As she always did, she would show her competence through her actions. She would prove to this irritating cowboy that she could handle whatever came her way.
* * *
ONCE CALEB SETTLED in with his own mug and brownie, he said, “I’m leaving town in the morning, and I wanted to run a few things by you both.”
“You and I already discussed our agenda for tomorrow,” she reminded him. She could work just as well without him. “There’s nothing on it I can’t handle on my own.”
“True. But I’ll be gone longer than just tomorrow.” He shifted in his chair so he could see them both. “I’m going to Montana again. Tess and Nate are staying since Nate still has a few weeks of school. But I’m shorthanded up north, and I can’t let things slide.”
“No, you can’t.” And with him gone, she could stay away from Ryan altogether.
“I’m headed up there tomorrow morning.” He reached to pick up the leather satchel he used for his laptop.
She took a sip of coffee.
Ryan sat leaning forward, elbows on his knees and both hands wrapped around his mug, muscle ticking in his jaw. With his head tilted down, she couldn’t see his eyes. Everything else screamed tension.
Caleb was watching her, waiting to continue. She flushed. How long had she been lost in thought? Had he seen her looking at Ryan?
“I know you’re on top of everything we’ve got going regarding the school.” He pulled a file folder out of his satchel and handed it across the coffee table to her. “I’ve looked over all the resumes and agree with your assessments.”
“Great.”
“And here’s something new to you both.” He pulled out another file. “We’ve got a group of scouts coming in for a week in June. All the cabins and outbuildings should be ready by then.”
She nodded. “And the insurance is already in place.”
“Right. It’ll be a good test run.” He hefted the folder. “This is contact info and the notes I made during the call.”
Before she could raise her hand, Ryan reached for the file.
“Seeing as they’re dudes, Tony and the boys and I will take care of this.”
“I’ll need the contact info,” she said. “And a supply list.”
“Sounds good.”
Their gazes met. She dragged hers away to focus on Caleb again.
He turned to Ryan. “There’s a clearly marked public trail just past the western boundary, less than a stone’s throw from the supply shed we rode out to the other day. Tess and I haven’t hiked it in years.”
Ryan nodded. “I remember the shed. I’ll check out the trail.”
“Good. And while I’m gone, you’re in charge here.”
What did that mean? She set her mug on the table and concentrated on reading Caleb’s lips.
He turned to her. “Lianne, you’ll fill Ryan in on the admin part of the project, take him around the construction site, introduce him to the contractor’s crew out there.”
“Sure,” she said, fighting to keep her expression neutral. Seeing her control over her job slip away.
“Ryan will oversee the school project, take care of anything you need. You can always reach me by email or text, but—” he looked at them both again “—unless something major comes up, I figure between the two of you, you’ll be able to sort things out.”
“No problem,” Ryan said.
“Of course,” she agreed. What else could she do?
Caleb had confirmed her fears. But as both men left the house to talk to the cowboys in the bunkhouse, irritation at Ryan overtook her.
He knew where Caleb had been today.
Had he also known this was going to happen? When he’d asked about her experience, had he been leading up to telling her the news?
Had he already wanted to show her he would be her boss?
She took a deep breath. No need to jump to conclusions, as he liked to claim she did. No need to dwell on what might have been. More than likely, he wouldn’t answer her questions anyway. And she had enough to worry about going forward.
Irritation gave way to a confusing blend of anger and worry.
All this week, Ryan hadn’t made an issue about her being deaf. Until tonight. How would that affect her job now that he was her boss?
Was he going to be just another hearing man who thought she couldn’t survive in his world?
Chapter Six
Ryan stood beside the desk in the office and looked into his mug at coffee as black as his thoughts.
If not for him, Caleb wouldn’t have had to leave his new family alone again. If not for the accident, he would still be in Montana with his family.
The boss had headed out early this morning, trusting him to take care of business. With luck, he’d fare better than he had so far. And from now on he aimed to make his own luck.
A few feet away Lianne slammed file drawers closed, one after the other.
“Is that necessary?” he demanded.
She didn’t turn around, didn’t pause, didn’t even flinch.
Well, yeah. She couldn’t hear him.
She couldn’t hear the drawers slamming, either.
Or maybe that was a not-so-subtle way of making her opinion known. As unhappy as she’d been at first over their living arrangements, she couldn’t feel at all pleased with the new work situation.
For a moment, he missed the smiling woman with the sparkling blue eyes and the pan of brownies. He pushed the image aside, not needing or wanting thoughts like that. Especially not since this chance Caleb had given him.
She turned from the file cabinets and moved over to the desk. “Are we finished with all this?”
“Yes. For now.”
She scooped another armload of folders from the desk and began returning the files to the floor. Experience told him not to offer a hand.
Organized chaos or not, he had to admit, she knew her stuff. They had gone over detailed schedules and building plans and budgets and forecasts. She had reviewed financial spreadsheets for things he’d never heard of.
Pushing paper was only part of her job, though.
Would Caleb being away keep her from getting that job done?
He thought of the trouble he sometimes had understanding her voice. Of the times she had asked him or Caleb to repeat something. Of what she had said about waiting tables.
Would she write notes with the contractor’s men if they had problems communicating? How would she handle hiring staff? Hell, how would she manage to do the thousand things needed to get the project up and running? And if she messed up…
No need to ask whose neck would land on the chopping block.
“I haven’t heard from the contractor yet today.” All business, she had moved on to the next item on their agenda. “He usually texts to let me know when he’s coming out this way. When he plans to stop by again, I’ll let you know and introduce you.”
“I’ll want to talk to his crew.”
“Fine.”
“And I’ll take that file of resumes.”
“The resumes?” She eyed him. “Are you sure you need to get involved with those? Caleb could be back in a week.”
“Like the man said, it’s springtime on a working ranch.” He shook his head. “You don’t know a whole lot about ranching, do you?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Is that what you were getting at last night when you asked what I knew about horses? Were you trying to put me in my place?”
So that was what had her slamming drawers this morning.
“Did you already know Caleb’s plans?” she demanded.
“Hell, no.”
“Well, if there’s something I haven’t encountered yet, I’ll learn as I go. I’m a quick study.”
He laughed shortly. “Are you?”
“Yes, I am. And I may not know much about horses, but I can sure recognize a horse’s a—” She snapped her jaw closed. Her chest rose and fell with her deep breath.
He set his mug down and leaned over the desk. �
��Cussing out the boss won’t look so good in your personnel file, darlin’.”
“And I don’t see you winning supervisor of the month.”
Draw.
Still, she stood there, head-to-head with him. He wasn’t backing down from those pretty blue eyes.
Finally, she gave a small shrug he chose to read as an apology.
He acknowledged it with a stiff nod and picked up his mug. “Time for a break. Let’s meet up tomorrow afternoon. I want a firsthand look at this project.” He walked away, fighting to keep his stride easy.
Damn. He deserved everything she’d shot at him for sounding like such an ass.
He just wished her heated reply hadn’t struck so close to home.
* * *
THE WALK TO the construction site took less time than it usually did, thanks to Ryan’s long-legged stride. Lianne didn’t ask him to slow down.
When she stopped beneath the stand of pine trees sheltering the new cabins, he continued to the expanse of open land half-cleared of brush beyond. He probably wanted to ignore her existence.
The best solution for them both.
Things had started off on the wrong foot between them from day one, and they had only gotten worse since then. Despite her caution to herself, she had let her irritation with him make her blow up in his face. He had acted like a horse’s rear end, confirmed by the way he’d finally nodded and backed off. Still, though he’d provoked her, she couldn’t stop the brief feeling of regret for what had happened.
And now this.
She could handle it. Caleb would be home…eventually. Meanwhile, she would go about her business. Do her job. And just make sure she didn’t, in Caleb’s words, “need anything” from the annoying man a few hundred yards away. He still stood facing away from her, looking better than any man should from this angle.
As much as she wished otherwise, she couldn’t keep from enjoying the view.
He returned, gesturing over his shoulder. “What’s with the clearing?”
“Caleb wants a separate corral for the school. Most of the boys will more than likely never have been on a horse. As I’d told you, we’ll include lessons as part of the noncredit classes, and we plan to give them out here.”
“I didn’t see a corral on any of the plans.”
“The contractor’s not building it. The cowboys are going to take care of the job.”
“Something you forgot to cover.”
She shook her head. “Something I planned to tell you now.”
He waved toward the cabins. “Let’s have the grand tour.”
“We’ll start here.” She pointed to one of several smaller buildings. “Everything is in different stages of completion. This is one of the student cabins. As I showed you in the plans, they’re all built the same. They’ll hold eight, and ten if necessary.”
She went quickly through the one-room structure and then brought him to the first of the two larger buildings. “This is for the live-in staff and any local employees who might need to stay overnight on occasion.”
Inside, she showed him through the large great room and the bunkrooms. They finished up in the long, narrower space that ran the length of the back of the building. “Kitchen, laundry and bathroom facilities.”
He leaned against the open archway. “The dudes aren’t roughing it in outhouses?”
She shook her head. “Nate and Ellamae fought for that. Tess and Roselynn were against it.”
“So Caleb was the tiebreaker and wimped out.”
“No, he gave me the deciding vote.”
How quickly things change.
Now he’d given someone else a say over what she did. And somehow she had to get along with this man. “Since the buildings will be in use year-round, I considered indoor plumbing the logical choice.” She forced a smile. “But Nate was happy to hear we’ll have an outdoor shower room for the warmer weather.”
“Are all the buildings this far along?”
“Not quite. It’s only a small crew. But they’re making good time.”
“Yeah. Sounds like they’re keeping busy.” He gestured in the direction of the largest building. “I can hear them over there.”
And she couldn’t. Was that his point? “Nice to know they don’t wait till I’m walking through the door,” she said evenly.
She led him out to the small porch again and turned back.
Ryan braked to a stop within inches of her. She avoided his eyes but couldn’t keep her glance from sweeping his face.
Years of reading lips and expressions had left her with no doubts about what she liked best when she looked at a man. And to her dismay, Ryan Molloy fulfilled every item on her wish list. Firm, wide mouth. Strong jaw. Chin with a tiny cleft in it. Tanned skin the perfect contrast to his five o’clock shadow. His changeable eyes only made her add a brand-new item to the list.
Those eyes, stormy-green again today, stared right at her below dark brows raised in question.
Oh, please. He hadn’t said anything while she was staring, had he? She couldn’t have missed seeing those lips move.
She took a half step back. “I’m sorry—”
He shook his head. “No, my mistake.” His rueful one-sided smile put a deep groove into his cheek. “I said something on the way out. Forgot I should have waited since you wouldn’t hear me.”
She wanted to shake her head, too—in confusion. At times, it didn’t seem to matter to Ryan that she was deaf. But it was the other times she needed to watch out for. “What was it you’d said?”
“Why are you so caught up in this project?”
Blindsided again. She leaned back against the porch rail, hoping her surprise hadn’t shown on her face. He had learned more about her than she had expected in such a short time. The thought should have unsettled her, should have warned her away.
Sunday night she had seen his doubts—in his eyes, his posture, on his lips—even before Caleb had arrived and changed their working arrangements. Now the wrinkling of his brow said he’d asked out of pure bafflement. And maybe a genuine desire to know.
Neither of them shifted an inch, yet she would swear they had moved closer.
“It’s a worthy goal,” he continued. “I don’t deny that. But it’s a real jump for a businesswoman from Chicago. What is it that makes you care so much about overseeing this project?”
Buying some time, she boosted herself up to sit on the porch rail. She should take his interest as a positive sign. As a way to make him understand how much the school meant to her. Not the fact that it gave her the chance to prove herself. She could never tell him that. But she could let him know just enough so he would trust her to do her job. So he would back off and let her manage the project.
“Caleb’s committed to the idea of this school,” she began. “And so am I.”
“Why wouldn’t you be? It sounds like a solid investment.”
“It’s not just for the profits,” she protested. “It’s a way to change the lives of the boys who are going to stay here.”
“Do you think they’ll see it that way?” He settled against the railing on the opposite side of the steps and crossed his arms. “From what you’ve said, the kids will come here from all over the country. Won’t it be tough for them to leave their homes and everyone they know?”
“That’s just it. Most of them will be leaving situations they need to get away from. Neglect. Abandonment. Abuse.”
“What about other issues? Won’t you have to deal with things like drug and alcohol problems and criminal behavior?”
“Yes, and we’re prepared to handle it. That’s what we’re here for—to give them what they don’t have. A safe home. Support. Adults they can trust and friends they can relate to.”
He frowned. “Why do I get the feeling this is a personal issue for you?”
She hesitated and then shrugged. “It is personal in a way.” She gestured at the row of buildings. “I know what it’s like to live in an environment like this. I grew up in a res
idential school.”
If the statement surprised him, she couldn’t read it. He’d hidden his reaction as well as she’d hoped she had masked her surprise at his first question.
“Everything you plan to give the boys—is that what you needed from your school?”
She tightened her hold on the railing. Somehow he had zeroed in on one of the topics she least liked to discuss. “Yes,” she said slowly, “my school provided all those things. In the beginning.”
That was all she would tell him. She couldn’t let him get that close.
Wishing she had kept her mouth shut and her guard up, she pushed herself off the railing before the next questions could come. As they always did. Questions she didn’t want to answer for this man.
Not if he would respond the way so many others did, making it clear he saw her as different and strange. As less than whole.
* * *
DAMN GOOD SAVE, MOLLOY.
He’d been so wrapped up in looking at Lianne’s long blond hair fluttering as she walked that he’d gotten too close. When she abruptly stopped and turned back to him, he’d nearly run her down. Off-balance in more ways than one, when she’d asked what he had said to her, he blurted out what he’d really wanted to know. He had managed to tone his question down for her.
Why the hell did she keep fighting him?
That wouldn’t get her anywhere. He was her boss now, and instead of challenging him at every turn, she ought to consider proving herself to him…just the way he was having to do—all over again—with Caleb.
As they walked toward the final structure, two-storied and larger than all the rest, she seemed determined to keep her focus on their tour. “This is the main building. The first floor is the combination mess hall and recreation center. Upstairs are the classrooms, office space and a nurse’s station.”
A few woodworker’s tools littered either side of the school building’s porch, and a sawhorse partially blocked the entrance.
She reached for it, but he stepped forward, lifted it out of the way and set it aside.
She frowned.
“I can manage something as simple as that, Ryan.”
There she went again, both fists down in front of her, the way she’d done on Signal Street that first morning. “I never said you couldn’t.”
Rancher at Risk Page 6
