“Yeah right, Lace. You’re talking to me, remember? Save the cheerleading for someone else. Plus, I’m not avoiding God.”
“No, you remember you’re talking to me. You aren’t coming to church. You aren’t talking about Him. That’s avoidance if I ever saw it.” Lacy’s eyes seemed to look straight into Sheri’s soul. “Everything else I said about you is all true, Sheri. You are special.”
“Nine divorces, Lacy. Nine. With that kind of gene pool and my wandering eyes—”
“You sound like a broken record, Sheri—”
“Lacy, come on. You can’t force me to want to get married.”
“Well, that’s true.” Lacy sighed, then smiled. “But I can pray for the right guy to come along and change your mind. ’Cause I’m telling you, God’s got someone out there who is perfect for you, and there is a lasting commitment on the horizon for you. I can feel it. You know what happens when I get a good feeling about something, especially when there are sparks flying every time you mention a certain cowboy’s name.”
The diner door swung open as Lacy was speaking and Norma Sue came barreling inside with Esther Mae and Adela trailing behind her.
“Did I hear something about sparks?” Norma Sue asked as she scooted into the booth seat with Sheri, not waiting for an invitation.
Here we go, Sheri thought. Her plan had just clicked another notch along, but she had to make this look good. They wouldn’t believe her if she acted too interested in Pace.
“Sparks,” she said. “There are no sparks.”
Esther Mae was almost as red as her hair she was so excited. “Sheri, we saw you last night at Norma Sue’s. Believe us, you can’t hide chemistry like that. The way he watched you, all brooding and intense.”
Feeling triumphant, Sheri frowned, took a monster bite of enchilada and didn’t say another word.
She didn’t need to.
The posse had just kicked into high gear, and they were doing fine without any help from her.
Although she did wonder about Pace watching her. That was a tidbit she hadn’t seen.
Chapter Eleven
On Friday Pace was loading feed into the back of his truck at Pete’s feed store. He was very much aware of the pink, two-story salon sitting directly across the street from him. As he worked he tried not to look in that direction, but he was all too aware that Sheri was over there working. It looked as though the salon was busy.
Not that that was any concern of his, he thought as he continued loading fifty-pound bags of feed from the dolly. He paused to wipe the sweat off his forehead with the back of his sleeve, and saw Norma Sue, Esther Mae and Adela come bustling out of the salon. They made a beeline for Pace as soon as they spotted him, and there was no mistaking the purpose for their visit.
Pace had never been so uncomfortable in all of his life as the ladies began expounding on Sheri Marsh’s outstanding attributes. On and on they went, starting with how nice it had been of him to give Sheri a ride to Norma’s the night of the Bible study and how nice it had been for him to fix her Jeep. Of course, he didn’t mention that she basically hijacked him. Yet, they acted as if he’d done something extraordinary.
That was only the beginning. They kept on going and going. At one point he glanced toward Heavenly Inspirations and saw Sheri standing in the window laughing. Laughing. He was seriously beginning to think the ladies of Mule Hollow were one strap short of a full bridle, as his dad would have put it. In the span of ten minutes, Norma Sue and Esther Mae bombarded him with Sheri’s good qualities as Miss Adela stood back lending moral support. He actually came away with some pretty interesting facts about his neighbor.
Such as, Sheri was a pretty plucky gal. Of course, he’d already figured that out on numerous occasions. Something he didn’t realize was that, according to them, she’d recently had her heart broken. He’d have never guessed that, except that may have shed a bit of light on her odd behavior and her scheming. She told him she wanted to be single. She hadn’t told him it stemmed from rejection. He also learned she was from “good stock” and would make a great mother, that she’d keep a good man on his toes, and that she could be sarcastic at times but that was actually a plus “because whoever married her wouldn’t get bored easily.” Among all the unabashed matchmaking babble, Pace learned something he wouldn’t have guessed in a thousand years….
Sheri Marsh had overcome extreme shyness to become the spunky gal she was. Now that intrigued him. He remembered that she’d told him once that she’d been shy but he hadn’t figured she meant introverted to the point of isolation. But that was exactly what the ladies told him.
How could a woman like Sheri ever have been that shy?
He was thinking his neighbor was definitely a puzzle when the salon door opened and she came bebopping across the street. He knew the moment she opened her mouth she was going to be outspoken. Shy? He just couldn’t see it.
If she had been as inhibited as the ladies had said, where had that Sheri gone?
Sheri crossed the street, trying not to smile.
“Hey, ladies, what are y’all doing to my neighbor?” she asked, startling the posse from behind. They whirled around to face her, not even attempting to hide what they’d been up to. Watching Pace get paid back for his uncalled-for accusations was such fun.
The man deserved every bit of the harassment he was getting. She knew from watching him through the window that he’d just gotten an earful of information about her and how she would make a perfect match for him.
She knew this because she’d seen him unloading feed and she had casually mentioned that fact to the ladies. Just as she’d expected, they took the bait.
So basically she’d set him up. Since he thought so little of her, she really didn’t feel any remorse about it.
“We were just telling Pace what a nice girl you are.”
“Nice? Me? Ha! You all know I don’t have a nice bone in my body.”
“That’s not true.” Esther Mae laughed. “We told him, so he would ask you out. What do you think?”
Sheri rammed her hand on her hip, playing this up to the hilt. “I told you I don’t want your help. For the last time, I don’t want a husband.”
Pace was watching her. She was still totally against them setting her up, but this was her plan. She suddenly felt a tinge of remorse over the deception she was pulling off. She batted it away like a mosquito.
Esther Mae’s mouth dropped open. She leaned in close to Sheri’s ear and hissed, “Sheri, have you looked at this man? Honey, he reminds me of my Hank twenty years ago. You’re planning on passing this chance up? Don’t be foolish. We almost have him hooked.”
Sheri chuckled; she couldn’t help it. If Esther Mae thought Hank had ever looked like Pace, then love obviously altered one’s perception. Hank was short, squat and jovial. Pace was tall, lean and as handsome as they came—and as immovable as a fence post.
“Look,” Sheri said, deciding it was time for her to get out of there and let the posse do their thing. Poor man, she’d tried to warn him. “Y’all chitchat all you want, but I’ve got to go. Have fun.” She shot Pace one last glance and almost laughed at the steam she could pretty much see coming out of his handsome ears. The man hadn’t said one word to her.
She winked at him before spinning away and striding to her Jeep. That should just about do it, she thought smugly.
“Sheri,” Norma Sue called out. “You planning on coming out tomorrow for the church work day? We’ve got plenty of scraping and painting to do and some roof repairs.”
Sheri mentally bopped herself on the forehead—the church work day! Everyone was coming out for a work day at the church. It would be the perfect place to be seen interacting with Pace. Not a date, but it could certainly serve the same purpose and with no permission needed from him.
“Is Pace going to be there?” she asked, meeting his unreadable gaze, knowing he probably wasn’t going to answer.
“Sure he is,” Norma Sue said, elbowing him. “Pace, it will be a gr
eat way for you to feel like you belong with us here in Mule Hollow. What do you say?”
He didn’t hesitate as Sheri thought he would. Instead he gave a quick nod. “I’ll be there. What time?”
“Ten o’clock,” Esther Mae snapped. “You and Sheri should ride in together since y’all both live so close together. No sense wasting gas.”
Perfect! “That’s a grand idea, Esther Mae. Pace, I’ll pick you up a little before ten. I’ll repay you for all you’ve done for me over the last few days.” And then some.
Hopping into her Jeep before he had time to protest, she waved and made her getaway. This was just going to be too easy. The posse was probably thinking they already had her and Pace in the snare.
Yep. Too easy, indeed!
Chapter Twelve
Pace was waiting for her the next morning when she pulled into his driveway. To her surprise he wore his regular cowboy gear minus the spurs and chaps plus tennis shoes. No cowboy boots in sight, yet still he managed to look head to toe like a cowboy at home on the range.
She wasn’t lost to the fact that she’d actually been looking forward to seeing him. She tried to pretend that she wasn’t excited about spending time with the broad-shouldered, ill-tempered man, but eventually she’d given up. She couldn’t help it that she had fun giving Pace a hard time.
“Hey, cowboy, how’s the morning treating you?”
He slid into the seat and fixed his charcoal eyes on her. “I’m looking forward to working on the church.”
Sheri was shocked by the good humor in his voice. She’d expected him to be mad. Hadn’t he caught on to what the posse was doing? “You are?” she said, hearing the surprise in her voice and knowing he heard it, too.
“Sure. I came to Mule Hollow to give something back to the Lord. Lending my time and muscle to keeping God’s house in shape seems like a good place to start.” He lifted an eyebrow. “You thought I wouldn’t want to?”
Sheri looked away, concentrating on steering the Jeep onto the road. Though it was morning, the air was already dry with heat. It whistled through her hair as they sped down the road. “Well, no,” she said. “I thought you’d hate being away from your horses is all.”
Pace had a hand resting on the top of the windshield and Sheri couldn’t help glancing at it. Pace had nice hands, large and tanned with a dusting of hair that was burnished to a golden hue from the exposure to the sun day after day. She felt a tingle race down her spine remembering how those hands had felt when he’d steadied her the day she’d stumbled. Oddly, they’d been so gentle. Like when he worked with his horses. Now he wanted to give time to God.
Was this Neanderthal actually a nice guy underneath?
She pushed away the thought. He did not need to be a man she could truly come to like.
“So you can paint?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “You’ve never seen a cowboy paint?”
“Well, of course I have.” She glanced back toward the road. “It’s just that you aren’t exactly like the rest of the guys.”
“And you aren’t exactly like other women.”
“Right,” Sheri snapped, irrationally irritated by the remark. “We’ve already established the way you view me. Let’s just stay away from that.” Why did it irritate her that he thought so little of her? The man had apologized, sort of. Yet she knew deep down he still had a poor opinion of her moral character.
“You’re not all bad.”
Was that supposed to make her feel better? “Gee, thank you so much. Now back to you. What I originally meant before we got sidetracked—” she gave him a pointed look of warning “—was that you just seem like a guy that wears spurs and chaps in your sleep. I mean, out there in the sticks I just didn’t figure there was much else to do but check on your cattle and work your horses.”
“You think I’m one-dimensional? Who do you think fixes the fences?” He looked at her in disbelief, and she shot it straight back at him.
“All cowboys can fix fences.” What was it with them and communication?
“Look. I can paint, okay,” he said drily, shaking his head, almost glaring at her.
“Well, you don’t have to get all testy about it,” she laughed as the church came into view. Yes, indeed, the man was fun to irritate. She wondered if he got any joy out of frustrating her, because he could sure do it. She yanked the wheel hard and they whipped into the parking lot. He was forced to hold tight to the roll bar to keep his seat as they bumped over the gravel parking area.
“You need driving lessons,” he growled after she’d finally slammed on the brakes.
“Testy, testy,” Sheri chided as she climbed out of the car and strode past him to find out where she would be assigned to work. Norma Sue was in charge of distributing the workforce, which translated, as Sheri had suspected it would, into Sheri being partnered with Pace. The look on his face upon learning his plight was comical. The man surely had figured out what was going on. Surely. But when he didn’t say anything she didn’t offer any explanations. She could tell as he strode off toward the tools and ladders that he was not overly happy at spending the day in her company. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“Good luck, Sheri,” Norma Sue said. “He’s acting like a caged-up bobcat this morning.”
Sheri met Norma Sue’s gaze. “What’s new about that?” She jogged after Pace.
“What job did you check off the list for us to do?” she asked, catching up with him. Despite his ill temper she was determined to keep her focus on achieving her goal of making the posse think they had possibilities.
“Roof repairs.”
Sheri slammed to a halt. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
He paused to grab the tallest ladder she’d ever seen and settled innocent eyes on her. “Something wrong?”
Sheri gulped in air and lifted her chin as she gave a smile she didn’t feel. “No. Nothing’s wrong. I just thought you said we were on roof repairs.”
“That’s what I said. You can find something on the ground to do if you’ve got a problem with that.”
Sheri met his steady gaze and shook her head out of pure stubbornness. “Why would I have a problem with that?” She laughed halfheartedly and hoped he didn’t notice the sweat popping out across her upper lip.
“You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”
“N-no.” Her gaze shot to the roof. It was at least twenty feet from the ground and so steep.
“I didn’t think so,” Pace said. “Not with the way you were climbing around in that tree.”
Sheri smiled, but inside she was fainting. There was a difference in climbing out on a few limbs that weren’t more than ten feet off the ground versus climbing around on a roof. She glared up at the roof that seemed to go on and on into infinity from where she was standing. Plus, her tree had limbs to hang on to. The roof had nothing but air to grab if she were to slip and roll off the edge.
“You okay? You look kinda green.”
She forced her head to nod. She was too afraid to answer for fear her voice would screech, exposing her terror to him.
She sucked it up and put on her game face ’cause the last thing Pace Gentry was going to see was her fear. Oh, no, this girl was getting on that roof. No matter what happened Pace would not see her sweat.
She’d just have to figure this out. She could do it.
“Look, Sheri.” He smiled. “I was just teasing you. I’m not comfortable with you getting on the roof. So you can go do something else.”
She should have been relieved by that, but she wasn’t. She might be scared to get up there, but she didn’t really like being told by him to stay on the ground. “No, I—I can do it. I want to do it.”
She was crazy, crazy for doing this. But she was going up there, crazy or not.
He shrugged a shoulder, settled the ladder on it and walked away.
Sheri stood frozen to the spot and watched him stride purposefully toward the church, toting the heavy ladder as though it were a feath
er. Despite her fear, she didn’t appreciate him telling her she couldn’t do something. Who did he think he was?
Pace stepped onto the roof and scanned the shingles for damage. He’d stopped by the day before to see what Pastor Allen needed fixed. Pace liked to be prepared. If a man came knowing what needed doing he could be organized. When he’d learned the roof needed repairs, he’d volunteered. The pastor had explained that in several places the shingles were lifting during heavy winds and because of it there had been some leaks. Pace figured the painting and scraping were important but that if the roof wasn’t strong then everything below would be weak. That being the case, he’d chosen the job on the roof because he trusted himself to do the job right. Plus, he had experience. He’d fixed many a roof on the ranches he’d worked and this was a simple repair done quickly with a caulk gun.
Standing on the steep roof he spied the first buckled shingle and went to investigate. It was midway up the incline and as he bent down to check the loose shingle the sounds of activity down on the ground drifted up to him. It was nice how everyone was working together. Voices and laughter floated up to him, and he paused to listen. He realized there was another reason behind his choosing this job. Repairing the roof was the most isolated job of all. He’d come to join in, yet he’d removed himself from the rest of the action.
A grunt behind him had him looking over his shoulder. Just in time to watch Sheri crawl onto the roof.
“What are you doing?” he barked, alarmed that she’d followed him and that instead of stepping onto the roof like any normal person would, she’d crawled.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped, hunkered down on her hands and knees looking a bit green around the gills.
“I’m not sure. I told you to stay on the ground. And from the look of it, you need to let me do this. Now, get back down that ladder before you fall.”
“Nope. No way,” she gritted out. “I can do this.”
Meeting Her Match Page 10
