by Diana Palmer
“You’ll go on salary, of course,” he insisted. “It won’t be a holiday.”
“Nothing is a holiday with those two,” Simon murmured dryly. “They aren’t kidding about biscuits. They’ll run you crazy baking them.”
Rey and Leo gave their brother a disgusted look.
Meredith grinned. “I don’t mind,” she assured Simon. “I love to cook.”
“It won’t be that hard,” Leo promised, with another speaking glance at Simon. “We just love biscuits. But we’ll make you feel right at home. Anything you need, you can have—a new stove…” he added mischievously.
She thought about her father and her job, and her smile faltered. “I have to wrap up a few loose ends first,” she began.
“No problem,” Leo assured her. “I can’t get out of here for another day at least, or so that doctor said,” he added with impatience.
“You’ll stay until he lets you out,” Rey said firmly. “Concussions are tricky. You know that.”
Leo grimaced. “I guess so. I hate hospitals.”
“I’m not too wild about them myself,” Rey had to agree.
“It would be a very sad world without them,” Meredith spoke up.
She seemed irritated, Rey thought, and wondered why. “I’ll run you back home when you’re ready,” Rey told her. “We’ll be in touch before we’re ready to leave.”
“All right.” She held Leo’s hand again and squeezed it gently, to the amusement of all the Harts except Rey. “You get better. I’ll see you soon.”
“Thanks again,” Leo told her with genuine gratitude.
“It was nothing.” She gave him another smile, tugged her hand free, and let Rey herd her out the door after a quick goodbye to the other brothers.
“I thought your brother was big until I saw all of you together. Goodness, you’re all huge!” she exclaimed when they were outside in the parking lot. She gave him a long scrutiny. “And there doesn’t seem to be an extra ounce of fat on any of you.”
“We don’t sit behind desks. We’re ranchers, not office workers, and we work hard, right alongside our cowboys,” he said. His dark eyes cut sideways. “Leo likes you.”
She smiled. “I’m glad, because I like him, too.”
That set him off and he tried not to let it show. He didn’t want her to like Leo. He wished he knew why. He glanced at her as he wove skillfully through traffic toward her house. “Do you have family besides your father?” he asked.
“A cousin or two near Fort Worth,” she said. She glanced out the window, absently rubbing the ring finger of her left hand, trying not to choke up over the question. “What is Jacobsville like?” she asked to divert him from any further questions.
“It’s small,” he said easily. “There are a lot of ranches in the area. We have good pasture and soil, and we get enough rain to manage healthy crops.” He grinned. “A lot of us are heavily into organic cattle raising. And with the industry under threat right now, we’ll probably keep our financial heads above water when some other ranchers are going under.”
“I like organic food,” she said. “It may have a few more blemishes and bug bites, but if it doesn’t kill bugs, it won’t kill me,” she added with a grin.
He chuckled. “Good point. Do you like animals?”
“I love them. I’d like to have a cat, but it’s not possible. Dad’s allergic to them.” She sighed wearily, leaning her head back against the headrest. Her bruises were still giving her a lot of pain. Her hand went to them and she winced.
“You should see that plastic surgeon,” he reminded her.
She shook her head. “Can’t afford it. Even if I could, I don’t want to go through weeks of surgery.”
He hesitated and then he shrugged. “Have it your way.”
“I’ll heal.” She touched her cheek again self-consciously. “I’m not sure going to work for you is a good idea. I mean, people might think the five of you beat me up!”
He laughed wholeheartedly. “Nobody who knows us would ever think that. Especially,” he added, “if you can bake. Simon was right. I’m afraid we’re famous locally for our addiction to biscuits.”
Actually they were famous a lot further out than Jacobsville, but he didn’t want to make her think they were loopy.
She took the words at face value. “I like to cook.”
He glanced at her again, taking in her very conservative way of dressing. “You don’t look like the same woman I met just after Leo was assaulted.”
“I almost never dress up,” she confided. “And it really was a costume,” she pointed out. “I wasn’t lying. I don’t make my living on the streets.”
“How old are you?”
Her eyebrows arched. “Old enough.”
“Are you over twenty-one?” he persisted.
“I’m twenty-three, almost twenty-four,” she replied.
“And not married?”
“I’ve had responsibilities for the past few years,” she said distantly, staring out the windshield. “My father has become the largest of them. I’ve been afraid to leave him alone.”
“He’s obviously dangerous when he drinks.”
She hesitated, fingering her purse. “He seemed to lose himself in the bottle overnight. I thought I could handle him, control him, break the cycle. I couldn’t even get help for him. My father doesn’t think he has a drinking problem, so nobody would take him.” She looked over at him. “I’m very grateful to your brother for his help. As I mentioned the night he was arrested, my father has only been like this for the past few months. It’s not a long-standing problem. But I couldn’t solve it alone.”
“You’re going to work for us,” Rey said. “And it’s not that much of a problem for Simon. He’s good at his job.”
“Is it a big ranch?” she asked unexpectedly.
“Enormous,” he replied, “and one of five ranches we own as a family. Things get hectic during roundup, as you’ll find out if you’re still there next Spring.”
“I won’t be,” she said with some certainty. “When I heal, I have to get back to my job.”
“What do you do?” he asked curiously. “Is it housecleaning or working as a cook in a restaurant?”
She almost bit her tongue at the demeaning comment. “You don’t think I’m qualified to do anything else?”
He averted his eyes to the road. “I don’t know you, Miss Johns,” he commented carelessly. “But you seem pretty domestic to me.”
She didn’t feel well enough to retaliate. But one day, she promised herself, she was going to make him eat those condescending words.
“I’ve made beds and done light cleaning,” she said, talking around her actual profession.
“Aren’t you ambitious?” he persisted, with a faint frown. “Most women are, these days.”
“That sounded bitter,” she commented. “Did you get thrown over by an ambitious woman?”
“By a couple of them,” he said curtly, and his expression became hard.
She hadn’t thought of him that way. They’d been adversaries from the first contact. But it occurred to her as she gave him a quick, covert scrutiny, that he was a sensuous man. He wasn’t handsome—except for Corrigan Hart, the rest of the brothers seemed cursed by a lack of conventional good looks.
But Rey had a lithe, graceful stride, and a strong face. He had good hands, clean and long-fingered. She liked the blackness of his straight hair, the high cheekbones, the long, thin, chiseled mouth. He was the sort of man who could have attracted women, except for his personality. The Harts didn’t strike her as particularly gregarious or good mixers from her brief acquaintance with them. Leo was the one with the warmest personality. He made her feel at ease. The man beside her made her uncomfortable, insecure, nervous. She wasn’t usually so strung-out by a man’s proximity. Not that she’d had a lot to do with men in very recent years. Her father’s overprotective, possessive nature had seen to that. He’d been so certain that she was going to end up like her mother.
She closed her eyes briefly, hating the memories.
“If you want to go and see your father before we leave for Jacobsville, I’ll ask Simon to arrange it.”
She stiffened. “I don’t want to see him again until he’s sober,” she replied. “We both need time to get over what happened.”
“Is your face the only place he hit you?” he asked unexpectedly.
“He got me in the back and the side, too, but those were only bruises. The doctor checked me over thoroughly.” She sighed wearily. “I’m so tired,” she murmured absently.
“I’m not surprised. You can get some rest. I’ll phone you tomorrow, when we’ll know more about Leo’s condition and when he’ll be released.”
“Okay.”
He stopped in front of her house and parked the car, walking to the door with her. He looked down at her while she fumbled the key into the lock. She was, in some ways, the most vulnerable woman he’d ever met. But there was steel in her makeup. He sensed that she wasn’t like this usually, that she was fiery and independent and determined.
“This isn’t the first time your father’s laid into you, is it?” he asked suddenly.
She glanced at him, surprised. “No. But until this happened, it was more humiliating than painful.” She frowned. “How did you know?”
He seemed concerned. “When I was in school, I had a couple of friends whose fathers got violent during binges. There’s an…attitude, a posture, that people get when they’ve been beaten. I can’t explain it, but I recognize it when I see it.”
“Do you want to know what it is?” she asked with a world-weary smile. “It’s a feeling of futility, of knowing that no matter what you do, you can’t hold out physically against a man who’s enraged and bent on hurting you. Because you know if you fight back, it will be even worse, maybe fatally worse. I don’t like it,” she added, her pale eyes beginning to glow, “and he’s never getting the chance to do this again. He’s my father. I love him, and I feel sorry for him. But I’m nobody’s victim. Not even his.”
He pushed his hands into his slacks’ pockets and smiled at her. Her face was bright with color, and her eyes were alive, like peridots in sunlit water. He remembered her long blond hair around her shoulders and he wondered what she’d look like in pink silk. The thought shocked him and he scowled.
“Did I glue my nose on upside down?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
He let out a short laugh. “No. I had a wild thought. Do you need an advance on your salary? I mean, is there anything you have to get for the trip that you can’t afford?”
“I don’t have a car,” she began, and hated remembering why.
He glared. “I didn’t say you were going to have to get to Jacobsville on your own. You’ll go with Leo and me. Simon drove my car up from Jacobsville.”
“Do I get to ride in the car, or have you got me earmarked for the trunk?” she returned.
He pursed his lips. Odd feelings were kindling inside him. “Keep that up and you’ll be riding on the back bumper.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Nice. Real nice. I can see you’re going to be a great boss.”
“If you don’t burn the biscuits, I will be,” he said.
“I’ll stick close to your brother,” she promised. “He’ll protect me.”
He didn’t like that, but he wasn’t going to let it show. “Leo’s a tease,” he said flatly. “Don’t get your hopes up. He’s not a marrying man. Neither am I,” he added deliberately.
Her eyes widened. “Well, gee whiz, that’s a major disappointment! And to think, I was only willing to take the job because of the marriage prospects!”
His face shuttered. “Sarcasm doesn’t get you any points with me. I’m just making the position clear. We need a cook, not a prospective soul mate.”
“Speak for yourself,” she told him, turning back to her door. “I think Leo likes me already.”
“I just told you…!”
She opened the door and looked back at him with pure irreverence. “Your brother can speak for himself. You don’t own him, and you don’t own me. I’ll do what I please.”
“Damn it…!”
“With charm like that, it’s no surprise to me that you’re still single,” she said as she walked into the house.
“I can be charming when I’ve got a reason to be,” he said icily. “But that’s something you’ll never know!”
“Lucky me!”
He started to speak, closed his lips tight, and walked back to his car.
She closed the door quickly and leaned back against it, almost shivering with anger. Of all the conceited, infuriating men she’d ever met, that one took the cake!
* * *
The next day, Rey phoned her midmorning to tell her that he and Leo would pick her up at one for the drive down to Jacobsville.
She had her suitcase packed and the house closed up when the big luxury car pulled into the driveway. It was a late-model car, and it looked odd, sitting in front of the shabby little house.
As she walked to the car, Meredith saw curtains fluttering and knew that the neighbors were getting an eyeful. They probably thought she was being carried off by the mob. That amused her and she smiled, glad that something diverted her mind from her father and her pain, and the misery of the past few months.
“We hadn’t planned to ask you to help us move cattle,” Rey drawled when he saw how she was dressed, in jeans and a striped shirt and boots.
“I haven’t volunteered, either,” she assured him. “But I didn’t think you’d want me to do housework in a dress.” She gave him a wry glance. “Those old black-and-white sitcoms weren’t historically accurate, you know. I never saw a woman vacuum the carpet wearing a dress and high heels and pearls!”
“You can do housework in a suit for all I care, as long as you can bake me a pan of biscuits every morning,” Rey said, taking the suitcase and putting it in the trunk.
“Good morning,” Leo called from the open window of the front seat, grinning as Rey opened the back door and helped her inside.
“Good morning,” she said brightly. “You look much better.”
“I feel better, except for the headache.” He gave her a long look. “You aren’t in very good shape yourself. Face hurt?”
“Yes. I guess we’re both like walking wounded, huh?” she asked with a grin as she leaned back into the warm leather seat.
“Maybe we should take a nurse with us,” Rey muttered as he got in and started the car.
Meredith cleared her throat, but before she could speak, Leo turned to his brother. “I don’t need nursing, thank you very much!” Leo said curtly.
“Neither do I!” Meredith agreed.
Rey glanced at them as he pulled out into the street. “I’ve seen accident victims who looked better than the two of you.”
“Don’t let him insult you, Meredith,” Leo told her. “I’ll tell you all about his weak spots so that you can deal with him.”
She wouldn’t have expected Rey to have any of those, but she was keeping her mouth shut and her options open for the time being. Her new boss looked formidable, and even Leo seemed curious about his lack of warmth.
“Are you all from Jacobsville originally?” Meredith changed the subject.
“No, we’re from San Antonio,” Leo said. “We inherited the Jacobsville property and it needed a lot of work, so we made it our headquarters. It’s convenient to Houston and San Antonio, and frankly, it’s isolated and gives us some privacy. We don’t like cities as a rule.”
“Neither do I,” she said, recalling her grandmother’s beautiful flower garden at the old place near Fort Worth. She smiled. “I wish Dad hadn’t taken the job in Houston in the first place.”
“What does he do?” Leo asked.
“He’s retired,” she said, not wanting to go into specifics. It hurt to talk about her family. Her father was a sore spot just now, anyway.
“Simon talked to the authorities,” Rey interrupted. “T
hey’re going to make sure he gets counseling and he won’t be released until he’s kicked the alcohol habit.” He glanced over the seat at her, his dark eyes intent. “They think it will be better if you don’t have any contact with him for a few weeks, until he’s through the worst of the withdrawal symptoms.”
“I know about withdrawal,” she replied, absently smoothing her hand over her jeans. “Bad habits are hard to break, even new ones.”
“You two must read a lot,” Rey replied. “I never saw so many books in one place as I did at your house. Even our library isn’t that stuffed, and we all read.”
“I love reading,” she agreed. “We have a television, but neither of us had much time to watch it. Until recently,” she added reluctantly, and winced at the thoughts that went through her mind. “I hope they get those men who mugged you, Mr. Hart,” she told Leo fervently.
“Leo,” he corrected. “It’s really Leopold, but nobody calls me that,” he added with a grin. “We’re pretty informal with our employees.”
“Do you have a lot?” she asked curiously.
“A good many in Jacobsville,” he replied. “Although we don’t have a full-time vet, we do have several accountants, livestock managers, computer programmers, salesmen…you name it, we’ve got one. It’s big business these days to run cattle. We even have a man who does nothing but keep up with legislation that may impact us.”
“Do you have dogs and cats?” she asked.
“Always,” Rey replied. “We have border collies that help us herd cattle, and we keep cats in the barn to help handle the rats.”
“We had a cat in the house,” Leo added, “but it was Cag and Tess’s, and they took it with them when they moved into their new house. At least she won’t have to cope with Herman,” he told his brother, and laughed.
Rey smiled involuntarily. “You might not have wanted to work for us if we still had Herman.”
“Who’s Herman?” she wanted to know.
“He was Cag’s albino python,” he told her. “He weighed a hundred and ten pounds and lived in a cage in Cag’s bedroom. He gave Herman up when he married Tess. He said it would be crazy to keep an animal that big and dangerous around their son. They’re still over the moon about that little boy.”