Live-In Mom

by Paige, Laurie

“Yes, but when someone is hurt, you normally take them to the office and fix them up, not to your home… your bedroom,” she added with a soft giggle.

  “My bedroom, how did anyone know—?”

  “The light can be seen from here. Often the women have joked about joining you there.”

  He gave a groan of disgust. “Nothing is private around this damned place. I suppose everyone in three states knows how many women I’ve had in the house since my divorce.”

  “None,” Elena promptly stated. “Martha is worried about you. She says it is time you found a real wife and made some babies.”

  “Hasn’t she noticed that I have a son?” he inquired with a great deal of sarcasm.

  “But that was not the true marriage. It will come—”

  “I hope not,” he broke in. “My problem right now is what to do with this woman.” He peered at Carly through the gloom.

  She realized the attraction between her and Ty had made the situation worse. She could be a source of danger. If something happened to him or his son because of her…

  The decision was made in an instant. She’d have to leave. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be out of here in ten minutes. Will that be soon enough?” She headed for the house.

  Behind her, she heard Elena say something and laugh again.

  True to her word, she was ready to leave in ten minutes. She went outside with her luggage. Elena and Ty were waiting.

  She held out her hand. “It’s been fun.”

  Elena took her hand, but didn’t shake it. Instead, she pulled Carly into her arms and gave her a hug. “You’re a good worker. I’ll give you a recommendation any time you need one.”

  Carly squeezed her friend and reluctantly let her go. “You’ve been wonderful to me. Thanks for all your help.”

  Ty picked up the suitcase she’d dropped in the grass during the farewell. “If the goodbyes are over, let’s go.”

  “So anxious to get rid of me? Gee, it didn’t seem that way up in your bedroom.”

  Elena covered her mouth, but not before a fresh wave of laughter broke out.

  “Just keep it up,” Ty warned, looking close to the end of his rope. He started for the road and her car. She fell into step behind him after waving once more to Elena.

  Carly felt a teensy bit guilty for taunting him about their wild passion. That was something he wouldn’t have to worry about, that she’d trap him into marriage or anything.

  She, too, had been burned. She hadn’t once considered marriage to him.

  Well, maybe once…

  Chapter Six

  Ty stopped by the office to sign the payroll checks on Thursday. He noticed the date. November 1. He looked over the accounts before pulling the check ledger toward him. He’d had more than a dozen people working the ranch the past month.

  This week there were two fewer hands than last week. Carly Lightfoot’s name wasn’t on any of the checks. She’d left last Saturday, and he hadn’t seen her since.

  She might as well be present, though. She interrupted his sleep with nightly visits in his dreams. Memories of the few kisses they’d exchanged lingered in the back of his mind like a melody he couldn’t tune out.

  Thinking of her mouth made him think of the way she’d responded to his kisses. They’d been wild, those kisses. Each time he and Carly met, there was an instant, mindless explosion of passion between them. It scared the hell out of him.

  Oddly, she hadn’t tried to deny it, nor had she used it to get anything for herself the way some women did. The attraction had surprised her as much as it had him, but she hadn’t pretended it wasn’t there.

  An honest woman. Who’d have thought it?

  As if he were watching a private TV screen, her image flashed into his mind. She had a way of looking directly at a person, her eyes so candid and trusting a person had to believe what she was saying.

  As they said in the communications business, she had a high credibility rating. Or maybe he just wanted to believe the way she gazed at him. As if he were wonderful.

  Yeah. God’s gift and all that. He gave a snort, mocking his own vulnerability to a pretty face and a trusting gaze.

  He knew better. Women were subtle creatures. He’d seen more than one in action. For instance, he’d had a mean stepmother get her hooks into his dad before he died. She’d tried to make off with the family farm. Fortunately, the judge had put a crimp in her plans when the case went to court. Still, she’d gotten a large chunk of money, which they’d needed for new equipment.

  And then there had been his ex-wife. She’d cleaned out his pockets as neatly as any con artist on the police roster, smiling innocently all the while.

  Carly hadn’t pretended to be an innocent. She hadn’t acted coy or skittish. No, she’d just gazed at him as if she’d been struck by stardust each time he’d touched her. It had been unnerving to look into eyes that looked back at him in wonder.

  His body reacted the way it always did to thoughts of her, coming to attention with a hot ache stabbing through him.

  Frowning, he scratched his name on the checks, making them official, and ignored his physicaldemands. When he finished, he stacked the checks neatly on the desk for the new secretary to hand out the next afternoon.

  “Hi, Ty. Are these ready?”

  Martha’s granddaughter bounced into his office, the morning mail in her hand. She placed it in the In basket on his desk, glanced at the checks to see if they were signed, then picked them up to lock them in the safe for the night.

  She gave him a glance that would have had his glands in an uproar if he’d been about twenty instead of thirty-five. Alys was a flirt, but a good-natured one. She laughed at his scowls when she got too bold about his personal life.

  “No big date this weekend, huh?” she blatantly asked, standing on one red, three-inch-high heel and wrapping the other foot around her ankle while she leaned against the desk. She’d have been insulted if she knew he thought of her more as a kid playing dress-up than as an adult.

  “Now, what makes you think that?” he asked, wary of her nosy questions and inquisitive black eyes.

  “You’re not smiling. A man who’s looking forward to getting a little… entertainment over the weekend should look happy.”

  He idly took in her lush, womanly figure. Martha was right to be worried. Alys was ripe for adventure. Her fig ure was full and inviting. And she knew how to use it to advantage.

  Carly, on the other hand, was a small woman. Her breast had fit neatly into his palm….

  He cursed silently and pushed the image from his mind. “What?” he said, realizing she’d said something else.

  The carmine lips went into a pout. “Never mind. You never hear a word I say, anyway.”

  He chuckled. “Maybe you should learn to talk less and say more,” he suggested.

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Yes, it does. Think about it.”

  A sly look came into her twinkling black eyes. “Maybe you liked what that other woman was saying when she was here. What’s the matter? Isn’t she coming back? Is that why you’ve been so grouchy all week?”

  His fuse burned down while he counted to ten, then twenty. He stood, drawing himself to his full six-one height, which was about a foot taller than she was. “You’re the secretary, not my social director,” he reminded her far more gently than he felt. “You’d better lock those checks in the safe and get back to work.”

  Her cheeks turned red, and tears of mortification filled her eyes at his reprimand. He felt like Simon Legree. Not that she didn’t deserve a scold. She was much too bold, but still, he didn’t like hurting her feelings. “You’ve done a good job since you’ve been here,” he added. He picked up his hat, jammed it on his head and walked out, pretending not to see her grateful smile. “I’ll be over at Shane’s for lunch if anyone needs me.”

  He strolled across the stable yard, taking the long way to the house. The pastures were green and lush after two days of
rain early in the week. He breathed a deep sigh of relief. It looked as if it would be a good year.

  Shane had the news on when he arrived at his brother’s house. Two trays were set up, sandwiches already on them. A salad, along with a plate of fruit, cheese and cookies, accompanied the meal.

  “Where’s Tina?” Ty asked, taking the easy chair opposite his brother.

  “She’s having lunch with Genny up at the resort. Can you pick her up in a couple of hours? I was supposed to go get her at two. However, I got a call from the office and have to be in court this afternoon.”

  “Sure.”

  “Jonathan glad to be home?”

  “Yeah. He missed his pony.”

  Shane chuckled. “Is he still excited about starting school with the other kids and riding the bus?”

  “He thinks it’s wonderful, but it’s only the first week.”

  “Twelve years to go, then college. Poor kid.”

  Ty chuckled with his brother and thought of the long days, months and years of schooling kids went through before they could call their lives their own.

  “I want to ask you a question,” Shane mumbled around a big bite of turkey sandwich.

  “Shoot,” Ty invited, trying to ignore a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman on TV as she laughed at something the weatherman was saying. Her coloring reminded him of Carly.

  Shane swallowed and wiped the mayo from the corners of his mouth. “What happened to the woman I sent down to help Elena?”

  “She left.” Ty tried to speak casually. “There was some trouble.” Such as those moments in his bedroom. Big trouble.

  A twinkle came into Shane’s eyes. “Oh, like that, is it?” he questioned softly.

  Heat gathered in Ty’s ears. “Nothing like that,” he snapped. He tersely related the incident with the wrangler. “She packed up and took off. I haven’t seen her since.”

  “Hmm.” Shane ate his sandwich while they listened to the weather report. When it was over, he spoke again. “I was thinking of hiring her to put the ranch records on the computer. Martha’s girl doesn’t know how to load and set up the system.”

  “What makes you think Carly would?”

  “When she applied for cook’s helper, she saw the financial package the county uses. She said she’d put it on her computer, and it was the best she’d ever used.”

  Ty mulled this news over. “Then you knew she’d had her own business before you sent her to the ranch?”

  “Um, yes.” Shane dropped out of the conversation to listen to a news report of an accident on the interstate highway.

  Ty heaved a deep sigh. With his son insisting on going to school—“Now, Dad. I want to go now”—and without Carly’s disturbing presence, not to mention the cowboys who’d moved on to other ranches or the rodeos, the ranch felt deserted these days.

  He finished his meal and settled back with a tall glass of iced tea. “Why did you hire her?” he asked after a long drink. “She was a bit overqualified for a cook’s helper, wasn’t she?”

  Shane wiped his mouth and tossed his napkin on the tray. “Nah. She said she was a terrible cook.” He laughed outright at the grimace Ty shot him. “If looks could kill, I’d have to arrest you for attempted murder,” he drawled in warning. “Actually, since she seems footloose, I thought I’d see if she wanted an undercover job with the department—”

  “Like hell you will.” Ty pushed his chair back so hard, it tipped on two legs, then settled to the floor with a thunk. “Leave her out of your plans.”

  “Well, if you feel that strongly about it.” Shane shrugged. “I’ll see if I can catch my man and tell him not to contact her.”

  “You know where she lives?”

  “Yeah. Do you?”

  Ty faced the challenge in his brother’s eyes. “Yeah,” he said, and dared Shane to make something of it. “I followed her when she left the ranch. To make sure Hodkin wasn’t on her tail.”

  “Hmm.” The news went off. Shane clicked the remote control, and the screen went dark, the dark-haired reporter disappearing.

  Ty experienced a flicker of emotion, a sort of strange pain, as if his own life had been turned off. Well, it had been for two years, and it had been damned peaceful. Carly had brought him back to the living with a kiss.

  Blasted woman.

  She’d invaded his thoughts and his every dream so that he didn’t sleep well at night. Instead, he lay in bed and wondered what she was doing. Several times he’d walked half the night so that he could fall into an exhausted slumber… and he still dreamed of her. Stupid, really stupid.

  A man who didn’t learn from his past mistakes deserved what he got. He pushed the TV tray away and stood. “I’ve got to go. I’ll pick Tina up. Two o’clock, right?”

  “Yeah. Thanks, brother. I’ll do something for you sometime.”

  “Just keep your wife happy,” he advised sardonically. “Else I’ll make a play for her.”

  “Sure you will…and you’ll live another ten seconds after you do.” Shane, too, stood. He stretched lazily, obviously not at all worried about his wife’s or his brother’s loyalty.

  “Thanks for lunch. See you later.” Ty strode out of the comfortable old Victorian that had been built in 1920 after the original farmhouse had burned down. For a moment, he felt the sharp bite of envy.

  He thought about it as he walked to the truck. He didn’t actually envy his brother his happiness. He just wished he had a dollop of it for his own.’ If things had been different…

  Well, no use crying over spilled milk and all that. He’d made a bad choice before, choosing a woman because of her looks and her smile. He wouldn’t be foolish again. Jonathan would have to wait a long time before they found a live-in mom. If they ever did.

  Ty was going to know everything there was to know about the next woman he let in his life. One thing for sure—she wouldn’t be somebody’s ex-fiancée looking for a hideout from her boyfriend.

  He shopped for the items on the ranch list, checked the time and headed for the mountain resort that looked out over the valley.

  The Rogue Mountain Resort was pleasingly busy for a ski area in November, Carly observed. The owner had successfully developed it into an all-season resort. From the number of people with knapsacks and sturdy backpacks strapped over their shoulders, it was a popular place. She liked what she saw.

  She climbed out of her car and went into the huge stone structure. Bill Johnson, a man in his early forties with an easy manner about him, met her in the lobby. Dressed in khaki pants and a blue work shirt, he had the look of a woodsman about him rather than that of building/vendor manager.

  He greeted her and commented on the weather. “Hot today for the first of November, isn’t it?”

  Carly nodded and agreed it was. A part of her was still amazed at the date. The weeks had flown by like dandelion fluff in a gale. Because she’d been at peace for the first time in months, she realized. At the ranch, she’d been happy.

  “About this time every year I begin to wonder if fall will ever come,” he pursued the topic while leading her up the steps. “The temperature soared into the high eighties in the valley yesterday. Of course, it was cooler here on the mountain.”

  Mr. Johnson guided her toward the entrance to the restaurant on the second floor. She suppressed the questions she had while she took in every aspect of the place.

  The resort was bustling. It had a year-round program of hiking, camping and nature-watching, as well as skiing. There was a lively conference-and-convention trade, too.

  More and more, she thought it was perfect for her business. The manager had agreed when she called him about her plan.

  They were given a table for two in a window-enclosed alcove. The view was magnificent. Vistas of rugged mountains and green valleys delighted the eye in every direction. She breathed deeply as if taking the essence of beauty into her, then glanced around.

  It was late, and the dining room was almost empty. The tables near them were unoccupied.
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  “What kind of bribe did you have to pay for this table?”

  “I have connections,” he answered her quip. When he chuckled, his voice was deep, the kind the bass singer in a quartet would have. “That’s the boss over there. He told me to impress you.”

  A warm feeling of welcome flowed over her as she accepted a menu from the hostess. She watched the owner of the resort cast a proprietary glance over the restaurant as he went by. She’d spoken to him by phone twice the previous week.

  “The salmon in the pastry crust is great,” her companion advised. “So are the vegetable kabobs.”

  “The salmon, I think. Since this is on your budget and not mine, I can splurge.”

  When the waitress returned, they were ready to order. As soon as they were alone again, he leaned toward her. “I want to know exactly what your requirements are for the boutique, what traffic you need to sustain the business and what you expect as part of the deal.”

  She smiled, at ease in a business situation. “First, I have some questions of my own. There’s no need in wasting our time if we don’t mesh. I’m looking for a lease arrangement, not a partnership. I handle only my own stock, do my own ordering and have the final decision on location.”

  “The sheriff said you were sharp. He wasn’t kidding.” The manager chuckled.

  After a surprised second, she did, too. What did the sheriff have to do with anything? He didn’t know a thing about her.

  Except her work history, of course. She’d told the truth on her application for the ranch job. Ty’s older brother had accepted her explanation about looking for a place to relocate without visible doubts. Maybe he’d investigated her background.

  The question was—why would he?

  Bill sat back in his chair. “Looks like we have company,” he murmured in a low tone.

  A male figure loomed beside them. “What are you doing here?” Ty Macklin demanded in a deep growl.

  Carly started to tell him it was none of his business when she realized he wasn’t speaking to her.

  “Having lunch,” Bill responded easily.

  “I can see that,” Ty snarled without glancing at her. “She’s out of this, you hear me?”