by Diana Palmer
“Do you ever take the girls to church?”
He hesitated. “Well…no.”
She was watching him with those big, soft gray eyes, in which there wasn’t condemnation or censure. It was almost as if she knew that his faith had suffered since the death of his wife. No, for longer than that. It had suffered since childhood, when his parents had…
“I haven’t gone for several months, myself,” Kasie remarked quietly. She twisted her purse slowly in her hands. “If I…start back, I could take them with me, if you didn’t mind.”
“I don’t mind,” he replied.
Her eyes softened and she smiled at him.
He tore his gaze away from that warm affection and forced it back to the road. His hands tightened on the steering wheel. She really was getting to him. He wished he knew some way to head off trouble. He found her far too attractive, and she continued to make her lack of receptiveness known. He didn’t want to do something stupid and send her looking for another job.
“I enjoyed today,” he said after a minute. “But you remember that Miss Parsons is supposed to be responsible for the girls,” he added with a stern glance. “You have enough to do keeping John’s paperwork current. Understand?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll try very hard to stop interfering,” she promised.
“Good. Pauline is out of town for the next week, but she’ll be home in time for the pool party we’re giving next Saturday. She’ll be in the office the following Monday morning. You can give her another computer lesson.”
She grimaced. “She doesn’t like me.”
“I know. Don’t let it worry you. She’s efficient.”
She wasn’t, but apparently she’d managed to conceal it from Gil. Kasie wondered how he’d managed not to notice the work Pauline didn’t do.
“Did John have a secretary before me?” she asked suddenly.
“He did, and she was a terrific one, too. But she quit with only a week’s notice.”
“Did she say why?” she fished with apparent unconcern.
“Something about being worked to death. John didn’t buy it. She didn’t have that much to do.”
She did, if she was doing John’s work and having Gil’s palmed off on her as well. Kasie’s eyes narrowed. Well, she wasn’t going to get away with it now. If Pauline started expecting Kasie to do her job for her, she was in for a surprise.
“Funny,” Gil murmured as he turned onto the black shale ranch road that led to the Double C. “Pauline said she couldn’t use the computer, but she always had my herd records printed out. Even if they weren’t updated properly.”
Kasie didn’t say a word. Surely he’d work it out by himself one day. She glanced back at the girls, who were still contentedly eating frozen yogurt out of little cups. They were so pretty and sweet. Her heart ached just looking at them. Sandy had been just Bess’s age…
She bit down hard on her lip. She mustn’t cry. Tears were no help at all. She had to look ahead, not backward.
Gil pulled up in front of the house and helped Kasie get the girls out.
“Thanks for the movie,” Kasie told him, feeling shy now.
“My pleasure,” he said carelessly. “Come on, girls, let’s get you settled with Miss Parsons. Daddy’s got to play rancher for a while.”
“Can’t we play, too?” Bess asked, clinging to his hand.
“Sure,” he said. “Just as soon as you can compare birth weight ratios and compute projected weaning weight.”
Bess made a face. “Oh, Daddy!”
“I’ll make a rancher out of you one day, young lady,” he said with a grin.
“Billy’s dad said he was sure glad he had a son instead of girls. Daddy, do you ever wish me and Jenny was boys?” she asked.
He stopped, dropped to one knee and hugged the child close. “Daddy loves little girls,” he said softly. “And he wouldn’t trade you and Jenny for all the boys in the world. You tell Billy I said that.”
Bess chuckled. “I will!” She kissed his cheek with a big smack. “I love you, Daddy!”
“I love you, too, little chick.”
Jenny, jealous, had to have a hug, too, and they ended up each clinging to a strong, lean hand as they went into the house.
Kasie watched them, feeling more lost and alone than she had in months. She ached to be part of a family again. Watching Gil with the girls only emphasized what she’d lost.
She went up onto the porch and up the staircase slowly, her hand smoothing over the silky wood of the banister as she tried once again to come to grips with her loss.
She was curled up in her easy chair watching an old movie on television when there was a soft knock at the door just before it opened. Bess and Jenny sneaked in wearing their gowns and bathrobes and slippers, peering cautiously down the hall before they closed the door.
“Hello,” Kasie said with a smile, opening her arms as they clambered up into the big chair with her and cuddled close. “You smell nice.”
“We had baths,” Bess said. “Miss Parsons said we was covered with chocolate sauce.” She giggled. “We splashed her.”
“You bad babies,” she chided softly and kissed little cheeks.
“Could you tell us a story?” they asked.
“Sure. What would you like to hear?”
“The one with the bears.”
“Okay.” She started the story, speaking in all the different parts, while they snuggled close and listened with attention.
Just to see if they were really listening, she added, “And then the wolf huffed and puffed…”
“No, Kasie!” Bess interrupted. “That’s the pig story!”
“Is it?” she exclaimed. “All right, then. Well, the bears came home…”
“Huffing and puffing?” came a deep, amused query from the doorway. The little girls glanced at him, looking guilty and worried. “Miss Parsons is looking for you two fugitives,” he drawled. “If I were you, I’d get into my beds real fast. She’s glowering.”
“Goodness! We got to go, Kasie!” Bess said, and she and Jenny scrambled to their feet and ran past their father down the hall, calling good-nights as they went.
Gil studied Kasie from the doorway. She was wearing her own white gown, with a matching cotton robe this time, and her long hair waved around her shoulders. She looked very young.
“You weren’t reading from a book. What did you do, memorize the story?” he asked curiously.
“I guess so,” she confided, smiling. “I’ve told it so many times, I suppose I do have it down pretty well.”
“Who did you tell it to?” he asked reasonably.
The smile never faded, but she withdrew behind it. “A little girl who stayed with us sometimes,” she replied. “I see.”
“They came in and asked for a story,” she explained. “I hated telling them to go away…”
“I haven’t said a word.”
“You did,” she reminded him worriedly. “I know that Miss Parsons looks after them. I’m not trying to interfere.”
“I know that. But it’s making things hard for her when they come to you instead,” he said firmly.
She grimaced. “I can’t hurt their feelings.”
“I’ll speak to them.” He held up a hand when she started to protest. “I’ll speak to them nicely,” he added. “I won’t make an issue of it.”
She hesitated. “Okay.”
“You have your own duties,” he continued. “It isn’t fair to let you take on two jobs, no matter how you feel about it. I don’t pay Miss Parsons to sit and read tax manuals.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding,” she said, sitting up straight. “She reads tax manuals? What for? Did you ask her?”
“I did. She says she reads them for pleasure,” he said. “Apparently she didn’t really want to retire from the accounting business, but she was faced with a clerical position or retirement,” he added with a droll smile. “Oh, dear.”
He pushed away from the door facing. “Don’t stay up too late. John
needs to get an early start. He’ll be away for a week showing Ebony King on the road.”
“He’s the new young bull,” Kasie recalled. “He eats corn out of my hand,” she added with a smile. “I never thought of bulls as being gentle.”
“They’re a real liability if they’re not,” he pointed out. “A bull that size could trample a man with very little difficulty.”
“I guess he could.” She stood up, with her hands in the pockets of the cotton robe. “I’m sorry about the girls coming in here.”
“Oh, hell, I don’t mind,” he said on a rough breath. “But it isn’t wise to let them get too attached to you, Kasie. You know it, and you know why.”
“They think you’re going to marry Pauline,” she blurted out, and then flushed at having been so personal with him.
“I haven’t thought a lot about remarrying,” he replied quietly. His eyes went over her with a suddenly intent appraisal. “But maybe I should. They’re getting to the age where they’re going to need a woman’s hand in their lives. I love them, but I can’t see things from a female point of view.”
“You’ve done marvelously with them so far,” she told him. “They’re polite and generous and loving.”
“So was their mother,” he remarked and for a few seconds, his face was lined with grief before he got it under control. “She loved them.”
“You said Bess was like her,” she reminded him.
“Yes,” he said at once. “She had long, wavy blond hair, just that same color. Jenny looks more like me. But Bess is more like me.”
She smiled. “I’ve noticed. She has a very hard head when she doesn’t want to do something.”
He shrugged. “Being stubborn isn’t always a bad thing. Persistence is the key to most successes in life.”
“Yes.” She searched his hard face, seeing the years of work and worry. It was a good, strong face, but it wasn’t handsome.
He was looking at her, too, and something stirred inside him, a need that he had to work to put down. He moved out the door. “Sleep well, Kasie,” he said curtly.
“You, too.”
He closed the door behind him, without looking at her again. She went back to her movie, but with much less enthusiasm.
Chapter 5
The week went by slowly, and the girls, to Kasie’s dismay, became her shadows. She worried herself sick trying to keep Gil from noticing, especially after the harsh comments he’d made about her job responsibilities. It didn’t help that she kept remembering the feel of his arm around her at the movie theater, and the warm clasp of his big lean hand in her own. She was afraid to even look at him, because she was afraid her attraction to him might show.
Saturday came and the house was full of strangers. Kasie found it hard to mix with high-society people, so she stuck to Miss Parsons and the girls. Miss Parsons took the opportunity to sneak back inside the house while Kasie watched the girls. Everything went well at first, because Gil was too busy with guests to notice that Miss Parsons was missing. But not for long. Kasie had given the girls a beach ball to play with, which was her one big mistake of the morning.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d just let the children’s beach ball fly into the swimming pool in the first place. The problem was that, if she didn’t stop it, Pauline was going to get it in the mouth, which wouldn’t improve the already-bad situation between her and Kasie. Bess and Jenny didn’t like Gil Callister’s secretary. Neither did Kasie, but she loved the little girls and didn’t want them to get into trouble. So she gave in to an impulse, and tried valiantly to divert the ball from its unexpecting target.
Predictably, she overreached, lost her footing and made an enormous splash as she landed, fully clothed, in the deep end. And, of course, she couldn’t swim…
Gil looked up from the prospectus he’d been reading when he heard the splash. He connected Kasie’s fall, the beach ball, and his two little blond giggling daughters at once. He shook his head and grimaced. He put aside the prospectus and dived in to save Kasie, Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirt and all.
Her late parents had lived long enough to see the irony of the second name they’d given her. Her middle name was Grace, but she wasn’t graceful. She was all long legs and arms. She wasn’t pretty, but she had a lovely body, and the thin white dress she was wearing became transparent in the water. It was easily noticed that she was wearing only the flimsiest of briefs and a bra that barely covered her pert breasts. Just the thing, she thought miserably, to wear in front of the Callisters’ business partners who were here for a pool party on the big ranch. Feline blond Pauline Raines was laughing her head off at Kasie’s desperate treading of water. Just you wait, lady, she fumed. Next time I’ll give Bess a soccer ball to bean you with and I won’t step in the way…!
Her head went under as her arms gave out. She took a huge breath as powerful arms encircled and lifted her clear of the deep water. It would have to be Gil who rescued her, she thought miserably. John wasn’t even looking their way. He’d have dived in after her in a minute, she knew, if he’d seen her fall. But while he was nice, and kind, he wasn’t Gil, who was beginning to have a frightening effect on Kasie’s heart. She glanced at Pauline as she spluttered. Kasie wished that she was beautiful like Pauline. She looked the very image of an efficient secretary. Kasie had great typing speed, dictation skills and organizational expertise, but she was only ordinary-looking. Besides, she was a social disaster, and she’d just proved it to Gil and all the guests.
Gil had been unexpectedly kind to her at the theater when he’d taken her with the girls to see the movie. She still tingled, remembering his hand holding hers. This, however, was much worse. Her breasts were almost bare in the thin blouse, and she felt the hard muscular wall of his chest with wonder and pleasure and a little fear, because she’d never felt such heady sensations in her body before. She wondered if he’d fire her for making a scene at his pool party, to which a lot of very wealthy and prominent cattlemen and their wives had been invited.
To give him credit, she hadn’t exactly inspired confidence on the job in the past few weeks. Two weeks earlier, she tripped on the front steps and landed in a rosebush at the very feet of a visiting cattleman from Texas who’d almost turned purple trying not to laugh. Then there had been the ice-cream incident last week, which still embarrassed her. Bess had threatened Kasie with a big glop of chocolate ice cream. While Kasie was backing away, laughing helplessly, Gil had come into the house in dirty chaps and boots and shirt with his hat jerked low over one blue eye and his mouth a thin line, with blood streaming from a cut on his forehead. Bess had thrown the ice cream at Kasie, who ducked, just in time for it to hit Gil right in the forehead. While he was wiping it off, Kasie grabbed the spoon from Bess and waited for the explosion as her boss wiped the ice cream away and looked at her. Those blue eyes could cut like diamonds. They actually glittered. But he hadn’t said a word. He’d just looked at her, before he turned and continued down the hall to the staircase that led up to his room.
Now, here she was half-drowned from a swimming pool accident, having made a spectacle of herself yet again.
“I wonder if I could get work in Hollywood?” she sputtered as she hung on for dear life. “There must be a market for terminal clumsiness somewhere!”
Gil raised an eyebrow and gave her a slow, speaking glance before he pulled her close against his chest and turned toward the concrete steps at the far end. He walked up out of the pool, streaming water, and started toward the house. “Don’t struggle, Kasie,” he said at her temple, and his voice sounded odd.
“Sorry,” she coughed. “You can put me down, now. I’m okay. I can walk.”
“If I put you down, you’re going to become the entertainment,” he said enigmatically at her ear. He looked over his shoulder. “John, look after the girls until I get back!” he called.
“Oh, I’ll watch them, Gil!” Pauline interrupted lazily. “Come over here, girls!” she called, without even looking in their dire
ction.
“John will watch them,” Gil said emphatically and didn’t move until his lean, lanky brother jumped up and went toward his nieces, grinning.
Gil went up the staircase with Kasie held close to his chest. “Why can’t you swim?” he asked.
His deep, slow voice made her feel funny. So did the close, almost intimate contact with him. She nibbled on her lower lip, feeling soggy and disheveled and embarrassed. “I’m afraid of the water.”
“Why?” he persisted.
She wouldn’t answer him. It would do no good, and she didn’t want to remember. Probably he’d never seen anyone drown. “Sorry I messed up the pool party,” she murmured.
He shook her gently as they passed the landing and paused at her bedroom door. “Stop apologizing every second word,” he said curtly as he put her down. He held her there with two big, lean hands on her upper arms and studied her intently in the dim light of the wall sconces.
The feel of all that warm strength against her made her giddy. She’d never been so close to him before. He was ten years older than Kasie, and he had an authority and maturity that must have been apparent even when he’d been her age. She had tried to think of him as Bess and Jenny’s daddy, but after their closeness at the movie theater, it was almost impossible to think of him as anything but a mature, sexy man.
“I can’t seem to make you understand that the girls are Miss Parsons’s responsibility, not yours!” He saw her faint flush and scowled down at her. “Speaking of Miss Parsons, where in hell is she?”
She cleared her throat and pushed back a soggy strand of dark hair. “She’s in the office.”
“Doing what?”
She shifted, but he didn’t let go of her arms. That unblinking, ferocious blue stare robbed her of a smart retort. “All right,” she said heavily. “She’s doing the withholding on John’s tax readout.” He didn’t speak. She looked up and grimaced. “Well, I’m not up on tax law, and she is.”
“So you traded duties without permission, is that it?”
She hesitated. “Yes. I’m sorry. But it’s just for today! You already know that she doesn’t…well, she doesn’t like children very much, really, and I hate taxes…”