by Cat Johnson
“Are you accusing me of following you, little lady?” He smirked.
Arms crossed, she cocked her head to one side. “Yes, I think I am.”
A woman with an attitude. He liked that. Jared smiled broader. “Well don’t get yourself all in a tizzy. I work here.”
“Why didn’t you say that back at the diner?” Judging by the look on her face, she definitely wasn’t happy with him.
“What fun would that be?” Jared shrugged.
She let out a short but not-quite-amused laugh. “Maybe you should get cable TV. You wouldn’t have to work so hard to entertain yourself.”
The babe in front of him was looking mighty warm in that jacket. He started to sweat in sympathy. She blew out a breath and ran a hand along the back of her neck and under her shoulder-length hair. Then she took the jacket off.
That was enough to make a man stand up and take notice. Now she looked downright hot, enough to make Jared sweat for real and not from the air temperature.
Under that jacket, she was wearing nothing but a tight, low-cut, sleeveless top. Much better than the jacket, he decided, forcing his eyes up from her breasts and back to her face.
“We’ve got satellite television with all the channels, but I can tell you that a pretty stranger is much more entertaining.” He treated her to his most charming smile but it didn’t seem to work like it usually did on most women.
“I need to speak with the owner. Do you think you could stop whatever you are doing—” she looked around pointedly as if to let him know she didn’t think he was doing much of anything before she continued, “—and go and get her for me?”
What she’d said captured Jared’s attention even more than her sexy tank top had. He raised a brow. “Her? What makes you think the owner is a she?”
She let out an annoyed sounding sigh. “I do my research. I know this farm is registered with the small business bureau as being a woman-owned business.”
The question of why she was researching them remained unanswered. He was about to interrogate her further when the woman owner in question, his mama, stuck her head out of the kitchen door.
“Jared, honey. The computer crashed again. When you come in for lunch maybe you can figure out why that keeps happening.”
The pretty stranger glanced from his mother standing in the door of the house and then back to Jared. The look she shot him was full of suggestion. “Is that the owner?”
“Yup.” He started walking toward the kitchen, resigned to the fact that this nosy but hot female was bound to follow.
As anticipated, she practically jogged to keep up with him. “Are you and she…ah, you know? A couple?”
He stopped dead and turned in horror. “No.”
She shrugged. “It’s okay if you are, I’m just wondering.”
Jared shot her another unhappy glance and then scowled all the way to the back door at her lewd suggestion.
Okay, maybe if he took a moment to re-evaluate his mother the way a stranger might see her he wasn’t so shocked. Mama had been really, really young when she got married and started having babies. She’d just turned fifty, but she took good care of herself.
Dressed in cut-off jeans and flip-flops the way she was today, she looked easily in her early forties. Jared was in his late twenties. He knew there were some actresses in Hollywood who dated guys as much as twenty years younger, but still, this was his mother.
Jared shook his head. This woman came from a totally different world than he did. A world he could barely comprehend. Given that, he’d have to try not to judge her too harshly, particularly since he had kept his real identity from her. He also resolved to find out her damn name so he could stop thinking of her as this woman because he had a feeling he’d be thinking a lot about her.
Holding the screen door open for her, Jared waited for her to walk through first. Hell, he had been raised right. He knew how to act around a lady, even if she was likely some sort of salesman, uh, salesperson. He would have introduced her to his mama too, but again he didn’t know the woman’s name. Luckily, she was one of those assertive business-like types and stepped right up without waiting for him. “Ms. Lois Gordon?”
His mama nodded.
“I’m Mandy Morris.” She smiled and stuck out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine. Jared never brings his girls home to meet me.” His mama smiled wide and shook her hand.
Mandy—cute name—glanced at him briefly and then turned back to his mother. “I’m sorry, Ms. Gordon. I think you’ve gotten the wrong impression. I’m not one of Jared’s girls. I’m actually here to see you. I have a business proposition for you. If you have some time now, I’d love to discuss it with you privately.”
Jared noticed she said the last word very pointedly, as if to let him know he was not welcome to participate in the discussion about whatever this business proposal was. He looked her over again, all decked in her city clothes. No way was she here to make an offer to buy the farm, or even a horse. She was probably trying to sell them ad space in the local yellow pages or something.
“Ms. Morris, I may be the owner on record for Gordon Equine, but my son runs the farm. All I do nowadays is handle the paperwork and the accounting and crash the computer.” Mama smiled and indicated the computer, phone and stack of papers on a desk set up in the corner of the kitchen.
She insisted on working in the kitchen rather than making one of the many other rooms into an office. Mama said it was because she usually was cooking or baking something at the same time she was working on the books. Multi-tasking, isn’t that what women called it?
Personally Jared preferred doing one thing at a time. Though glancing at Mandy again, he decided he could definitely get into doing some multi-tasking when it came to her.
“Your son?” Mandy looked understandably surprised at what Mama had just revealed. She also didn’t appear happy. She shot him quite a nasty look.
Now he was in for it, for withholding that apparently important information.
“Uh-huh. Jared’s my youngest.” Mama smiled at him.
“Your youngest?” Again Mandy looked surprised.
Mama nodded. “Yup. I have two older boys.”
The mysterious Mandy shook her head. “I’m sorry. You just look too young to have older children.”
Mama laughed. “Darlin’, all a woman needs in life is good face cream and a proper bra, but thank you anyway. I have to tell you though, flattery won’t get me to buy whatever you’re selling, Ms. Morris.”
“I’m not trying to flatter you, Ms. Gordon, and I’m not selling anything. I’m a television producer from California. I’ve been on the road for two weeks, visiting potential towns for a new reality series about small towns in America. If you agree, I think my search is over. I want you, Ms. Gordon, and your son, Jared, and even Mac, the cook from the diner.” She swept her arm wide. “I want it all. The honky tonk, the barbershop, even the Hideaway Motel. I love this entire town. With your help, we’ll have a smash hit on our hands, as big as Survivor or American Idol. We’ll put Pigeon Hollow on the map.”
As Mandy got more and more animated, obviously excited with her little television show idea, Jared stood quiet for her entire crazy revelation. He finally dragged his focus away from Mandy and glanced at Mama. Still silent, she met his gaze uncertainly.
“Let me explain a bit about how it will work. I’ll have a few camera crews around town concentrating on the key characters in town as well as the hotspots. Of course, I’d have a camera crew dedicated to Jared and you here at the farm. One in the diner too. That seems like a hot spot, and Mac is a great character. I don’t think we’ll need the crews here filming while you’re both sleeping, but the camera will be rolling every moment you’re awake.”
Every moment he was awake? Jared had heard enough. He stepped forward. “Ms. Morris—”
“Please, call me Mandy,” she interrupted with a smile.
He wondered if sh
e’d be so sweet when they said no to this insanity.
“Mandy, I’d like to discuss this alone with my mother. If you don’t mind, maybe you could wait in the living room?” He placed his hand on her elbow.
She nodded, but looked confused, like she couldn’t imagine they wouldn’t jump at this opportunity.
When he finally had Mandy settled in the other room with the glass of iced tea Mama had insisted she take, he joined his mother back in the kitchen.
“Mama. This is crazy. I don’t want cameras all over the farm. Have you ever seen any of those reality shows? They cut and edit the tapes to make folks look however the producers want them to look.”
“You know I don’t watch that stuff, honey. But don’t you think it would be good advertising for the farm?”
“Advertising? For God’s sake, Mama. Who the hell in the audience of this crap show is going to be in the market to buy a champion-bred horse?”
“Jared Gordon, you watch your mouth. We may be partners in this business, but I am still your mother. You don’t use that kind of language or that tone in my house.” Mama’s hands landed on her hips.
Jared hung his head and took a deep calming breath. “I’m sorry. This all took me by surprise. I thought she was selling something. I never imagined this.”
“Jared, darlin’.” His mama laid a hand on his arm. “You run the farm, and you’ll be the one most affected if we do this. If you say no, then it’s no. That’s fine by me.”
He studied her closely, trying to evaluate if that was what she was really feeling. “You sure?”
“I’m sure. The decision is up to you, but you can be the one to tell her.” Mama smiled like the devil and walked back to the computer. She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Let me know how it goes.”
Jared groaned and headed for the living room. He had a feeling Mandy wasn’t the type to take rejection very well.
Mandy placed her iced tea on the coaster and glanced absently around the living room, planning camera shots in her mind.
The room looked like it was probably used a few times a year for company, or when the family needed to stash away a television producer while they discussed her.
It was a nice enough space, but there was no heart in it. The kitchen was the heart of this home. She could tell that the moment she walked in. A freshly baked pie sat on the counter. The centerpiece of the kitchen, the charming, worn wooden table, looked as if it had been there for generations. Mandy could picture Lois, the lady of the house, running the family business from the computer in the corner while her pies baked in the big old oven.
She smiled, remembering Lois’ philosophy on aging well. Good face cream and a proper bra. Part homemaker, part corporate mogul, Lois Gordon was a down-to-earth, likeable version of Martha Stewart. An attractive woman with a sense of humor to boot, not to mention one sizzling hot, ratings-grabbing son.
They’d have to shoot Jared in his blue jeans and cowboy boots, perhaps sweaty and shirtless. He’d look meltingly handsome on tape. A solid block of muscular manliness. The golden highlights in his brown hair glinting in the sun. His hazel eyes smoldering at the camera. What viewer wouldn’t love the man and his horses?
Mandy could almost feel the weight of the Emmy award in her hand.
And the award for best prime-time reality series goes to—
Her reverie was interrupted as she watched Jared stroll into the living room. He lowered himself onto the couch opposite her chair. Settling on the edge of the cushion, he rested his muscular forearms on his knees as he leaned forward toward her. “Ms. Morris—”
“Mandy.” She sent him her most devastating smile. The one that closed more deals with networks and wooed waiters into giving her a table when there were none.
He nodded once. “Mandy. We’re gonna have to take a pass on your offer.”
“Excuse me?” Had she heard him correctly?
He shrugged. “It’s just not for us. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know why you would want to pass up this opportunity. Perhaps you and your mother don’t understand what I’m offering—” She shook her head in disbelief.
“We do, but the answer is still no.” Gone was the flirting cowboy. There was no more playful joking in his soft, even tone. He was really and truly turning her down.
Mandy wasn’t used to anyone actually saying no to her. Particularly not men. She was possibly for the first time ever, speechless.
Jared laughed. “You look shocked.”
“Honestly, I am.”
“I’m sure you’ll find another town that you love just as much as Pigeon Hollow. Small towns like this are a dime a dozen in the South.”
The town maybe, but not a woman-owned horse farm, and a handsome horseman with a voice like silk to go with it. No, she wasn’t willing to let it all go that easily. Mandy dug a business card out of the pocket of the suit jacket folded in her lap.
She stood and handed the card to him. “I’m not giving up, Mr. Gordon. I have one other town to see just south of here and then I’m coming back. I hope you’ll have reconsidered and have a different answer for me when I do.”
He treated her to a gorgeous crooked smile. “I’m not gonna say that I wouldn’t be happy to see you again, but my answer’s not gonna change.”
Mandy felt her heart quicken just a bit. He was back to flirting again. Maybe his answer wasn’t so definite. She was not at all opposed to a bit of flirtation with a handsome man, particularly if it got her a signed consent form and a hit show in the end. She might actually enjoy a bit of innocent gentlemanly male attention. It would be a nice change from the lecherous men in LA.
She caught his eye. “I respect your decision, but I’d still like to stop by on my way back through. If that’s all right.”
Jared studied her closely before he nodded. “Sure.”
“Thank you.” Mandy turned and felt his eyes on her back as she walked out the door. She smiled. She wasn’t defeated yet.
Chapter Three
Two days later, Mandy drove down Main Street in Pigeon Hollow and fell in love with it all over again. The other town she’d gone to visit had been a bust. She was still without a town for her show.
No town was going to live up to this one since she had set her sights on it. She had to convince the Gordons. She had to change Jared’s mind somehow.
Mandy slowed as she neared the diner and spotted a white pickup truck with Gordon Equine painted on the door. Luck was on her side today. Hoping her good fortune would continue with the Gordons, she swung into an open parking spot.
Before getting out, she pulled her jacket off and smoothed the skirt of her short, sleeveless sundress. Keeping Lois Gordon’s advice in mind, she hiked her boobs a bit higher inside her bra and was happy with the resulting cleavage. A bit more lipstick and she was good to go.
She walked into the diner and got a blast full of welcome air-conditioned cold air in the face. Raising her sunglasses up and setting them on top of her head, she glanced around the diner. There were plenty of people inside but Jared Gordon wasn’t one of them. Maybe he was in the restroom?
A cup of seventy-five-cent coffee at the counter would give her time to wait for him without looking suspicious, and she could get a look at some of the other local characters while she was at it.
Slipping onto one of the high counter stools, she ordered the coffee and then turned her attention to the dark-haired man in the khaki uniform next to her. A small town sheriff, a tin star on his chest and all, and he was cute too. She had to tape the show in this town. It was too perfect. She couldn’t have made it any better if she’d cast it herself.
Just to prove her already lofty opinion of the town’s characters and their marketability, Mac spotted her from his place inside the kitchen.
“Hey there, pretty lady. You come back for your stud?” A gravely bark of a laugh followed Mac’s question as he amused himself.
She laughed and decided to play along with the joke. If she was
going to flirt her way into a contract, she might as well start now. “Actually, I did, but even though I saw his truck outside he doesn’t seem to be in here.”
At her response, Mac’s laughter filled the kitchen again, spilling out into the diner and making a few of patrons inside look up.
Even the hunky sheriff turned his ice blue eyes to her. “You talking about the Gordon truck outside?”
She nodded. “I was looking for Jared Gordon.”
He raised an inquisitive brow at that. “Were you now?”
“Uh-huh. Know him?” She was getting good at this southern speak. Short, sweet and to the point.
“I might.”
She smiled. “Either you do or you don’t.”
He watched her closely. “You’re not from around here.”
It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “No, I’m not.”
“What you want with him?” This sexy guy practically smoldered with brooding good looks. She’d have to put a camera team on him too.
Mandy let out a short laugh. “You southerners sure are a suspicious bunch. I thought you were supposed to be famous for your hospitality. You know, the kindness of strangers and all that.”
He cocked a brow in her direction. “We also watch out for our own.”
She’d give anything to have a video crew with her right now. It was just too perfect. We watch out for our own, stranger. She wouldn’t have been at all surprised if John Wayne swaggered through the door and spit some tobacco on the floor. Well, maybe a little surprised, since he was dead, but the entire town had the feel of a place out of its time.
“You got much crime around here, Sheriff?” Mandy had to know more. She couldn’t help herself.
They could put a camera in the car with him all during his shift. It would be amazing. Although, if she thought Jared was going to be a tough sell, this guy would probably be worse by the looks of him. He hadn’t even cracked a smile. Forget about flirting with him, she’d probably get locked up in the town jail for solicitation or something.
