpaper’s going, too, I suppose.”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so.” Looking up, she smiled at him again. “Don’t look so worried,” she said, reaching out to put her hand on his arm. “I know what I’m doing.”

  He stared at her hand as the warmth of her touch snaked up his arm. Opening his mouth to tell her that she had no idea what she was doing to him, he immediately shut it again. He wasn’t sixteen years old, and he had better sense than to let that perfume she was wearing—or her touch—get to him.

  He cleared his throat as she pulled her hand away. “What about the appliances?” he asked. “Do I keep those?”

  “That will depend on how much you want to upgrade.”

  Money hadn’t been a problem for him and his brother for several years. They’d made out better than they’d ever thought they would. But he wanted this decorating thing to be over with as soon as possible.

  Before he could come up with an answer, she continued. “We can discuss what might work well when we get further into this. As soon as I finish with measurements and a few more pictures, I’ll start working on some ideas.”

  He hadn’t expected it to be so easy. Maybe that meant it would be over quickly. “Okay. Sure.”

  She gathered her papers together and hooked her big bag over her shoulder. “I’ve always loved this house.”

  Having no memory of her coming to the Walker ranch, he looked at her to see if she was joking. She wasn’t. “I guess I don’t remember.”

  “It was a long time ago, but I’ve been here.” She looked out the window where a row of trees lined the lane and continued on to the outbuildings. “When we were in eighth grade, both classes came out here for a hayride.” She turned to look at him. “Don’t you remember?”

  He couldn’t even drag up a foggy memory of it. That didn’t surprise him. He’d blocked so many things from his childhood, after the accident. “Sorry, no, I don’t.”

  “Oh.”

  “There’s a lot I don’t remember. After—” He shook his head, unable to continue.

  “Now I’m the one who’s sorry.”

  “No reason you should be.” They stood in an uncomfortable silence, until he finally broke it. “When do you think you’ll be finished?”

  “With the job?” she asked. “That depends on how much you want done.”

  It didn’t matter to him, as long as it satisfied his sister and he was left alone. “Whatever you and Erin talked about.”

  “A couple of months. Maybe more.”

  He didn’t like the sound of it. “That long?”

  She looked around, as if trying to get her bearings. “I could hire some extra help.”

  “That’s okay. Whatever it takes.” She didn’t seem to understand that it wasn’t him she had to please but his sister. Even if he was the one who was paying for it.

  Her head bobbed in a nod. “I’ll just get those measurements....”

  When she’d gathered her things and walked into the dining room, he blew out a long breath. He only hoped he wouldn’t be running into her every time he turned around. The sooner she could get the job done, the better. And then his life would get back to normal. Quiet, uninterrupted and without Glory Andrews in it.

  Chapter Two

  Even before the sun had slipped into the sky the next morning, Glory was out of bed and eager to start work. Anticipation rippled through her as she drove out of town, headed for the Walker ranch and her first job. She was finally coming into her own, ready to prove her worth, not only in the decorating world, but in life. It was past time, and she was excited.

  She was less than two miles from the ranch when doubts started tiptoeing into her thoughts. When he stopped in the shop the day before, Dylan hadn’t been any more eager than when she’d first told him his sister had hired her. Having no idea what he did or didn’t like could be disastrous, and guessing wasn’t necessarily a good thing. She didn’t know his tastes in types of furniture or even his favorite color. If she knew him better... But she didn’t, and she hadn’t gotten the impression that he was going to be forthcoming with any information.

  Glancing next to her at the stack of binders and the large portfolio containing photos and sketches that would provide the inspiration needed, she took a deep breath.

  “I can do this,” she announced in the silence of the car. It helped a little and as she slowed to turn into the l
ong lane that led to the Walker house, she felt a familiar confidence wash over her. Yes, she could do this.

  After climbing out of the car, Glory looked around and spied what she guessed was Dylan’s truck near the big barn in the distance. Although she felt fairly certain he wouldn’t be any more pleasant than he had been the day before, she walked in that direction so she could let him know she’d arrived.

  Determined to remain positive and friendly, she stepped out of the sunshine and through the large open doors at one end of the barn. Once inside, she waited until her eyes adjusted to the dim interior of the cavernous building.

  “Oh, there you are,” she said when she spotted him. “You know, this barn looks even bigger from the inside. Was it built about the same time as the house?”

  He didn’t bother to do more than glance at her. “Yeah, it’s one of the oldest barns in the area that’s still standing.”

  “Things were built well back then. Not so much now,” she said, sighing. “We’ve made everything disposable. I’ll take the old over the new.” She felt him watching her, but he said nothing. Somehow she needed to discover what he might like her to do with his house. After all, that was why she was there—not to make conversation.

  “I was thinking I wouldn’t do as much work upstairs,” she continued. “Maybe just freshen the paint and some other basic things.” When he didn’t comment, she hurried on to add, “But if you’d like more done—”

  “None of those rooms have been used since Luke built the new house for Kendra.”

  Having learned from her grandmother that his brother’s marriage had ended abruptly, two years earlier, leaving Luke with a baby son to raise, she understood the hint of animosity in Dylan’s voice. She also knew Luke and his new fiancée were in the wedding-planning stage, but Dylan didn’t seem willing to say more.

  Ignoring the awkward moment, she took a step back, ready to get to work. “I’ll go on up to the house, then.”

  “It’s unlocked.”