by Diana Palmer
‘‘Anyway, just take your time and let the world pass you by. You’re going to love it here. I promise.’’
‘‘Am I?’’ She watched Rey come back out of the house with an elderly lady in tow, wringing her hands on her apron.
‘‘That’s Mrs. Lewis,’’ Leo told her. ‘‘We talked her into coming back to bake biscuits for us, even though she’d retired, but now we’re losing her to arthritis. She’s going to show you the ropes. But not right now,’’ he added quickly.
‘‘No time like the present,’’ Meredith disagreed with a smile. ‘‘Busy hands make busy minds.’’
‘‘I know how that works,’’ Leo murmured drolly.
Rey opened the back door and helped Meredith out. ‘‘Mrs. Lewis, this is Meredith Johns, our new cook. Meredith, Annie Lewis. She’s retiring. Again.’’ He made it sound like a shooting offense.
‘‘Oh, my, yes, I’m losing the use of my hands, I’m afraid,’’ Mrs. Lewis said. ‘‘Glad to meet you, Miss Johns.’’
‘‘Glad to meet you, too, Mrs. Lewis,’’ Meredith replied.
‘‘I’ll take your bag to your room, while Mrs. Lewis shows you around the house,’’ Rey added.
‘‘She just got here,’’ Leo protested.
‘‘And there’s no time like the present to show her the house,’’ Rey replied.
‘‘That’s just what she said,’’ Leo sighed.
Rey glanced at Meredith, who gave him a wicked grin and followed along behind Annie Lewis, who was making a valiant effort not to ask about the terrible bruises on Meredith’s face.
‘‘It’s a big, sprawling house, and it takes a lot of cleaning,’’ Mrs. Lewis said as she led Meredith down the long hall and opened doors to the very masculine bedrooms both with dark, heavy Mediterranean furniture and earth tones in the drapes and carpets. ‘‘The men aren’t messy, thank God, but they track in all that mud and dust and animal fur! They had beige carpeting when I came here.’’ She glanced at Meredith with a shake of her head. ‘‘Red mud just won’t come out of beige carpet!’’
‘‘Or anything else,’’ Meredith added on a soft laugh.
‘‘They work hard, and they’re away a lot. But the foreman lives in the bunkhouse with a couple of bachelor cowboys, and they’ll look out for you.’’
‘‘I don’t know that I’ll be here very long,’’ Meredith replied quietly. ‘‘They offered me the job so that I can have time for these to heal.’’ She touched her face, and looked straight at the older woman, who was struggling not to ask the question in her eyes.
‘‘Nobody will hurt you here,’’ Mrs. Lewis said firmly.
Meredith smiled gently. ‘‘My father got drunk and beat me up, Mrs. Lewis,’’ she explained matter-of-factly. ‘‘He’s a good and kind man, but we’ve had a terrible tragedy to work through. He hasn’t been able to cope with it except by losing himself in a bottle, and now he’s gone too far and he’s in jail.’’ She sighed. ‘‘I tried so hard to help him. But I couldn’t.’’
Mrs. Lewis didn’t say a word. She put her arms around Meredith and rocked her in them. The shock of it brought the tears that she’d held back for so long. She wept until her body shook with sobs.
Rey, looking for her, stopped dead in the doorway of his bedroom and met Mrs. Lewis’s misty eyes over Meredith’s bowed shoulders. It shocked him to see that feisty, strong woman collapsed in tears. It hurt him.
Mrs. Lewis made a gesture with her eyebrows and a severe look. Rey acknowledged it with a nod and a last glance at the younger woman as he walked back down the hall.
Supper was riotous. Meredith had made a huge pan of homemade biscuits and ferreted out all sorts of preserves to go with them. For an entrée, she made fajitas with lean beef and sliced vegetables, served with wild rice and a salad. Dessert was fresh fruit and fresh whipped cream, the only concession besides the biscuits that she made to fat calories. She’d also found some light margarine to set out.
‘‘This is good,’’ Rey commented as he glanced at her. ‘‘We usually have broiled or fried steak with lots of potatoes.’’
‘‘Not bad once a week or so, but terrible for your cholesterol,’’ she pointed out with a smile as she finished her salad. ‘‘Lean beef is okay for you, but not in massive doses.’’
‘‘You sound like a dietician,’’ Leo chuckled.
‘‘Modern women have to keep up with health issues,’’ she said evasively. ‘‘I’m responsible for your health while I’m working for you. I have to be food-conscious.’’
‘‘That’s fine,’’ Rey told her flatly, ‘‘but don’t put tofu and bean sprouts in front of me if you want to stay here.’’
Her eyebrows arched. ‘‘I hate tofu.’’
‘‘Thank God,’’ Leo sighed as he buttered another biscuit. ‘‘ got fed tofu salad the last time I went to Brewster’s for supper,’’ he added with absolute disgust. ‘‘I ate the olives and the cheese and left the rest.’’
‘‘I can’t say that I blame you,’’ Meredith said, laughing because he looked so forlorn.
‘‘Janie Brewster thinks tofu is good for him,’’ Rey commented. ‘‘But she thinks he needs therapy more. He doesn’t like fish. She says that has some sort of connection to his fear of deep water.’’ He glanced at his brother with wicked affection. ‘‘She’s a psychology major. She already has an associate degree from our local junior college.’’
‘‘She’s twenty,’’ Leo said with a twist of his lower lip. ‘‘She knows everything.’’
‘‘She just got her associate degree this spring,’’ Rey added.
‘‘Good. Maybe she’ll get a job in New York,’’ Leo said darkly.
‘‘Why New York?’’ Meredith asked curiously.
‘‘Well, it’s about as far east as she can go and find her sort of work,’’ Leo muttered. ‘‘And she’d be out of my hair!’’
Rey gave him a covert glance and finished his fajitas.
Meredith finished her own meal and got up to refill coffee cups. She had a feeling that Leo was more interested in the nebulous Brewster girl than he wanted to admit.
‘‘We need groceries,’’ she told them when she’d served dessert and they were eating it. ‘‘Mrs. Lewis made me a list.’’
‘‘You can use one of the ranch trucks to drive to town,’’ Leo suggested carelessly.
Her fingers toyed with her fork. ‘‘I haven’t driven in several months.’’
‘‘You don’t drive?’’ Rey exclaimed, shocked.
She couldn’t meet his eyes. ‘‘I take buses.’’ Cars made her feel guilty.
‘‘Why?’’
She remembered a day she should have driven. The memories were horrible…
‘‘Meredith, it’s all right,’’ Leo said gently, sensing something traumatic about her behavior. ‘‘I’ll drive you. Okay?’’
‘‘You won’t,’’ Rey replied. ‘‘You’re in worse shape than she is. Which brings up another point. You don’t need to be walking around town like that,’’ he told her.
She wasn’t offended; it was a relief. She even smiled. ‘‘No, I don’t guess I do. Will you do the shopping?’’ she asked him, her wide, soft eyes steady on his.
He felt wild little thrills shooting through his body at the impact. It had been years since he’d been so shaken by eye contact alone. He didn’t move. He just stared at her, his dark eyes unblinking, curious. His body rippled with vague hunger.
Leo, watching the eye contact, tried not to grin. He cleared his throat, and Rey seemed to remember that he had a forkful of fruit halfway to his mouth. He took it the rest of the way and chewed it carefully before he spoke.
‘‘I’ll get the groceries,’’ Rey volunteered. He glared at both of them, noting the shaved place where Leo had stitches near the back of his head. ‘‘Obviously I’m the only one here who can walk around without drawing curious stares from bystanders!’’
Leo buttered another biscuit. ‘‘That sounds like sour grapes to me.
If you want attention, try walking around without your pants.’’
‘‘I didn’t say I wanted attention,’’ Rey returned hotly.
‘‘Good thing.’’ He glanced at Meredith with a mischievous smile. ‘‘He looks like hell without his pants,’’ he said conversationally. ‘‘Hairiest legs of the bunch.’’
‘‘That’s debatable,’’ Rey shot back. ‘‘Yours aren’t much better.’’
‘‘What a good thing you two aren’t Scottish,’’ Meredith said demurely.
It took a minute for them to get it, then Leo burst out laughing, trying to picture his younger brother in a kilt. Rey lifted a corner of his thin mouth, but he wasn’t in a smiling mood. It bothered him, that Meredith had been crying in Mrs. Lewis’s arms, that she didn’t drive, that she was so mysterious about her life. She was twenty-three, almost twenty-four. Most women by that age had been involved in a serious relationship, some more than one. Many had been married.
His heart skipped. Was that her secret? He remembered watching her rub her ring finger in the car. He glanced at it curiously. She didn’t wear a ring, and there was no sign that she’d been wearing one there. She didn’t act married. She hadn’t talked about having a husband. She was single, apparently by choice. But had there been men in her past? He was still carrying scars from his one great love affair, from the deception he’d endured. Meredith had gone out walking to a party in a rig that made her look like a prostitute, and she’d been comfortable doing that. It wasn’t something an innocent girl would have considered.
Knowing that, he looked at her in a different way, speculatively. She had a nice figure and she wasn’t all flushing smiles like Janie Brewster when Leo was around. Meredith was oddly mature for her age, almost matronly. She seemed to be used to giving instructions, too. She was a puzzle that disturbed him. What if she was hiding something sordid in her past? He and Leo had taken her in on faith and pity, but now he wondered if they’d made a terrible mistake. If she were in league with the men who’d robbed Leo, they might have a dangerous situation developing. What if she’d planned the whole thing as a means to an end?
Basically Rey didn’t trust her. He wasn’t going to let down his guard, either, no matter if looking at her did raise his blood pressure. She wasn’t going to know that she did. And he’d keep his eyes open, all the time, just in case.
The days turned to a week. Meredith’s painful bruises faded slowly. She lost some of the brooding sadness that seemed to cling to her like the jeans she wore around the house when she was working. She found the slower, easier pace strange, and she missed the urgency of her daily routine. But as the days went by lazily, she realized that she hadn’t really given herself time to think. She’d avoided it, ignored it, hoping that the past would vanish. Now she was face to face with it, forced to reflect on what had happened.
She sat beside the fishpond one sunny afternoon, between chores, and watched the goldfish under the surface of the dark water as they moved sluggishly. The water wasn’t frozen, but it was cold. The pond heater only kept a small area heated, so the fish were limited in movement. She could imagine how it would be to sit here in the summer and watch them move around in their watery world, with flowers blooming all around.
She’d loved planting flowers. She missed her home, her bulbs and shrubs, the familiar things that she’d accumulated around her. Now it was all gone, sold without a second thought to make the memories bearable. It was too late, and she wished she’d been more sensible. There were things she should have kept. Mike’s stupid baseball cap, the one he always wore on the rare occasions when he wasn’t working, and when he went fishing. She missed her mother’s collection of small silk Chinese boxes and her pretty evening gowns. She’d thrown all those things away. At the time, it had seemed reasonable to cut all the ties with the past. It didn’t, now.
The sound of a truck pulling up to the front door caught her attention. Rey and Leo had been out of town for two days, attending another cattle convention, this time in Denver.
They climbed out of the cab of the big six-wheeled pickup truck and retrieved their suitcases from the back, waving as the ranch truck pulled right out again and took off down the road.
Meredith got up and went to join them.
‘‘Want some coffee and pie?’’ she asked with a smile.
‘‘That would really hit the spot,’’ Leo said, returning the smile. ‘‘I hate commercial flights.’’
‘‘You’re the smart guy who said our jet needed to be overhauled,’’ Rey reminded him.
‘‘It did,’’ Leo replied.
Rey was looking at Meredith openly. ‘‘The bruises are fading,’’ he remarked. ‘‘You have more color, too.’’
‘‘I’ve been getting out in the sunlight,’’ she replied easily. ‘‘I like to watch the fish, even though they don’t move much.’’
‘‘We might put a big aquarium inside,’’ Rey remarked, unaware of his brother’s quick, curious glance. ‘‘I like fish myself.’’
‘‘They’ve done studies,’’ Meredith volunteered as they stood aside to let her enter the house first. ‘‘They say watching fish swim is calming. It helps relieve stress.’’
‘‘God knows, we could use some of that,’’ Leo chuckled. ‘‘Especially when cattle prices fall and feed prices go through the roof.’’
‘‘Cattle raising must be a complex process,’’ she remarked.
‘‘Very complex,’’ Rey said. He frowned as he watched her walk. ‘‘Hip sore?’’ he asked.
She laughed self-consciously. ‘‘Well, yes, it is. How did you know?’’
‘‘You’ve got a light limp on the right side. Barely noticeable.’’
She rubbed her hip self-consciously. ‘‘I fell on that side, the night Dad hit me,’’ she told him. ‘‘The floor’s pretty hard.’’
‘‘There’s a whirlpool bath in your bedroom,’’ Rey reminded her. ‘‘It’ll help the soreness.’’
‘‘I discovered that,’’ she said, grinning. ‘‘What a luxury! We only have a shower at home, and it’s temperamental.’’
Rey gave her a long look. ‘‘When we’ve had time to catch our breath, I’ll see what I can find out about your father, if you’d like.’’
Her face brightened. ‘‘That would be nice.’’
He smiled slowly, liking the way her pale eyes seemed to glow when she was pleased. She wasn’t bad-looking at all, and her figure was just about perfect. He wondered how she could have remained single for so long, with her homemaking skills, not to mention her sweet personality and that knockout body.
She was watching him with equal appreciation, and totally unaware of it. He had a lithe, powerful physique that made her think of rodeo. He walked with a unique sort of grace, and he didn’t stoop or slouch, ever. She liked his eyes best of all. They were almost a liquid-brown, and they had black rims around the pupils. He was rugged and sensuous, and she looked at his wide thin mouth and wondered for the first time how it would feel to kiss it.
Her thoughts horrified her. She dragged her eyes away and excused herself in an absolute fluster to go make coffee.
Leo lifted both eyebrows and stared at his brother after she was out of earshot. ‘‘Well, well,’’ he murmured. ‘‘You do seem to be making an impression on her.’’
‘‘Cut it out,’’ Rey said testily.
‘‘And vice versa,’’ came the irritating reply.
Rey made a rough sound in his throat and stomped off down the hall to his room. He put down his suitcase, took off his suit and dress shirt and got into jeans and a checked long-sleeved work shirt. He glanced at himself in the mirror as he buttoned it, his eyes blank as he recalled the wild flush on Meredith’s cheeks. It shouldn’t please him. He didn’t trust her. She could be trying to play them all for suckers. But he smiled, just the same.
Meredith had coffee and cherry pie in saucers on the table by the time the brothers were changed and walking into the kitchen.
‘‘Coff
ee’s fresh,’’ she said.
‘‘Aren’t you having any?’’ Rey asked.
‘‘I have to get the clothes into the dryer,’’ she excused herself with a quick smile. ‘‘Yell if you need anything.’’
She was gone in a flash.
Rey stared broodingly at his pie and frowned. She didn’t want to have coffee with them. Why?
‘‘You make her nervous,’’ Leo said, answering the unspoken question. ‘‘She knows you don’t trust her.’’
Rey frowned as he nibbled at his pie and sipped coffee. ‘‘I don’t know her,’’ he replied. He gave his brother a speaking glance. ‘‘We’ve always done background checks on employees,’’ he added firmly. ‘‘I don’t think we should make an exception of her, even though she’s temporary.’’
‘‘Translated, that means you want to know more about her than you do,’’ Leo drawled, grinning.
‘‘Maybe I do,’’ Rey confessed. ‘‘But she’s in a position to do a lot of damage if she isn’t what she seems. You could have been killed, or suffered brain damage,’’ he added quietly. ‘‘If she’s in cahoots with the guys who mugged you…’’ He let the sentence trail off meaningfully.
Leo grimaced. ‘‘I don’t like poking into peoples’ private business,’’ he replied. ‘‘But you’re right. It’s risky not to check her out.’’
‘‘I’ll get the agency on it first thing tomorrow,’’ Rey said. He took another bite of the pie. ‘‘She’s a hell of a good cook,’’ he murmured.
‘‘Makes good coffee, too,’’ Leo commented.
They looked at each other and grimaced. It was going to upset Meredith if she found out what they were up to. But it was too much of a gamble not to find out what they could about her background and character. On the other hand, Leo promised himself, he was going to intercept that background check before Rey had a chance to see it. If Meredith had secrets she was hiding for a good reason, he wasn’t going to give her away to Rey.
It took several days for the private detective to get to the case and send a report to the Harts.
Rey was out of town at a one-day seminar on a new spreadsheet computer program the brothers were using for herd records when the report arrived. Leo carried the report into his office and closed the door while he read it.