“How are you feeling?”
The smile on his face made her feel like a total idiot. “I could be better. Thanks for the ride home.”
He shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the shiny red truck parked a few feet away. “How are you going to get your car out to Alex’s ranch?”
“Mac has to go into town for some supplies. He’s taking another ranch hand and they’re driving my car back with them.”
“Worked out well, then.”
Sarah supposed so. But only if you discounted the Cosmopolitan and two Raspberry Margaritas that had contributed to an all-around embarrassing evening.
She scuffed her boots across the gravel, then looked quickly at Jordan. “I need to start breakfast.”
Jordan nodded, almost as if he’d already gotten tired of her company and moved onto other more important problems. “I was wondering…you said something last night…”
Sarah bit her bottom lip. She could only remember snippets of conversation, parts of a whole that added up to something she’d rather forget.
“…about a fiancé.”
“James?”
Jordan scowled. “You’ve got more than one?”
“No, I mean James isn’t my fiancé, not anymore.”
“Oh.” Jordan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We’ll…that’s good.”
That was the first time anyone had told Sarah that James’ hurried exit from her life was good. Looking back now she supposed it was, but at the time it had been devastating. “I really have to go. I’ll see you later.”
She felt like a coward. A full blown, in your face coward. She could see more questions running through Jordan’s head. But one question about her past before breakfast was enough. There were fourteen mouths that needed feeding and only one set of hands to pull it all together.
She walked across to the barn and focused on the menu she’d reviewed yesterday. Jordan might think her schedules were over the top and bad for his health, but they worked. Especially on days like today when her brain refused to cooperate with her body.
***
Four hours and two Tylenol later, Sarah finally felt as if she was getting somewhere. The Buchanans had left with Frank and Tim, going on a full day riding adventure. The threat of more wolf attacks had all but disappeared, but no one was taking any chances with their safety.
As they’d ridden out of the corral, Sarah noticed the rifles strapped to the cowboys’ horses, the quiet confidence in Frank and Tim as they’d ridden past her.
She pinned the last sheet on the clothesline, added a couple of pillowcases, and decided to check the booking forms for the next set of guests who would be arriving soon.
Jordan had told her where to find the folder, so she walked through the back door of Trent and Gracie’s home and knocked on the office door.
Jordan was sitting at his desk with paperwork spread out in front of him. He looked up and frowned.
Sarah waved her hand toward the filing cabinet. “I’m making a grocery list for next week. I want to check the booking forms for the guests.”
“Did Frank mention the phone call he had yesterday?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not yet.”
“One of the couples want to go fly fishing. I’ve got a note here somewhere…” He started moving papers around on his desk, opening folders, then frowning at the phone. “I called a local outfitter to see if they could take them on one of their fishing trips. They had two spare places so it’s all booked. The only thing we need to do is provide them with food and drink for the day.”
“What about dinner?”
“That’s provided by the outfitter. They won’t be back until about nine o’clock at night.” Jordan rummaged around some more, then scratched his head. “I know I’ve got the details here somewhere.”
Sarah lifted next week’s booking forms out of a folder and flicked through the papers. “Is it this couple?” She held up a red piece of paper that had been clipped to one of the forms. “Peter and Christine McEwan?”
“That’s them.”
She read the note and reattached it to the folder. “I’ll make sure they’ve got what they need. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” Jordan leaned back in his chair, giving her his undivided attention.
“I looked at your website the other day. It’s good, but there are things you could do to make it better.” Sarah paused and waited to see what his reaction would be. Jordan didn’t seem to be annoyed or defensive. He simply sat in his chair, waiting for her to continue.
“Have you thought about linking an online registration process to a database? That way you wouldn’t have to look for pieces of paper. Everything would be in one place and you could access it from anywhere, not just this office.”
“We got a quote from a company in Great Falls and they talked about something like that. It was more expensive than we could afford, so I asked a friend’s daughter to put a website together for me. Our website hasn’t got all of the bells and whistles that some of the big organizations have, but I haven’t got a bells and whistles budget.”
“I could help,” she said.
Jordan studied her for a few minutes.
She could normally tell what was on his mind just by looking at his face. But not today. He’d locked whatever he was thinking away, leaving her to guess what would come next.
He picked up a pen and paper and started making some notes. “So the website needs updating?”
Sarah nodded. “New pictures would add interest. You could also add a blog, an online registration process, links to social media sites, and an email contact form.”
Jordan raised one of his eyebrows. “Anything else?”
Sarah tried to work out if he was genuinely interested or in shock. He didn’t look as if he was in information overload, so she kept going. “If you wanted to add some color and movement, you could embed some movie clips. You know…” She pointed toward the window. “Show people what it’s like out here. The sun setting on the mountains, horses galloping across the prairie, maybe even show them through the barn accommodation.”
“How much will all of this cost?”
Sarah rubbed her hands down the side of her jeans. “I had coffee with Sally the other day. Sally Gray, Nathan’s sister.”
“I know who she is. She didn’t want you to look after more animals from the shelter, did she?”
Sarah smiled. “Not this week. But she has got a class technology project that she wants me to help with. If you’re okay with me using your ranch vacation business as a case study, her students and I will build everything for free.”
“Why would you do that?” Jordan looked bewildered by her offer.
“I want to make it easier for you to manage your business and easier for people to find you. The project will mean more to the students in Sally’s class because they’re working with a real local business. If I did a formal proposal, would you consider the idea?”
“Would you have time to do everything?”
“Not at the moment. But Mrs. Davies is due back next week and the students in Sally’s class won’t be ready to start their project for three weeks. That gives me a couple of weeks to organize what needs to be done.”
Jordan put his pen down on the desk. “I’m not happy with you doing all of that for nothing. It’s not right.”
“I’ll enjoy it. After a year of working on menu plans and housekeeping rosters, it will be good to stretch my IT brain again. The only downside is that you’ll have to show a group of ten-year-olds around the ranch.”
Jordan let a few minutes pass by while he thought about what she’d said. “I’ll make you a deal. You write out the proposal, but I pay you to redesign our website and all of the other things you suggested.” He held his hand up when Sarah started to object. “I can’t afford what you’d normally get paid, but we can work something out.”
“I didn’t offer to help because I wanted you to pay me.”
“I know
, but that’s what’s going to happen. You don’t want to disappoint Sally’s class, do you?”
If Sarah didn’t know better, she’d swear Jordan was batting his big blue eyes at her. “I’ll put the proposal together, but I’m not accepting any money. Can I take this file away for half an hour to make notes on my laptop?”
“No problem. Leave it on my desk when you’re finished.”
Sarah stared at the piles of paper scattered over Jordan’s desk. “Are you sure?”
“Maybe not.” He grinned. “The filing cabinet might be safer.”
She held the folder close to her chest, then looked at the papers on Jordan’s desk. She could have walked away, left him to whatever he was doing, but she had something on her mind. Something she needed to say before the moment was gone. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night.”
Jordan’s mouth twitched.
“You think it was funny?”
“No, I think it was cute. I’ve never had so many compliments in the space of thirty minutes.”
Sarah hoped her face wasn’t as red as she thought it was. “I don’t drink alcohol. Not much anyway.”
“I could tell.”
Sarah scowled at his laughing blue eyes. “Some things are a little blurry around the edges, so I just wanted to say…well…I’m sorry. For you know, everything.” She took a deep breath and headed toward the door. “I’d better get going. I’ve got to get out to Alex’s ranch before lunch.”
Jordan stood up and moved across to the doorway. “You didn’t say or do anything to be embarrassed about. What I said before…about your ex-fiancé? I didn’t mean to ask you something that you weren’t comfortable talking about.”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders. “He’s a slime ball. I got suckered into thinking he cared about me, but all along it was my software that was the main attraction.”
“The guy must be blind.”
Sarah’s head shot up and she watched a slow smile fill Jordan’s face.
“That observation comes from a purely professional viewpoint, of course.”
“Sometimes, Jordan McKenzie, you say the strangest things.”
“Why is it strange to say you’re pretty?”
Sarah felt herself getting hot and bothered. “Being pretty isn’t important to me.”
Jordan took a step toward her. “It’s not?”
Sarah glanced over his shoulder at the door. Common sense was telling her she should leave. Jordan could go back to his paperwork and she could go back to whatever it was she’d been doing. But she didn’t listen to the common sense part of her brain.
“No, being pretty isn’t important.” She squared her shoulders and tried to ignore the heat building between them. It was a superficial chemical reaction, a two-second blip on the attraction scale.
“Care to expand on that theory, Legs?”
“It’s…It’s trivial. It doesn’t matter what someone looks like on the outside. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
Jordan nodded. “You’ve got a point…about what’s on the inside. But if a man thought a certain woman’s body was the biggest turn on of his life, would that make him shallow or curious?”
A spike of heat shot through Sarah’s body. “Curious?” She didn’t mean for her voice to crack. This discussion was purely theoretical. It didn’t mean that Jordan was talking about her. It really didn’t.
“Yeah, you know.” He reached out and twisted a strand of her hair between his fingers. “Like he wanted to know what it felt like to kiss her and hold her in his arms.”
“It would be…” Her voice was breathless, maybe even a little needy. Like she might be thinking the same thing. Jordan angled his head and gently tugged her hair, pulling her close to his mouth.
She gave up thinking, forgot to breathe. She met his lips halfway and sighed as his mouth devoured hers. This wasn’t the shy, awkward first kiss of two people getting to know each other. It was the blazing, raw need of a woman who knew what she wanted and a man who knew how to give it to her.
Jordan pulled her into his hips and she rocked against him, straining against the desire racing through her body. She wound her hands over his shoulders, opened her mouth for more. A groan of pure need rumbled out of his throat, sent darts of pleasure along her spine.
She felt powerful, dangerous, and sexy. Everything that had been missing in her life for so long that it left her dizzy. Jordan’s hands moved over her, cupped her breasts through her cotton t-shirt and made her gasp.
She wanted to crawl over him, make him feel the heat building inside of her, the tightness of her body as it shifted into another zone. Her hands pulled at his shirt, reached for his body, caressed his hot skin.
Jordan pulled back, tore his mouth from hers. “We can’t…”
Sarah frowned. She was still imagining what it would feel like to have his naked body pressed against hers.
“Sarah…” He took another step backward, banged into the side of his desk and tripped over the edge of the mat. “I’ve got to go…work.” And he ran from the room.
She stared at the door, tried to make sense of what had just happened. Her lips tingled, her body was on fire. For Jordan. Her boss. The man that was turning her world inside out.
She stepped out of the office and headed toward the barn. The whole world could have blown up and she’d still feel like she was walking on a different planet. She’d kissed Jordan, clung to him like a sex-starved jellyfish. He’d think she was a tease, a desperate woman who’d flung herself at him.
It was worse than getting drunk. Worse than seeing her fiancé in bed with someone else. Worse than figuring out her brain was the only thing anyone had ever wanted. Until today.
CHAPTER FIVE
Sarah stared out of the window above Angel Wings Café. Tess’ apartment was just as lovely as her café downstairs. She’d painted the walls a soft shade of peach and added bright blue trim to the windows. Over a couple of weekends, they’d made curtains out of spotty purple fabric, finishing off the whole look with fuchsia-pink cushions on the sofa. The room was a mix of French chic versus up-cycled glamor.
“What’s wrong?” Tess asked.
Sarah turned from the window and watched Tess roll cookie dough balls in her hands. A batch of chewy oatmeal and blueberry cookies were cooking in the oven. The smell of cinnamon wafted past Sarah’s nose, made her stomach twist in knots.
Tess’ apartment smelled of home. The kind of home Sarah could have gotten used to when she was younger.
“Nothing. Everything’s fine.”
“Sorry, kiddo. I don’t believe you. You’ve been staring at the traffic on Main Street for the last ten minutes.”
Sarah walked across to the kitchen and leaned against the counter. “It’s not working out.”
Tess placed another ball of dough on the cookie sheet in front of her. “Are you talking about your job on Jordan’s ranch?”
Sarah nodded.
“What’s not working out? Do you need me to help with some of the meals?”
“No, it’s not the cooking. It’s Jordan. He kissed me…” Sarah felt her face flaming redder than Tess’ apron. “I kissed him. It’s a mess.”
Tess grinned. “Jordan kisses everyone. He’s the only person I know who’s ever wanted to work in the kissing booth at our school fair.”
Sarah started feeling better, then a hundred times worse. Now she was embarrassed. She’d latched onto his lips like a sucker fish. A desperate, six-foot tall sucker fish who should have known better.
“But having said that, he’s been keeping his lips to himself lately. He hasn’t had a girlfriend for a while, unless he’s been hiding someone on the ranch.” Tess stared at Sarah.
“There’s no point looking at me like I’m Jordan’s answer to lucky lips. We kissed once.”
“Do you want to kiss him again?”
“Of course not.” Sarah’s face felt even hotter. “It’s not right. He’s a cowboy, for cripes’ sake. He doesn’t
know one end of computer code from another and he hates eating eggplant.”
“Here’s a newsflash for you…I don’t know anything about computer code either and we’re still friends. Now the eggplant issue, that’s serious.”
Sarah’s lips twitched. “I made Ratatouille the other night. He pushed it around his plate for half an hour before finally giving up.”
“You fed a man from Montana ratatouille? I hope you added half an elk to his dinner plate?”
“The Buchanans enjoyed the meal. I was trying to broaden Jordan’s taste buds.”
“What did the other ranch hands do?”
“Pushed the ratatouille around and then found some steak to cook on the barbecue.”
Tess laughed. “At least you know they won’t die of hunger if you experiment. But I wouldn’t do the vegetarian thing again. When does Mrs. Davies get back?”
“In two days’ time.”
“You must be looking forward to staying on one ranch? Racing between the two properties is a big job.”
“I’ve enjoyed it,” Sarah muttered. “I’ve offered to redesign Jordan’s website.”
“I’m thinking those words might be sexy to someone who’s into computer code?”
Sarah held her hands on her hot face. “I don’t know if it was a good idea or not. Sally wants me to help her class with their IT project. They’re learning how to design a good website. Jordan’s ranch vacation business seemed like the perfect case study, but I’m not so sure anymore.”
“Because you kissed him?”
Sarah shook her head. “Because I want to kiss him again. It’s all I think about, but it wouldn’t work.”
Tess passed her a buttery dough ball. “Before you eat this tell me what’s so wrong about getting together with Jordan?”
“He lives in Montana. My home is in Portland. I like the city, he likes peace and quiet. He’s got a happy family. My mom and dad are busy saving the world.” Sarah stared down at the cookie sheet. “I sound pathetic.”
“Slightly self-indulgent.” Tess grinned.
Forever And A Day (Montana Brides, Book #7) Page 7
