The Reluctant Rancher~Badlands (Contemporary Western Romantic Suspense) (21 page)

Eldon Kincaid’s big mansion seemed out of place, but it was nothing when compared to the estate that
was unfolding before her eyes.

The Jaguar drove on a path that wound through mani
cured lawns and lavish gardens.

She sucked in a gasp of air. “Wow! Who takes care of all these grounds for you?”

He quirked a grin at her. “I have people.”

She shrugged. “I guess so.”

He stopped in front of a house that took her breath away. Grey brick with leaded glass at every window. It looked like old money. This house was truly lovely and had been where E.J. grew up.

No wonder he wanted to get back to Dallas.
A clutch of despair settled into her stomach.

“Here we are,” he said. He shut off the ignition and got out.

Jenna stared up at the house. Awe and trepidation seemed to paralyze her. She started when he opened her door and reached for her hand. She got out, but felt tongue-tied.

He didn’t seem to notice, but reached for the packages behind the seats. He smiled and led the way up the granite steps to the front
entrance. It took a moment for him to select the right key and then to enter and shut off the alarm. “C’mon inside,” he invited.

“Um, sure.”
She stepped over the threshold into a cool and elegant foyer. The floors were highly polished and looked like granite. An area rug with tiny flowers on it almost looked like her aunt’s cross-stitched handiwork. “Wow! This is…is gorgeous. This is where you grew up?”

He nodded.
“With my mom. Dad was always off working. Tilting at windmills, he used to say.” He shrugged and glanced away. “But, who knows, really.”

She slipped her hand through his arm. “Not important,” she whispered. “Show me around.”

The grin returned to light up his face. “Glad to.” He placed her packages on a chair by the entry and spent the next half hour walking her around the house and telling stories about his childhood.

Jenna realized how Eldon’s negligence as a father had driven E.J. and his mother closer together. Indeed, E.J. seemed protective of her and her memory. “She must have been a wonderful woman.”

E.J. wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. “I’m just sorry she didn’t live long enough to meet you.” He kissed her temple. “She would have loved you.”

“She would have? I mean, I’m so different from her.” She ducked her head. “I know I’m not always very ladylike. I’m sure she wanted someone a lot more polished for you.”

“She wasn’t like that. She would have wanted me to be happy.” He held her tight against his chest; spoke into her hair, his voice thick with emotion. “And you make me happy.”

She raised her chin, gazed into his eyes. “Do I?” She was cut off from further questions by a passiona
te kiss that removed all doubt.

They spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and talking. A long walk on the extensive grounds gave her a chance to see him in his home environment.

“So, do you see yourself coming back here to live?” Her throat felt tight and she could hardly breathe. There was a long silence.

“It is my home,” he said quietly.

She nodded, refused to give way to emotion.
I should have known. Of course, it’s his home. He belongs here.
She swallowed hard.
And I don’t.

~*~

It had been a great day. For some reason, Sara Beth entertained more customers than she usually had in a good week.

Two women came in together. She recognized them from church. They both oohed and
aahed over the quilt selection and each chose a lovely handmade quilt with matching shams.

Those two sales would have been fantastic, but then the grocer’s wife came in and said she’d had her eye on the big cedar-lined chifferobe against the far wall and put a nice cash deposit to hold it. Sara Beth was only too happy
to place a big sold sign on it.

Finally, a car pulled up with an older couple from out
of town. They got out and peered in the window, shading their eyes like they were playing peek-a-boo.

Sara Beth invited them inside
and they came in quite eagerly.

The woman was beaming from ear
-to-ear. “I collect art glass and I see you have milk glass as well as mercury glass.”

“I would be happy to show you all my pretty glassware.” Sara Beth gathered all of the art glass pieces she could find and lined them up on top of the countertop. “I have both pink and green depression glass too.”

The woman gathered several pieces and glanced at her husband who nodded. Sara Beth carefully wrapped the items in tissue paper and placed them in a large bag. The man offered a credit card and his business card. “If you get anything else you think my wife would be interested in, please get in contact with me.”

“I certainly will,” she said and offered a pen for him to sign the purchase slip. When the couple cleared the store, Sara Beth jumped around and giggled.
“Oh, Cami Lynn. We made so much money today.”

Cami Lynn, for
her part, gurgled in agreement.

Sara Beth counted the cash, checks and charges she had taken in and realized she had made more in a single day than she had in the previous several weeks combined.
“Oh, my goodness. I’m for sure going to make a list of all the things I want to put on the internet. Maybe there are other people out there who might buy this stuff.”

~*~

That evening, Jenna put on the long, slinky dress E.J. had bought her for her appearance at his friend’s party.
This to-do must be important to him, because he sure spent a ton of money to make a silk purse out of this sow’s ear.

She gazed at herself in the full-length mirror. She wouldn’t have rec
ognized herself in this get-up.

The long column of emerald green satin clung to her curves, and the slit up one side showed a substantial amount of leg.
Not the Jenna Lewis I know.

She twisted her hair up off her neck and secured i
t in a haphazard loop of curls.

Here goes.
She reached for the significant earrings and poked the studs through each earlobe.
Significant, indeed
. The long strands of emeralds and diamonds brushed her shoulders.

“How’s it going in there?” E.J. called through the door.

She sucked in a breath and blew it all out. “I’m as ready as I’m gonna be.” She grabbed her new lipstick and touched it to her mouth as he opened the door. She gazed at his reflection in the mirror.

“Wow! You are a stunner.”

“Is that a good thing?” She smiled and tucked the tube of lipstick into the bodice of the dress.

“Yea
h, you look like a movie star.”

A bubble of joy floated in her chest. “Thanks.” She turned to face him and realized he was wearing a tuxedo. “How dressy is this shindig?”

“We’re both dressed appropriately, but I thought you might want to wear this.”  He held out a fur jacket in a silvery-gray tone. “It was my mother’s. It might be a little cool on the way over and later when we leave.”

Jenna’s throat constricted.
A dead animal? He wants me to wear a dead animal.
She slipped her arms into the jacket, stifling a shiver when she thought of the beautiful creatures that had died so a rich lady could wear their pelts.

“And this,” he said. “I would really like it if you would wear this. It also belonged to my mother.”

She turned to gaze up at him and he took her hand in his, slipping a ring on her finger. It was a flawless diamond with many carats in its weight, in a setting that might have been platinum. “Oh,” she said shortly. The ring was definitely another
significant
piece of jewelry.

“Let’s go,” he said and gestured toward the door. “I put the top up on the Jag. I don’t want you to get windblown.”

“Thanks,” she murmured. Jenna turned and caught sight of her image in the mirror. She paused, checking the reflection.
That definitely doesn’t look much like the woman known as Jenna Lewis.

She took E.J.’s arm and he led her to the car. The drive to his friend’s place didn’t take very long. The couple lived in a high rise overlooking a park. The
private elevator swept her and her handsome escort up to the top floor at warp speed. She felt light-headed as they came to a stop. When the doors whished open, the sound of music, laughter and glassware clinking greeted them.

“Oh, look! It’s our fearless leader!” A woman ran up to E.J. with her arms extended, flung herself at him and planted a big
red lipstick kiss on his mouth.

The chatter seemed to stop as all eyes turne
d toward them.

Jenna stood like a statue.
This is E.J’s. milieu. I’ll take my cues from him.
Right now he looked embarrassed. The woman who’d just kissed him was gorgeous. She wore a silvery Grecian sort of garment with a perfect face and slim figure.

He took a large handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the lipstick off his face. A little tic beside his e
ye told Jenna he was irritated.

He cleared his throat. “Cory
…Everyone…I want you to meet my fiancée, Jenna…Doctor Jenna Lewis.” He held up her hand, displaying the ring he’d asked her to wear.

She couldn’t breathe
…thought she might pass out right there.

E.J. kissed her hand, blue eyes fixed on her.

Jenna gave him a little smile.
So, he wants his friends to think we’re engaged? Okay, I’ll play along, but I can’t imagine, for the life of me, what his game is.

The woman named Cory appeared to be traumatized. She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped back. Others moved closer. A man about E.J.’s age stepped forward an
d slapped E.J. on the shoulder.

“All right, old man. Congratulations.” He spoke with a pompous fake British accent
.

E.J. removed the dead animal jacket from her shoulders and tossed it carelessly over a nearby chair. “Jenna, meet Ch
ip, one of my old school buds.”

Jenna extended her hand and Chip bowed over it, kissing her fingers. She stifled her revulsion as Chip’s mustache grazed her hand.
Where is my hand sanitizer?

“And this is Taylor, Gunnar and Cory.” E.J. waved toward a group of people.
“And our host and hostess, Tink and Lissy.” The latter couple came forward as a unit to embrace her.

“So happy to meet you, darling,” the woman named
Lissy purred. “Any fiancée of E.J.’s is a fiancée of ours.” She seemed to think this was extraordinarily funny since she emitted a long trill of laughter that sounded to Jenna’s ears just like the MacDowell’s jackass.

Tink, the male, joined her and tittered like a schoolgirl. “Glad you could come to our little
soirée
.”

“E.J., darling, where did you find this gorgeous creature?” Lissy brayed at him.

He
smiled at Jenna, reaching through the crowd to claim her and pull her toward him. “I grabbed her when she flew too close to earth.” He gazed into her eyes, setting fire to her senses. “Because she’s my angel.”  He kissed her, disregarding the astonished stares from the onlookers.

Jenna’s pulses pounded in her ears. She had no idea what E.J. was thinking, but she was way over her head here. She slid her hands up to rest on his shoulders, watching to see what he was
going to do next. These sophisticated people were out of her league. She wished she could grab the dead animal jacket and leave…or leave it behind.

Taylor eyed the ring on her hand.
“
Quel surprise!
You gave her your mother’s ring. That is so romantic.” She turned to the woman named Cory and pulled her closer to inspect the impressive jewel in question.

Cory looked stricken. She gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

Lissy leaned closer and whispered loud enough for all to hear. “Here we all thought that ring would adorn a different hand.
N’est-ce pas?

Jenna’s stomach clenched. She had no idea what kind of innuendo they were trying to impart. She raised her chin, gazing up at E.J.

“Nonsense,” he said. “I’ve never considered placing this ring on any other hand.”

What the hell does that mean?

E.J. grabbed the shoulder of Tink, their host. “You don’t suppose we could get a drink in this establishment, do you?”

~*~

The next day, E.J. was up early. He felt great, in spite of a slight hangover. He glanced at Jenna, still asleep in his bed, and felt a wave of gratitude that she was his. Last night had been a night of revelations. He still liked his old friends from school, but perhaps he saw them a little more clearly than he had in the past. When they were running together as a pack, he’d felt much more a part of them, but something was different now. He was not a part of the group. They still considered him one of the gang, and he supposed a part of him would always be loyal to them…but something was different.