by Regina Duke
Maybe she was the daughter of a friend of his mother’s. If that were so, it would explain why she seemed to know what his father was like. There’d been a lot of young women around their upstate farm, and he had dated a few of them, but he was sure if one of them had been Taylor, he would have remembered her. Every time he got near her, he could feel bolts of electricity flying back and forth between them. They made his skin tingle. How on Earth was he supposed to write a book about his parents with Taylor around? And what kind of help was she going to be when her very presence made concentration impossible?
He filled the water tubs and mucked out the barn before finally patting his favorite reindeer on the rump and heading into the cabin. After thinking about it, he decided there was no way that Taylor had met his parents while his mother was still alive. But if his father had hired her to work on the biography, they must have met, right? He wouldn’t just send someone he’d never even interviewed, would he? Axel’s imagination ran wild. But if Taylor had interviewed with Lester for this job, then why had she tried to cover up that she knew him?
Axel’s head pounded as he put the kettle on to make instant coffee. He wanted to work on his novel tonight, but how would he make any progress if he couldn’t stop thinking about Taylor? And he needed to figure out her relationship to his father.
Then it hit him.
Lester Garrison had made that stupid wedding toast at the Forbes reception, promising that Axel would be the next to marry. Now it all made sense. His father had sent Taylor to Colorado to seduce him! He probably didn’t give a darn about his biography. It was all a sham. His father was trying to set him up with a woman who could tempt him into getting married, just like the old man had promised in front of God and everybody. And Axel wouldn’t be a bit surprised if his father had placed a few bets with his friends about the whole affair.
The kettle whistled with fury, a sound that matched his mood perfectly. A biography, huh? The old man wanted a biography? What a joke. He just wanted to make sure that Taylor was around all day, every day, worming her way into Axel’s heart, making sure he failed at his attempt to be a novelist. Well, he’d show her, and he’d get back at his father, as well. He’d just make stuff up. He’d give her so much information, she’d be typing half the night to get it all down on paper. Because during the day, he’d make her follow him around, doing chores and whatever else he could come up with. She’d have to record him or take notes, because he’d make it impossible for her to sit at her laptop.
Yes, that was the ticket.
And meanwhile, he’d save all his creative energy for his own book. He set his mug of coffee on the table and rummaged through his cupboards. He should have picked up takeout when he dropped Taylor off in town. Two cans of soup, a box of saltines, and a jar of creamy peanut butter was the total extent of his larder. He sighed, exasperated. Maybe he could tell Taylor to buy him some groceries.
He laughed out loud at the thought. Sure, let her run some errands for him while she was in town. That would keep her busy. Because if he was going to avoid fulfilling his father’s fantasy about a wedding for Axel, he’d better do something to derail the friendship that was growing between himself and Taylor.
He smeared peanut butter on a pair of saltines and wondered what his cousins would think of him, living like a hermit while his inheritance grew with wild abandon in his late mother’s Swiss bank account. Meanwhile, they were planning more ways to invest in Eagle’s Toe real estate. So close genetically, and yet so very different. Just like their fathers.
He opened his laptop and forced himself to re-read the last few pages he’d written. He stared hard at the screen, disgusted with his production. Two weeks ago, his prose was flowing and his plot—a soul-searching quest for meaning in a mercenary world—had consumed him. Two weeks ago he thought he might be writing the next great bestseller. But two weeks ago, he hadn’t met Taylor.
And now, as he skimmed through his file, page after page, it all sounded flat and self-absorbed. He groaned and muttered, “Crap. It sounds like crap. And boring crap at that.” He stuffed a peanut-butter-and-saltine sandwich in his mouth and washed it down with coffee. “Maybe…” he mused. “Maybe…maybe my hero needs a love interest.” He grinned as his fingers flew over the keys.
“After all,” he said to himself, “if it’s crap, it can’t get much worse. I might as well get a little revenge.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Taylor was so angry, she was pacing back and forth. Not even the glorious sunset could comfort her.
“Daddy, you send me out here to play spy for you, and as soon as I’m gone, you turn around and give my vice presidency to Donald! How could you?”
“Now, now, don’t get all bent out of shape. You’ll get your reward for helping me on this job. I promise you’ll be a vice president, just like I said you would. Just keep digging. What new information have you got for me?”
Taylor wondered if she should share anything. There were a few things she’d learned that she hadn’t told her father yet because she hadn’t had a chance to type up all her notes. But she felt betrayed. She knew there weren’t that many vice presidencies available in the company, so basically, he was planning to give her a meaningless title just to keep her quiet.
If he actually followed through on his promise, that is.
She should have seen this coming. Every prime opportunity went to one of her brothers. She always got leftovers. Granted, considering her father’s fortune, they were delightful and expensive leftovers. Even so, when Donald was in college, he was offered a new apprenticeship every summer, opportunities to build his experience to the point where he could step into a management position in San Francisco the week after he graduated.
Taylor, on the other hand, went to equestrian camp for six weeks every summer. Not that she had complained, but as she looked back, it became obvious that she was being entertained while her brothers were being trained. Now she knew why. Her father was planning to turn the company over to her brothers and leave her out in the cold.
Pembroke’s voice interrupted her reverie. “Well? Have you learned anything useful or not?”
Taylor composed herself. “I learned that Axel and his siblings are very unhappy about Lester’s second wife.”
“Ah, hell, honey, I told you that much before you left New York. I need details I can use as leverage. So get busy. Lester has moved our next negotiation up. He wants to meet next Friday, a week from today. Dig me up some dirt, girl!”
Taylor’s phone beeped. “Hang on, Dad. I have another call.” She tapped the screen. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Axel.”
“You sound cheerful,” she snapped.
“And you sound pissed. Something wrong?”
Taylor thought fast. “I broke a nail. And in this town, who knows how long I’ll have to live with it.” She reined in her hostility. She still needed to be able to wheedle information out of him. “Sorry. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if you’d mind picking up some groceries for the cabin. You know, just basic stuff.”
Taylor resisted the urge to growl into the phone. What was it with men? Her father was using her for a spy. Now Axel was using her for a shopping cart. She tried to sound calm. “What do you need?”
“Let’s see. It’s easier to tell you what I have.”
“Okay. What do you have?”
“Peanut butter, crackers, and two cans of soup. And coffee and tea. That’s what I have.”
Taylor held the phone out in front of her face and glared at it, as if it were Axel. “Fine,” she said at last. “I’ll pick up some supplies.”
“Do you need a list?”
“No. Sorry. I’m on the other line. You’ll have to trust me.”
“Okay. Will do.”
She cut him off and started to tell her father she was back on the line, but before she could say anything, she heard Donald’s voice.
“—finds out what you’ve got planned, she’
s going to be pissed.”
Taylor felt her blood pressure rising. She tapped her finger against the phone. Her father had no idea how cell phones worked, so he wouldn’t know she’d been listening. “I’m back, Daddy.” She poured sweetness into her voice. “I’ve been thinking, if you could give me an idea of what kind of dirt you need, I could work more efficiently. Do you want financial misdeeds? Or tax evasion? Or sexual escapades?”
“Good Lord, Taylor! I don’t want you thinking about that kind of stuff. I don’t care who he sleeps with. I want to know if he’s bluffing me financially. Is he holding out because he needs more money? Or does he just want to watch me twist in the wind? But anything you get me could be useful.” He paused. “On second thought, sexual misconduct might make a nice weapon. You get busy. The meeting is next Friday.”
Taylor hung up and plopped down on the big sofa. “Next Friday. How am I going to find out anything juicy by then? Axel hasn’t said a single rotten thing about his father.” She pouted for a while. It felt good. She pushed her bottom lip out as far as it would go. Well, that ruined it. Now she just felt silly.
A soft knock on the door announced the arrival of room service. Taylor dropped her head back against the cushion and wondered if she had anything left inside to help her make it to the door. Now she was sure her father was going to betray her. Donald’s big mouth had let that cat out of the bag.
A hesitant voice called out, “Room service.”
She dragged herself off the sofa. The boy at the door was the same goofy fellow who’d piled all her luggage on his dolly when she’d arrived. He looked nervous and uncomfortable. He nodded curtly to her and rolled the cart into the room.
“Where would you like this, ma’am?”
Taylor had an idea. She smiled warmly. “Over by the sofa, please. I’d like to watch the rest of the sunset.”
He gave her a wary look but did as she asked.
Taylor fetched her purse and withdrew several bills. “Say, I just wanted to apologize for being so snippy the other day. I’d had a long tiring trip, and I wasn’t very nice. I hope you’ll forgive me.” She glanced at his name tag. “Cody. What a great name.” She handed him a twenty-dollar bill.
Cody’s eyes bulged. “Thank you, ma’am. That’s very generous of you.”
Taylor tilted her head coquettishly. “If you’re interested in doubling that tip, you can do me a little favor.”
“Sure.” He beamed. “Who do you want me to kill?”
Taylor laughed like she’d never heard that line before. “Oh, you don’t have to kill anyone. But you will need these.” She held up three one-hundred dollar bills.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Saturday, April 9
The next morning, Taylor was waiting under the portico, ready for Axel to pick her up. She had her computer and purse on one arm. She was casually dressed because she knew they would be tromping around the barn, and she was eager to get some real work done. She didn’t mind working on a Saturday. The sooner they got done, the better. She needed Axel to read through her notes and let her know if they were accurate. She felt she had very little that could be used against his father. She needed to come up with specific questions that would lead Axel into saying things that Pembroke could use against Lester. Not that she felt like doing her father’s bidding after he gave her job to Don, but Daddy still ruled the purse strings and maybe he’d come through in the end. She saw Axel’s vehicle approaching with a horse trailer attached to the back and wondered what craziness awaited her today. As he pulled up next to her under the portico, she turned to the sliding lobby doors and waved for Cody to come on out.
A moment later, he did so, pushing a luggage dolly piled with cardboard boxes filled with groceries and paper goods.
“Just load them in the back seat,” she said.
Axel got out of the SUV and came around the front of it, hands on his hips. “What the heck is this?”
Taylor smiled sweetly. “You asked me to pick up some supplies. Loading will go faster if you help Cody.” She opened the front passenger door and got in, settling her computer bag on the floor by her feet and her purse on the seat.
When Axel finally got back behind the wheel, he gave her a strange look. “Why do I doubt that you did all that shopping? Maybe it’s the four bags of chips and the six bags of cookies.”
“Well, I did have some help in that area,” she said innocently. When he shook his head and frowned, she said, “Is something wrong?”
“I have to make a detour to the large animal vet. One of the reindeer has a bleeding hoof.”
Taylor felt a pang of regret. The timing of her little gag had turned out to be awkward. Still, Axel had asked for supplies, so it wasn’t her fault that he wasn’t in the mood for an over-the-top response. Even so, she felt bad because it was one of the reindeer. If it’d been one of the alpacas she could’ve let it bleed to death. Then she felt a pang of guilt, because she knew deep in her heart that wasn’t true.
She said grimly, “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
As Axel drove, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine.”
Taylor sighed heavily. “I got some disappointing news last night. Don’t worry. I’ll get over it. I’m here to do a job, and although I’ve had a lovely time playing with all the animals and seeing the barn—it’s fantastic by the way—I ended up spending hours last night typing up notes from memory. Once we take care of the reindeer, you need to go over what I’ve got so far and fill in some blanks for me.”
Axel nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
Taylor relaxed. “Good.” At least he wasn’t fighting her on this.
The hoof was abscessed, and the visit to the vet took over an hour. When they got to the cabin, Axel unloaded the reindeer and bedded her down in the stable. Taylor was still hauling boxes of supplies inside when he joined her. Then it was time to check on the rest of the animals. Taylor was tempted to call her father and tell him to send ranch hands or she’d never get enough working time in with Axel to finish her task. Then she nixed that plan. Daddy was the last person she wanted to talk to at the moment. She could still feel the hurt of having him stab her in the back.
She needed to direct her conversations with Axel in an aggressive way if she was going to dig up any dirt on Lester Garrison. She didn’t want to be stuck in Eagle’s Toe forever! Well, it was only another seven days, but it already felt like forever. And although the reindeer were delightful, she missed Jackson like crazy. Maybe she could borrow Thunder from the Lazy B. She needed a horse fix in a bad way.
Finally, they sat down together at the kitchen table at one o'clock to look at the document on Taylor’s computer. She didn’t have a printer with her, so they sat close together to examine the screen as Taylor scrolled through her notes. She couldn’t help but notice that Axel was wearing a manly scent, and she wondered idly what it was. But if she asked that kind of a question, she couldn’t justify that it had anything to do with information about his father. Then she had a brilliant idea.
“Axel, does your father wear the same aftershave as you?”
Axel pulled his head back a bit to look at her. His brows met in the middle, and he said, “I don't wear any aftershave.”
Taylor felt a hot rush of embarrassment. Her cheeks glowed red and she stumbled over her words. “Oh, I'm sorry. I, um, I could’ve sworn I smelled….” She struggled to think of the name of an aftershave. “…that I smelled Axe.” She smiled brightly. “You know? Axe, worn by Axel?”
“Sounds like a commercial to me,” he teased. He sniffed the air. “And your scent today? No, let me guess. Eau de Caribou?”
“Very funny. Someone had to hold her and cuddle her while the vet was working on her hoof.”
Axel grinned. “Well, it’s way better than Parfum de l’alpaca.”
Taylor stuck her tongue out at him for a microsecond, then scrolled further down the page. “What about this secti
on?” she asked. “Can you think of anything your father said or did during the period after your mother's funeral that was very upsetting to you or to your brothers and sisters?”
Axel squinted at the screen, but he didn’t reply right away. At last, he said, “I can think of hundreds of things he did at the funeral and afterward that infuriated me, but I can’t say that there was anything wrong with his behavior. I was so angry that my mother had died, I couldn’t think straight. I’ve been working really hard at learning to cut my dad some slack. Having her go down in that plane nearly destroyed him. She’d wanted one for a long time, and although she didn’t have a pilot’s license herself, she loved the fact that she had a plane and a pilot at her disposal so she could get around quickly wherever she wanted to go. Dad bought her that plane. And he has never forgiven himself. And I’m ashamed to say, I haven’t forgiven him either.”
Taylor pressed her lips in a thin line. How was she going to get Axel to say anything bad about his father? The harder she tried, the nicer he sounded, and the nicer he sounded, the better she liked him. It was getting more and more difficult to maintain the hostility necessary to play her father’s dirty tricks on him.
“I don't know, Axel. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe I’m not the right person to help you write your father’s biography. There just seems to be a lack of information about the man. Even the things I found on Google don’t help. Sure, he’s a hard-edged business man. But those things are all public record. We don’t just want to produce a printout of your father’s business dealings. We need to know some personal stuff. If this biography is for your family, then you need to put your thinking cap on and come up with some really egregiously bad stuff you felt your father has done, either to you or your mother or your siblings. Once we come up with those things, you can explain how they turned out, and why maybe they weren't so bad, or what you learned from those things. We can do all of that. But we can’t do any of it until you actually tell me some dirt about your dad.”
