by Monroe, Lucy
He gave a harsh laugh. “Thanks for that much at least.”
“But, I’m not in the market for a no-strings affair.”
“Are you really going to quit?”
She sighed. She didn’t want to, now more than ever. “No. I’m a big girl and I can handle a little sexual attraction.”
She hoped and prayed with all her heart that was true. She needed this job and the thought of never seeing Win again went through her soul like an arctic wind. It might not be the safest course of action, but it was the only one she could live with.
He gave her a slow sexy wink, his relief evident. “I can too, honey, but I’m telling you right now that I want you and that isn’t going to change either.”
She nodded, accepting his statement for what it was—a challenge. She just hoped she wasn’t being irreparably stupid in believing she could meet it.
“So is it true you carried Carlene through the house like a sack of potatoes yesterday?”
Shorty’s questions caught Win by surprise and he damn near yanked on the bridle of the horse he was leading. His head shot up and he met the older man’s gaze. “Where’d you hear a fool story like that?”
He’d never carried a sack of potatoes cradled in his arms in his life.
“Joe said he came into the kitchen looking for a leftover piece of pie just as you were carrying our new cook to parts unknown.” Shorty stopped and adjusted his hat back on his head. “Said Carlene was yelling her head off.”
Win would have to teach Joe a lesson about gossip. He didn’t much like the thought of his hands discussing him and Carlene, but he was smart enough to realize he probably couldn’t stop it. “He said that, did he?”
Shorty hooked his thumb in his belt. “Yeah. We was all pretty sure the little lady was gonna quit. No one was looking forward to going back to my vittles, I can tell ya.”
“She didn’t quit.” Win was still a little surprised and very pleased by that fact.
“Uh, huh. I noticed. She’s in there making lasagna for dinner tonight.” Shorty rubbed his stomach in appreciation. “Makes a man relish working up an appetite for the kind of cookin’ that little lady provides.”
Win figured there was a point to this conversation, so he remained silent, waiting for Shorty to get to it.
“A gal like that needs a hand gentle on the leads, boss.”
Win wasn’t surprised by the warning. Carlene had won the hearts of his hands within a couple of days of her arrival. It wasn’t just her cooking either. She had a ready smile and kind word for just about everyone.
Everyone except Lonny.
Win still didn’t know what had happened that day he’d come upon Lonny leaving the kitchen with the expression of a newly branded calf on his face. He could guess though and it irritated the hell out of Win that another man felt he had a right to make a pass at Carlene. The way she’d acted about having Lonny make the shelf in the kitchen had made him even more suspicious, but until he knew for sure he couldn’t feed the other man his teeth.
Win wanted his hands and the rest of the world to know that Carlene was his woman. Only she wasn’t his woman, not yet anyway. And when she finally gave in, he had an ugly feeling the woman was going to want to be “discreet”.
He didn’t know what women thought they were gaining by hiding a relationship, but he figured she wasn’t going to back down real easy on that point. Hell, nothing said she’d back down about getting involved either. Nothing, but the way she responded to his touch.
A man could find a lot of hope in having a woman respond to him the way Carlene responded to Win.
Shorty cleared his throat, reminding Win that he wasn’t alone with his thoughts.
“You know what I mean, boss?”
What had the man said? Oh, yeah, something about a gentle hand on the leads. “Carlene’s not a horse, Shorty,” he said, ignoring the fact that he’d used similar comparisons himself in his own mind.
Shorty shrugged. “Women and horses got a lot in common. They don’t take kindly to rough treatment and you’ve gotta coax ’em into trusting you.”
“Where’d you learn that? The cowboy school for seduction?”
“I was married a heap o’ years, boy, and a man learns something about women living with one day in and day out.”
Win wouldn’t argue that. Living with his mom for eighteen years and his wife for less than two had taught him plenty about the opposite sex, the most important lesson being that they didn’t stick around. From what Carlene had said about moving on the first day she’d come to work for him, he figured she’d follow the same pattern. But he’d damn well have her in his bed before that happened.
“Will it make you feel better to know that I apologized?”
Shorty’s eyes widened and then his wrinkled face split in a grin. “She’s got you apologizing already, boss? Now that’s a good sign, a mighty good sign.”
“I’d appreciate it if you and the rest of the hands would leave off speculating on my relationship with Carlene.”
Chuckling, Shorty pulled his hat back down over his brow. “Didn’t realize you two was already at the relationship stage. Lonny ain’t going to like hearing that.”
Win frowned. “If Lonny’s smart, he’ll keep his opinions on the matter to himself.”
“Oh, he ain’t stupid, boss. Don’t figure he’ll say anything, but don’t know that he’s gonna give up on Carlene either. I’ve seen the way he watches her. He’s got ideas, that’s for sure.”
Win watched Carlene with wanting in his eyes too, but what he wanted from Carlene and what that young punk that worked for him wanted were very different things. Weren’t they? Hell, yes, he told himself. He wanted more than a quick toss in the sheets. He wanted Carlene for as long as it took to work out whatever it was they had going between them.
He figured Lonny was just looking for some experience with a beautiful woman. Well, he wasn’t going to get it with Carlene. Win toyed with the thought of firing the young stable hand, but decided that in all fairness he couldn’t fire the boy for having feelings. At least not today.
A warning might be in order though. Win scowled at Shorty. “If he wants to keep his job, he’ll keep his hormones under control when he’s around Carlene.”
Satisfaction settled over Shorty’s features. “It’s like that, is it? Glad to see that you ain’t so blind after all. Women like Carlene don’t come along in a man’s life every day, you know? ’Bout time you settled down and had yourself a family. Carlene’ll make a mighty fine mother, if you ask me.”
Win’s scowl deepened. “You can forget any pipe-dreams about marriage, old man. The only kids I need around are my sister’s. I see them when she visits and then she takes them home, just the way I like.”
An empty feeling in his gut belied Win’s words, but he refused to withdraw them.
Shorty snorted in disgust. “Thought you was finally smartening up, boss. Guess you ain’t.” His gaze slid toward the house where Carlene stood beating rugs in the spring sun. “Then again, maybe there’s hope for you yet.”
“Don’t count on it,” Win replied.
Shorty turned and walked away, muttering about mule-headed horses’ asses that passed for men.
Win watched Shorty’s retreating figure, his thoughts in turmoil, and it was all Carlene’s fault. She had him so twisted in knots he didn’t know if he was coming or going. One thing he did know—he wasn’t going to give up a lifetime of hard-learned lessons for any woman, even one as appealing as his housekeeper.
She acted like a woman who was looking for marriage, but Win didn’t buy it. She’d already made it clear that she was moving on. She wasn’t really interested in permanence either. So why was she so bothered with the idea of an affair? She was bringing up marriage as some sort of barrier between them.
He didn’t know why she felt as if she needed one, but he’d find out. Once he did, he’d overcome it and any others she planned to erect. After all, he was a man that knew how t
o get what he wanted and he wanted Carlene Daniels.
A week later, he wasn’t one step closer to breaching Carlene’s defenses. In fact, he felt as if she built a better corral to keep in her emotions than the one he used to exercise his horses. The woman was as stubborn and frustrating as they came.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, putting his booted feet up on the table. Satisfaction that no one was there to scold settled over him. Now if he were a married man, he’d have to listen to some woman reprimand him for putting his boots on the furniture, even the outside furniture.
When his ex-wife wasn’t complaining about the lack of social life and opportunities in Sunshine Springs, she had nagged Win about his manners, or lack thereof. She found his cowboy ways too earthy for her delicate tastes. Too bad she hadn’t figured that out before marrying him. Too bad he hadn’t figured it out either. There had been some clues, but his judgment had been clouded by fear, grief and unsatisfied lust.
Rachel had insisted on waiting to go to bed together until they got married.
As far as he could see, she’d used sex and anything else that came handy to try to manipulate him, first into marriage and then into selling the Bar G and Garrison Stables so they could move to the city. He’d learned a lot in his short association with Rachel, that was for sure. Lessons he wasn’t about to ignore.
Thoughts of his ex-wife always put him in a bad mood, so he welcomed the interruption of a ringing doorbell. He stood up and headed toward the front of the house, thinking of Carlene when the chimes rang out a second time before he had a chance to open the door.
When he finally opened it, however, it wasn’t Carlene standing on the other side. It was his baby sister. He felt guilty almost immediately for the sense of disappointment he had to squelch.
Leah threw herself in his arms. “Win, you’ve got to help me. I don’t know what to do anymore. It’s just too much,” she said between broken sobs against his shirtfront.
He patted her back and looked past her to the small compact parked near the front of his house. In the fading light, he could make out the outline of two tiny heads, but no other adult. She’d brought Win’s four-year-old niece and two-year-old nephew, but her husband, Mark, hadn’t accompanied her.
He hugged his sister and then set her away from him. “Hush, Leah. Let’s get the kids inside and then you can tell me all about what’s bothering you.”
She nodded, swallowing a sob. Shoot. He hated it when she cried. His insides twisted like the strands of a lariat.
It wasn’t any surprise that an hour later he found himself agreeing to keep the kids for a few days while Leah tried to get her head on straight. She needed a break and it sounded as if her marriage was on the skids.
He sure hoped Carlene liked children because her job description was about to change. He needed a nanny as well as a housekeeper. Hell, he’d give her a raise—that should help get her to agree.
Especially when he told her the other change he needed her to make.
“Move in here? Are you nuts?” Carlene stared at him, her eyes clearly showing every bit of what she was thinking for the first time that week. The little woman was furious. “I took this job expecting to clean house and cook. Now you want a live-in nanny? No way, Win. I’m not doing it. You’ll have to find someone else.”
He had to convince her and soon. He had a full day of work ahead of him and he was already a couple of hours behind, having had to wait to leave the house until Carlene showed up.
“I told you when I interviewed you, it’s your job to deal with the domestic stuff.” He smiled in what he hoped was a coaxing manner. “I know taking care of the kids is above and beyond what I hired you to do, but it’s not permanent and I’ll give you a big bonus.”
She erupted all over him like Mt. St. Helens, bristling with outrage as she drew herself up. “You think you can bribe me to put my reputation on the line, not to mention exhaust myself caring for two toddlers?”
He didn’t know what her fixation with her reputation was, but she must know something about children if she knew taking care of a couple of toddlers was so tiring. He had to agree. Shelly had woken in the night calling for her mom. It had been all Win could do to get the little girl to go back to sleep. He didn’t look forward to more nights of the same. Children needed a woman’s touch. Carlene talked as if she’d had personal experience along those lines.
“You taken care of a lot of kids?”
She eyed him warily, but nodded. “I babysat all through high school. I started watching one set of twins the year they were born and helped their mom potty-train them before I went off to college. I have no doubt your sister needs a break, especially if her husband travels so much, but you agreeing to give her that break does not make it my responsibility.”
He opened his mouth to answer and she forestalled him. “You’re going to have to find someone else.”
He frowned, starting to get a little annoyed. He didn’t think a woman as kind as Carlene would be so difficult to convince to help him. Didn’t she fall all over herself mixing herbal teas for Shorty’s arthritis? Hadn’t she refused to let him fire Lonny when Win had finally cornered her about the scene in the kitchen?
He’d think that kindness and understanding would extend to her boss as well. “Well, your job description just got changed. Now it includes watching my sister’s children while I’m busy at the stables.”
“Hire a teenager to help you,” she shot back.
“Don’t know any well enough to trust my sister’s children into their care.”
That seemed to stymie her. Her mouth, which had been open, ready to level another sally at him, closed with a snap.
Before she could marshal her thoughts, he went in for the kill. “Come on, honey. It’s only for a few days. Don’t tell me that you can turn your back on two defenseless little kids that need you.”
A frown wiped the expression of thoughtful concern she had been wearing right off her face. “I’m not turning my back on ‘two defenseless little children’. I’m refusing to do what their overbearing, arrogant, thickheaded uncle is demanding I do. There’s a big difference in my mind.”
“That ‘overbearing, arrogant, thickheaded’ man is also your boss and like I reminded you…it’s your job to take care of the domestic stuff. You want help with the kids? Call a service to send someone to help you with the cooking and other household stuff, but I’m not leaving my niece and nephew under the responsibility of a stranger. I want you with them. Just for this little bit,” he reiterated.
“Win! You’re the one that told your sister you would take care of her kids.”
The pocket spitfire was stubborn, he’d give her that, but he wasn’t giving in on this. He couldn’t. He had too much going on both with the free range horses and the stables to take time off right now. “Rosa would have done it, no problem. She would have insisted.”
Carlene looked like a tea kettle ready to whistle. “And that matters to me why?”
“Because she was a good housekeeper and you are too.”
Laughter burst from the woman in front of him. “You think I aspire to golden-star status as a housekeeper?”
“You are the kind of person who takes pride in doing her job to the best of her ability, no matter what that job is.”
“I’ve been a great housekeeper for you.”
“And now I’m asking you for something extra. No different than asking Shorty to stay with a foaling mare or myself to get up two hours early for a month to take an extra training project on.” He took a breath, thought of saying something else and then sighed. “Please, Carlene. I need your help.”
The starch went right out of her as he said the final words and he wondered why he hadn’t thought to use that approach before. Mostly his pride. He hated saying please or admitting he needed anything from anybody, but especially a woman. He’d been let down too many times.
“Okay. I’ll work something out, but not the nights. You’re going to have
to handle those on your own.”
“As far as caring for the children, that’s not a problem, but I’ve got mares ready to foal. If I’m needed in the stable at night, I can’t leave Shelly and Jared in the house alone. Besides, they’re going to miss their mama something fierce. They’ll need comforting. A woman’s touch.”
“I don’t see how a perfect stranger could comfort them any better than their uncle.”
That made his lips twitch. Was she really that ignorant of the effect she had on people? “Honey, you could comfort a wounded lion cub. Shelly and Jared are going to love you.”
Her cheeks turned an interesting shade of pink. “Thank you, but don’t think that flattery is going to win this argument.”
He didn’t. He figured Carlene’s soft heart could do that for him. He heard a noise come through the door he’d left open to the courtyard. His spirits lifted. The kids were awake. He knew Carlene wouldn’t stay stubborn on the issue of staying the nights once she’d met Jared and Shelly. They were great kids.
“Can you at least stay tonight?”
“Yes.” She fixed him with a steely stare. “But just this one night. Got it?”
He smiled. He had it all right and he had her. After the first night of holding Shelly when she woke up calling for her mommy, Carlene would be hooked. She’d see the kids needed her. If having her stay the nights made her that much more accessible to him, well, a smart man knew when to take advantage of his good fortune.
Another noise came, this one a tad louder.
Carlene’s head shot up. “One of them is awake.”
“Sounds like Jared. He’s probably hungry for some breakfast. Why don’t you rustle up something? I’ll go get him.”
He left Carlene staring after him with a pretty darn adorable look of confusion on her face.
He had been right. Jared was awake and standing in the playpen that Leah had brought with her. His baby-fine blond hair stuck to the side of his head. He stopped crying and smiled when Win entered the room. Chubby little arms reached up from the playpen. “Up, Unca Win, up.”
