Texas Temptation

by Barbara Mccauley

  “I am not incapacitated,” he called after her, and peered into the bag. “Jessie...”

  “What?” She smiled innocently.

  Jared scowled darkly.

  “I’m starving.” Jessica pulled a carton of eggs out of a bag. “Anyone want breakfast?”

  Ten

  “Hey, Jared, you going to eat this sandwich or turn it into a science project?”

  Jared looked up from the payroll log he was working on and stared at Slater. The foreman, his head stuck in the office refrigerator, was foraging for food.

  “You just started your shift and already you’re looking for something to eat?” Jared grumbled. “There’s a diner in town, Slater. Try it sometime.”

  Shaking his head, Jared attacked the figures in front of him again. He’d been back to work eight days since the accident, but he was still trying to play catch-up, not only with his work on the well, but with the paperwork, too.

  At least the operation of the rig had been running smoothly. There’d been no more problems since the compressor had blown. Jared had told Slater his suspicions, and they’d both been watching closely for anything out of the ordinary. But there’d been nothing even to raise an eyebrow over, and Jared was convinced that the problems were, in fact, coincidental and nothing more.

  He’d even managed to avoid Myrna, though Jared knew that his stepmother had stopped by to “say hello” at least twice. Even Myrna knew better than to step within twenty feet of the rig when the drill was running, so if Jared saw her approaching from the main road, he conveniently found something to do up on the platform. The best way to deal with Myrna was to not deal with her at all.

  A dry sandwich and a can of soda in his hands, Slater shut the refrigerator door and sat at the desk across from Jared. “I was going to eat in town, but Annie was there having dinner with that head honcho from Arloco. I thought she might like some privacy.”

  Privacy? Jared broke the tip of the pencil he was using and cursed silently. What the hell did she need privacy for? He frowned at the thought of Annie’s having dinner with any man, but especially some snoop from Arloco. He knew she’d picked up her supervisor at the airport earlier that afternoon; he’d wanted to be at the site as they approached the target zone, which would be sometime tomorrow.

  Three years of waiting. Three weeks of work. And tomorrow it would all be over. Tomorrow they would hit the depth Jonathan—and Annie—had projected for the oil trap. There was no reason to go on beyond that. Arloco would not authorize drilling any farther, so the well would have to shut down.

  And Annie would go home.

  He felt as if he’d been turned inside out, leaving every nerve exposed. The thought of her leaving was agony, the thought of her staying, impossible.

  Slater opened the soda can and set it on the desk, then unwrapped the sandwich and sniffed at it as he propped one boot on the desk corner. “You ever get tired of being single, Jared?”

  Startled by Slater’s question, Jared looked up. Slater and he had never discussed bachelorhood. They’d both had their reasons for not marrying, and neither had ever questioned the other.

  When Jared didn’t answer, Slater continued, “I think about it occasionally. Especially when I’m forced to eat something like this.”

  “Nobody’s forcing you to do anything,” Jared said tightly. “Except get your foot off my desk.”

  Slater ignored him and took a bite of the sandwich. “Mornings are bad, too. I always wondered what it would be like to wake up with a soft curvy body next to mine.”

  Jared stared at his friend incredulously. “You’re thirty-three years old, Slater. You mean to tell me you’ve never spent the night with a woman?”

  “I never said I didn’t spend the night.” He pulled something green out of the sandwich and eyed it suspiciously before he popped it into his mouth. “It’s the mornings I never seemed to stick around for.”

  Jared couldn’t stop the image of Annie that came to mind the morning after his accident. He’d woken up, just as the sun was rising, and watched her sleep. She’d looked so peaceful, so comfortable. He’d pulled her warm body close to his and fallen back to sleep with her nestled against him. It had felt so right.

  But it had been wrong.

  He knew it then, as he knew it now. He was just having one hell of a time accepting that fact, even though he had managed to keep away from her since that night. It had been the most miserable week of his life.

  “I think I’m going to get married,” Slater announced.

  Jared rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think you might try dating someone first?”

  “Okay.” He chewed thoughtfully. “How about Annie?”

  “What!”

  “How about Annie? She’s not hard to look at. We like each other.”

  Not hard to look at? Like each other? Anger simmered in Jared’s stomach. He laid his pencil down and stared hard at Slater. “If I didn’t think you were trying to get me going,” he said carefully, “I’ve have to drop you flat.”

  “Why are you getting so mad?” Slater took another bite of sandwich.

  “I’m not mad!” he yelled. “You haven’t seen mad if you think this is mad!”

  “What the hell are you so touchy about? You don’t seem to want her, so I don’t see why I can’t have her.”

  “Have her?” Jared stood, oblivious to the fact he’d knocked Slater’s soda over. “Have her?” It was too much. Something inside him snapped. He came around the desk and knocked Slater’s foot off the desk.

  “Hey!” Slater straightened. “I’m eating here. What’s your problem?”

  “You so much as lay one finger on Annie and you’ll be eating this.” He waved his fist under Slater’s nose.

  “You know, Jared, if I didn’t know better, I might think you were jealous.”

  “I don’t give a damn what you think!” Jared shouted. “As long as those thoughts have nothing to do with Annie!”

  “What about me?”

  Both men turned toward the office door. Annie stood there, a puzzled look on her face as her gaze swung from Jared to Slater and back again.

  Jared felt his throat go dry. Annie was wearing a fitted long-sleeved white top that crisscrossed to a low V in the front, and a deep blue sash hugged the waistband of her long flowing blue print skirt.

  She looked beautiful and sexy. Why the hell was she dressed like that for a dinner with her manager?

  “What are you doing here?” he snapped.

  She raised on eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I be here? I happen to work here.”

  Jared watched Annie’s skirt swirl around her long legs as she moved into the room. He tried his damnedest not to think about those legs wrapped around his waist, but it was no good. “You’re not exactly dressed for work,” he said stiffly.

  “Hey, Annie,” Slater piped up. “You clean up real nice. You can dress like that any time, and I won’t complain.”

  Eyes narrowed, Jared turned on Slater. The arguing started all over again.

  What in the world was going on here? Annie wondered, trying to understand what it was the two men were arguing about. She’d never seen Jared and Slater get into it like this before.

  That was when she spotted the overturned soda. What wasn’t dripping off the side had spilled onto the desk.

  “My map!” Annie cried, and rushed over to the desk. A brown fizzy puddle streaked across the map she’d been charting. “Look what you’ve done!”

  She yanked tissues out of the desk drawer and blotted at the liquid. Like two children who’d been struggling over a toy and broken it, both men were instantly silent.

  “I’ve been working on this for almost three weeks,” she said quietly, and swallowed down the sob gathering in her throat.

  “Annie, I’m sorry.” Jared moved beside her and stared down at the brown stain on the map. Red, blue and orange lines ran together. “It was my fault.”

  Slater stood and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. Me, too
, Annie. But it really was my fault.”

  “No.” Jared shook his head. “I was taking my bad mood out on Slater.”

  “I started it,” Slater disagreed.

  They started to argue then over whose fault it was.

  “Stop it!” Annie slammed her hand down on the desk. “I don’t give a damn whose fault it is.”

  She felt tears burn her eyes. The men fell silent again. She stared down at the map and thought of all the hours she’d put into recharting it. Frustration built in her. Frustration that she’d never found what she was looking for, even though she knew it was there. Staring her right in the face.

  And now she’d never have a chance to find it.

  That seemed to be the way her entire life was going.

  Muttering under her breath, she did her best to salvage the map. It would have to go into the file when she got back to Dallas and gave her report. At least she’d have something to show for all her work.

  “How’d your meeting go?” Jared asked tentatively.

  “Fine,” she said tersely. “I told Ken we should hit the zone late in the afternoon. He’ll come by sometime before that.”

  He nodded slowly, and Annie felt her anger melt away when she saw the strain etched in Jared’s eyes. Every moment had been building toward tomorrow, and she knew how much it meant to him.

  “Jared,” she said, letting out a long breath, “why don’t you go home? I know you’ve been working since before the sun came up, and tomorrow is going to be a long day, too.”

  Annie couldn’t identify the look in Jared’s eyes as he stared at her, but it made her skin flush with heat and her insides ache with longing. His gaze slid slowly over her, as if he was memorizing every inch of her.

  “She’s right.” Slater ran a hand through his thick brown hair, then picked up his hard hat and settled it on his head. “Go on home and get some rest. I can keep Annie company.” He looked at Annie and winked.

  Keep her company? Why did anyone need to keep her company? There was a tone in Slater’s voice that Annie had never heard before. She frowned at the man.

  Something was going on between these two that involved her, Annie realized. Something she didn’t think she was going to like one little bit.

  “You trying to get rid of me?” Jared stared at Slater.

  Slater raised one brow innocently. “Why would I want to do that?”

  Annie groaned as it started up again between them. Jared’s face was red with anger as he leaned in close and yelled at Slater. And Slater, a half smile on his face, was obviously egging his friend on.

  Macho idiots. She stepped between them and put one hand on each of their chests. She tried to push them apart, but it was like standing between two steel beams set in concrete. “What the hell is going on between you two?”

  A muscle jumped in Jared’s temple. “Nothing.”

  Slater just grinned.

  “We’ve only got one more day of drilling, boys,” Annie said with exasperation. “Then you two can go at it. At least I won’t be around to have to watch.”

  Annie felt the shift of tension in Jared’s body as he pulled his gaze from Slater and looked at her. They’d never discussed her leaving, though they both knew she’d be going back to Dallas when the project was through.

  Since his accident, he’d been careful not to touch her or even be alone with her. But she’d caught him watching her when he thought she didn’t see, and the look in his eyes had been so hungry it had taken her breath away.

  She’d hoped, even prayed, that he would ask her to stay. That he’d be able to let go of the past and start over. With her.

  But he hadn’t. And as each day passed, and the target zone came closer, she knew he never would.

  She dropped her hands and stepped away, no longer caring whether or not they beat each other to a pulp. In fact, she decided, she just might enjoy it if they did.

  She turned her back on the men. “And since I no longer have a map to work on, I’ll just clear out my things now, instead of tomorrow.”

  What was the point in waiting until tomorrow, anyway? she thought, opening the top drawer where she’d kept her pencils and pens and other miscellaneous items. It would only be that much more difficult. Better just to get it done, and then she could leave here and never look back. She could forget about Jared and how much her heart was breaking.

  And while she was at it she could also stop the sun from rising and predict earthquakes.

  “Annie...” Jared made a move toward her, but when their eyes met, his jaw tightened, and he turned away. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Fine.” A tightness closed around Annie’s chest as she watched Jared leave. Damn you, Jared Stone.

  She sighed heavily and sat at the desk, then looked at Slater. “You want to tell me what that was all about?”

  Slater sat on the edge of the desk and tipped back his hat. “What’s the expression? ‘You can run, but you can’t hide.’ He’s just about run out of hiding places, and it’s making him mad as hell. That, and the way he feels about you.”

  She laughed dryly. “Oh, you mean how he can’t wait until I’m gone?”

  “No, Bailey, that’s not what I mean.” He looked at her for a long time, as if searching for the right words. “You really don’t know, do you?”

  She ran a finger over the blurred lines of the map. “Know what?”

  “Jared’s in love with you. He has been since the first day he laid eyes on you.”

  Slowly, deliberately, she lifted her gaze to Slater’s. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  One corner of Slater’s mouth lifted. “I think you do.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “He’s done everything to keep as far away from me as possible since the day I came back.”

  “I’m not just talking about now,” Slater said as he held her gaze. “I’m talking about from the first time he met you. When Jonathan brought you home. He’s been in love with you from day one.”

  She went perfectly still. All she could do was stare at Slater. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. Jared? In love with her? Back then? She’d have known, she’d have seen something.

  Wouldn’t she?

  “That’s not possible,” she whispered.

  “He wasn’t any happier about it then than he is now, but it’s true, all right.”

  “How—” she drew in a breath to steady herself “—how could you know? Jared never would have told you that.”

  “Whiskey does a lot of things to a man, Bailey. Makes him forget, and it also loosens his tongue. We drank a lot of whiskey in Venezuela.”

  Something flickered in Slater’s eyes, a remembrance of a time past, but it was gone before Annie could identify it. “But he wouldn’t have had to tell me,” Slater said. “It’s written in fluorescent letters all over his face. He loves you, all right.”

  Because her head was spinning, she closed her eyes. “Why...why are you telling me this?”

  “Because Jared’s too bullheaded to. And that’s what this is all about, Bailey. It’s about a second chance. A time to make things right, to put the past to rest and move on.”

  “But he never let on. He never even looked at me.”

  “Of course not,” Slater said. “There was a special bond between Jared and Jonathan, something only twins completely understand. You knocked Jared out cold the first time he saw you. He hated himself because he wanted you to be his. He’s never forgiven himself for it.”

  “And then Jonathan died,” she said quietly.

  Slater nodded. “He felt that he’d betrayed Jonathan by falling in love with you. When Jared couldn’t save Jonathan the night he fell, it only added to the guilt he was already feeling. If I hadn’t been behind Jared and held him back, I swear he’d have jumped off the rig after Jonathan.”

  Annie closed her eyes and folded her arms tightly to her, trying to stop the image of Jared having to watch his brother die, the feeling of helplessness....

/>   Slater pulled her from the chair and put his big arms around her. When her shaking finally eased, she pulled away and looked at him. “Tonight, when I came in—you and Jared were arguing about me, weren’t you?”

  Slater grinned. “I told Jared I wanted to marry you.”

  “You did what?” She backed away and put her hands on her hips.

  “Well, I told Jared I was going to take you out on a date first.”

  She frowned at him. “How thoughtful of you.”

  Slater’s grin broadened. “Jared didn’t think so. He wanted to punch me out.”

  She folded her arms. “So he won’t have me, and he doesn’t think anyone else should, either.”

  “Something like that.”

  An unreasonable anger built in her. Anger and frustration. Disappointment. Pain. All of it coursed through her. Hadn’t she had enough?

  Yes.

  It was time to fight back. She narrowed her eyes and strode purposefully to the door.

  “Hey, Bailey.”

  She stopped at the doorway and looked over her shoulder at Slater.

  “I would, you know.”

  “Would what?”

  “Marry you.”

  She walked back to him, then touched his cheek and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Thanks, Slater,” she said softly. “If I thought you were serious, I might take you up on it.”

  He smiled, and she thought he’d never looked so handsome.

  Then, squaring her shoulders, she turned and left the office, determined to have it out with Jared once and for all.

  * * *

  Jared kicked the front door shut behind him and stalked into the kitchen. He stared long and hard at the bottle of whiskey on the counter, then swore and pulled a beer out of the refrigerator, instead.

  Bottle in hand, he rummaged through the cupboards for something to eat. Cans and boxes stared coldly back at him. He slammed the doors and swore again.

  Hey, Jared, you ever get tired of being single?

  Slater’s voice echoed in his head. Jared knew that his friend had been messing with him, but he’d been in no mood for it. In fact, he’d been looking for a way to relieve some of the tension that had been building in him as the target date came closer. Even if Slater hadn’t been serious, punching the man in the face would have gone far toward alleviating that stress.