A Small Town Thanksgiving

by Marie Ferrarella

  Just as Mike had pulled up to the house, Sam saw the front door open and a slightly heavyset, distinguished-looking older man came out onto the porch. Rather than stand there like a sentry, the man came down the three steps to her level. Far from solemn-looking, his smile was wide and inviting. In most situations she was the perpetual outsider, but here Sam felt instantly at home.

  Miguel Rodriguez Sr. had that sort of quality about him.

  And if his very presence didn’t do it, the expression on his rounded face, coupled with a genuine embrace, conveyed that friendliness to any visitor who stepped onto his property.

  “Welcome to my home,” he declared from the midst of a bear hug. Releasing Sam, he stepped back and told her, “Thank you for coming.”

  “I should be thanking you for hiring me,” Sam countered. “Most of my clients don’t hire me until after they’ve asked to see a sample of my work and a list of all the projects I’ve worked on.” She looked at the man with genuine wonder. “You didn’t.”

  “Olivia Santiago gave me your name,” Miguel told her simply. “She said you were a friend of a friend who worked with you and they were very pleased with what you did. That was more than good enough for me,” he admitted honestly.

  She’d never been confronted with such blatant trust before. The world she came from held people suspect until proven otherwise.

  “I’ll try not to disappoint you,” she told him sincerely.

  “I am sure that you will not,” he told her with conviction. Glancing over her shoulder, he saw Mike taking out her suitcase and the briefcase containing her laptop. When nothing else followed, Miguel eyed his houseguest curiously. “Are the rest of your things being shipped out?”

  “There is no ‘rest of her things,’” Mike told his father before she could.

  Miguel looked quizzically from his son to his guest. “You’re not staying long?” he asked.

  “I’m staying as long as it takes,” she assured him. Then, to make things clearer, she told her new teddy-bear of an employer, “I don’t need much.”

  “Ah, a lady after my own heart.” He patted her hand before slipping it through the crook of his arm. “We will get along just fine,” he predicted.

  If she wasn’t inclined to do the very best job she could each and every time she undertook a new assignment, Miguel would have made her want to reach that pinnacle now. He definitely had a winning way about him, she thought. And he was certainly a great deal friendlier and more welcoming than his oldest son was.

  “How was your trip?” Miguel asked as he led her up the porch steps and into the house.

  “Uneventful,” she replied.

  For a moment, he considered her words, then realized that perhaps she had misunderstood his question. “I am asking about your trip from the airport to the ranch with my son.” He glanced toward his son. “He does not talk much, but all the others were busy, so I had no choice,” Miguel explained. “Still, his heart is in the right place.”

  “Slightly left of center, where it’s always been, Dad,” Mike said with a touch of impatience. He was thirty-one and had been a man for a long time now. He didn’t appreciate being discussed as if he was eleven, clueless and out of earshot.

  With a less than pleased grunt, Mike picked up the two pieces of their houseguest’s luggage and made his way into the house behind his father and Sam. “She staying in Alma’s old room?” he asked so he could drop off her things in the right room.

  Miguel nodded, then explained to Sam, “Alma is my daughter.”

  “The deputy,” Sam acknowledged.

  “You know Alma?” Miguel asked, surprised that the young woman was acquainted with his daughter.

  “No—” she was quick to set the record straight “—I asked Mike about his siblings and he told all their names and what they did for a living.”

  Now that really surprised the older man. “You got him to talk? I am impressed.”

  “Still here, Dad,” Mike reminded his father, doing his best to curb his exasperation.

  There was no point in losing his temper. He knew what his father was like and there was no changing the man at this stage of the game any more than he could hope to change the spots on a leopard.

  “So I see,” Miguel acknowledged. He closed the front door behind his son, then instructed him, “Show Miss Monroe—”

  Sam was quick to interrupt. “Call me Sam, please,” she urged.

  Miguel smiled warmly at the petite young woman. He’d already taken measure of her and he liked what he saw. As did, he suspected, his son. Miguel, Jr. just needed a little prodding and he was more than ready to do that. By his reckoning, he had approximately six weeks to make that happen.

  “Show Sam to her room, please, Miguel,” he requested. “And when you are settled in,” Miguel continued, addressing his words to Sam, “we will talk and get acquainted.” His eyes crinkled as he added, “I am looking forward to that.”

  Sam was anxious to get started as soon as possible, to sink her teeth into the project and immerse herself in a brand-new world that was significantly different from her own.

  But she knew Miguel was right. There were steps to follow. She didn’t want him to think he had brought a fanatical workaholic into his house even though that was probably the best description of her.

  “I’ll be down very soon,” she promised for form’s sake as she hurried to follow Mike.

  The latter hadn’t stopped to allow her to catch up. Instead, he’d already disappeared by the time she was halfway up the stairs.

  Moving faster, Sam reached the landing just as she saw him walking into a room on the far right-hand side.

  No coddling from that quarter, which was fine as far as she was concerned. She didn’t expect to be coddled and wouldn’t have really known how to react if she had been. It was foreign to everything she had experienced up to this point. The people she’d worked with prior to this assignment had all been forthcoming, but there had never been any pampering and she preferred it that way.

  The cowboy certainly had some stride, she thought just as she reached the room that he’d entered. The second she did, her mind went blank.

  Sam all but froze in the doorway, looking around the nine-by-twelve room. The bedroom appeared to be as welcoming as the man downstairs had been.

  It was obviously a girl’s room, yet it wasn’t given over to frills and “girly” things. An individual had lived and slept here, Sam decided as she looked around. And it looked as if that person would come walking back in at any moment.

  There was no sign of dust in the room and it appeared to be well taken care of.

  Recently.

  “You sure your sister won’t mind me staying in her room?” Sam asked her all-but-silent guide.

  “Not unless she’s decided to leave Cash and needs a place to stay,” he answered glibly. “Until then, Dad says you can stick around.”

  “Cash?” Sam repeated. “Is that her husband?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Mike confirmed in a monotone. His assignment completed, Mike turned to leave the room. There was only one problem with that. Their houseguest was still standing in the doorway, blocking his exit. Mike eyed her. “Unless you want me to get really familiar with you, Sam—” he deliberately underscored her name “—I can’t leave with you standing there.” He punctuated his statement with a long, expectant stare.

  “Oh, sorry,” she murmured, suddenly realizing that she was blocking the way out. Sam moved to the side, giving him space, and thought she heard Mike mumble, “Thanks,” but then it just might have been her imagination.

  She chalked up the other thing to her imagination, as well. Specifically the way her pulse jumped when Mike wound up accidentally brushing against her as he exited the room. Sam had stepped to the side to give him what she thought was a sufficien
t amount of space to pass, but obviously she’d miscalculated.

  It had been the most innocent and minute of contacts between two people, yet for just a moment, she felt like she’d touched a live wire. It had sent a very real, very powerful jolt through her system.

  She was just wired in general, Sam silently argued. That was all. Anxious to begin, anticipating what was involved, nervous that she might not deliver well enough to please that really nice man downstairs.

  Because Miguel was so nice, she was more determined than usual to deliver the goods and make sure that there were no regrets about hiring her.

  That, she silently insisted, was the only reason she felt that odd sort of tingling sensation zigzagging throughout her body. After all, it wasn’t as if she and Mike had had full-on body contact or anything of that nature.

  It was all in her head, nothing more.

  She could still feel that unexpected jolt echo through her body, damn it.

  Breathe, Sam, breathe, she ordered herself. And for heaven’s sake, calm down. You don’t want to lose this job before you begin.

  “Come down whenever you’re ready,” she heard Mike tell her in a voice that he might have used to inform her that the weatherman predicted no change for the next month.

  Thank goodness his father was friendlier, she thought. Otherwise, this could have turned out to be a very uncomfortable assignment. Or at least any further interaction with her employer might have been uncomfortable.

  But for the most part, her work was done at a desk in a room removed from the daily interactions of the people living around her. So, uncomfortable or not, it really shouldn’t have mattered all that much to her.

  Her thoughts seemed to be colliding with one another in a haphazard way. What was the matter with her?

  Maybe the trip out here had tired her out, Sam decided. The more she thought about it, the more of a viable possibility it became. Especially since she felt a little off her game.

  That would change soon enough, after a good night’s sleep, she promised herself.

  Sam had barely closed the door and had time to place her suitcase on the bed, preparing to unpack, when she heard a quick, staccato rap on the bedroom door. As she turned toward it, ready to open the door herself, she was surprised to see it open on its own.

  She didn’t even get a chance to ask who it was.

  A tall, strapping cowboy with a pretty face that echoed some of Mike’s features came striding into the room even as he said, “What’re you doing here before your shift’s up?”

  The question had no sooner come tumbling from the man’s lips than he stared at her, as surprised to see her as she was to have the room serving as her bedroom invaded.

  “You’re not my sister,” the cowboy declared.

  “Not that I know of,” Sam readily agreed with a grin. This had to be the youngest brother.

  The man instantly backtracked as he began to assess the blonde in the bedroom.

  “Hey, I’m sorry. I thought you were Alma, but you’re not. I’m Ray, by the way.” Still smiling, he furrowed his brow a little in confusion. It was a look known to make a woman’s knees grow weak. And then fantasy took a backseat to reality. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Samantha Monroe,” she replied, taking a couple of small steps toward him as she extended her hand. “Sam to my friends.”

  “Well, Sam-to-your-friends, you wouldn’t be a friend of Mike’s, would you?” he asked uncertainly.

  Sam laughed as she shook her head. “No, I sincerely doubt that your brother would ever categorize me as being that.”

  “But you do know Mike?” Ray asked, apparently trying to get his facts straight.

  “Yes, I do,” she told him. “Your brother brought me out here from the airport. I’m going to be working for your father,” she began to explain.

  “Whatever Dad has you doing, just tell me where I can sign up?” he asked with an enthusiasm Sam found both disarming as well as extremely sweet.

  Nevertheless, the man needed to have his facts straightened out.

  “I don’t think you quite understand,” she told the youngest of the Rodriguez brothers.

  “There’s no ‘think’ about it, Sam. My little brother gets his exercise jumping to conclusions,” Mike told her, coming into the room. The expression on his face was stern as he turned toward his brother. “She’s working for Dad, Ray, she’s not here to entertain you.”

  Mike had been drawn by the voices and, knowing Ray’s penchant for seducing pretty girls, he’d come to see if the woman his father had hired needed any saving from his brother.

  She appeared to be holding her own, but knowing Ray, it was just a matter of time before his youngest brother wore away her resistance.

  His assignment for the next six weeks or so was to keep his youngest brother at least an arm’s length away from Sam—at all times. Otherwise, he had a feeling that it was going to take a lot longer for her to write this book.

  Ordinarily, he would have found such an assignment annoying. That he didn’t was troubling to Mike on its own.

  Chapter Five

  Ray laughed in response to his brother’s comment about the woman in Alma’s room not being there for his personal entertainment.

  He didn’t know about Mike, but by his standards, this woman was exceptionally attractive and he wouldn’t have minded getting something going with her, but he had a feeling that definitely didn’t have a chance in hell of happening if she saw him as some sort of a womanizer or insensitive jerk, which would have been the logical conclusion after hearing Mike’s comment.

  So he coupled his dismissive laugh with a denial. “You make it sound like I’m some kind of a Neanderthal, Mike.” He was about to add that he was nothing of the kind, but he never got the chance.

  “No, you’re worse,” Mike replied in an even voice that came across stripped of all emotion.

  Both Ray and Sam looked at him, obviously waiting for him to elaborate, but he just left his sentence hanging in the air without any further embellishment on his part. In his experience, the attempt to articulate himself could be far more damaging.

  “Why don’t you go and tell Dad his guest’ll be down shortly?” It really wasn’t so much a request or a suggestion as a barely veiled order for Ray to leave the room.

  For his part, Ray was usually as easygoing as his brother was not, but he didn’t care to be ordered around like a lackey, especially not in front of an attractive woman. It wasn’t that this was some sort of a competition. Mike wasn’t acting this way to impress the woman. His brother just didn’t think like that. However, that was how it might look to his father’s guest and Ray didn’t take kindly to being belittled by anyone, not even by his oldest brother.

  There was a wave of momentary unspoken tension in the air. Sam could sense it and the very last thing she wanted was to cause discord that could be traced back to her as its source. She was here strictly to work, not to cause trouble.

  Since she didn’t have a myriad of items to unpack and put away, she could always take care of that minor detail later. That was part of the beauty of traveling light. She wasn’t faced with a preponderance of possessions to house or keep track of.

  This lack of goods now allowed her to announce, “Why don’t we all go down?” She flashed a cooperative smile at Mike. “I’m ready now.”

  He frowned and indicated the suitcase on her bed. “Don’t you have to unpack?”

  “My things aren’t going anywhere and it only takes a few minutes to put everything I brought away,” she told him, already moving toward the doorway. He blocked her access to the hallway. His broad shoulders alone seemed to fill the space up rather well. “Now you’re in my way,” she commented, referring to what he’d said to her a few minutes ago.

  “Yeah, so I am,” he murmured,
taking a step back into the hall.

  Mike noticed as she swept past him toward the stairs that there was just the slightest whiff of a stirring fragrance that made him think of honeysuckle blossoms in the spring.

  Had to be some kind of perfume or cologne, he thought.

  Ordinarily, he didn’t care to have the air around him tainted with heavy, artificial scents, but what he’d just breathed in didn’t fall under that category.

  If he didn’t know any better, he would have said the soft fragrance was even arousing.

  Except that he didn’t react that way. He kept tight control over himself at all times so that nothing could affect him.

  Mike took in another deep breath, thinking to clear his head. Instead, he experienced the same sort of reaction as he had with the first breath.

  Except that this time, he thought he’d felt his pulse jump, as well.

  As if reading his mind, Ray whispered, “Smells pretty, doesn’t she?” He punctuated his question with a wide grin that seemed almost knowing.

  Mike didn’t bother acknowledging the comment, and just strode past his brother.

  * * *

  MIGUEL TURNED FROM the fireplace when he heard the sound of footsteps on the tile directly behind him in the living room. He’d expected to see Sam and his oldest son coming down again. He was surprised to see Ramon accompanying them. Miguel hadn’t realized that his youngest had come home just now. As far as he knew, Ramon was supposed to be working with the wranglers who were training the new horses.

  “I see you have met my youngest,” he said to Sam. His dark eyes shifted toward the son under discussion. “I hope you behaved yourself, Ramon.” There was just the slightest touch of sternness in his voice.

  If there was, Ray didn’t acknowledge it. “I’m always a gentleman, Dad. I wouldn’t know how to be anything else,” he assured his father.

  Ray’s words were met with an amused snort that Mike didn’t bother trying to disguise or hide. While he was certain that Ray never did anything that a woman didn’t want, his brother had the guile and the ability to make that woman want to do all sorts of things.