by Jeanne Allan
He clamped his molars together and nodded.
The front door opened behind him. “You sure look nice, Elizabeth. She’s pretty as a picture, isn’t she, Mary?”
Worth turned to stare in disbelief at Russ’s proud, beaming countenance. Was the man blind? His daughter didn’t look nice. She looked like a luscious, sexy peach. Ripe to be picked.
Cheyenne and Thomas Steele’s home was large, tastefully decorated and warm with personal touches. Acres of marble surrounded exquisite Oriental rugs, and huge glass windows framed breathtaking views of Aspen and the surrounding countryside. Important pieces of art hung in some rooms, while other rooms showcased enlarged black and white historical photos of Aspen and Colorado. The small breakfast room featured framed artwork created by the Steeles’ son Davy and his cousin Hannah Peters.
Allie and Zane Peters were here, along with the third sister, Greeley, who’d come from Denver with her husband, Quint Damian. Once again Elizabeth was struck by the bonds between the various families. More than relatives, Worth and his sisters and their spouses were close friends.
Elizabeth envied them, and envied the way the children moved easily among them. Periodically Hannah and Davy trotted down from the upstairs sitting room where Cheyenne’s nanny watched the children. Hannah would give Elizabeth a report on Jamie while Davy unconsciously aped Worth’s way of standing and talking as he discussed horses and tractors with his uncle.
Cheyenne had gathered a fascinating mix of guests to honor the bridal couple. Elizabeth recognized many faces from the newspapers. Political figures, movie and TV stars. She supposed others were local movers and shakers. When pushed, Worth had pointed out ranchers and longtime friends of the Lassiters, as well as friends and schoolmates of the younger generation of Lassiters.
He’d introduced her to none of them.
Elizabeth accepted the glass of wine Worth handed her and thanked him. He replied in the same tight-lipped tone of voice he’d been using all evening. The way he cordoned her off from everyone, she felt as if she had rabies. “You don’t have to spend the evening standing guard,” she said sharply. “I’m not planning to cause trouble between Mary and Russ, so quit fussing about it.”
Worth gave her an odd look. “I never fuss, and I’m not worried about you causing trouble tonight between Russ and Mom.” He didn’t move from her side.
Elizabeth tapped her foot in growing irritation. “Why aren’t you worried? Because you think your stupid threat to blackmail me scares me? It doesn’t.”
He just shrugged and drank his wine.
A different horrible suspicion grew on her. “It’s because your mother ordered you to take care of me, didn’t she? I don’t need you to take care of me. Go make one of your thousands of girlfriends happy. I’m going to the ladies’ room.”
She heard Worth choking on his wine as she walked away.
Greeley was headed in the same direction as Elizabeth. As they met, Greeley glanced toward her brother and made a face. “When Mom marries Russ, you’ll be part of the family, Elizabeth, and you’re going to have to be a lot tougher, or Worth will walk all over you. I don’t know what he’s told you, probably all lies, but don’t let him get away with it.”
Joining them, Cheyenne caught the look on Elizabeth’s face. “Greeley’s teasing you. Worth has never told a lie in his life. All the same, right now, I’m furious with him, the way he’s acting.”
“I told you you’d never fool Worth,” Greeley said. “Can you come up with one time any of us managed to outmaneuver him?”
“I don’t know how he found out I invited three women to meet him, but he obviously thinks he’s outsmarted me by gluing himself to you,” Cheyenne said, addressing Elizabeth.
Only slightly enlightened, Elizabeth felt her way. “You invited some women to meet Worth?”
“We’ve run out of possibilities around here, so I invited a friend from Denver, and a couple of women I really like who work for Thomas, one from New York and one from Charleston. They’re all terrific, but will Worth bother to give any of them the time of day? Naturally not. At least I didn’t tell them what I had in mind.”
“You’re matchmaking?”
“Russ and Mom plan to enlarge the guest house, and Worth will be all alone in that big old house,” Greeley said. “He’s taken care of us all these years. Now it’s our turn to take care of him.”
“We want him to be as happy as we are. Worth being Worth, he can’t admit his little sisters know anything, so he’s fighting us all the way.” Cheyenne scowled across the room. “Just look at him standing there discussing who knows what with men instead of giving the women a chance.”
“He’s not exactly ugly. Why can’t he find his own girlfriend?”
“He’s too well-mannered for his own good,” Greeley explained.
Cheyenne added, “He smiles and he’s polite and he listens and women fall in love with him. He tries to discourage them, but he can’t bring himself to be rude, so the women convince themselves he’s in love with them. He hates to hurt their feelings so it’s easiest for him to stay totally detached. He’ll never meet the right woman that way.”
“He can’t bring himself to be rude?” Elizabeth repeated in disbelief. She’d never met anyone so rude.
“Well, he has no problem telling us what’s what,” Cheyenne qualified, “but we’re his sisters. Growing up, he was always on our case about doing the right thing and about our responsibilities, and on and on and on. A person would think we were juvenile delinquents the way he lectured us. And he’s so devious. We’d swear we weren’t going to do something he thought we ought to do, and before we knew how it happened, there we were doing it. Worth always thinks because he’s the oldest, he knows what’s best for us.”
“He’s rude to me and I’m not his sister.”
“Your father is marrying our mother.” Greeley laughed wryly. “Welcome to the family. And the first rule is, don’t ever let Worth have the upper hand. He’s the best brother in the world, but you don’t ever want to let him manipulate you for his own insufferable purposes.”
“As he is now,” Cheyenne said, turning her scowl on Elizabeth. “Every woman here thinks you’re Worth’s girlfriend, thanks to the way he’s behaving.”
“I’m not…he’s not…” Elizabeth sputtered in her haste to deny any relationship whatsoever between her and Worth.
“Of course not,” Cheyenne said impatiently. “Worth wants me to mind my own business, so he’s using you to keep other women away.”
Elizabeth couldn’t care less whether Worth found a wife, loving or otherwise. What she did care about was being used. She knew exactly how to turn his manipulating tricks back on him. “Point out your three friends.”
When Elizabeth rejoined the party, Worth was waiting for her. “Mom did not order me to do anything,” he said without preamble, “but you are a guest of our family. The party is in Mom’s and Russ’s honor, and Cheyenne has hostess duties, so I’m taking care of you, as they would if they weren’t busy. I simply want to make sure you’re having a good time.”
Elizabeth gave him a long look, his sisters’ words echoing in her head. He had a real gift for manipulation. Not only was he using her, he pretended he was doing it for her own good. Next he’d demand gratitude. She reined in her irritation and smiled determinedly. “That’s very kind of you. Isn’t that Jake Norton, the movie star over there? I’d really like to meet him.” The actor was talking to Cheyenne’s single friend from Denver. “He looks as handsome in real life as he does in the movies. I always figured make-up and camera angles made all the difference,” she widened her eyes, “but he’s drop-dead gorgeous.”
“He’s married.”
“I’m not going to elope with him. I just want to meet him.”
Worth muttered something unintelligible in his wine.
Elizabeth turned down the corners of her mouth. “I suppose you don’t want to introduce me because you’re worried I’ll embarrass you by doing
something tacky like asking for his autograph.”
Taking hold of her elbow, Worth practically hauled her across the room to the actor’s side where the two men exchanged good-natured insults before Worth introduced Elizabeth as Russ’s daughter.
Jake Norton introduced the woman with him and smiled his famous heart-stopping smile. The one which caused females from four to one hundred and four to fall madly in love with him. Elizabeth’s heart didn’t miss a beat. She was immune to falling in love, madly or otherwise.
Apparently the woman from Denver was also immune to the actor’s smile, judging by the unattractive way she drooled at Worth during introductions. Worth would never be interested in someone so obvious.
A petite brunette dashed up, threw her arms around Worth’s neck and noisily kissed him. Jake Norton rolled his eyeballs and said, “My wife, Kristy.”
Kristy Norton emerged from Worth’s embrace and laughed.
Not that Elizabeth was jealous, but she saw absolutely no reason the actor’s wife had to cling to Worth while her husband made introductions all around.
Casing the room, Elizabeth spotted Thomas Steele talking to the woman from New York. “I haven’t had a chance to say anything other than hello to your brother-in-law.” She excused herself to the Nortons and Ms. Denver.
Worth trailed her like a puppy on a leash. Ms. New York couldn’t keep her eyes off Worth as he chatted with Thomas. Smitten, but inhibited by good manners, Elizabeth decided. Rudely she cut into the men’s conversation. “I didn’t realize you were the Steele in Steele hotels, Thomas. I’m in hotel management myself.” She named the exclusive chain where she’d worked her way up from night clerk before taking an extended maternity leave. Turning to the woman, Elizabeth asked what she did, drawing her into a discussion with Thomas of the hotel business. The woman was bright, articulate and funny.
Also a very chic urbanite. Not at all Worth’s type.
Elizabeth looked around the room for the woman from Charleston. She spotted her in the next room standing in front of a huge framed watercolor of a man and a horse. A cowboy. “You have some of the most gorgeous artwork on your walls, Thomas. I have to get a closer look at that watercolor.” She took off, confident her shadow would stick with her.
The southern woman was raven-haired, intelligent, droll, and gorgeous. She was fascinated by cowboys and the Old West and had been riding horses since she was three. She eyed Worth with the same longing a thirsty Jamie showed for a cup of juice.
Elizabeth knew without a doubt the woman’s “ya’alls” and slow-talking, syrupy accent would drive Worth insane.
Worth laid a heavy arm over Elizabeth’s shoulders. “If you’ll excuse us, Elizabeth and I haven’t checked out the buffet yet, and I know she’s starving.” Before they’d gone two feet, he murmured in her ear, “Finished now, Red, or are there more than the three Thomas told me about?”
Elizabeth stopped, digging her high heels into the Oriental rug. “Cheyenne was right. You did know.”
“I knew about the women. The part I’m not clear about, is how my sister roped you into her scheme.”
“She didn’t. You did.”
“Me?” Worth didn’t think he could have heard right. She was glaring at him as if he were the instigator of his sister’s plot instead of its victim.
“You were using me.” She stuck her nose in the air and walked away, her spine rigid with indignation.
As much as he enjoyed the sight of her irate hips snapping across the room, Worth intended to find out exactly what was going on. He strode after her. Thomas and Cheyenne must have invited every disreputable man in a tristate area, and too many of them thought they heard a redheaded siren’s call. If he had one more so-called friend beg for an introduction…Catching up with Elizabeth, Worth put his hand against the middle of her back and steered her toward the French doors leading to the outside courtyard.
Barely noticing the strings of tiny electric lights outlining the stone outer walls and the garden paths, he marched her toward a round table in the far corner.
“Stop,” Elizabeth said suddenly. “Is this one of Greeley’s?”
“Yes.” They stood in front of the floodlit sculpture his youngest sister had created for Cheyenne’s family.
“Russ told me about her sculptures, but I had no idea…” Elizabeth’s voice faded away as she read the small metal plate at the base of the sculpture. “Kinds of Love.” She walked slowly around it, studying the twisted hunks of metal. “The hearts are obvious, but this is hardly a cliché. So much raw emotion. Look how one section flows into another, as if the love is growing and joining…Explain the sculpture to me.”
“It’s Greeley’s tribute to those who are loving and generous enough to open their hearts to a needy child.”
“Love growing and encompassing…” Elizabeth reached out and gently glided a finger over a reformed bumper. “No wonder it’s so powerful.” She hesitated. “It’s not an easy thing, loving a child not your own.”
Worth led her to the corner table. Heat from the outdoor gas fireplace didn’t quite reach them, and when she shivered, he removed his jacket and placed it over her shoulders.
She thanked him with a smile and held the jacket close around her. “I’m not really cold. Greeley’s sculpture sent shivers down my spine.”
More strings of electric lights wrapped the spines of the umbrellas over the tables. Elizabeth’s face glowed in the soft light.
“Greeley isn’t the only one loved by someone other than her natural parent.” Worth had seen the effect of the sculpture on Elizabeth and reached his own conclusions.
“No.” She gave him a quick smile. “Dad, John Randall, my stepfather, married Mother when I was six.”
Worth considered the wealth of information in those few words. She called her stepfather Dad, and her real father Russ. Her voice was warm and loving when she spoke of John Randall. Randall was her last name. Worth doubted it was a coincidence. “You and your stepfather have the same last name?”
“Yes.” An odd look flashed across her face. “Russ didn’t tell you I married my stepfather’s son? Mom thinks that’s why Russ disliked Lawrence so much. A subconscious thing because he resents her marrying John and being so happy with him.”
“Do you agree with your mother?” Worth had found Russ a pretty good judge of a man’s character and wondered at Elizabeth’s mother readily dismissing her ex-husband’s concerns.
“No. I’ve always thought Russ felt badly their marriage didn’t work out, but I’m sure he wished her well with Dad and was glad she was happy.” She added flatly, “Russ didn’t like Lawrence because he wasn’t a cowboy.”
No matter how many times he heard it repeated, Worth rejected the notion that Russ disliked Elizabeth’s husband for that reason. Nothing in Worth’s investigation of Russ even hinted at Russ being small-minded. Worth turned the conversation back to Elizabeth’s stepfather. “You like this John Randall a lot?”
She nodded. “He’s been very good to me.”
He pictured a skinny, freckled little girl, all knees and elbows, with flyaway red hair. “I’ll bet he spoiled you rotten.”
“I was a model child,” she said primly before her mouth curved upward.
“Did your stepbrother—Lawrence—live with you?”
Her smile vanished. “No. I thought you were hungry. Why did you drag me out here where there’s no food?” Her eyes narrowed. “Never mind. I can figure it out. I suppose everyone is supposed to think we’re out here kissing or something. That is so juvenile.”
Puzzled by her abrupt change of subject, the rest of her conversation didn’t sink in at first. When it did, it made no sense. “Kissing is juvenile?” There was nothing juvenile about kissing her. Unless one considered playing with dynamite a juvenile pastime.
“I know all about the so-called perils of your bachelorhood. I know what a burden it must be for you,” sarcasm coated her words, “to have women chasing after you and falling in love with you
.”
Sisters, Worth thought in disgust. He couldn’t be plagued with easy things like locusts or hailstones or a bad back. No, he got landed with three sisters. “If this is about Cheyenne playing matchmaker again, I’ve told her time and time again I no longer feel obliged to entertain or encourage any of these single women she feels compelled to drag past me. I’m not some stallion standing at stud.”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened at the coarse comparison, but she merely said, “I don’t care if you resent your sisters trying to help you, but I will not be used.”
“Cheyenne claims she’s trying to help me?” Worth asked incredulously before Elizabeth’s last words resonated. “What do you mean, use you? That’s the second time you’ve accused me of using you.”
“You admit you knew Cheyenne had invited three friends to meet you. You’re not interested so you’ve been pretending all evening that you’re interested in me.” She filled the last word with outrage. “You want everyone to think we have something going so they’ll think you’re unavailable. Forget it.” Standing, she thrust his jacket at him and headed back toward the house.
Her conclusion was so far from the truth, Worth couldn’t help laughing as he followed her. He’d been protecting the merry widow from unwanted advances, and she thought he’d been using her to escape his sister’s matchmaking scheme. So much for doing a good deed.
The plan came from nowhere. Liking it, he examined it carefully as he eyed the shapely form speeding off in a huff ahead of him.
She was an unknown quantity which meant the plan could be dangerous, but the reward justified the risk. And not that big a risk. Too much was at stake for him to be tempted. He wasn’t about to trade his much-anticipated freedom for red hair spread across his pillowcase. When he was ready to settle down, there would be other women who physically attracted him.
“I don’t like that look on your face,” she said uneasily as he beat her to the door and ushered her inside.
His doubts vanished. Elizabeth Randall might be a widow, but she was too naive to take advantage of his plan. Worth gave her his best, innocent, boyish, kindly uncle, friendly, brotherly, persuasive grin. If his sisters had seen him, they would have yelled at her to run for cover. His sisters were nowhere in sight. “I think the best thing you and I can do is come to a mutual arrangement.”
