Jason strode into the kitchen as Luke poured milk into his cereal. “Good morning.”
Luke’s face flushed with the old caught in the candy jar shame. He felt like there was a sticky note on his forehead that said I dreamt about your sister last night.
“Good morning,” Luke replied, keeping his gaze trained on the milk carton while twisting the lid back in place. He pushed the milk and cereal box toward Jason as the kid approached the opposite side of the bar, then fished out a bowl and a spoon and slid those over too. “Is Payton still asleep?” Luke headed over to the table and took a seat.
Jason shook the cereal into his bowl. “Yeah,” he said through a yawn. “She said she’s got to catch up on work stuff today.”
Luke nodded. He’d almost forgotten that Payton wasn’t just Payton. She was the famous Payton Keller who ran her own clothing line, whatever that entailed. With Jason, it’d been easy to forget. He didn’t have business demands from home to attend to. His sister was a different story.
Jason pulled out the chair across from him and sank into it. “You want to know something?”
The conspiratorial whisper piqued Luke’s interest. He gave him a casual nod. “Sure.”
“Payton is totally enjoying herself here.”
The sentence was an accelerant to Luke’s heart. “Did she say that?” he whispered in return.
Jason shook his head and dunked the spoon back into his bowl. Morning sunlight poured in through the patio doors at his back, causing Luke to squint as he waited for a reply.
“It was obvious,” Jason said. “Trust me, I can’t remember the last time I saw her so … so in the moment. Payton’s usually anywhere but where she is. We’ll be at dinner, but she’s thinking about her latest fashion creation. She’s at a fashion show, and her thoughts are stuck on how she’s going to save my parents’ marriage or my wayward troubles or all the hungry children in the world.” He chuckled. “I was shocked when she offered to help Doug with those eggs.”
“I was, too,” Luke admitted.
“She basically agreed to stay here for another ten days at least. That is not like Payton at all.”
Luke’s mind chewed on that like a starved dog on a T-bone. The tidbit excited him more than it should. But what did it mean? If nothing else, it showed that what Jason said was true—she liked being there on the ranch.
It took a moment for Luke to realize that silence had fallen over them. He glanced up at Jason, wondering if he’d perhaps missed something he said, but noticed that he was stuck in thought as well: his eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed, and his fingers in a frozen grip on his spoon.
Luke cleared his throat. “So if it’s not really like her to want to stay, what do you think it means?” His pulse sped as he waited for a reply. Please say it means the engagement’s off. Luke clenched his eyes shut for a breath and chided himself for the uninvited thought. He opened them once more to see Jason set his focus back to his cereal, stirring it before answering.
“The obvious thought is, like I said, she’s having a great time. But now that I think about it …” He drifted off there for a moment, then set his gaze back on Luke. “I’m actually kind of wondering if something’s wrong back home.” He shrugged. “I’m not even sure what the trouble would be. Maybe something with her business or my parents or her fiancé …”
Luke’s racecar-speed pulse shot into jet mode. He slid his half-eaten bowl of cereal to the side and leaned his elbows on the table. “Didn’t you say you don’t like the guy?” he asked, voice still at a whisper. Smooth, Luke. Real smooth.
Jason scraped the spoon around the edge of his bowl. “He’s just a cheeseball. Posing for the cameras when they’re together. Wearing her line of clothing wherever he goes. I probably just haven’t given him a chance, but from what I can tell, he really is like an actual toy doll. Or a puppet, maybe. He just does whatever people tell him to.”
Luke sat up a little straighter. “You don’t say …”
“And,” Jason continued, sneaking a glance over his shoulder, “don’t repeat this to anyone, but my parents talked about Archie and Payton getting married before the two even met. Like how good it would be for our image and theirs.”
Luke felt his eyes widen. “So then how did they wind up engaged?”
“Eventually they started to date,” Jason said with a shrug. “But I wouldn’t say that love sparked that engagement. On either side. Payton’s told me as much.”
His mind exploded with the new information. Outrage came first. Why was she with a guy who didn’t even love her? But relief rushed in to take its place, bumping his anger aside. That explained why Payton didn’t seem like an engaged woman. She wasn’t in love with the man. Luke shouldn’t feel so guilty after all, if the two weren’t even in love …
“I’m not like those guys,” Jason said. “I’m not going to get married because it benefits the family or the business or anything outside of the woman I love, and the kids we might have together.”
Of course, Luke wanted to say. But he didn’t. Instead, he did some musing of his own. Payton and that Kendall guy weren’t in love. The information might not have stirred up any ideas twenty-four hours ago, but after the time they’d spent together in the barn—not to mention the dream he’d had—Luke couldn’t help but wonder if she really did feel something for him in return.
Something that, perhaps, she didn’t have with the guy she was set to marry. He could be wrong, but at least—as of yesterday—one thing was certain: Luke had nine more days to figure it out, and he didn’t intend to waste a one of them.
Payton tuned in to the sounds of Jason and Luke heading out for the day. A shuffle of boots on the wood floor, the creak of the back door, and eventually the hum of Luke’s truck.
Only moments ago, Jason had peeked his head in and asked if she wanted to join them. The words no thanks stumbled out against her will. In reality, she was dying to take off for another day of anything but the list of things she had to do.
She shrugged onto her side and stared at the barn-style closet door. They must have been custom made. The thick framing around the edge, along with the diagonal beam in the center, made it look as if they’d been taken from an old family barn. Payton liked the place, liked the feeling there. And if she were being honest, she liked Luke too. Enjoyed spending time with him, watching as he did what he did best.
As if looking for a way to snatch the pleasant thought from her mind, Payton’s subconscious recalled the things she’d neglected the day before. Sure, Chloe knew how to hold down the fort, but that didn’t mean Payton should let her phone play the part of her personal secretary for the remainder of her time there.
There were still items that needed her approval. A PR rep who needed details before things leaked to the press. And a very stupid fiancé that needed to be smacked upside the head, since she doubted a lecture would do either of them any good.
Resigned now, Payton gripped her phone, clenched her eyes shut, and pressed the button to turn it back on. She cringed as it hummed, beeped, and dinged with every sort of alert there was. Missed calls. Multiple texts and voice messages, too. She let out an audible groan before listening to the first voice message.
It was Chloe, her voice thick with sympathy over the Ken Doll situation, as she’d called it. “Just want you to know that I’m here if you need to talk, cuss, vent, or bawl your eyes out. Oh, and things are under control here on the business end. Love you!”
Bless Chloe. She really was a good friend.
Roz was next. An activist representing animal rights had inquired about Payton’s upcoming shoe line—did she plan to go with real leather? And if so, just what kind of statement would that make to her animal rights fans?
As always, her mom opted for the most misunderstood form of communication there was: texting. Why the woman preferred that method over all else, she’d never know. But there they were—a long stream of texts: Would she be heading back soon? Had she made any progress with Jason?<
br />
Payton laughed out loud, picturing an honest response: No, Mom, I haven’t made progress and I won’t be heading back soon. In fact, I agreed to stay an extra ten days so that I can monitor the hatching of baby chicks in an incubator. Plus I’m starting to get feelings for Jason’s boss despite the fact that I’m engaged.
She considered that, then amended the note in her head: That is, despite the fact that I haven’t made the break-off with Archie official just yet, even though he cheated on me in public for the whole world to see.
She shook her head and came up with a less candid reply, hoping the text would sedate Mom for the time being.
Still working on things here. Might be harder than I thought. Give me a few more days. Love you.
No texts had come in from Dad. And she hadn’t missed anything from Archie either.
Payton forced herself to sit up as nausea rolled through her stomach. She hadn’t talked to Archie since Friday at lunch. It wasn’t unusual for Archie and Payton to go a day or two without talking. They were busy, after all. Payton had a fashion line to keep up and a wedding to plan, while Archie was busy making out with blonde amazon women by the pool.
But it was time that Payton confronted the man she was supposed to marry. She had to face the situation eventually. She should probably just get it over with.
The smooth wood was cold against her bare feet as she climbed off the bed. A clock ticked from someplace in the room, or maybe that was from the other side of the wall.
Chaos erupted inside her like a long-forgotten volcano. It started in her stomach, but soon the burning heat shot right up her throat.
She rushed to the bathroom and kneeled beside the toilet, though part of her wondered if she should sit on it instead and drag a garbage can over. There was no telling what her body would do.
A sweat broke out over her face. Her palms, too.
She pulled in a shaky breath as the bathroom swayed. Calm, Payton, calm.
But the ideas racing through her head were anything but soothing. Canceling the printing of their wedding announcements. Having word get out about their broken engagement. Articles about Archie breaking free from his overbearing bride-to-be. Saved by the Belle—the blonde, beautiful belle by the pool.
And then there was the way Archie had kissed the other woman. Caressed her. This … stranger, at least to her.
Payton had dated Archie Kendall off and on for close to two years, and he’d never shown her that kind of affection. Heck, she’d even doubted his desire for women altogether. But that hadn’t stopped her from wanting to marry him. The family, business, and social benefits were what mattered.
But seeing him with that woman … knowing that he was actually capable of that kind of passion … it was enough to push the nausea into action.
Up came the salad she’d eaten last night in two massive hurls into the toilet bowl. She shuddered, reached blindly for a wad of toilet paper, and dabbed her face with it, waiting to see if she’d gag again.
When she didn’t, Payton gave in to the sudden surge of emotion that fell over her. She didn’t feel like the strong, never-give-up Payton today. She didn’t even relate to that person.
It was odd, but as she grasped for something to cling to—a scrap of hope to pull her out of the massive mud of her life—two very distinct images came to mind. The first was the eggs in the incubator—the fact that soon they’d hatch into fluffy little creatures she could hold and hear and love.
The next image was very different. It sat on the nightstand beside the bed, Luke’s handsome grin holding an imagined promise that Payton wanted to hold on to even more than the chicks.
She couldn’t quite grasp her reasons for it, but Payton couldn’t help but dream of a life, one that was so much better than what awaited her back at home.
Chapter 14
“I feel bad for being gone so long,” Luke said as he and Jason headed back to the house.
“What do you mean, so long?” Jason asked. “It’s not even three o’clock yet.”
Luke shrugged. “You’re right,” he said, thoughts of Payton owning his mind once more. “I guess I just feel bad for leaving your sister.” Heck, she’d spent the last three days with them, riding horses and tending to chores. Wonderful days, in truth. Luke was getting used to having Payton around. But that wasn’t something he could say to Jason. “She’s probably starving,” he said instead. He’d noticed they’d run out of lettuce yesterday, which was part of the reason he’d insisted on going into town. Unfortunately, they had a lot more supplies to pick up than he’d realized.
“Heaven forbid Payton eat something other than salad, Red Hots, or chocolate.”
“She likes chocolate?” Luke asked. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
Jason flicked the visor down as Luke turned onto Huckle Street, squinting from the sun streaming through the windshield. “Is there a woman out there who doesn’t?”
“Probably not. But all I’ve seen her eat so far is salad.” Luke found himself wishing he’d have known the chocolate thing before heading to the market; he’d have at least bought her a few of her favorite bars. A tidbit he’d take to the grave if he had half a brain.
Sheesh, he didn’t even know how to be nice to the woman without feeling like a villain. Nice. Nice. He was just being nice.
“Payton’s pretty disciplined,” Jason said. “She eats the way she does so she doesn’t have to skip dessert. Speaking of which …” Jason grinned. “Dee’s making Payton’s favorite dessert tonight.”
Luke’s eyes widened. “She agreed to come?” When the conversation came up last night, Payton hadn’t been willing to commit.
“Yep,” Jason assured. “Didn’t hurt that I guilted her into it by saying how disappointed your mom would be if she didn’t show.”
“Huh,” Luke said. “Glad she’s coming.” And while that was true, Luke’s reaction to the news was hard to dissect. Part of him was thrilled that she’d agreed to come; the more time with her, the better. But concern was in there too, a worry that his family might embarrass him in front of her. Or that—whatever spell had fallen over Payton and Luke—it would somehow be broken amidst the large group. And there was no mistaking: there was definitely a spell of some sort looming in the energy between them. One that kept Luke thinking on the conversation he’d had with Jason about her loveless engagement. The very spell that had Luke convincing himself that he wasn’t wrong to feel what he felt for her.
If he had a dollar bill for every justification he’d made in that regard, he could pave the street toward home with them, but that didn’t make his feelings right. Luke was more torn up about his attraction for her than he was willing to admit. He just wasn’t sure what to do about it.
But an unwelcome voice spoke the answer to his mind. Ignore them, Luke. That’s what you should do with those feelings. Pretend, at least outwardly, that they don’t exist.
But why had this dilemma come up in the first place? Luke hadn’t felt drawn to any of the women Ross and Rachel brought to the house for dinner. Women who were interested and available and ready to date. No, he had to go and fall for Hollywood’s one and only Payton Keller. A woman who—loveless or not—was engaged to another man.
But maybe that was it. Payton wasn’t really available at all. Luke was probably drawn to that since he had no intention of getting involved. Not after how wrong things went with Lizzy. As healed as he might be in some ways, Luke was still very damaged in others. And thoughts of diving headfirst into a relationship terrified him.
The realization sank in deep: Payton wasn’t the only unavailable one in the pair. In his own way, Luke was wearing a do not touch sign of his own. Warning: Damaged Goods.
Perhaps it was better that she hadn’t come with them today. Yes, it was. And if Luke were any kind of man at all, he’d make himself scarce for the remainder of her time there. The countdown would continue, only now with a very different tone. Six more days until she left. Hopefully then, things could go ba
ck to normal. Only now, back to normal didn’t sound so good after all.
Payton closed her laptop and gathered the papers spread over the worn, colorful quilt. She’d taken more notes that day than she’d taken during an entire semester of fashion design. Only these notes were on the fine art of chicken eggs and the incubation process. Doug would be proud.
She’d done everything from reading articles and watching online video clips, to having her computer read more articles aloud while she got dressed. Shades of green, today. Her pants were a dark olive color, with a lighter shade for her blouse. For jewelry, she’d gone with a simple silver chain and matching hoops. Earlier, when she’d stepped in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the door, the combination of silver and green reminded her of Luke’s eyes. A thought she blew off as quickly as it had come.
With her notes piled into a stack on the nightstand, Payton zipped her laptop back into its case. It surprised her that she hadn’t been tempted to check the internet, see if Archie’s indiscretion had leaked yet. She also hadn’t been tempted to power on her phone and see all the texts and voicemails she’d missed in the last three days of riding horses, daydreaming about the chicks, and getting to know Luke better.
Still, she’d crossed enough items off her to-do list the other day, which counted for something. She’d emailed Roz about the animal rights question regarding her shoe line, and given her a statement her rep should feel free to reword as she saw fit. But the gist was this: Yes, they planned to use real leather for two of their designs. But they would also offer a line in faux leather, made from a new, advanced material produced solely by Kendall Organics. Payton hadn’t enjoyed giving Kendall Organics a shout-out, but it was good for business.
At the end of the email, she’d told Roz not to worry; she was spending time with Jason and going off the grid for just a few days. An act that allowed Payton to breathe a little easier.
This Cowboy's a Keeper (Unlikely Cowgirl Book 3) Page 8