Another Chance (19 page)

“We took care
of it.”  Wolf answered.  “She’s with some friends of Jordan’s.”

Davis looked
at her.

“She’s with
Mac and Mary.  They were thrilled to have her stay with them for a while,”
she explained.

John smiled. 
“I know they will enjoy that.  Those two should have had a dozen
kids.  Maybe they will have grandkids before long.  I’ve never known
any two people who enjoy young people more.”

For reasons he
couldn’t explain, he felt there was tension between these two people.  He
stood there for another minute, wanting to say more, but not knowing how to say
it without sounding nosey.  Finally he just lifted his hand.  “Well,
I guess I’ll go.  Y’all be careful now, you understand?”  He looked
from one to the other.

They both
muttered their good-byes and watched him leave.  When Jordan turned
around, Wolf was releasing the colt from the cross ties.  He turned and
led the animal back out to his paddock and turned him loose.  He leaned
against the fence, watching as the colt dropped down on its front knees, then
onto its side and rolled.

He knew
without looking when Jordan stopped a short distance behind him.  “Your
friend, the sheriff, thinks there’s somethin’s goin’ on between us.”  He
said.

She stepped up
beside him and crossed her arms on the top board of the fence like he had done,
except she had to stretch up to do it while he had bent his shoulders over to
do it.  She made sure there was a little distance between their arms so
their elbows didn’t touch.

“He’s just
being protective.  I think he has taken a fatherly interest in me because
he was secretly in love with my mama.”  She turned her head so she could
see Pride in a nearby paddock.

Wolf turned
around so he was facing her.  “The sheriff and your mother?”

She shook her
head negatively.  “No.  My mama loved my daddy, but Sheriff John had
a crush on her.  He respected my daddy, but if daddy hadn’t been in the
picture Sheriff John would have been.  He’s just looking after me.” 
Jordan looked up at him then and smiled.  “I think that’s sweet of him.”

“Yeah, well, I
wish he’d tend to his own business.”  Wolf’s voice had that rough softness
that made her tingle.

“I am his
business,” she qualified, quietly.

“You’re
my
business,” Wolf disagreed.  “He assigned me to take care of you, now he
needs to trust me to do the job.”

His first
words caused that ribbon inside Jordan to draw tightly.  It seemed he had
revealed his only reason for being here.  It was his job.  She looked
away from him, then turned and walked back into the barn.  She didn’t want
to be just a job to him.

Since David
died, she had found no man that held any interest for her, but then Wolf came
along.  There were times that she could swear he was as drawn to her as
she was to him.  From the minute she had first met him, he had been like
magnet drawing her.  She realized that with his good looks most women
would be attracted to him, so he was probably used to it.

She walked out
to the small pasture that belonged to Tempest.  He saw her coming and nickered
a greeting as he trotted to the gate to meet her.  Bhrandii accompanied
her, although not as eagerly.  His devotion seemed divided.  Jordan
knew that he liked and accepted Wolf as part of the family.  Well, now she
realized that she was just a job to Wolf, so her dog might as well get used to
the idea.

She stroked
the blaze that ran the length of Tempest’s face.  He needed a good
grooming, but right now, she didn’t want to return to the barn where Wolf
was.  She knew he was watching her.  Doing his job like the
professional he was, and he was certainly that.  Professional man, but
still a man.  Deep inside her, an idea formed.

She knew she
was attractive.  Men had been telling her all her life that she was
beautiful.  In college, she had gone out of her way to attract David’s
attention.  There were many girls after him, but she had won him.  If
she put her mind to it, she could attract Wolf too, after all, he was a
man.   She had never used feminine tricks to lure a man, except
David, and that was only to get him to notice her at the beginning.  She
shouldn’t do that to Wolf, but he seemed to think that he was above physical
attractions.

She glanced
over her shoulder and just as she had expected, he was standing near the front
of the barn.  “I think I’m going to go up to the house for a while,” she
called to him.

He nodded and
started paralleling her path.  They arrived at the gate at the same time
and he paused to allow her to pass through first.  As she walked ahead of
him, he felt a change in her.  Her body language seemed slower, more
deliberate in the way she moved.

“I’m just
going to read for a while.  You can take a break.  You don’t have to
be my shadow,” she said coolly.

He noted the coolness
of her voice and wondered what had happened to the familiarity they had been
developing.  “I need to check the house, make sure it’s safe.  We
were gone for a while,” he explained.

She
shrugged.  “Suit yourself, but if Lambert was hiding there, Bhrandii would
have alerted me by now.”

He chose not
to acknowledge that, although he knew it was true.  When the door was
unlocked, he motioned her to stay back and entered ahead of her.  He
walked through each room, checking closets and both bathrooms.  In her
bedroom and bath he took his time, his eyes slowly noticing all the personal
items placed around the two rooms.  Her pajamas hung on the hook behind
the bathroom door, her towel hanging on the rack beside the shower, the hair
brush and comb that she used each morning, her bath powder and cologne on the
vanity, her toothbrush in the cup beside the sink.  He drew in a deep
breath, absorbing the smell of her that permeated the room.

In her
bedroom, the bed was neatly made, but a soft looking robe was tossed carelessly
across the foot.  Her closet was filled with clothes hanging from the
rod.  There were boxes stacked across the top shelf and only a couple of
pairs of dress shoes sitting neatly together at one end.  He resisted the
urge to lift the sleeves of one of her shirts just to feel the fabric and to
see if it smelled like her.  At the door he paused, his eyes drawn once
more to the bed and he wondered which side she slept on.  There was a
bedside table with a lamp on each side, but he felt confident that the side
next to the door was where she lay at night.

“Are you
satisfied?”  She asked from the hallway, intruding on his secret thoughts.

He turned and
looked at her, then nodded.  “Once I’m out the door, lock and dead bolt
it.”

“The last time
Lambert came, he came in a window,” she reminded him, unfastening one of her
braids.  “And since it’s getting warm out, why don’t you just hang out in
the living room.  It’s cooler inside with the air on.  I’m going to
get a shower and hopefully finish a book I started last week.”

He just looked
at her for a minute.  She had finished unbraiding one braid and the long
silk like threads hung loose over the front of her shoulder.  It looked
like strands of spun gold curling wildly across the front of her blouse. 
She was now working on the other braid.

“Don’t lock
the door,” he managed to say his voice almost breaking with coarseness. 
“I’ll hang around on the porch.”

She shrugged,
shaking the rest of her hair loose.  “Suit yourself.  There are some
books and magazines on the bookcase and there are some soft drinks in the
fridge.  And if you change your mind, just make yourself at
home.”   As she spoke, her hands moved from her hair to the top
button on her shirt and she unfastened it.  Before either one of them
moved, she had started backing the second button through the hole that held it
shut.  It was Wolf who moved first, turning his back and walking quickly
down the hall and out the door.

Jordan smiled
and refastened her top.  She did plan to take a shower, but not until her
mass of long hair was coiled atop her head and confined under a shower cap.

About an hour
and a half later, she emerged from her bedroom, her long hair brushed out and
held back by a barrette.  She had finished her riding for the day so she
was wearing a pair of modest length shorts and a tank top.  She had
finished her book and even dozed off for a while.  She realized that
Bhrandii was no longer in the house and knew he must be outside with
Wolf.  She pulled the front door open and stepped out onto the
porch.  The dog was lying near Wolf’s feet and they were both looking up
at her.  Bhrandii wagged his tail and hopped up to come greet her. 
She squatted down to pet him, aware of Wolf’s eyes on her as she did. 
When she stood back up, she smiled at the man in the rocking chair.

“I didn’t mean
to stay so long.  I guess I went to sleep.  I didn’t sleep very good
last night.”  She said.

He
nodded.  “I remember you sayin’ you’d had a nightmare.  You’re under
a lot of strain.”  He couldn’t seem to look away.  Finally he
realized his focus was lost and he grinned self-consciously.  “You really
look different.”

“Not worse, I
hope.”  She said, a little regret niggling at her for deliberately trying
to distract him from maintaining his professionalism.

He took her
words as an invitation and allowed his eyes to enjoy a long exploration of
her.  “Definitely not worse.”

Now that she
had his attention, she was hesitant to use it.  She had planned to raise
her arms over her head and take pleasure in a long reaching stretch, but found
herself unwilling to do so.  Instead, she dropped into the chair beside
him.  He was still watching her and she thought she saw a spark of humor
in his light eyes.

Wolf wondered
why she had acted so cool earlier and now her demeanor was totally
different.  He was having a hard time concentrating on anything but that
bundle of wild hair held back behind her head and those long, golden legs
extending from the chair next to him.  It didn’t help that when he did
look at her, he remembered the rise of soft flesh he had seen when she was
unfastening that second button earlier.

While she had
been relaxing, his mind had been working and he had come to the conclusion that
he was too far away, down in the tepee.  He needed to be in the house,
closer to her, should Lambert decide to come through a window again.  He
needed a clear mind when he approached the subject, but he wasn’t sure he could
do it with her sitting beside him with so much skin showing.  He swallowed
hard, trying to think of how to open the conversation.

“You know,
Wolf, I’ve been thinking.  Maybe you need to move up here into the
house.  When Lambert does come, I don’t want to be in there by
myself.”  She realized that Lambert finding her was all too real and for
the first time, expressed her true fears.

Wolf was
surprised that she had almost voiced his same thoughts.  He was still
looking at her, wishing he could close his hands in her hair and feel its
softness.  He forced his eyes away from her hair and met her steady
look.  “That’s smart thinkin’.  I was wonderin’ how to convince you
of it.”

She rested her
head on the back of the chair, stretching her neck back, leaving her throat
open to the sun, and Wolf’s eyes.

He indulged
himself for a long minute, and then looked away.  This was certainly going
to test his restraint.

So went the
next few days.  Jordan was a constant temptation to Wolf and in turn, she
became more attracted to him.  Each day, they worked side by side and when
night fell, she retired to her room and he became comfortable in her guest
room.

Wolf struggled
to maintain a professional facade while Jordan caught herself more than once
trying to attract him.

Lambert emerged from his room.  It was dark and
he needed to stretch his legs and have supper.  He had gotten lucky
earlier in the day and had an interesting conversation with a man at the second
feed store.  The man was a talker and it didn’t take long to bring the
subject around to women.  From there, Lambert just casually mentioned that
he had met a woman at a horseshow once that was from Lake City.  Her first
name was Jordan.  He could remember that because it was such an unusual
name.  It had been a couple of years ago and he wondered if she was still
around.

“We have a
customer named Jordan.  Jordan Lanier.  One of the prettiest women
around,” the feed store clerk admitted.

“Lanier? 
I don’t think this woman was a Lanier.  Probably not the same
woman.”  Lambert’s heartbeat was increasing.

“Probably
was.  She’s a widow, but had her name changed back to her maiden name when
she came back home to live.  I don’t know of another Jordan around,” the
man insisted.
 
“’Specially one that’d be
at a horseshow.”

Lambert’s
heart almost jumped out of his chest.  “The Jordan I met was a real
looker, though.  Short black hair, and really flirty.”

The store
manager shook his head.  “Nope, definitely not the same Jordan.  Our
Jordan is a blond and keeps to herself.  Very nice lady.  Has this
really big dog that goes with her everywhere.  I’ve heard he’s a bad dog,
but is meek as a kitten if she speaks to him.”

“Lake
City…..I’m not sure.  Maybe that woman said Lakeland,”  Lambert
shorted.  “It was a long time ago.  It’s not important.  Now
where did you tell me was the best place for a nice steak?”  He did not
want the man to even remember this conversation, so he put on the appearance of
already having dismissed it himself.  In reality, every word was stored
inside Lambert’s mind.  He would especially remember the part about the
dog that he hadn’t even appeared to have heard.  The dog was a problem he
would have to deal with.