“Yes, she is. She’s always had to be, but I can handle it,” Andy said.
“It sounds like a good plan, and the only way it will work is if you blindside them with it,” Rusty answered.
“I vote we at least give it a try. Raise your hand if you are with me,” Andy said.
She couldn’t see the vote but rustling said that they had cast their vote and were on their way out of the dining room. She hurried down the foyer and out the back door before she got caught eavesdropping.
“Damn!” she whispered as she climbed the steps to her apartment. They were up to something that involved her and Colton together and she’d sure like to know what it was before it happened.
Her apartment was the upper floor of the old carriage house that now garaged three of the family’s pickup trucks. The sun hung above the treetops like it didn’t know whether it wanted to set that night or just look at the world a while longer. Laura looked at the clock when she opened the door. If she hurried, she could get in a run before dusk.
In Amarillo, Laura had a schedule that included running three times a week in addition to the exercise she got at the greenhouse. And she didn’t eat three huge meals a day. Breakfast was usually yogurt in the middle of the morning, dinner was a salad or a sandwich that she brought from home, and supper was one of those lean frozen dinners that she popped into the microwave.
She changed into her favorite old gray sweat suit, put on her running shoes, and did a few stretches in her room. The night air was pleasant, not too hot for the first week in June, which could be getting close to triple digits hot. She’d started to work for Andy on Saturday morning, the first day of June, and now it was a full week later. The sun dipped behind the tall pecan trees lining the lane as she took off in an easy warm-up trot on the gravel road. By the time she reached the road leading into Ambrose, she had built up a good speed. She didn’t see anyone, not until she reached the T in the road and turned north into Ambrose. Then a rusted-out old pickup slowed down behind her. The driver honked, stuck his hand out the window, and waved as he went on by.
Calling Ambrose a town was a far stretch of the imagination. It had a population of less than a hundred people, and the post office had long since been shut down. Now the mail came out of Bells on a rural route. The old school was the color of the formations at the bottom of the Palo Duro Canyon not far from Amarillo and was now a community center. The yard looked unkempt and she visualized a few lantana plants and iris bulbs along with some coleus set back in the corners to perk it up.
She was about to rest a minute on the community center porch when she noticed the church off to her left. It looked far more inviting with its deep shade and freshly mowed yard. Surely God wouldn’t mind if she caught her breath before she ran back to the ranch. The roses were lovely, the sweet williams were thick and luxurious, and the hedges had been clipped, and the smell of fresh clipped grass filled the evening air. She sat down on the porch steps, leaned forward, and put her head on her knees.
She’d barely taken three good long breaths when the church doors creaked open. Her first thought was that whoever took care of the yard should spray some oil on the hinges. Then she looked up to see a short man in faded jeans, a red bandana rolled up and tied around his forehead, and a big smile on his face.
“Hello. You lost or out for exercise?” His big booming voice sounded like it should have come from a six-foot cowboy like Colton, not a yard man for the church.
“Exercise,” she gasped.
He sat down beside her. “I’m Roger Green, the preacher here at this church. Don’t think I’ve seen you around. Are you new to Ambrose?”
Running in heat must have killed the brain cells that pertained to sight and hearing. The man said he was a preacher? Preachers did not wear sweat rags made from bandanas, and they didn’t wear faded jeans and a red knit shirt with a hole in the sleeve.
“I’m Laura Baker. I work at the Circle 6,” she said.
“Well, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. Expect you’ll be in church tomorrow morning with the family?”
Laura didn’t want to lie and say that she’d be sitting on the family pew the next morning, but she wouldn’t make a promise that she had no intention of keeping. “I’m not sure,” she hedged as she stood up and stretched. “Sorry to rush but got to get back to the ranch before it gets dark.”
“I’ll look forward to seeing all y’all tomorrow.” His voice rang out behind her as she sped away.
Church!
Damn!
Did Andy go every single week?
Andy said that since she’d be on a ranch she could wear her jeans and boots. She had brought three or four sundresses for days when jeans and boots were too hot to wear to work, but they weren’t church clothing. Aunt Dotty had always insisted that she and Janet be dressed proper on Sunday morning and that meant sleeves, panty hose, and closed-toed shoes.
She was still worrying about what to wear when she turned the corner into the lane and slowed down to a fast trot to the house. She’d barely sat down on the top porch step to cool off when Colton came out of the house and sat down in the swing.
“Looks like you’ve been running. So what did you think of Ambrose?” he asked.
“What makes you think I ran into town? And I thought you were sick.”
“Preacher called. Said he met you and invited you to come to church with us tomorrow morning. And I’m feeling better.”
“Damn!” Her most overworked swear word slipped out slicker than boiled okra.
“Does that mean no?”
“It means I didn’t bring things for church. I just packed working clothes for the most part.”
“You got a dress?”
“Couple of sundresses.”
“What’s it look like?”
“It’s blue and it doesn’t have sleeves and it only comes to my knee.”
“Sounds fine to me. Wear it and you’ll look great or wear jeans and boots,” Colton said.
She looked over at him. “You must be feeling better.”
“I am, but the thought of heavy food gags me. I’m thinking a snow cone might taste good. You want one?”
He was just being nice, but a rainbow snow cone did sound wonderful. “How far is it to get one?”
“Seven miles over to Bells. They’ve got a place that makes wonderful snow cones. You look hot and I’m ready to put something in my stomach. You might as well ride over with me.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. Was this part of what the family was talking about in the dining room? Had they already let him in on the proposition and now it was just a matter of being nice to her so that she’d get on board? There was only one way to find out.
***
Bells is six miles south of Ambrose on a little two-lane farm road. Colton could easily get there in less than ten minutes, but he poked along at forty-five miles an hour. Laura wore the same jeans and shirt she’d had on at supper. She had changed from boots to running shoes and had rolled the legs of her jeans up to right under her knees. Even with the glasses and the bandana tying all that blond hair back, she was still attractive in a hauntingly cute way. She reminded him of someone but he could not put his finger on it. Maybe it was a woman he’d seen in a bar.
He bit back a groan. Could she be running her own scam on him?
Andy said that she was his cousin and that she needed a job and a loan to get her sister out of gambling debt. She had worked in a greenhouse for eight years but got laid off when it sold; however, she was an expert computer geek just like him. Andy would never lie to him, not in a million years. They’d been friends since day one of kindergarten and Colton would trust Andy with his life. The cousin, not so much! At least not until she proved that she wasn’t pulling the wool over his eyes and poor old Andy’s!
“Look!” His forefinger grazed her breast when he reached across to point out a big buck and his harem of half a dozen does just over the pasture fence.
Heat shot from the tip of his finger through his entire hand. He slapped it back on the steering wheel. It didn’t look like he’d held it over an open campfire, but it damn sure felt like it. He’d been without a woman far too long, but hell’s bells, trusting didn’t come easy even for a casual relationship.
“Wow!” she mumbled.
She pointed up at a flock of ducks coming in for a landing on a farm pond. “They are so graceful. Janet says I was born with no grace at all.”
“Whoever Janet is, don’t believe her. You are very graceful,” he said.
“Janet is my sister,” she said tightly. “Yeah, right! I’m a nerd. I know it. I accept it.”
He changed the subject. “So you have a sister, you worked at a greenhouse, and you like snow cones?”
She continued to look up at the last of the ducks floating down from the sky to the pond.
“Yes, to all of the above.”
“Let’s play the old twenty questions,” he said. “I’ll ask five and then you can ask five. That way I’ll get to know who my best friend in the world has hired and you can get to know your boss.”
Her brows knit together and a veil dropped over her clear blue eyes.
“I thought Andy was my boss. And besides, it takes too long to play twenty questions so let’s just play five questions.”
“He is your immediate supervisor. I’m your boss,” Colton said.
Why didn’t she want to answer simple questions? What was she hiding anyway?
He looked across the cab of the truck at her. “Hey, it’s not bare-thy-soul confession time. Just answer with the first thing that comes to mind. Favorite flower?”
“Daisies.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard. Favorite food?” he asked.
She smiled and the tension between them eased. “Breakfast. Love pancakes, eggs, gravy, sausage, biscuits, bagels, all of it.”
He grinned. “Three more and then it’s your turn. Favorite color?”
She asked, “For what? My favorite color is different for painting my living room than it is for what I would buy to wear or what I like in nature.”
“Nature, then,” he said.
“Emerald green.”
“Why?”
“Because three years ago my sister and I drove to Florida and spent two days on the beach and that’s what color the water was. It reminds me of peace and eternity.”
She sounded as wistful as a child with no money standing in front of the snow cone stand.
“Eternity?” he asked.
“Yes, and that’s your fourth question.” She nodded. “I sat on the beach and looked out across the water and there was nothing but water and sky. I felt like God lived way out there where the emerald green water met the sky. Your eyes are the color of that water, Colton.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Number five, and yes it is. My turn. I already know that your favorite food is steak, so I don’t have to ask that.”
“It is not! It’s pizza.”
She giggled.
He slapped the steering wheel. “That was sneaky.”
“I didn’t ask, so I still have five, but since I did trick you, you can have one more.”
“So what is your sister’s name?”
“Janet Elizabeth Baker.”
“Is she as pretty as you?”
“That’s question six, but I’ll answer it. Janet is much prettier than I am. Now it’s my turn for real. Do you pout when you don’t get what you want?”
He fought the urge to step on the brakes and ask her what kind of question was that anyway. Instead he thought about it and said, “No, I’m not the pouting type.”
“Did you have serious relationships before you got rich?”
Mercy! She was skipping the small stuff and getting right into the heart of the matter.
“A couple,” he answered softly.
“If you could go back and not buy a ranch but travel and enjoy life with your money, would you?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m doing exactly what I want to do. I wouldn’t change any of it, except maybe this problem I’ve got with women.”
“Well, you are sexy and you are a billionaire. That comes with the territory. Now what is it about ranching that you like?”
“All of it! I like plowing and cows and the smell of hay. I like finding a litter of kittens snuggled down in the hay barn. I like new baby calves and all four seasons on the ranch. So you think I’m sexy?”
She pointed. “There is the Bells sign. We are here and that was only four questions so I get another one sometime in the future. Right now I want to eat my first snow cone of the year and think about nothing but how good it tastes. And Colton, I may wear thick glasses, but I’m not blind.”
She’d popped those questions off so fast he scarcely had time to think. If they’d been playing poker instead of twenty questions she would have taken him straight to the cleaners.
He pulled up to the drive-by window on the side of the small snow cone stand and studied the list of flavors. “See something that you like?”
“I want a rainbow with cherry, banana, and grape,” she said without looking at the menu.
If there was a doubt in his mind that she was about to fleece him and Andy both, it disappeared when she ordered the snow cone.
“How did you know that?” He narrowed his eyes at her.
She leaned across the seat and looked at the chart. “Know what? It’s what I always order. Don’t they have those flavors?”
“I heard the lady, and for you?” the teenager asked from the other side of the window.
“The same,” he said.
“You are kidding, right?” Laura said.
“I swear it’s what I always get. Cherry on one side, grape on the other, and a thin strip of banana in the middle.”
He was onto her and she wouldn’t get away with it. She and her sister had cooked up something and dragged poor old Andy into the middle of it. There was no better way to get suckered into a first-class con than inviting it to come live in the house.
“So where to now?” he asked.
“To the school yard to eat them while we swing,” she said.
Yes, sir, that girl had done her homework.
Laura was cute as a bug’s ear and as unimposing as a child with those thick glasses and her big blue eyes, but there was no way that it was coincidence that she ate the same flavor snow cone as he did or that she liked to sit on the school yard swings while she did.
He drove to the elementary school and parked in the lot beside the playground, got out of the truck, and was rounding the backside of it when she opened her own door. She slurped up a mouthful of cherry syrup from the side of the cone-shaped paper cup and headed toward the swings.