by Cora Seton
Chapter Three
‡
“Who’s she talking to?” Jack asked no one in particular as he lugged his end of the box spring awkwardly down the stairs.
“Be careful,” Wyoming said, meeting them at the bottom. “And that was Landon Clark on the phone for Alice. The movie producer guy.”
“You should have known that, Jack. Aren’t you keeping tabs on everyone?” Connor crashed into the wall, shifted his grip on the box spring and swore. They made it into the living room and put it next to the mattress they’d already carried down.
“Let’s go get the frame,” Brian said. “Then we can lug some of the office furniture up there.”
“What do you think about this Landon guy?” Jack asked.
“Haven’t met him. Only heard a few things from Cass, but Alice sure seems excited about him. Sounds like it could be her big break.”
Connor followed Jack back upstairs. “What’s it going to be like having the old man around, do you think? Will he stay?”
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Brian said.
Hunter nodded. “Sure is going to be interesting around here.”
Jack couldn’t help wondering how the General’s presence would affect his chances with Alice. He wished he had more time to get to know her before the man arrived. Jack could only imagine how things would play out. A woman who’d been feuding with her father for years wasn’t going to be in the mood for romance under these circumstances.
Which meant he’d better woo her now.
By the time they’d shuttled the office furniture upstairs and replaced it with the bed, bed stands and dresser, however, Alice was nowhere in sight.
“She’s gone to her studio,” Wyoming said when he came looking for her in the kitchen. She and Cass were still washing and drying dishes. Sadie was running a broom around the room. Jo was getting ready to take out the trash. “So you’re Alice’s husband-to-be, huh?” Wyoming scrutinized him.
“You’d better treat my sister right,” Cass said to him as she handed a glass to Wye. “What made the General pick you?”
Jack had no idea how to answer that. It was a question he’d asked himself plenty of times. “Maybe he thinks we’re alike.”
Cass exchanged a look with Sadie. “Are you psychic?”
“Hardly.” Jack shifted uncomfortably. “But then I highly doubt Alice is either.”
“Oh, this is going to be fun.” Wyoming turned to Cass. “I’m definitely staying for as long as you’ll have me.”
“Where should I sleep tonight?” he asked Cass. “Any couch will do.” When in doubt, play the gentleman, he thought.
“We’re putting Wyoming in Jo’s old room,” Cass said. “Jack, you’ll take the spare room.”
“Are you sure?” Jack asked.
“Works for me.” Wye grinned at Jack. “Getting to watch you chase Alice almost makes up for getting canned yesterday.”
“Don’t forget Will’s coming back soon. Maybe it’ll be a double wedding,” Cass told her.
Wyoming rolled her eyes. “Will’s cute, but we haven’t determined he’s marriage material yet.” She looked Jack over again. “We’re reserving judgment on you, too, so behave yourself.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jack saluted and got the hell out of there.
Alice looked up from the lace she was stitching onto a lilac gown when she heard footsteps on the carriage house stairs and sighed when Jack came into view, ignoring the little extra thump her heart gave at the sight of his handsome face. She wished she could study him without him knowing. Get a good long look at the man the General had thought she should spend the rest of her life with.
“Am I interrupting?” Jack moved into the large studio and looked around him. She wondered what he thought about what he saw. Racks and racks of costumes she’d designed and sewed ringed the space. Large worktables filled the center. A long row of floor-to-ceiling windows lined one wall. In the daytime, sunlight poured through them, making the space delightful—and hot in the summer. Tabitha had joined her and was sleeping on an easy chair that sat in one corner.
“I’m trying to finish some work that’s due in a few days.”
“For Landon?”
Alice let her needle drop. “How do you know about Landon?”
“Brian told me.”
Brian seemed to have told Jack everything. She picked up her needle again and got back to work, but it was hard to ignore the man prowling around her workroom.
“Did you sew all of these?”
“Yes.”
He turned, taking in all the racks. “That’s a lot of sewing.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Did your mother teach you?”
Alice’s stitches slowed. “Yes, the basics, anyway. I taught myself the rest.”
Jack came to stand nearby and looked the mannequin up and down. “You’d look pretty in that dress.”
“It’s not meant for me.” But he was right; it would fit her well, except for its length. Marlene Avarro, the actress Landon wanted to sign on for the lead female role, was far taller than her, but their proportions were about the same.
“Is it for someone specific?”
She chose her words carefully. “Landon has an actress in mind for the lead. He wants to bribe her with costumes. I’m supposed to make three ball gowns so he can get an idea of my work—and in the hopes one of them will prove irresistible to her.”
“You’re not going to say who it is?”
“I signed an NDA.” She shrugged and bent back over the hem, glad for the excuse to hide her face. It was hard to disguise what she was feeling—a mixture of curiosity, resentment and… well… lust, if she was honest. Jack was… lustworthy.
Had the General realized that?
Ick.
“Got it.” He sat down on the edge of a nearby table and watched her work. “Do you like it here? In Chance Creek?”
Alice’s fingers slowed again. “Of course. It’s my home.”
“You never think of leaving?”
“Sometimes.”
Was it her imagination, or was Jack turning her answer over in his mind? “Where would you go?”
“Hollywood. That’s where all the work is, right?”
“You’re a city girl at heart? Is that it?” He was teasing her, but she had a feeling the question was more serious than he was letting on. What did he really want to know?
A vision struck her, and she got a glimpse of the two of them riding horses over snowy ground.
Then it was gone.
But the scene left a feeling behind Alice was all too familiar with. An aching kind of bittersweet pleasure that came with living on a property your family had owned for generations. On the one hand, it held you in place, whether you wanted it to or not. On the other hand, it was so sweet when you knew your home through and through. She loved this ranch. Always had.
“No, I’m not a city girl. I’m just… looking for a change, I guess. I’ve lived here all my life.”
“How about I take you somewhere special on our honeymoon, and we call it good?” She turned on him, and he raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Right, right—I forgot. I’m the man you’re not going to marry.”
“That’s right.”
“Why not?”
“Maybe I don’t want to.”
“Why don’t you want to?”
“Maybe I feel trapped,” she said, then wished she hadn’t. “Maybe I don’t want a man calling the shots. Maybe I want to be able to go where I want to.”
Jack stilled. He was paying her far too much attention. Alice felt he could see right through her. “That’s more important than family?”
Alice felt like he’d kicked her in the gut. That was the dilemma, wasn’t it? Freedom or family. “I don’t know,” she said honestly, although the idea of ever leaving her sisters behind left her gutted.
He nodded after a moment. “I’ve had enough of travel. I want a real home.”
“What about family?”
“I want that, too.”
Jack wanted Alice. Wanted to get to know her, anyway. Wanted the rest of the bargain the General had offered him: part of a ranch, the camaraderie of living with the other men and their wives.
But Alice wanted to leave.
“When do you have to get this done by?” He nodded to the dress, trying to steer the conversation to safer ground.
She sighed. “Saturday. Noon. That’s when Landon’s getting here.”
“Why’s he coming here?”
“I think he wants to see my studio and get a feel for how I work. This is a huge commission. He needs to know I’m up for it. I’m not sure I am,” she admitted. “I’m going to have to hire out a lot of the work. I’ve never done that before.”
“Landon’s coming here in seven days,” Jack repeated. Which meant all Alice’s time would be taken up trying to impress the man. “How long is he staying?” When the General arrived home, he figured Alice’s attention would be taken up by her father.
Jack couldn’t help wondering if the General would change his mind about this mission when he got here and made up with his girls. Why would he need Jack then? If the General sent him away, he’d be right back where he started from—in trouble with the Army, unsure about his future. He didn’t want to backtrack like that.
“I don’t know.” Alice tied off the thread and snipped it close with a tiny pair of scissors. She got to her feet. “I’ve got to get these dresses done, and I need to help Cass get ready for the General, too. It’s going to be a busy few days.”
Her meaning was clear. It was time for him to leave.
He didn’t want to. Being close to Alice was reminding him he was a man who hadn’t been with a woman for far too long.
“If I lived on a ranch like Two Willows, I’d never leave,” he confessed. Montana was different from New Mexico, but that didn’t matter. He didn’t need to return to the ghosts of his family; he wanted to move forward, taking along with him all of the happy memories.
He wanted to make some new ones.
“If?” Alice asked him. “So you’re not sure about marrying me either?”
“No one knows what the future will bring.”
Alice stilled. “I do.”
That was the whole problem, Alice thought. The General had sent Jack to marry her, and judging by what had happened with her sisters, chances were she would, even if she didn’t want to. Then there was the vision she’d had of Jack standing at the altar, Reverend Halpern ready to perform the ceremony. She hadn’t been in that vision, she realized. But Jack was going to marry someone in Chance Creek. It didn’t take a psychic to guess who.
If there wasn’t so much pressure on the situation, maybe she’d be able to enjoy getting to know this handsome man, Alice reflected. Maybe she’d fall for him bit by bit. Maybe he’d turn out to be exactly the kind of sexy, funny, smart man she would have picked for herself—if she’d been allowed to pick for herself.
Or maybe he wouldn’t, and they’d drift apart.
That was the way people were supposed to find their husbands. Their father wasn’t supposed to send them a man. Visions weren’t supposed to make the outcome a foregone conclusion.
Am I attracted to Jack because I think I’m supposed to be? Or because I really am? She couldn’t be sure.
Which made it impossible to simply follow her instincts—especially the ones urging her to close the distance between them.
“You’re thinking about kissing me.”
Jack’s assertion brought her back up straight. “No, I’m not!”
“You leaned toward me. Your gaze was on my mouth. Doesn’t take a mind-reader to know what you wanted. That’s the way you work, too, right? Reading the cues that people give you?”
Alice recoiled. “That’s not it at all.”
“Come on, Alice. I won’t tell.”
He was serious, she realized. He thought she’d spent years cultivating a reputation that was a lie. “I’m not like you,” she spat out. “Spying on people and using what you learn against them.”
It was Jack’s turn to pull back, but before he could defend himself, she waved him away. “Landon’s coming in seven days, and I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
After a moment Jack nodded. “Fine. I’ll let you get back to it, but you don’t know as much about me as you think you do.”
“And you don’t know me at all.”
Chapter Four
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It was after two in the morning when the knocking woke him.
Jack surged awake and found his feet on the floor, his hands reaching for his firearm—which was locked away in a safe. He nearly knocked Alice’s photograph off his bedside table before he realized he was in Montana. He took another second to listen for the source of the knocking. He could swear it hadn’t come from the direction of the door.
Had it come from the wall he shared with Alice’s bedroom?
He listened hard and heard the quiet sound of a door shutting. Had Alice been in the hallway after all?
Did she want him?
Jack pulled on a pair of sweatpants, opened his door quietly and padded the few steps to Alice’s room. “Alice?” he asked softly.
“Who’s that?”
He heard a flurry of movement from his left as he opened her door and moved into the room, and he could make out Alice’s form on her bed in the dim light. She was clutching her covers to her chin, her shoulders bare. Did Alice sleep in the nude?
Interesting.
“It’s Jack. What did you want?”
“What do you mean?” She relaxed—a little, but still clutched at her covers.
He shut the door behind him so as not to wake everyone else. “You knocked on the wall.”
“No, I—” Alice laughed softly. “It’s the pipes. They do that when someone uses the water in the upstairs bathroom. I just came in from my studio. I was getting ready for bed.”
“So you weren’t trying to lure me over here for salacious purposes?”
“Alas, no.” Her voice was softer in the darkness than it had been earlier in the carriage house. Jack warmed to the sound of it. He found he wanted her to keep talking.
“But what happens if you want to someday?” he asked. “How will I be able to tell your salacious purposes knock from the knocking of the pipes?”
“My salacious purposes knock is very distinctive,” she assured him. She was a vision with her hair tumbled about her bare shoulders. He liked discovering she had a sense of humor.
“You’ll have to demonstrate.”
“I’ll do that. Tomorrow, when everyone is awake.”
“I’ll demonstrate mine, too.”
“I’m pretty sure men don’t get to have salacious purposes knocks.”
“Huh. That seems unfair.”
“Men would just overuse them.”
Jack chuckled. Too true.
He knew it was time to let Alice sleep, but he hesitated, a hand on the doorknob. “See you in the morning.”
“Good night.” She shifted down under the covers, and Jack thought he’d carry the image of her nestled in her bed for the rest of his life. His whole body ached to join her there. Back in his own bed, it took him a long time to fall back to sleep.
All too soon, though, Jack woke to the smell of a delicious breakfast cooking. When he made it downstairs, Cass was presiding over the stove, frying eggs. A pan of sausages was already on the table, along with orange and apple slices and a plate of toast. Wyoming was setting the table. Sadie was pouring herself some coffee.
“Help yourself,” Cass said. “Sit anywhere. We don’t stand on ceremony at breakfast.”
“Thanks.” He took a seat across from Connor and began to fill his plate.
Brian was seated at the head of the table. Sadie was on the other side of Connor.
“Where’s Jo and Hunter?” he asked, before he remembered they’d be in their own little house they’d built together befor
e the snow came.
“They eat breakfast on their own,” Cass said crisply, and Jack wondered if that was a bone of contention. Cass seemed the mother-hen type. Had it bothered her when one of her sisters escaped the nest?
“What about Alice?”
“She’s already in her studio.” Cass sent a worried look out the window toward the carriage house. “There was a plate in the sink when I got up. She must have grabbed a bite early this morning.”
“She’s worried about Landon,” Sadie said. “She shouldn’t be; who wouldn’t hire Alice after they see what she can do?”
“Have you looked into this guy?” Jack asked Brian.
Brian shook his head swiftly, and Jack got the message. Not here, in front of the women. Save that conversation for another time.
“Just wondering what other movies he’s made.” Jack tried to cover his tracks.
“He hasn’t made any other movies,” Sadie said. “He’s new to this, but he seems to have a lot of cash to throw around. Alice is going to be rich.”
“Alice is already rich.”
When everyone looked his way, Jack realized he’d said that out loud. “She’s got all of you. This ranch. A job she loves.”
“You’re right,” Cass said softly. “It’s a good life. But you missed something. She’s got ambition, too. She’s a master at what she does. She deserves recognition for that.”
“I guess.” He didn’t like the idea of Alice’s ambition taking her away from Chance Creek—and him. After their conversation last night, Jack realized he’d utterly misjudged Alice. She could be warm. Funny.
Sexy.
The kind of woman he’d love to spend time with.
Would her ambition get in the way?
He finished his breakfast, thanked Cass, pulled on his outer gear and followed the other men outside, just in time to see a sheriff’s cruiser pull up and a tall bear of a man climb out.
“Morning, Cab. You’re out early,” Brian called as they went to greet the sheriff. Jack had heard about the man from the others. Had looked him up on the internet, too. In person, the sheriff was imposing, but Jack knew he was on their side and took the trouble that had plagued Two Willows seriously.