by Jeanne Allan
He wondered what guilty secret plagued Elizabeth.
They’d hauled the playpen in the truck with them, and it now sat in the shade of a large pine while Jamie slept, his bottom sticking up in the air. Elizabeth sat cross-legged on a large blanket near her son, a book in her lap. Either she was a very slow reader or her mind was elsewhere.
Something troubled Elizabeth. Finding out what ought to be her father’s job, but not only was Russ tied up with wedding plans and the loose ends from the Texas ranch, he wasn’t exactly skilled at communicating with his daughter.
Stifling a sigh, Worth ambled over to the blanket and stretched out full length. “Jimbo has a good idea,” he said quietly so he wouldn’t awaken the baby. He tipped his hat down over his face.
Elizabeth didn’t respond. No surprise. She hadn’t said much of anything to him since denying she had any secrets. It must be a barn-burner of a secret.
“Just so you know, Red, blackmail won’t work on me.” He sensed her startled reaction.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I trusted you with something I’ve never told anyone else. If you think you can use my secret against me, you can’t.”
A red-winged blackbird called from some reeds down the road. He heard Elizabeth close her book.
“Why can’t I?” she asked slowly.
“I’ll deny it.”
“Why did you tell me?”
“Horse-trading. I tell you something; you tell me something. I tell you why I don’t want to get married. You tell me why you won’t tell Russ about your fear of horses.”
The pause was longer this time.
“That’s what you wanted me to tell you?”
He lifted his hat and give her a quizzical look. “What else?”
“Nothing else,” she said quickly.
Her hasty denial confirmed his suspicions. Whatever Elizabeth was hiding, it had nothing to do with telling Russ about her fear of horses. He watched a host of emotions parade across her face. Some like doubt and mistrust and fear he recognized. Others were less easily identified. “You can trust me, Red,” he said. “Look at it this way. Confiding my secret to you was the same as handing you a weapon you could use against me.”
“I thought you said you’d deny telling me anything.”
“I would, but that wouldn’t keep my sisters from stewing about it. I gave you the power to hurt my whole family.”
“Why?”
“To prove I trust you.” He replaced his hat over his face.
“That’s dirty pool,” she said in a low, annoyed voice.
He grinned under his hat. The ploy always worked with his sisters. They grudgingly came clean when he told them how much he trusted them.
“What makes you think you can trust me?”
“Jimbo. The way you are with him. He trusts you.”
“His name is Jamie and he’s just a baby. His trusting someone is hardly a recommendation. After all, he trusts you.”
“So he does.” Worth could almost hear the thoughts scurrying around in her head. In a nearby field, magpies squabbled. His eyes sank closed, then Elizabeth took a deep breath, and he snapped to attention.
“When my parents divorced, Russ told me he and my mother were getting a divorce because they were totally different. He said he was a cowboy and Mother was a city person. I said I was going to live in a city, and he said where I lived didn’t matter, but I knew even then he and I were different.” She fell silent.
Worth knew there had to be more. He waited.
“Russ said all those differences wouldn’t matter.” She hesitated. “He said we’d always have our love of horses to bind us together.”
Hiding her fear of horses from Russ made sense now. In a weird sort of way. No doubt Russ’s words had been well-meant, his intent to reassure his little girl. Unfortunately they’d had the opposite effect. Behind Elizabeth’s reluctant explanation, Worth sensed the little girl who worried her daddy wouldn’t love her when he found out she didn’t like horses. Sometimes the most irrational fears had the longest roots. Only Russ could reassure his daughter he’d love her no matter what, a reassurance Russ wouldn’t give because he didn’t know it was needed.
“You think it’s a stupid hang-up,” Elizabeth burst out when Worth didn’t immediately respond. “That I think my father can’t love me if he knows I’m afraid of horses, and if he can’t, then I shouldn’t care what he thinks. Maybe that was true when I was little, but it’s more complicated than that now.”
“Life usually is,” Worth said neutrally.
“Maybe he hasn’t been the best father, but maybe I haven’t been the best daughter either. You don’t want your family feeling guilty. Well, I don’t want Russ feeling guilty either. I know he worries he’s been a bad father. I know it bothers him that I’m closer to my stepfather than I am to him. Some things just are. I didn’t plan it. It’s easier talking to my stepfather. Russ isn’t the easiest person to talk to unless you’re talking cows or horses or you are another cowboy. And before you blame me, I’ve tried to be the daughter he wants.”
Worth lifted his hat. “I’m not passing judgment on you. This isn’t about passing judgments It’s about leverage.”
She gave him a guarded look. “Leverage?”
Good. He’d turned her thoughts. Worth assumed an innocent air and grinned engagingly. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Maybe she wasn’t as naive as he thought. “You’re spending too much time with my sisters.”
“Because I don’t trust you?”
What was it about her lips that fascinated him? He dragged his thoughts back to the business at hand. “I know you’re afraid of horses and you don’t want Russ to know.” He held up a hand when she would have interrupted. “You know I’m looking forward with great anticipation to shedding my family responsibilities and you know I don’t want my family knowing how I feel. With me so far?”
“Maybe.”
The noncommittal answer brought another smile to his face. His sisters must have really laid it on.
“I suppose we’re back to the blackmail.” She’d misinterpreted the smile.
“You can call it mutual blackmail if you want. I prefer to think of it as working to each other’s benefit.”
“I’m sure you do.”
Jamie made a sound in his sleep, catching his mother’s attention. She turned to him, adjusting the light blanket over him, her face warm and gentle with love.
Her softened lips parted. Worth quit resisting temptation. Sitting up in one fluid movement, he leaned toward her and corralled her face. She gave him a startled look before quickly closing her eyes as he bent his head and planted a firm kiss on her surprised mouth. Backing off, Worth congratulated himself on his superhuman self-control.
“What was that for?” she asked breathlessly.
“You mean it doesn’t happen all the time? When you’re walking down the street, perfect strangers don’t walk up to you and kiss that mouth?” He traced her bottom lip with his thumb. “It’s such a kissable mouth.” Her cheeks lit up like the breast of the robin sitting on the nearest fence post. Worth wondered if the rest of her lit up when a man kissed her all over.
She pushed aside his hand. “You’re changing the subject again.”
Worth resumed his reclining position on the blanket, his hat over his face. “You gave me the idea last night. We team up. I thwart Russ’s efforts to get you on a horse, and you thwart my sisters’ efforts to hobble me with some woman.”
“Exactly how am I supposed to do that?”
“Simple. If I’m involved with you, I can’t be involved with someone else.”
The robin broadcast his cheery song to the skies. In the distance a cow mooed. Worth smelled the earth and the grass and the pine trees. And he waited.
“You’re not involved with me,” Elizabeth finally said.
“All that counts is whether people think I am.”
“Your sisters won’t believe you are for a minute.”<
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“Nope, they won’t. The other women will. Cheyenne will assume I’m being deliberately obstructive.”
“Which you are.”
“Sure I am. When she sees me using you to block her plans, she’ll hopefully realize I’m delivering a message to her to stay out of my life. A message she’d never get if all I do is ignore the women she keeps parading before me.”
“It would be a lot simpler to tell her you aren’t interested in getting married now. You don’t have to tell her why.”
Worth snorted in disgust from under his hat. “That simpleminded remark shows how little you know about my sister. Cheyenne is a grade-A meddler, who always knows what’s best for everyone else. Unfortunately, she’s been right a couple of times, and it’s gone to her head,” he added grimly.
“In other words, Cheyenne has a record of successfully meddling,” Elizabeth gave a choked laugh, “and you’re scared.”
“Darned right I am. Cheyenne turning her attention to me is a man’s worst nightmare. She’s underhanded and she’s got two sisters for backup. My only option is to outmaneuver her. Our arrangement would put her off her stride. I’m not talking a long-term relationship here. Just long enough to make my point that I want her to mind her own business. Nothing will stop her for long, but after the wedding I can use ranch business as an excuse to avoid her, and when Russ and Mom come back from their honeymoon, I’ll start my travels. So, what do you say?”
“Your sisters have already warned me you’re only using me to hide behind. I’d look like an idiot.”
He lifted his hat. “No, you won’t.” He paused for effect.
“You tell them I’m blackmailing you into playing along.”
“You have tried to blackmail me.”
“That’s why it’s the perfect answer. You don’t have to lie.”
“They’d want to know why you’re blackmailing me.”
“No, they won’t. They’re irritating, but they’re not stupid. The whole point of blackmail is you have a secret you don’t want told. If you could tell, you couldn’t be blackmailed. I’ve known my sisters all their lives. I know how they think. Not only will they not ask what your secret is, they’ll rally around you. I’m the one who should be worried, not you.”
She didn’t look convinced. “So why aren’t you?”
“Because it’s a foolproof plan.”
“What about Russ and your mom?”
“If they notice anything besides each other, Mom will assume I’m being a good host and Russ will think you’re interested in the ranch, which would seem logical to him.”
“Your sisters will tell your mother what’s going on.”
Worth shook his head. “Years ago the four of us agreed there was no need to worry Mom over insignificant details.”
“Insignificant details,” she echoed in a hollow voice.
Worth could see Elizabeth needed some time to get used to his plan.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE next day Elizabeth eyed Worth critically as he sat behind the pickup’s steering wheel. A man had no right looking that good when all he was doing was going out to check on a few animals.
Yesterday Worth had almost persuaded her. Not by his logic. By raising his hat and unleashing his killer smile. Elizabeth hated how much his smile affected her stomach. He had no right to smile at her like that. As if he meant it. When she knew he was only trying to manipulate her.
With that smile he could sell ice to polar bears.
She refused to think how close he’d come to selling her on his ridiculous scheme. Not for any of the nonsensical reasons he’d given, but for reasons which had popped up of their own accord in her head.
Silly reasons. Childish reasons. Selfish reasons.
Reasons which tempted and seduced.
A harmless game of pretense.
For the rest of her visit, she could pretend she was someone else. Pretend she was a desirable woman, the kind a man cherished. Pretend a man saw her as a woman he wanted to know, a woman he loved for herself, not because she was an extension of someone else.
She wouldn’t be a woman he feared would sabotage her father’s upcoming marriage for vengeful reasons. She could forget she was a freckled redhead.
Forget she was a lonely, abandoned widow.
What could be the harm in that kind of pretending?
It would be for only a few days. A game.
Worth wouldn’t need to know the game she played. It was a game one could play.
Lawrence had taught her that.
“Do you always have this much trouble making up your mind?”
“I already told you no,” Elizabeth said.
“You didn’t mean it.”
“Were you born arrogant or do you have to work at it?”
“It’s impossible to be arrogant when you have three sisters ready and willing to point out your every flaw.”
“You’ve accomplished the impossible.”
“If I can get you to agree with me about how we can act to our mutual benefit, I’ll believe that,” he said.
“Not interested.” Common sense had finally reasserted itself, and Elizabeth ruthlessly banished from her mind the idea of playing games of any kind with Worth. Behind the arrogance, the good looks, the older-brother attitude, the sexy smiles, the kisses, was a man who’d managed the family ranch since before he was twenty. Elizabeth knew from Russ the kind of toughness needed to run an operation of this size. She wasn’t tough enough to play games with a man like Worth Lassiter.
He frowned at the road ahead. Before she could ask what the problem was, Worth muttered under his breath and brought the pickup to a halt. “Stay in the truck,” he said briefly, climbing out and quietly closing the door.
Looking past him, Elizabeth saw a bay mare and a small foal by the pasture fence. The mare pawed at the ground and whinnied in Worth’s direction, before nickering urgently at the foal. Elizabeth saw what Worth had already seen. The foal had one leg caught in the fence. Worth’s soothing voice came through the open window. The foal twitched a couple of times, making distressed sounds that aroused Elizabeth’s pity. Tossing her head, the mare nickered softly back.
Worth went to the mare first, touching her and talking quietly. Even from the pickup Elizabeth could sense the horse’s trust in Worth. The mare’s forehead seemed wrinkled in anxiety, but she followed calmly as Worth moved to her foal’s side. He rubbed the tiny horse’s neck, but made no move toward the snared leg. The foal appeared exhausted, its eyes half closed as it leaned against Worth.
Giving the baby one last pat, Worth returned to the pickup. “I need some help here, Red. Russ is tied up on the phone with those idiots down in Texas who thought any lamebrain could run a ranch, and Mom’s playing kissy-face with Jimbo.”
Mary had insisted, but Elizabeth felt guilty about allowing herself to be persuaded. “His name is Jamie, and I should have brought him or stayed at the ranch, instead of expecting your mom to baby-sit.”
“Why do you think she insisted you come with me? She wanted Jimbo to herself.” He made a dismissive gesture. “Forget that now. I might be able to reach one of the men on the cell phone, but nobody’s close. The foal’s leg doesn’t look too bad, but if he’s startled, he’s likely to break a bone or rip a bunch of tendons. I’ll halter Susie, but there’s no safe place to tie the mare.”
Elizabeth shook her head. She knew what he was going to ask and there was no way she could do it.
“I need you to hold the mare so she stays out of the way and doesn’t make things worse.”
“I can’t.”
“Susie’s as gentle as they come, and I don’t think you’ll have any problem with her.”
“You don’t think?” She couldn’t hide the panic in her voice.
“She’s a horse,” he said patiently. “I don’t know what happened here, and I don’t know what she’s thinking, what kind of fears she has. Susie’s intelligent, and I think she’ll understand I’m trying to help the litt
le guy, and she’ll trust me to do it. I’ll put on the halter, lead her a little way off, where she can watch what’s going on, but she can’t accidentally bump or kick the foal.”
“Kick the foal! What about me?”
He gave her a long, steady look. “I wouldn’t ask you to help if I thought I’d be putting you in danger, but I can’t make any guarantees.”
Elizabeth scuttled into the far corner of the passenger seat. “I can’t help you.”
“You can.”
“I’m not going near those horses.”
“I have to get some things out of the back. Join us when you’re ready.” Worth turned and walked behind the pickup. Metallic sounds came from the pickup’s bed.
The mare whinnied again. The foal answered fretfully. Like Jamie when he fell and wanted his mama to make his hurt go away. Elizabeth pleated the front of her trousers with her fingers. They weren’t her horses. If the mare was so gentle, she wouldn’t bother Worth.
If he really needed her assistance, he would have lied, told her she’d be perfectly all right. Told her Susie would never in a million years bite her or kick her. He would have argued more. Threatened Elizabeth. Dragged her to the pasture.
Not just assumed she’d do as he asked. Assumed she could do it. Elizabeth stared straight ahead, refusing to look toward the pasture.
She couldn’t do it.
Metal clanked and Worth’s measured footsteps walked away.
Susie was a stupid name for a horse.
The foal’s cries of distress sounded almost like a baby crying.
The door handle was icy cold against her palm. Elizabeth left the truck door unlatched so she didn’t startle the horses and forced herself to walk slowly toward the pasture.
Worth heard her dragging footsteps approaching through the pasture grass, but he didn’t turn. Experience had taught him that trying to talk a person out of a deep-seated fear only infuriated the person. And lent weight to the fear.
Funny how a person would argue forever about doing something, but if you just assumed they’d do it, they often would.
