As Paige approached, Nate watched closely. Silently, he waited for her reaction.
“Hello, Lyle.”
Pleasant. In the short time he had known Paige, she had been many things. Cautious. Annoying. Annoyed. Sexy as hell. But Pleasant. Definitely not. Nate hid his satisfied smile. The day she gave him pleasant, he would know his chances of getting her into bed were over. Flushed like the proverbial turd.
“Paige.”
Lyle took her hand. Nate’s eyes narrowed when he didn’t let it go.
“Easy,” Chuck whispered. “The man likes to touch her. But as far as I can tell, her hand is about as far as he’s gotten.”
“I know this is last minute, but I was hoping you would like to go for a drive. We could stop in at my place. I have some of that wine you like.”
“I appreciate the offer, Lyle. But…”
“I know you get up with the sun.” Lyle laughed. Why he thought it was funny Nate didn’t know. The smile Paige gave him back put Nate’s teeth on edge. Really? Tell the guy he’s an idiot and get in the house.
“We’ll be starting that project tomorrow, Paige. First thing.”
Paige gave him a look that told him he should have kept his mouth shut. It was too late to take the words back. He would have to live with the consequences, whatever they were. She didn’t make him wonder for long.
“There is no timetable, is there, Dad?”
“No, not exactly.”
“And I’m not a school girl with a curfew.” Paige gave Lyle another smile. This one wider and warmer. “I would love a glass of wine. I hope you don’t mind work boots. I know how particular you are about those new hardwood floors.”
“Not to worry. You can take your boots off before we enter the house.”
Lyle escorted Paige to the truck, holding the door as she pulled herself into the cab. Scampering around to the driver’s side, Lyle hopped in. The vehicle started and down the road they went in a flash as though he worried she might change her mind.
Nate watched the taillights disappear into the night. What had just happened?
“What happened?” Chuck asked.
“That’s what I want to know.”
“Not with Lyle. I know what happened there. You poked the bear, Nate.”
“Paige being the bear.”
It was an interesting analogy. She wasn’t big and hairy. Quite the opposite. But she had a definite growl when provoked. It was sexy. Hell, everything about her was sexy.
Nate glanced at Chuck. Those were thoughts he should keep out of his head when he stood next to Paige’s father.
“Paige likes to make up her own mind. If she feels like she’s being pushed, she pushes back.”
“In this case, that means leaving with faux-rancher.”
Chuck let out a large belly laugh.
“Come on, let’s head inside.” He chuckled again. “Faux-rancher. I like that. How’d you pick up on it so fast?”
“He has hands like a man who sits behind a desk all day. Soft. Pampered.”
Nate took Chuck’s jacket, hanging it beside his own on the pegs by the door. When Chuck started loading the dishwasher, Nate automatically helped. He grew up with a full-time cook and housekeeper. However, he and his brothers had chores, their parents made sure of that. Doing dishes was something Nate was very familiar with.
“Mona at the hair salon in Basic says he gets a manicure every week.”
“I used to do that.”
“No kidding.” Chuck took a long look at Nate’s hands.
“There was this pretty manicurist who worked at the salon my mother went to.”
“How pretty?”
“I was nineteen. I was in my very intense, and very brief, Dolly Parton stage.”
“Now that paints a picture.”
Nate grinned, remembering what an idiot he had made of himself. He had recently moved into his own place. It wasn’t much. Determined to live on his salary, it was a shock to find out how expensive even a studio apartment was in Los Angeles. The last thing he should have been spending his money on was getting his cuticles trimmed and nails buffed.
The romance lasted all of a month. The sex was fine. Average. The moment Polli — she always introduced herself by telling him her name was spelled with an I — asked Nate to introduce her to his father, that was it. No more manicures. No more Polli with an I. The lesson had been expensive but invaluable.
On rare occasions, he still slept with women who wanted to use him to get ahead in Hollywood. If there was a strong physical attraction and they knew the score ahead of time. Nate made it clear from the beginning. He knew what they wanted, but sex was all they would get. Some stayed, some didn’t. He did his best to make sure the ones who spent the night with him went away happy. The others? He imagined they went looking for another benefactor.
“It won’t be easy.”
Chuck handed Nate a dishtowel before he rinsed out the glasses Erin had always deemed too fragile for the dishwasher.
“I’ve dried dishes before. I think I can handle a few glasses.”
“Don’t be obtuse.” Chuck put a crystal water goblet in the tray to drain. “You’re interested in my Paige.”
“I find her interesting,” Nate said hesitantly. The last time he met a woman’s father was in high school. The worry back then had been about ruining their baby’s reputation. Since Nate tended to date fast girls, their reputations were already well established. The stories he could have told dear old Dad about their little girls would have aged them twenty years.
Chuck wasn’t an anxious father of a teenage girl. That put this conversation on a level Nate wasn’t prepared for. What did he say to a man who knew he wanted to sleep with his fully-grown adult daughter? Nate had no idea.
“She’s a beautiful young woman.”
“Yes.” There was no arguing with that. Not that Nate wanted to. He waited with trepidation for Chuck to continue.
“Vibrant. Intelligent. She taught herself to read. Can you imagine?”
“You don’t need to sell me, Chuck.”
“That’s what it sounds like, doesn’t it.” Chuck shook his head with a laugh. “Here’s my daughter. Prime stock, ready for market. Paige wouldn’t speak to me for a week if she heard me talking like that. Her mother would have ripped me a new one.”
“Paige has a lot of her mother in her.”
“Thank God.” Chuck motioned to the framed picture on the wall. “She got the best of her mother. That down deep need to do things on her own is pure Erin.”
Nate took a close look at the photograph. A smiling, bright-eyed woman with a short cap of honey-blond hair stood with her head resting on Chuck’s shoulder. They looked… in love. Nate recognized it. He grew up with parents who never lost that glow of finding their soul mate.
Paige had her mother’s hair. The shape of her face. The full mouth. Her height and slender build she inherited from her father along with his dark eyes. Their combined gene pool had done a fine job. In Paige, Nate could see Erin and Chuck.
“We always wanted more children.” Chuck dried his hands. Unknowingly, he answered the question Nate had earlier wondered about. “For whatever reason, it never happened. I suppose we doted on Paige a bit more than we should have.”
“That’s natural. My parents indulged us. And kicked us in the ass when necessary.”
“Erin was good at pulling Paige back.” Chuck unconsciously traced his wife’s face through the glass-covered frame. “Left to it, I let her run wild. She was something to see, Nate. Fearless. Still is. Except when it comes to men.”
“Chuck…”
“Hear me out. Would you like some coffee? I think there’s some brandy we got as a gift one Christmas.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Chuck put a hand on Nate’s shoulder, steering him to the living area that flowed out of the kitchen. Chuck took a seat in his usual easy chair. Nate sat opposite. The furniture was comfortable. Homey. The blues and browns of the
upholstery broken up by the occasional splashes of color.
The kind of room a person could relax in. So that’s what Nate did. He liked Chuck. And he was interested in hearing anything and everything about Paige. If the man harbored ideas about a blending of the Landis and Chamberlin families, he could think again. Nate was here to help make a movie. Not find a wife.
“Get that deer in the headlights look off your face, Nate.” Chuck flipped the lever on the side of his chair. He sighed as the footrest popped up, elevating his legs. “I’m not a matchmaker.”
“Good to know. What is this about, Chuck?” Not ready to relax like his host, Nate sat forward. “I’ve been here less than a day. I’ve had half a tour of the place and an excellent meal.”
“All true.”
“Let’s not forget that Paige chose to drink some wine with your neighbor rather than spend another minute in my company.”
“That annoys you, doesn’t it?”
Deciding silence was the best defense, Nate shrugged.
“You aren’t the first man to be dazzled, Nate.”
Dazzled? Was that his problem? He certainly wasn’t acting in a rational manner. Paige had gotten to him. Fast. He felt turned around and out of sorts. Nate didn’t like the feeling. He was the even-keeled Landis. Women amused him. Aroused him. They were fun and sexy. He played for a while, and then moved on.
Paige wouldn’t be any different. Would she?
“Since she’s single and never been married.” Nate raised his eyebrows. “Has she been married?”
“Nope. Not even close.”
“Right.” Why it mattered, Nate couldn’t say. “Then what happened to all these dazzled men?”
“They tried to catch her eye. Some succeeded for a time.”
“Like Lyle?”
“Like Lyle.” Chuck rubbed his chin, his eyes pensive. “Mostly, Paige doesn’t see the effect she has on men.”
“Come on.”
As a man who reluctantly, and silently, added himself to the list of the dazzled, Nate found Chuck’s claim hard to believe. He wouldn’t call Paige an all-out heartbreaker. Nothing that calculated. However, she had a healthy amount of flirt in her. She knew how to get a man’s attention.
“Don’t get me wrong. Paige knows she’s attractive. But like her mother, she thinks of herself as average. Average looks, average appeal.”
Nate snorted.
“We see; they don’t.” Chuck smiled. “My Paige has an ego. A big one. But it involves her brain. She tends to think she’s the smartest person in the room.”
“That I’ve noticed.”
“The problem is she usually is.”
“That would drive a lot of men away.”
Chuck gave Nate a considering look. “You didn’t argue.”
“About her being smart? Why would I? I was raised by a woman with more innate intelligence that anyone I’ve ever met.”
“Callie.”
Nate nodded. “It drives my dad crazy that she always claims to be right.”
“Because?”
“Because she is.” Nate smiled at Chuck. “Ninety percent of the time.”
“Let me guess. On those rare occasions, your dad lets it go.”
“Are you kidding? Dad crows about it for days. Mom pretends to be annoyed. They make up quickly, which I suspect was the point all along. What they do behind the closed doors of their bedroom, I don’t want to think about.”
Nate loved that his parents were still hot for each other. Thankfully, they kept most of the details to themselves.
“Paige will never marry just for the sake of it.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? You want her to be happy.”
“She’s single-minded, Nate. The right man is likely to pass her by because she refuses to lose focus on her goals for the ranch. She needs to learn how to have some fun.”
Chuck gave Nate a long, steady look.
“Me?” Nate asked. Surely, Paige’s father wasn’t pushing him to have a fling with his daughter? That would be… weird. “What are you saying?”
“Be her friend. Lottie is great; I love her like another daughter. But she’s man crazy.”
“I noticed.”
“She’s a sweet girl. She and Paige are fiercely loyal.”
“I noticed that too.” Paige took her loyalty a bit farther than necessary. At least, where Nate was concerned.
“Lottie means well, but her idea of having a good time is to drag Paige to the only bar in Basic. Saturday nights can get pretty rowdy.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Chuck qualified. “I’m not criticizing Lottie. It simply isn’t Paige’s thing.”
No, Nate couldn’t imagine Paige going full-on Coyote Ugly. Though she would look fantastic in a pair of short shorts. Nate pulled his thoughts away from the image of Paige’s long, bare legs.
“Friends?” Chuck didn’t know what he asked. Nate had a lot of friends. He couldn’t recall picturing any of them naked.
“I knew I could count on you.” Chuck stood, stretching his arms over his head. “I think I’ll go on up to bed. Is there anything you need? I know Paige put fresh towels in the guest bathroom.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Good. Well then, I’ll see you in the morning.” Chuck had his foot on the stairs when he turned his head. “One more thing.”
“Yes?”
Nate wasn’t sure his brain could take anything else. As it was, he would be mulling this conversation over for some time. Between that and listening for Paige to return, he would be lucky if he got more than a couple hours sleep.
Chuck’s parting words guaranteed his night would be sleepless.
“At some point, if you and Paige decide to become friends with benefits, don’t you dare do it in my house.”
DAMN NATE LANDIS. If it weren’t for him, she would not be in the company of the dullest man ever put on the face of the earth. She only agreed to Lyle’s invitation because she refused to let Nate dictate her actions. Yet, in the end, that was exactly what she had done.
Now she was stuck in Lyle’s house, listening to him drone on about some hybrid beef that he planned to import from New Zealand. There was no blunting the pain with wine. After one sip of the foul-tasting brew, Paige couldn’t bring herself to drink any more of it. She had no idea why he thought she liked it.
Lyle never listened. He liked the wine so he decided she liked it too. Typical.
Damn, Nate Landis.
“There is a meeting of like-minded cattlemen in Chicago next month. I’m going to use the time as a mini-vacation. I thought it would be the perfect chance for us to get away.”
“Us?” When had they become us?
Lyle Wilson bought the land adjacent to the Double C while Paige was in college. The newly named Wild W Ranch was a combination of three properties, making it one of the largest privately owned spreads in western Montana.
As far as anyone could tell, it was a vanity project. Lyle Wilson came from money. A lot of money. Now thirty, he had inherited the bulk of his wealth in his early twenties. Since then, he increased his fortune by making savvy investments. He was smart. Charming. Attractive. The perfect package.
But the package didn’t appeal to Paige.
They met soon after Paige returned from college to be with her mother. At first, Lyle offered nothing but friendship. When he dropped by the Double C, it was usually to bend her father’s ear about ranching.
Not that Lyle took Chuck’s advice. He had a fancy, Harvard-educated ranch manager who made all the big decisions. No. That wasn’t true. The manager submitted a list of options. Lyle made all final decisions. That was an important point. Paige knew this because he emphasized it every time the subject came up. And like most things that involved Lyle, the subject came up repeatedly.
Paige had only herself to blame. She knew from the beginning that Lyle wasn’t a man she would ever work up any interest in. However, they me
t when she was emotionally vulnerable. Lyle provided a distraction that Paige latched onto. Unlatching herself wasn’t as easy. He was not a man easily discouraged.
Lyle would ask her out. Paige would say no. A few weeks would pass before he made his next pitch. Three times, he wore her down. Three times, she regretted it.
They had nothing in common beyond their zip code. No shared interests. She was open to any subject. Sports. Politics. Entertainment. He was open to one. Lyle. As soon as she figured out he was obsessed with himself, Paige knew they had no future. Romantic or otherwise.
For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why he was fixated on her. Most women would have switched places with her in a heartbeat. Wealthy bachelors didn’t grow on trees, especially in Basic, Montana. Paige didn’t care about that. Money was nice. She needed a man with whom she could carry on an intelligent conversation.
One thing she was certain of — Lyle Wilson was not in love with her. If there were a physical attraction, he hid it. A kiss on the cheek. Once. Not exactly the sign of a man overcome with passion.
Was he gay? Paige had no idea. He seemed almost asexual. Neutral. He simply wasn’t interested.
It was time for Paige to make it clear, once and for all, that neither was she.
“What do you think?”
Paige’s mind had wandered so far away, she had lost track of the conversation.
“I’m sorry? What was the question?”
For the first time, Paige thought she saw a flicker of real emotion behind Lyle’s normally placid pale blue eyes. However, the slight sign of impatience disappeared as quickly as it came. The slow, calm smile that curved his lips was in place before she could decide if it had been her imagination.
“Chicago, dear.” His tone was slightly condescending, as though he tried to get through to a child. Or a not too bright adult. “If you agree to accompany me.”
One more strike against him. He never treated her as an equal. Everything was said with slow deliberation. Simple words. It was insulting. Not that she took it personally. Lyle spoke to everyone that way.
“What are we doing, Lyle?”
Dreaming With My Eyes Wide Open (Hollywood Legends #2) Page 8
