by Diana Palmer
“Because I’m about to be broke,” she said honestly.
A faint smile touched chiseled, very masculine lips. “What do you think, Janey?” he asked the child.
Janey smiled. “I like her,” she said simply.
He hesitated, only for a moment. “I run background checks on anyone who comes to work here.” He raised his eyebrows when she looked faintly concerned. “Only surface stuff. I don’t care if you cheated on a math test in sixth grade,” he added, insinuating that the probe wouldn’t dig deep. It relieved her. She didn’t want him to know what she’d been. She’d lost her whole life.
“I never cheated on a test,” she said softly.
“Why am I not surprised?” he mused. “You’ll live in,” he added. He stated a figure that raised both eyebrows. She’d been used to traveling first class while she and Paul were at the top of the tree in pairs figure skating. But that was a princely salary.
“Isn’t that too much, just for babysitting?” she asked, trying to be fair.
“She’s a handful,” he replied, surprised by the would-be employee’s comment. Nobody had ever said he overpaid his people.
“Yes, I am,” Janey said.
“She’s obsessed with ice skating, too,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I can’t cure her, so you’ll be required to go to the rink with her every day after school.”
“I want to be famous one day,” Janey said simply and grinned. “He says I can get a coach this fall, if I practice and prove I’m committed.” She frowned. “Committed?” she asked her father.
“Sure. Committed. What you weren’t when you said you had to have piano lessons and you stopped after two months,” he replied.
Janey sighed. “It was too much time indoors,” she said. “I like being outside.”
Karina smiled. “I took piano for six years,” she said. “I loved it, but I...” She started to say, I loved skating more. But she wasn’t saying that. “I sort of grew away from it,” she said finally.
In the back of her mind, she hoped the child didn’t follow the Olympics. But she and Paul had only been in Olympic competition once, three years ago, and the world championship they’d won was almost a year ago. Besides, they shied away from a lot of publicity. They were private people, in a very public sport. And Karina was known professionally as Miranda Tanner. It would be all right. She hoped.
“She never misses ice skating competitions on TV,” her father said. “A whole two months of it,” he muttered at his daughter, who grinned. Karina relaxed. The girl was just starting, not a long-time fan. It was unlikely that she’d even recognize Karina as she was now.
“And now we have ice skating at the local rink daily. A woman who used to be an Olympic trainer bought it and put it in good repair. There’s a skating club that I enrolled her in. But I don’t have time to take her back and forth, and I don’t trust any man to do it,” he emphasized in a curious way. “So that’s going to be your job from now on.”
Her heart skipped, not only at the thought of an Olympic trainer who might recognize her, but what he’d said about driving Janey being her job now. “You mean, I’m hired?”
“You’re hired. Can you start right now, or do you need time to pack at your home?”
“It’s an apartment down in Jackson Hole,” she said. “I don’t have anything with me...”
“Go home and get it. Come inside for a minute first,” he added, noting her worried expression.
Janey danced up to her, with Dietrich still at her side. Her eyes were bright. “We’ll have so much fun!” she said. “Do you like skating?”
“I haven’t done much of it lately,” Karina said. That wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t.
Janey looked at the support boot on her left foot and grimaced. “Gosh, I guess not. But you’ll get better, right?”
“I’ll get better,” she said softly, and with a smile.
“How did that happen?” Torrance asked.
“I slipped on some wet leaves and fell down a bank,” she lied, not meeting his eyes. “The doctor said it would take about six months to heal completely, and it will be six months next week. I have exercises that I must do daily, so that it doesn’t lose function.”
“Can you skate now?” he asked, going into an adjoining room.
She swallowed, hard. “Theoretically,” she prevaricated. Surely she could just watch Janey from the stands. She didn’t want to put skates on ever again.
He came back with a checkbook. “I’m giving you an advance. You’ll need gas money at the least.” He wrote out a check and handed it to her.
She was shocked at the amount, but he didn’t comment.
“Don’t be long,” he added.
“I’ll need a few hours, that’s all,” she stammered.
“If you need someone to drive you, I’ll have one of the men do it,” he added, looking pointedly at her ankle.
“I can drive okay,” she said. “It’s my left foot that had the broken ankle.”
“All right. We’ll expect you back before dark,” he added.
“Why? Do you turn into a vampire after the sun sets?” she blurted out and then flushed because it sounded forward.
He suppressed a smile. “No, but these roads get treacherous after dark, and not just because of the snow. Wolves run in these woods,” he nodded toward the surrounding countryside. “We protect them, but they’re in packs and some aren’t people friendly.”
“I’ll be in a car. Not walking.”
“Cars break down,” he returned. “Yours would look right at home in a junkyard.”
“It’s a nice little car,” she shot back, exasperated. “How would you like it if you had a few years more on you, and they said you belonged in a people junkyard?”
His thick eyebrows levered up. “Cars aren’t pets.”
“Well, mine is,” she said haughtily. “I wash and wax it myself and I buy it things.”
“Is it a boy car, then?” he mused.
She shifted restlessly, putting her weight on her good leg. “Sort of.”
He chuckled. “Okay. Go get your stuff and come back.”
She smiled. “I’ll do that.” She looked at Janey with real affection. “And I won’t mind going with you to the ice rink.”
“Thanks! Skating is my whole life,” the child said with enthusiasm.
She reminded Karina of herself, when she was that age. How quickly the years had passed.
“Before dark,” Torrance emphasized. “In addition to wolves, we have deer, lots of them, and they run out in front of cars. My foreman hit one just last week and we had to replace the truck he was in. Tore the front end right out.”
She put her hand over her heart. “I shall return, either with my shield or on it,” she said solemnly.
He chuckled. “You read about the Spartans, do you?”
She smiled. “I love ancient history. I spend hours reading it, on my iPhone.”
“Me, too.”
As he spoke, his own phone rang. He pulled it out of the carrier on his wide leather belt. “What?” he asked curtly.
There was a pause. “Damn,” he muttered. He glanced at Karina. “Well, get going, then.”
“Yes, sir.” She winked at Janey, climbed into her car, and groaned when it backfired first thing. She just knew that Mr. Torrance was watching and laughing. It would only reinforce his bad opinion of her nice little car.
* * *
There was a rigid learning curve on the ranch. Torrance didn’t keep regular hours. He seemed to be a night owl as well. On her first night at the ranch, she heard him pacing at three in the morning. She wondered what kept him up. She heard heavy footsteps going past her door, down the staircase, and a rough voice along with an apologetic one.
It wasn’t until the next morning that she learned what had happened. A heifer, one of
the first-time mothers, had gone into labor and Torrance had gone out with one of his cowboys to help deliver it with a calf pull.
“We had a milk cow whose calf was a breech birth,” she commented after Torrance detailed the activities of the night before at breakfast. “Dad and one of the cowboys managed to get him turned without hurting the cow. The vet was about forty miles away, so they had to work fast.”
“You lived on a ranch?” he asked.
She nodded. “It wasn’t a big one, but my father was fond of Red Angus. We had those, and several black baldies.”
He smiled. Black baldies. Beef cattle. “I’ll bet you named every one of them,” he said slyly.
She flushed. “Well, yes,” she confessed, noting Janey’s amusement. “I only did it a few times before I learned why the cattle trucks came and took them away. It was a hard lesson. Dad actually told me that they were going to other homes as pets.”
“Shame on him,” Torrance said quietly. “You do a child no favors by lying.”
“He loved me,” she said simply, and with a sad smile. “He and my mother sugar-coated everything when I was little. Mama said that the world wouldn’t cherish me, so they were going to, until I grew up.”
He frowned. “Do they still have the ranch?”
Her face tautened. “They died together in a plane crash, three years ago,” she said sadly. “I lost everything at once.”
“Damn.”
“They say air travel is safe, and I suppose it usually is,” she replied. “But I hate airplanes.”
“I love them,” he said. “I have two. I use one for herding cattle during roundup. The other is a twin-engine Cessna that I use for long flights.”
“Airplanes, on a ranch?” she asked, surprised.
He nodded as he finished the scrambled eggs and bacon the cook had brought in earlier. “This is a hell of a big ranch. I have oil interests as well. I do a lot of traveling, which is why you’re here.”
“Lindy offered to keep me,” Janey piped in. She made a face. “I said bad things and got my TV privileges taken away.”
“Lindy isn’t used to kids,” he said, glowering at his daughter. “But you’d better get used to her. She’s going to be around for a long time.”
Janey just sighed.
Torrance noted Karina’s curiosity. “Lindy is my fianceé,” he told her. “You’ll meet her, in time.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
He didn’t spot any disappointment that he was committed, which relaxed his face. He didn’t know this woman. He hoped she hadn’t wanted the job because he was wealthy and she saw him as a mark. It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened.
“Lindy skated professionally,” he continued, missing Karina’s start of surprise. “She won a medal at district competition.”
“A bronze, and only because two of the contestants dropped out,” Janey muttered.
“Stop that,” Torrance muttered.
“Well, she keeps trying to tell me how to skate, and I don’t think what she says is right,” Janey argued. “I have all sorts of books on figure skating. Her jumps are wobbly because she kicks off with the wrong edge of the blade...”
“Nine, and you’re an expert,” her father laughed. “You listen to Lindy. She just wants you to be good on the ice.”
“Yes, sir,” Janey said, but with a mutinous look.
“You’ll be late. I hear an engine idling at the door. Billy Joe’s driving you this morning.”
“Oh, boy!” she exclaimed.
Torrance sighed. “She loves Billy Joe,” he explained. “He’s teaching her how to train dogs. As if learning to skate isn’t enough for her. And she’s found a YouTube channel that teaches Gaelic, so she’s fascinated with that as well.”
“Cimar a tha sibh,” Janey babbled, grinning. It sounded like chimera a HAH shiv to Janey.
“And what’s that?” her long-suffering parent asked.
“Hello,” Janey said brightly.
“Go to school,” he groaned.
“Aww, Daddy, don’t you want me to be smart?” she asked plaintively.
He got up and kissed the top of her head. “Yes, I do. But not too smart. Not yet.”
“I’ll take a stupid pill before I leave,” the child said pertly.
He chuckled, turning to Karina. “See what you’ll have to put up with?” he asked.
Karina was laughing. “Janey, you’re an absolute joy,” she said softly, and watched the child’s blue eyes light up.
“He says I’m a pest,” Janey pointed at her father.
“A very nice pest,” he amended.
She grinned and went to her room to get her book bag.
A burly man with thick black hair under a wide-brimmed hat, wearing a heavy coat and denim jeans and boots, stuck his head in the door. “Hey, Big Mike,” he called. “Is she coming or not?”
“She’s on her way,” Torrance said.
The man looked at Karina and smiled. “Who are you?”
“She’s the new babysitter, and hands off,” he told the man. “We’re keeping this one.”
The man made a face. “Spoilsport.” His pale eyes twinkled. “Want to learn how to train dogs?” he asked.
Torrance glowered. “That only works on obsessed nine-year-old girls,” he pointed out.
“Can’t blame a man for trying,” the newcomer chuckled.
“Hey, Billy Joe!” Janey called. “Here I am. See you after school, Daddy!” she added as she and the man went out into the falling snow.
Karina looked at the rancher with open curiosity. “Big Mike?” she wondered.
“Nickname,” he said, getting up. “My first name is Micah, and I’m large. Hence the nickname they stuck me with. I’ll see you later.”
“What do you want me to do while Janey’s at school?” she asked.
“Read a book. Learn French. Watch YouTube to see how you attract aliens and capture Bigfoot.”
“Oh.”
“We’re not rigid about schedules. Clocks have no place on a working ranch. Have a good day.”
“You, too,” she began, but he was already shouldering into his coat. He grabbed his hat and never looked back. All that, by the time she started the second word.
Don’t miss Wyoming Legend by Diana Palmer, available in October 2018 wherever Harlequin® books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Copyright © 2018 by Diana Palmer
ISBN-13: 9781488096372
Escapade
Copyright © 2018 by Diana Palmer
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