“Did you get your grocery shopping done?”
The deep voice behind her made her jump and Lauren spun around to see Vic standing there, thumbs hanging above the large buckle of his belt. He had rolled up the sleeves of his stained twill shirt, the hat pulled over his head now tipped to one side.
His mouth curved in a laconic smile, but she easily saw the warmth of his eyes.
She swallowed, frustrated again at the effect this man had on her.
“Yes. I put the bags close to the entrance,” she said. “One of the cashiers said she would watch them for me.”
“They’re in the truck already,” he said, shifting his weight to his other leg. “Sonja told me you were in here and that you’d left her in charge of your food.”
She had felt strange enough leaving her groceries with the chatty woman at the front desk who assured her she wouldn’t eat her food. But then to have Vic simply load them in the truck?
“Everyone knows everyone in Saddlebank and even worse, everyone’s business,” he said, his grin deepening. “Am I right, Nadine?” he asked the greenhouse clerk, winking at her.
The girl blushed, looking down at the pot she still held, turning it over. “Yeah. Well. That’s Saddlebank.” She gave Vic another shy glance, her flush growing.
Nice to know she wasn’t the only one he had this effect on, Lauren thought, reminding herself to stay on task. To keep her focus.
You have your own plans. He’s just a hindrance and a distraction.
A good-looking distraction, she conceded, but a distraction nonetheless.
“So what do you all have here?” he asked, pointing to the plants.
“Gerberas, lilies, petunias, some marigolds. Lobelia, geraniums and million bells—”
“Gotcha,” he said, holding his hands up as if to stop her, looking somewhat overwhelmed. “Do you need help packing these up?”
Lauren glanced from the wagon holding the flowers she had chosen to the rest of the greenhouse. She could spend another hour wandering, planning and dreaming, but she had taken up enough of Vic’s time and she knew he was anxious to get back to work.
“I have to pay for them first,” she said. She turned the cart around and walked down the wooden aisles to the checkout counter.
But her feet slowed as she passed a preplanted pot of pink and purple million bells, white lobelia, trailing sweet potato vine and yellow aspermums. She pinched off a dead flower, her hand arranging the one vine.
“That’s pretty,” Vic said, his voice holding a note of approval.
“I love the colors they’ve used. It would look lovely on a deck.” Then she pulled her hand back, knowing that she had already spent more than she should, and marched on, resisting the temptation.
She got to the cashier, unloaded her plants on the old wooden counter, pulled her debit card out of her wallet and slapped it on the counter as if afraid her more practical self would convince her it was a waste of money.
“You’ve got some lovely plants.” Sonja bustled about as she rang them up on the old-fashioned cash register, her gray curls bouncing. She was an older woman, with a rough voice and a broad smile. Her T-shirt proclaimed Life’s a Garden. Dig It. “If you need any help or advice, you just call. We can answer all your questions. ’Course, you have your aunt to help you out. I know you used to help her at the flower shop from time to time,” she said.
“I’m sorry, I feel like I should remember you,” Lauren said.
“I used to deliver perennial pots to your aunt’s shop,” Sonja said. “Used to see you and your sisters there once in a while.”
Then Lauren did remember. Sonja was always laughing and joking, her personality filling the store, making it a fun and happy place to be.
But before Lauren could say anything, Sonja was finished with her and already on to the next customer. Lauren looked around for Vic, doing a double take as she realized he was purchasing the pot she had just admired.
“Figured if you liked it, so would my mom,” he said as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket.
“Your mother will love them.” Sonja rang up his purchase, smiling her approval. “Very considerate of you.”
“I’m angling for son of the year,” Vic said.
“And he’ll get it, don’t you think, Lauren?”
“I guess” was all Lauren could muster. She was still wrapping her head around a guy buying a potted plant for his mother.
“Our Vic is an amazing young man,” Sonja said, her voice heavy with meaning. She gave Lauren a knowing look that she didn’t have to interpret. “A girl would be lucky to have him.”
“I think it’s time to load up what we got and get out of here,” Vic cut in with a sheepish smile as he set the pot he’d just bought on the two-layered cart holding Lauren’s plants.
“You know I’m right,” Sonja teased, looking from Vic to Lauren as if connecting the two. “You won’t find better in all of Saddlebank.”
“Now it’s really time to go,” Vic said, ushering Lauren out of the store. His truck was right out the door and he opened the back door of the double cab. “If it’s okay with you, I thought we could set them here,” he said as he started unloading them.
“But you’ll get the floor of your truck dirty,” Lauren protested. The carpet was immaculately clean and the seats even more so.
“It’s honest dirt,” he said, tossing her a grin as he took the pots from her and set them on the carpet. “Sorry about Sonja, by the way. She’s the local busybody.”
“I remember her coming into my aunt’s flower shop,” Lauren said. Sonja’s comment had made her even more aware of Vic than she liked. “She was like this ball of energy.”
“That about sums her up.” He got into the truck. “Do you need to do anything else?”
“I think I’ve taken enough of your time and spent enough of my money. I know you want to get back to your hay baling.”
“Yeah. I do. Thanks.”
A few minutes later they were back on the highway, headed toward the ranch. Lauren’s groceries were stashed on the floor of the truck by her feet.
“By the way, I can’t thank you enough for taking care of the tires,” Lauren said. “But shouldn’t we have stopped to pay for them?”
“You can next time you’re in town. I talked to Alan, who runs the place. He said it was okay.”
Lauren shook her head. “Small towns,” she said. “I can’t imagine getting away with running a business like that in Boston or Fresno.”
“You lived in both those places?”
“And Chicago, and New York for a month. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina, now.”
“That’s a lot of moving.”
“Harvey, my fiancé was a real go-getter. Always looking for a better job.”
“And you followed him around?”
“Sort of. His opportunities were good for me, as well.” She was surprised at how his comment made her feel.
“Your dad said you worked as an accountant.”
Lauren chuckled at the grimace on his face. “It’s good work.”
Vic shuddered. “Numbers are not my friends. I can’t imagine working with them all day.”
“To each his own,” she said. “I like how predictable and orderly they make life. There’s no surprises or guesswork. One plus one will always equal two.”
“Do you enjoy it? Is it your passion?”
Lauren opened her mouth to say yes but hesitated. To say it was her passion wasn’t correct. “I’m good at it and it pays well.”
Vic laughed and she shot him a puzzled glance. “Is it the money? That why you do it? You don’t seem like that kind of person.”
Lauren’s back stiffened. “No. Of course not. I do it because I’m competent. I’m trained for it and bec
ause...because...well... I’ve got this opportunity now to start my own business and...” For a few long moments she couldn’t latch on to any solid reason why. No one had ever asked her. Harvey had always assumed this was what she should do.
She turned away from Vic and his probing questions and curious expression. The uncertainty his comments raised frustrated her. Then came a chilling realization.
It’s because that’s all you’ve ever done.
“I’m sorry if I’ve upset you,” Vic said. “I was just making conversation.”
She suddenly felt as if the ground that she had always thought of as solid and unmoving had shifted.
You don’t seem like that kind of person.
How did he know what she was like?
“It’s all right,” she said, giving him a careful smile. “For some reason your comment caught me unawares.”
“Never a good place to be caught,” Vic said. “I’m sorry.”
“No. Please don’t apologize. If I’m honest, money is part of it, that’s true enough. There never was enough when I was growing up. I remember reading the beatitudes and Jesus saying, ‘Blessed are the poor,’ and I thought he was wrong. There was no blessing in being broke. There was no honor in buying clothes from a thrift store and getting teased about them. Jodie managed to find her own style. But I used to be ashamed that my clothes were secondhand, and Gramma chastised me many times for that. She often made me feel guilty that I wanted more. Even Dad would tell me not to be so proud.”
“Keith was a frugal man.”
“That’s a kind way of saying he was stingy.”
Vic gave her another one of his killer smiles that touched her soul.
“So what was your passion when you were younger?” he pressed. “What did you always want to do? Where were you the happiest?”
Lauren considered his questions. “You know, my favorite times were when I was in my aunt’s flower shop. My dad would send us there once in a while when he didn’t know what else to do with us. I loved working with the flowers. I loved watching my aunt arrange them and combine colors and textures and create interesting displays. When I was older, she let me try my hand at it.” She released a light laugh. “I think the true appeal of my aunt’s shop was the calm I felt there. The happiness. It was like a little sanctuary for me and my sisters.”
“Sounds like it was a good place for you.”
A memory floated upward and she caught it. “When I was eighteen, my last summer here, I remember my aunt suggesting that I stay in Saddlebank and help her in the flower shop.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“My grandmother became ill and she needed me back in Knoxville.”
“And being the responsible person you are, you went and you took care of her.”
“I owed her a lot. Erin had just been accepted at college, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and hadn’t applied anywhere, so I figured it was best if I stay. Jodie was only sixteen and still in high school. Someone needed to help Gramma.”
Vic looked at her with a fleeting sadness. “That’s quite a sacrifice for such a young girl. And quite amazing.”
She heard warmth, approval and sympathy in his voice, and for some reason, it made her feel emotional.
“She’d given us a home. It was the least I could do.”
“And now, this business you’re buying?”
His question lingered as if he wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask about it. She knew her decision was the reason she was selling the ranch and that it had a huge impact on him, but she had to stay the course.
“It’s an opportunity. A good one. The woman I’m partnering with is energetic and hardworking, and I think this is a good chance for me to strike out on my own.”
“Working with numbers every day.”
“You don’t need to make it sound like a death sentence,” she added with a light laugh. “I’m good at it and this business I’m buying in to is a... I think this is a good opportunity. A chance to take care of myself.”
“But I understand you’ll be doing that with a partner.”
“Yes, but she’s someone I can trust.”
You thought you could trust Harvey. You thought you could trust your boss.
The words slammed into her and she had to clench her fists to control the anger that rose within her.
Even as she spoke she found herself reaching. As if she had to convince herself as much as him.
“And what about you,” she countered, tired of analyzing her own life. “What’s your passion?”
“Ranching. Always ranching,” he said, his voice strong with a conviction that she envied. “That’s never changed. My dad worked the ranch I live on and his grandfather before that and his grandfather before that. We’re not as old as the Bannister ranch, but close. It’s my heritage and I love it.” He gave her a sheepish smile. “I’m just a basic guy. A cattleman born and bred.”
“You’re fortunate to have that legacy,” she said, wondering if she could ever muster up the same passion for her work that seemed to be ingrained into his identity. Her work was something she’d stumbled into. Something she discovered she was competent at, and her career carried on from there.
For a moment, however, she wondered what her life would have been like if she’d followed through on Aunt Laura’s suggestion. If she’d stayed in Saddlebank.
It was a moot point, she reminded herself. Her grandmother had needed her.
But still...
“Your dad’s ranch goes back a few generations, as well,” Vic said, breaking into her thoughts.
“Dad was never as much a rancher as you seem to be,” Lauren said. “I think he only did it because he inherited it from his father. And though we stayed there, it never felt...like home. I always felt more like a guest in some ways.”
“Did Knoxville feel like home?”
“Kind of. But there at least we were at our grandmother’s home. She was kind enough, but it was still her place.”
“So, no real home base? That’s sad.”
Lauren glanced over at him, surprised at his sympathy, surprised to see him looking at her.
Their gazes held, and when Vic smiled, once again she felt connection and possibilities. Her breath seemed hard to find and an unusual urge to reach across the truck overcame her. To touch his hand.
Her cell phone rang and he jerked his head aside. Lauren crashed back down to earth when she glanced at the name flashing on the screen.
Alex Rossiter. The ranch’s potential buyer.
“Hello, Alex,” she said, disappointed at how breathless she sounded. “What can I do for you?”
“Was wondering if I could come by next week Tuesday,” he said, his voice booming in her ear. Alex was a large man with a large voice and matching attitude. “To look over the place. See what I’m getting into.”
As he spoke Lauren drew in a shaky breath, feeling as if she had to find her balance.
“I think that should work,” she said.
They made arrangements, but all the while she talked, she couldn’t help feeling guilty. As if she was doing something wrong.
Alex abruptly said goodbye and Lauren lowered her phone, trying to find the right way to tell Vic what was happening. Straightforward was always best, she decided.
“That was the buyer of the ranch,” she said, turning to Vic. “He wants to come out on Tuesday.”
Vic just nodded, his jaw tight, his eyes narrowed as he stared straight ahead.
She put her phone in her purse and folded her hands on her lap, staring out the window.
But as they drove back to the ranch, she couldn’t shake the sensation that she had caught a glimpse of another life. A life that held light and joy.
She shook off the capricious emotion.
In spite of his approval of what she had done for her grandmother, it was a reminder of the many times she had put other people first in her life.
It was time to take care of herself.
Chapter Four
“My girls.” Aunt Laura tugged a green apron over her purple tunic as she grinned at Lauren and Jodie. The three of them had gathered in the back room of her florist shop to discuss the flowers for Jodie’s wedding. “I’m so excited to help with this,” she said, tugging on gloves before she pulled some white roses out of the large plastic tub. She laid them on the large butcher-block table, then pulled another tub closer to her.
The store was closed and after they were done Lauren knew they would be invited for tea. It was a ritual played out many times in their childhood when the girls were on their own because their father was busy with haying.
As Vic had been the past few days.
An image of Vic slipped into Lauren’s mind along with their conversation in the truck yesterday. It had been a long time since she’d spent any amount of time with a man in a relaxed setting. He seemed like a nice guy and she regretted the fact that she couldn’t sell the ranch to him.
He had come to the house again this afternoon but had spent most of that time in the office. For which she was thankful. Being around him made her nervous.
A phone call from his brother cut his time short, and with an apology and a request to come back, he had left.
Trouble was, she and Jodie were going to Bozeman for the next few days to look at wedding and bridesmaid dresses and wouldn’t be home.
“Lauren, can you grab some of those bells of Ireland?” Aunt Laura asked as she pulled some delphinium out of a tub.
Lauren frowned at her aunt’s selection.
“Are you sure?” she asked, trying to visualize how the combination would look.
“Yes. Why?” The look that accompanied her aunt’s question told Lauren that she had noticed Lauren’s lapse and was wondering about it.
“Nothing. Just curious,” she said, giving a quick smile that dismissed her aunt’s curiosity. She didn’t want to get into a discussion about Vic with her aunt and her sister present. She knew exactly what they would think.
Trusting the Cowboy Page 5