Sure, Dana could act natural and concerned. She didn’t have Tess’s history with the man.
Or Tess’s secret.
“What brings you back to Flagman’s Folly after all these years?” Dana asked him.
“Well, tell the truth, I’m looking to buy some land here.”
“Is that so?” Dana stood taller and smiled wider.
Tess knew her friend’s pulse must have quickened at the thought of a possible sale. Her own pulse was beating fast—for other reasons.
“As we like to say around here,” Dana continued, “you’ve come to the ‘Wright Place.’ I’m sure we can help you out.”
“So am I. I’ve got a list.” He tilted his head. “I’d like to talk things over with Tess. Thought we’d go on along to the Double S. Over a cup of coffee, I can fill her in on what I need.”
That wasn’t what she needed. Not at all.
She sent her friend an agonized look.
Of course, Dana couldn’t understand what it meant. Instead, she sent back an expression of wide-eyed innocence that said plainly, We’ll talk later.
“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be able to do much for you,” Tess protested. “I’m just the hired help. A glorified file clerk, really. Dana’s the boss. You’ll want to deal with her.”
Caleb focused on her again. “I don’t know about that,” he drawled. “You and I’ve got some catching up to do.”
She curled her fingers into fists. “No, we do not, and—”
“Ahh…Tess?” Dana broke in. She looked at Caleb. “If you’ll excuse us for just a minute…?”
He patted the fender of the pickup truck. “I’ll be waiting right here.”
“Thanks.”
Within seconds, Dana had unlocked the door and led the way into the office. She turned to Tess with a wide smile—most likely for the benefit of Caleb, who stood outside the storefront window—and said, “Girl, have you completely lost your mind?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, we’re both going to lose our jobs if we don’t make a sale soon.”
Tess sighed. “I know.”
As a single mom and the sole breadwinner for her small family, Tess clung to the paycheck she earned here. The money took care of their bills, if she budgeted carefully. When she had pennies left, she helped tide her mother over with her fledgling business, turning their home into a bed-and-breakfast inn and taking on guests.
Nonexistent guests, lately.
Things were bad all around. No one had much money on hand for vacationing in small-town inns. Or for buying property, for that matter. Losing this job would mean she’d have no income.
Roselynn and Nate depended on her. But as bad as things were for her, she knew Dana had it much worse. Widowed and left a single mom, her friend struggled to get by with three kids of her own.
Now Dana stood tugging on a lock of her honey-brown hair, her blue eyes narrowed in speculation.
“I have no idea what all this ‘catching up’ is that you and Caleb have to do—” Tess remained silent “—though I’m sure I’ll hear about it sometime.” She smiled as if to soften the words.
Since grade school, she and Dana had shared everything. But not that. She’d never told Dana anything about her connection to Caleb. Much as Tess loved her, she knew Dana couldn’t have kept herself from broadcasting the news that Tess had found a boyfriend. Tess had had her own reasons for not wanting the news spread. And after what had happened, she’d given thanks that no one had known.
“I suppose,” Dana was saying, “I could offer to show him around town, but I don’t want to risk him taking offense. He obviously wants to work with you.”
“Yes, I know.” Why? That’s what worried her. Caleb Cantrell didn’t do anything without a reason. And he certainly didn’t do anything he didn’t want to. She had learned that years ago. After their last conversation way back then, she couldn’t imagine why he’d want to speak to her again—or how he could have the nerve to believe she would ever have anything to do with him.
“Look,” Dana said, “I can understand your reluctance to deal with Caleb. The man didn’t have such a great reputation when he lived here.”
“That has nothing to do with it,” she protested truthfully.
“Fine. But if there’s one thing we know about him, he’s made money since he left town. Who are we to keep him from spending it in Flagman’s Folly? And, let’s face it, we need the commission.”
“I know.” She couldn’t refuse to work with Caleb.
Besides, did she really want Dana working with him? Talking to him? Asking him questions about that so-called “catching up” he claimed they needed to do?
“All right,” she said at last, choking on the words.
But it wasn’t. No matter how much money she might bring in by making a sale for Wright Place Realty, dealing with Caleb Cantrell could cost her plenty. If he ever found out about the baby she’d kept from him, it might cost her the daughter she loved.
Chapter Two
“Now you know what I’m looking for,” Caleb finished up. Across their booth in the Double S, Tess stared down at her notebook. “The best money can buy.”
He had grabbed his coffee and her tea and headed to the empty booth at the far front corner of the room, close to the café’s door. Not that he would need a getaway…
Tess didn’t look too happy about sitting here with him. And she’d said next to nothing, leaving him to spend the last half hour doing enough talking to make his throat drier than New Mexico dust. Luckily, Dori kept the pot hot and full.
He glanced down at the woven place mat under his coffee mug, then around the room at the rough wooden tables and chairs, the bare planked floors, the colorful sombreros on the wall.
At anything that gave him the chance to think for a minute without staring at Tess.
Why he should find it hard to look her in the eye, he didn’t know. Finding out she worked selling real estate had given him the best reason in the world for getting in touch with her once he’d come back to town. And her job made her just the person he needed to get his point across to everyone. He’d run down a list a mile long, throwing in every option he could think of for the kind of property he wanted to buy. The best, the biggest. The most expensive property.
He looked around the café. At this hour, too late for workers to stop in for coffees to go and too early for a lunch rush, the restaurant had only a few customers. Luckily, no one he knew. He’d returned to Flagman’s Folly eager to get to work, but now that he had arrived, he’d realized he should’ve done more thinking beforehand about his great idea.
Much as he hated to admit it, seeing Tess again had shaken him more than he would have guessed.
But it was time to put his plan into action.
He looked back at her. “You got all that?”
“I believe so.” Her head down, she flipped back through the pages of the notebook that lay on the table beside her.
He took the opportunity to check her out yet again.
Could have knocked him over with a frayed lasso when he’d seen her come walking along Signal Street. Luckily he’d gotten hold of himself by the time she’d reached him.
During the past ten years, Tess hadn’t changed a bit.
Well…naturally, she’d grown up and filled out.
Still, she had the same shoulder-length tumble of dark curls, the pale skin that gave her away every time she blushed, the sparkling dark brown eyes. She looked up at him again now, those eyes wide, and said not a word.
He glanced down to see her hanging on to her teacup for dear life, it seemed. No wedding band. He wondered about that.
Not that it meant anything to him.
If only he could say the same a
bout the way her fingers had trembled in his when he’d shaken her hand earlier…
Letting go of the death grip on her cup, she transferred her attention to the hem of her yellow shirt. The tug she gave on it pulled the fabric taut against her.
He forced himself to focus on taking a long swallow of his coffee.
“I think I’ve got everything we’ll need.” Her lips curved briefly. “Any last-minute items for your wish list?”
Yeah. A real smile. That one had looked so fake, he wouldn’t have given her a nickel for it. “Nope. That about covers it for now.”
“Then I’ll get back to the office and start working on this. I’m sure we’ll be able to find something to suit you.” She flipped the notebook closed and dropped it into her bag.
When she started to slide out from the booth, he reached for her arm. Warm, soft skin met his palm. Holding her hand outside the office had given him a jolt. This about mule-kicked him across the room.
He pulled his hand away and cleared his throat. “What’s your hurry? Been a long time since the two of us talked.”
“Yes.”
Obviously, if she had her way, it would be an even longer time before they had a proper conversation.
He settled against his seat cushions and stretched his legs out under the table, trying to find a comfortable position. “So, you wound up selling property for a living? Not a bad job. What does your husband do?”
And why the heck had he asked that?
Tess looked as if she wondered the same thing. “I don’t have a husband,” she said, clipping the words.
He frowned. “Last time I saw you, you were planning on getting married.”
“I know,” she said, her voice cold. “It didn’t work out.”
“Yeah. Neither did we.” Again, he’d blurted the response without thinking. This time, though, he knew why. The bitter memory of their last meeting had driven him to speech.
He might as well have waved a red flag in front of her with his words. Her face went as belligerent as a bull getting ready to charge.
“There was no ‘we,’ Caleb. I seem to remember that maybe once there might have been. But you wanted to go off and start winding your way along the rodeo trail. So you did.”
The acid in her tone seemed at odds with the hurt look in her eyes.
Well, he’d had his reasons. And she’d damned well given him another. One guaranteed to keep him away. Jaw clenched, he tried shrugging away the wave of guilt pounding at him. No such luck. He reached for the fresh pot of coffee Dori had brought a few minutes back.
The door to the Double S opened. Glad for the distraction, he looked up and watched a group of little girls roll like tumbleweeds into the place.
On the opposite side of the booth, Tess jerked to attention. He’d swear her face grew paler yet.
“Anything wrong?” he asked.
She shook her head.
She was lying. Something about that little crowd bothered her.
“Excuse me a minute,” she said.
The girls had crossed the café and taken over the row of stools lining the counter in the back of the room. They looked innocent enough. Clean and respectable, too. A big contrast to the kid he’d given the cash to earlier.
The same thing people had thought about him when he’d lived here. He gripped the handle of his coffee mug, trying to get hold of his anger. At that age, neither he nor that kid had the power to control their worlds. Couldn’t folks understand that?
He shook his head and looked again at the girls. Eight, nine years old, maybe. He’d seen plenty like them in his days on the circuit. Just a bunch of giggling kids who cared only about hanging out at the rodeo with their friends. Nothing to worry about with girls that age.
It was the older ones you had to watch out for.
Eyes half-closed, he sat back and admired the view of Tess’s yellow shirt riding above well-fitting khakis as she marched toward the group of girls.
When she came up to them, they swung around on their stools. The sideways glances the four of them shot each other said plainly they hadn’t expected to run into her here.
She leaned close to one of the kids, a pint-size version of Tess with dark curls and a stubborn chin he’d recognized easily. Had to be Tess’s little girl.
All the coffee he’d swallowed that morning suddenly churned in his stomach.
The kid stuck that chin out now and shook her head. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from Tess. Trouble there, for sure.
The girl looked around the room at anyone and anything but her mama. Her gaze zeroed in on him, and her eyes widened to about the size of his competition champion belt buckles.
“Mom, look!” she said in a strangled whisper. She might’ve been trying to keep her voice down, but he could hear her clear across the room. She tugged on Tess’s shirt. “Mom, do you see him?” Her voice rose with every word. She waved her arms frantically at her friends. “Guys—over there, in the corner. That’s Caleb Cantrell.”
The trio surrounding her squealed like a sty full of pigs discovering a replenished trough. A familiar enough sound.
He smiled in satisfaction. Now, this was one group in Flagman’s Folly he wouldn’t need to work at impressing.
All four of them jumped off their stools.
To give her credit, Tess made an attempt to grab hold of her daughter and the girl next to her. They likely didn’t even feel her hands on their shoulders as they slipped from her grasp. At that moment they were driven, with one goal in mind.
Getting to him.
From the look on Tess’s face, she wanted to be anywhere but here.
Carefully, he set his half-full coffee mug aside, moved his Stetson out of reach and braced himself, knowing what would happen next.
The girls headed toward him. No tumbleweeds rolling gently along now. Their eyes shining, their mouths tight with suppressed excitement, they stampeded across the room.
“ALL RIGHT.” Tess looked from one girl to another, stopping at Nate. “You remember that list of chores you promised to do for Miss Roselynn in exchange for the sleepover tonight?”
They all nodded.
“Well, that’s a start.” She had spent more time than she could afford trying to drag their attention away from Caleb.
As rodeo-crazy as Nate and her friends were, she should have known Nate would recognize the champion bull rider immediately. If only the girls hadn’t come into the Double S just when she happened to be there with Caleb. But that was a faint if only—and a useless one. In a town the size of Flagman’s Folly, everyone would run into him sooner than later.
In the minute it took for those thoughts to flash through her mind, the girls had edged closer to Caleb again.
She tensed. “Get started now, girls,” she said. “Miss Roselynn will be waiting for those groceries.”
Even to her own ears, she’d sounded as firm as a blade of wet grass. Looking across the booth at Caleb, she felt just about as sturdy. After this run-in with him, she really needed peace and quiet. And time to practice the calm front she would have to present whenever he was around.
But there wasn’t time enough in the world for that.
Besides, the way he sat smiling at her left no doubt he’d noticed her staring at him. He’d probably already seen right through her. As bad as the girls, she now had to drag her own attention away from the man, who obviously had plenty of experience in the spotlight.
“You’ve got the list for Harley’s,” she reminded Nate and her friends. “And you’ve got the money, too?” At their nods, she added, “Great. Then please get the shopping done—and don’t forget to use the coupons.”
Every penny saved meant a penny more she could use to help her mother p
ut food on the tables at the bed-and-breakfast. The Whistlestop Inn might be empty of guests now, but with any luck, Roselynn would soon have every room occupied. And not by a houseful of chattering girls.
That was all she needed tonight.
After a burst of giggles and goodbyes to Caleb, the group ran toward the door.
One voice rose above the laughter. “’Bye, Mom. See ya later.” The door slammed in her wake.
Tess sank back onto the booth’s bench seat.
“Sleepover?” he asked.
“They’re celebrating school letting out last week.” She exhaled heavily. With the way Nate had behaved lately, she’d skated very close to not having this party. And if things didn’t improve, it could turn into a very long summer.
The thought that Caleb might be there for a good part of it left her choking on her indrawn breath of dismay. She swore she’d do whatever it took to have him on his way as soon as possible. Focusing on him again, she realized she’d missed the beginning of his response.
“—can’t be a bad bunch at all,” he was saying, “if they’re willing to do chores that cheerfully. And your daughter sure takes after you.”
The blood seemed to rush from her head, making her dizzy. There were many subjects she never, ever wanted to discuss with Caleb Cantrell. On a scale of zero to ten, the topic of her daughter ranked at three hundred.
“Yes,” she said shortly. She shoved one shaking hand through her hair. With the other, she picked up her canvas bag as she rose from the bench. “Well, I’ve got your information. Time for me to go and start working on it.”
She turned away and waved a brief goodbye to Dori. The older woman stood with her elbows resting on the counter at the back of the room, taking a much-needed break.
“You’ll come see us again soon?” Dori asked, directing the question to Tess but then quickly looking past her toward Caleb.
Was no female over the age of five immune to the man’s charms?
“I’m sure I will,” Tess said firmly.
“Be a real pleasure, Dori,” he drawled. “For both of us.”
The Rodeo Man's Daughter (Harlequin American Romance) Page 2