Winter's Proposal

by Sherryl Woods

  * * *

  Damn, but she was a stubborn one, Harlan thought to himself the following morning as he surveyed the disaster Jenny had made of his toolshed. Almost as stubborn as her mama.

  Janet’s abrupt retreat to hide out in Luke’s suite until Jenny’s return the night before had left him chuckling on the front porch. Frustrated as hell, but amused just the same. There’d been no mistaking how grateful Janet had been to be given a reason to escape his provocative company for a bit.

  Jenny had shown up finally, looking for her mama. When Harlan had told her she was inside taking a bath, Jenny’s shocked expression suggested she was making far more of that than she should have. Thank goodness Cody wasn’t with her or he’d have had a few choice words to add to the conversation for sure.

  Harlan had instantly regretted any inferences Jenny might have made, but he hadn’t been able to think of any way to correct her mistaken impression without adding to the problem.

  “Tell her I’m waiting in the car,” she’d said stiffly, and stalked away, her back as straight and proud as any Comanche chief he’d ever seen pictured in the art museums around the Southwest.

  “Sure you don’t want a glass of tea or maybe some of the oatmeal-and-raisin cookies Maritza baked earlier?” he’d called after her. He’d seen his plans for an evening with the two of them vanishing in a puff of smoke. Janet was scared spitless of being around him and Jenny clearly resented whatever was happening between him and her mother.

  The offer of cookies went unanswered, just one indication of how upset she’d been. When he’d relayed her whereabouts to her much cooler-looking, if no less rattled mother, Janet had grabbed her purse and taken off without so much as a goodbye.

  “Well, that certainly went well,” he’d muttered as he’d watched the trail of dust settle in their wake.

  Apparently their evening hadn’t gotten any better, if Jenny’s sullen mood this morning was any indication. She wouldn’t even meet his gaze, which made him wonder just what Janet had told her about their little set-to the night before.

  At midmorning, as soon as she’d picked disinterestedly at the snack Maritza had prepared for her, she’d stalked out of the kitchen and disappeared, sparing him little more than a glare.

  He hadn’t seen her for another hour or so. Hadn’t even looked that hard, truthfully. He’d figured she needed time to settle down and get her bearings again without him hovering over her with a lot of questions.

  Then, not more than five minutes ago, he’d spotted her sneaking away from the toolshed with suspicious streaks of yellow paint on her clothes. It was not a good sign, he’d decided as he went out to the shed.

  The shambles he found triggered an explosion that could have been heard in the next county. Toolboxes had been upended, yellow paint had been splattered hither and yon, and nuts, bolts and nails were scattered like birdseed all over the floor.

  “Damn that girl’s hide!” he bellowed, even as he wondered precisely what had set her off this time. He’d long since discovered that Jenny only acted out when she was feeling threatened in some way.

  Taking off in the direction he’d seen her heading, he followed her trail all the way to the creek. He found her sitting at the edge, her feet in the water, tears streaming down her face.

  He lowered himself to the ground next to her and waited, biding his time until she felt like talking.

  “I don’t care if you do send me to jail,” she said eventually in a voice choked with barely contained sobs.

  “Actually, I hadn’t considered that possibility,” he said. “I was thinking you could spend the rest of the day back there cleaning up the mess you made.”

  He looked her in the eye and saw thirteen years of hurt and loneliness there. “First, though, why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You just decided to tear up things inside the toolshed for fun?”

  “So what if I did?” she said belligerently.

  “I suppose everybody gets in a foul mood on occasion for no reason and needs to let off a little steam,” he agreed, then slanted a look at her. “Just seems to me as if something must have set you off.”

  “Well, it didn’t, all right!”

  He shrugged. “If you say so.”

  For the next few minutes they sat there side-by-side in total silence except for the sound of birds singing in the trees overhead and the soft splash of the creek as it ran past.

  “You just gonna drop it?” she asked, regarding him with a mix of surprise and wariness.

  “I thought there was nothing you wanted to say. Of course, maybe if you tell me, you’ll feel better. That’s how it works sometimes. Sharing the load goes a long way toward making it seem a little lighter.”

  Her shoulders slumped dejectedly as she picked at the frayed edge of her cut-off jeans. “You’ll get mad.”

  “So it has something to do with me?”

  She nodded, looking miserable.

  “Is it me and your mom?”

  Her head gave an almost imperceptible little bob. “I think she likes you,” she mumbled finally. “She says she doesn’t, but I can tell.”

  Harlan considered the observation a promising sign. He didn’t tell Jenny that. She obviously disagreed.

  “Would that be so terrible, having your mom like me?” he asked instead, hoping to get to the root of her displeasure. Did she resent the possibility of a replacement for her father? Was it just him in particular she disliked? He had a feeling the answer might hold the key to his future.

  “It’s not that exactly,” she admitted. “I mean, you’re okay, I guess. A little bossy, but okay. It’s just that my mom and me, we’ve been a team ever since the divorce. We don’t need anybody else.”

  “Maybe I do,” he said quietly.

  The concept seemed to intrigue her. “What do you mean?”

  “Just that it’s been awful quiet around here the past year or so, ever since my wife died. My sons are all grown and living their own lives now.”

  “Maybe Cody and his kids could move in with you,” she suggested, either in an attempt to be helpful or an attempt to get her and her mother off the hook.

  He could have given some glib reply to that, but he decided she needed honesty from him. She needed to be treated like an adult, at least on this issue. “Oh, the truth of it is, Cody and I would butt heads constantly. And Melissa should be able to run her own house the way she wants without worrying about the way things were always done around here.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “That could be a problem, I guess. So how come you like having me and my mom around so much?”

  “For one thing, you’re a pretty special kid, in case you didn’t know. I knew it the second you climbed down out of that truck of mine, spitting mad and taking your own foolishness out on me.”

  He slanted a sideways look at her. She appeared to be listening intently, so he went on. “As for your mom, she’s made me laugh again. That’s mighty important. It’s always seemed to me that folks weren’t meant to go through life without a companion, someone who thinks they’re terrific. I don’t know a lot about what happened between your parents, but divorce is never easy. I think you and your mom deserve someone who’ll put your needs first. And I could sure use someone to liven this place up.”

  Jenny looked torn between wanting him to feel better and her own distinctly opposite needs. “Maybe you could just play the radio real loud or ‘Geraldo’ and ‘Oprah.’ Wouldn’t that work?”

  He grinned. “It’s not the same.”

  “You mean you just want people to talk to, stuff like that?”

  “More or less.”

  “Oh.” She seemed to be considering the idea, then she lifted her chin and stared him straight in the eye. “I thought you wanted sex with her.”

  The blunt and far t
oo perceptive remark sent blood climbing up the back of his neck. He had to choke back a chuckle. “That’s a whole other issue and one I do not intend to discuss with you, young lady,” he said sternly.

  “My mother and I talk about everything. She doesn’t keep secrets,” she said, regarding him with a sly look. “Not from me, anyway.”

  “I’ll bet she’ll keep this one,” Harlan countered. It was beginning to seem to him, though, that there were too damned many people fascinated with his love life these days.

  “So?” he asked. “What’s the verdict? Do you object to your mom and me seeing each other?”

  “Would you stop if I did?”

  “Probably not,” he admitted. “But I’d work like crazy to make you change your mind.”

  “Would you let me off this prison sentence you imposed?”

  He grinned at the ploy. “Is being out here really so terrible?” He fixed a steady gaze on her. “Tell the truth.”

  “No,” she said with an air of resignation. “It’s just the principle of it. You get to boss me around and I have to take it.”

  “That’s right,” he said. “That’s the way it works in the real world.”

  “Yeah, but in the real world you get paid. I’m doing slave labor.”

  He nodded. “Okay, maybe I didn’t set up the rules quite right. How about we go back to the house and figure out how much you owe me for the truck—and the toolshed,” he added pointedly. “Then we’ll set a salary for your chores around here. You can pay me back out of your earnings each week.”

  “Will I have to pay you every dime?”

  He chuckled at her negotiating skills. He’d raised one son who’d had the same knack for getting his way. He was head of an oil company now. He suspected Jenny could share a similar fate if she put that quick thinking of hers to good use.

  “We can negotiate that,” he suggested. “We’ll work out an appropriate payment schedule. Of course, that might mean you won’t be paid off at the end of summer. You might have to keep coming out here.”

  She weighed that for several minutes before nodding. “Okay.”

  He held out his hand. “Shall we shake on it?”

  The instant they had solemnly shaken hands on their new deal, Jenny stood and whooped with undisguised glee. “I know exactly how I’m going to spend my money, too,” she declared.

  “How?” he said, anticipating a litany of CD titles and video games.

  “I’m going to buy back Lone Wolf’s land and give it to Mom.”

  He thought the plan might be a bit overly ambitious, given her debt and her likely wages, but who was he to discourage her. “And where is Lone Wolf’s land?”

  She grinned at him. “You’re sitting on it.”

  10

  This had been her great-great-grandfather’s land? Harlan couldn’t have been more stunned if Jenny had announced she and her mother had robbed a bank. He gazed around at the lush, verdant banks of the creek and beyond to the rolling landscape he’d always considered his home.

  “You sure about that?” he asked, trying to piece together all of the implications. Was that why Jenny had stolen his truck in the first place, just to wrangle a meeting with him? Or maybe in some twisted way to get even with him for the perceived theft of her ancestor’s land? It was certainly one explanation for the resentful expression he’d caught on Janet’s face the day they’d gone riding over the ranch’s acres.

  It was several minutes before he realized Jenny hadn’t answered. When he looked at her, he saw that she was scuffing the toe of her sneaker in the grass and looking guilty as sin. Since things like theft and destruction didn’t stir that expression, he couldn’t help wondering what had.

  “Jenny?” he prodded. “How do you know that this was your great-great-grandfather’s land?”

  “Mom told me,” she admitted, reluctance written all over her face. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything, though. Please, don’t say I told. Please.”

  There could only be one reason for keeping such a secret that he could think of. Janet had some cockamamie plan to right an old wrong and get this land back. He’d heard of court battles like that, efforts to reclaim Native American lands stolen by individuals or the government.

  He didn’t know of too many that had been successful, though. The government’s treatment of Native American rights might have been shabby, but there were probably legal documents a foot thick to prove that the Native Americans had been compensated for every bit of land taken from them.

  The thought that Janet might try, though, was enough to make his blood run cold. The knowledge that she had insinuated herself into his life without ever saying a word about her intentions infuriated him. He would have sworn Janet Runningbear didn’t have a duplicitous bone in her body. It appeared his judgment had been impaired after all.

  “Don’t worry,” he reassured Jenny with icy calm. “I won’t say a thing to your mother.”

  No, he was going to sit back and wait for her to make her move. He would be ready for her, though. And he would make her regret the day she ever tried to tangle with Harlan Adams.

  Later that night, alone in his den, he fought against the wave of disappointment rushing over him. He’d been so hopeful that Janet and her rebellious daughter were the answers to his prayers. Now it appeared that Janet, at least, was nothing more than a liar and a cheat.

  He didn’t like the prospect of sitting idle, waiting for her to strike. That wasn’t his way.

  And maybe he couldn’t admit to all he knew and involve Jenny, but he could try to force Janet’s hand. Maybe it was time he found out once and for all if it was him she was attracted to, or, as he was beginning to believe, the land she thought belonged to her.

  With cold deliberation, he sat behind the desk where he’d kept White Pines books for so many years and plotted a strategy for making sure that not one single acre ever left Adams ownership. Janet Runningbear might be the smartest, slickest lawyer ever trained, but she was no match for him.

  Except maybe, he thought, in bed. As icily furious as he was about Jenny’s innocent revelations, he couldn’t seem to tame the desire Janet aroused in him. Maybe sex was the way to force the issue. He could satisfy this growing hunger that had him aching to touch her morning, noon and night. A woman revealed a lot when she made love to a man. He was almost certain he would know once and for all what was really in Janet’s heart, if he could just get past her emotional defenses.

  He sipped on a glass of bourbon, pleased with his plan. His pulse kicked up just thinking about it. There was nothing like the prospect for steamy sex or a good battle of wills to make a man feel alive. He had Janet to thank on both counts, he thought with a trace of bitterness. He’d have to be sure to express his gratitude when all was said and done.

  * * *

  Janet glanced up with surprise when the door to her office opened at midmorning and Harlan stepped across the threshold onto the threadbare carpet she couldn’t afford to replace until business picked up. Something in his expression alarmed her. She’d seen him looking determined. She’d seen him defiant. Both traits were evident now, but there was a cold, calculating gleam in his eyes that was something new and not entirely reassuring.

  “What brings you into town?” she asked warily.

  “I thought maybe you and I could get a word alone here.”

  She hadn’t noticed that he had all that much difficulty getting her alone at White Pines when he was of a mind to, but she just nodded. “Something important come up?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” he said, perching on a corner of her desk, his jeans-clad knees scant inches from hers.

  It seemed to Janet that he was deliberately crowding her. In fact, it was just more evidence of his odd mood. He had been acting weird all day. She’d noticed it first when she’d dropped off Jenny.

  Now that she thought about i
t, Jenny had seemed awfully subdued since yesterday evening, as well. Had she gotten into more trouble? Was Harlan fed up with playing surrogate daddy? Had he come to tell her that he wanted to end their arrangement?

  “Jenny’s not giving you trouble, is she?” she asked, regarding him uneasily. Jenny, for all of her grumbling, would be heartbroken if her days at White Pines and with Harlan were over.

  “None that I can’t handle,” he said.

  The response relieved her mind on that score at least, but there was something. She was sure of it. “Then, what is it?” she prodded.

  His gaze locked with hers. “I think we should go away together,” he announced.

  Oh, boy, she thought as the breath whooshed right out of her. This was the last thing she’d expected. Well, not the last thing, but certainly she hadn’t anticipated such an invitation coming so soon. Janet felt her cheeks flame as she battled temptation and embarrassment.

  “Go away together?” she repeated dazedly. “You and me? Why? I mean, we haven’t even had a real date. Don’t you think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here?”

  “We had dinner at your place. We’ve had dinner at my place. We’ve been on a picnic down by the creek. You don’t call that dating?”

  “No,” she insisted. She didn’t have a better name for it, but she’d been swearing to herself for days now that she was not dating Harlan Adams and that’s the way she intended to keep it. “Even if those meals counted as dates, that’s hardly a sufficient basis for assuming I would go off on some romantic tryst with you.”

  “I figured those kisses were a clue that you might at least consider the offer.”

  “Then you leapt to a wrong conclusion,” she said adamantly.

  An expression of pure frustration crossed his face. “Your daughter is asking me if I’m interested in having sex with you. My sons are practically salivating over every development in our relationship. I’d just like to get to know you someplace out from under their watchful eyes.”