by Ashlee Price
Getting directions from Edith, she drove down to the small restaurant in town that didn’t have a paper menu. Conroe was too small for any kind of chains, so she was stuck with Mariachiano as their meet spot. When she had suggested they meet in her office, Craig Wheeling had been adamant that it wasn’t how business was done there. It had to be face to face. So of course she had agreed, but as she entered the dark restaurant and saw that there was no one else there, she got a little nervous. Maybe this was not the type of man that she wanted to meet.
“Miss Glenn. Please sit down.”
Kallie’s heart thumped in her chest from the deep voice. She could see his outline, but it was really dark in there and his face did not come into view until she was sitting down across from him at a small bistro table. “This place could use some light, don’t you think?”
He made a wave and the light above them went on. His actions were not normal and it made her wonder what his intentions were. “I thought we were here for business?”
“We are. You are sharp. I see you take after your father.”
She didn’t take it as a compliment, but the comment did put her on guard. “Yes, I have seen the previous offers, but I must tell you now, I will not be selling.”
The dark face in front of her fell slightly. “You haven’t even heard what I am offering you.”
“I don’t need to. It is my father’s wish that the land stay in the family.”
“So you have seen the offers, the last couple and you still do not want to sell?”
“Mr. Wheeling…”
“Craig, please.”
“Craig, I don’t need the money. Never had much use for it. I am here to run a business and I will be living in the house, my dead father’s house for the time being. Surely you can see how a week after his funeral, you here asking to buy it is a bit much. Can’t you?”
He was left without anything to say. When it was put like that, he did feel a faint touch of guilt. Craig could have waited another week or two, but the truth was that he didn’t want to. He could see now that it was an error on his part, one that would be hard to change.
“I think we have started out on the wrong foot Miss. Glenn. I am sorry for your loss. Mel was a great man.”
He didn’t sound very sincere, but she already had a bad taste in her mouth. There was no restarting the conversation. “I am here to hear your offer, but I didn’t want to bring you any false hope.”
Writing a number on a napkin, he slid it over to her. It was not how the business classes described a business meeting. This was some movie-style way of doing business that she wanted no part of. She had come there to not be rude and refuse such a highly regarded business man. But as just a person, Kallie could see that he was rotten to the core. The kind that would make the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.
The number was bigger than it should have been. There was no way that the house was worth that much. She had seen the surveys, but Kallie had also taken a look at the surveys of oil underneath the land. That is what he was after, but the number didn’t matter. For a moment, a second really, she had thought about a small island that she could buy, never caring about anything again, but it wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
Shaking her head, she moved the napkin back to the middle of the table. “I thank you for the offer Craig, but I am not selling. The house is a landmark, historically. I am trying to get it registered. Then there will be no more need for offers. Some things are worth more than money.”
Chapter 5
Kallie tried not to let the Wheeling man bother her. There was something in his eyes though, when he had finally realized that she was going to turn down his offer again. Craig had expected her to jump at the money, but he should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. He told her as much, promising her that he would eventually make an offer that she couldn’t refuse. Kallie didn’t argue with him, but she did leave pretty quickly after that.
Going back to the old house, she decided that she was going to start staying there and it would give her the time and the incentive to fix it up quicker. It didn’t seem to be in that bad of shape, but she did not have an experienced eye. She did notice pretty quickly that there was no air conditioner, so she had most of the windows open by early afternoon.
Kallie spent most of the rest of her day cleaning. The place had been taken care of in some ways, but it looked like her father hadn’t lived there in a while. There was a thick coating of dust on pretty much everything and it was dark before she got through enough rooms to be satisfied. There was still an upstairs and a basement that she had not even investigated. She didn’t have the energy when it came down to it.
Sitting down with a glass of wine, she sighed to herself, feeling accomplished to have a place to sleep that wouldn’t give her hives. It was strange how quiet it was out there. Kallie could actually hear the cricket and frogs outside by the creek and she closed her eyes to the natural melody. Her body started when she head a crash. Something had been thrown through the window just feet from her. She saw the large brick on the floor and her mind instantly went to Craig. Was he capable of that or was she just being paranoid?
Either way, there was glass all over the floor and she could imagine mosquitoes getting in through the broken glass. Sighing to herself, she got up and waited to see if she heard anything. Maybe it was just some local kids that were causing mischief. She liked that idea better than someone in the dark being malicious.
After a moment of indecision, she decided to just got to the hardware store before they closed and picking up some wood or something to cover the window until she could hire someone to fix it. It was going to be harder than she thought, to say no to the man, but things like that just made her want to stay more. She was hard-headed in that way.
So, getting dressed and heading out, she turned all of the flood lights on around the house but saw no one. She cursed whoever it was and went towards the other side of town where the store was that she needed. Parking in the parking lot, she looked at the clock and she had about fifteen minutes before the place closed. One of the bad things about smaller towns was that everything closed down by eight o clock. It was as if people should all be at home at that time, so either you get it earlier or you don’t get it at all.
Her eyes squinting to the bright fluorescent light, she looked at the overhead signs to find the aisle she was looking for. Happy that they had some precut boards, she looked around for something to put them in. Walking through the aisles, she still couldn’t find anyone to ask or anything to use. Checking her watch, she realized that it was almost time to close. Going back to the wood, she grabbed as many as she could carry and headed towards the checkout.
“Do you need some help with that?”
Turning around, Kallie groaned inwardly. Of course she was a mess and looked strange surely carrying eight foot boards. Kallie had just thrown on some muck boots over her pajama shorts and a coat on over her tank top. Her hair was in a knot on top of her head and she was void of any makeup. It was not the way she was hoping to see anyone of consequence, least of all the man that made her knees grow weak.
“Caspin. What are you doing here?”
“Had to grab a couple of things for the night. You?”
He grabbed all of the boards out of her hand. “Let me go back and get a few more.”
She was gone before he could say anything. He didn’t know what she was doing, but he had to admire her long thighs in the shorts that barely made it passed her ass. Looking down at the bundle in his hands, she came back with just as much on the second trip. “Okay thanks. I think this will be enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“I’ve got to board up a window.”
“Really? What happened?”
“Well I moved into my dad’s old house on Johnson and someone threw a brick through the window. So unless I get the window covered, I am going to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. I don’t know how you guys live with those things. They are h
uge here. I hear that everything is bigger in Texas, but somehow that is not what I had in mind when I heard that.”
He chuckled and it made him even more devastatingly handsome. His dark features made him look mysterious, but his eyes made not issue about what they wanted. That part of him was not a mystery at all, but she remembered what Andre said about him.
“Why don’t you seem upset that someone threw a brick through your window?”
Kallie watched the cashier come around and start to count the boards. She tried to tell her twice, but she just ignored her and restarted the count. Kallie was trying not to get aggravated, but she was. She was upset that someone had done it and that the cashier was taking forever, her arms burning with the load. But the worst part was that she had run into him and she looked like she did.
“There isn’t much getting upset will solve. I am pretty sure I know who it is.”
Caspin stopped and looked at her as she finally got to set them down and take out her card. “The Wheelings?”
“I see that everyone can tell what a lovely guy he is. He seems like the type to throw a hissy fit when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
“And he wants the oil underneath it.”
“See, not so hard to figure out.”
“Not a very nice welcome to Conroe.”
She shrugged. “It’s okay. I am used to pissing people off, I guess.”
Kallie had managed to get her card back into her pocket and since he had grabbed some more boards from her stack, she picked up the rest as he followed her out to one of the feed store trucks that she had taken home. Loading them up, she thanked him again and was about to get in when he stopped her. “Why don’t you let me help you?”
“No I couldn’t take up anymore of your time. I am sure you had something to do.”
“I can’t even remember why I am here. Let me help you, I will follow you there.”
It didn’t seem to be a question, so she nodded and started off in the darkness towards her new home. Her heart raced and she sighed at the reflection of herself in the mirror. There was something poetic about seeing him like that. He would never look at her the same again and though she knew it was probably just as well, she wished that he would look at her the same way he had before.
Pulling up behind by the front, his headlights cut off next to her and he got out. Helping her unload, she noticed that his jacket was covered in saw dust. She wiped a few pieces of saw dust off of his jacket and noticed the hard muscles underneath. Pulling back, Kallie looked up into his dark eyes for a minute. “Sorry about that. I keep getting your clothes dirty every time I am around you.”
“That’s perfectly okay. It’s well worth it.”
She giggled a little before she stopped herself. Why was he affecting her in such a way? Just the nearness, the feel of him under her fingertips was enough to make her breathing quicken. Moving away, she walked into the house and started to get the broom and dustpan, grabbing her glass of wine as she went.
“I haven’t been here in years.”
“Oh, you’ve been here before?”
“Yes, I knew your father pretty well and he lived here off and on for over a decade.”
“It seems like everyone knew him except me.”
“I am sorry. I didn’t know that you two weren’t close. I guess I just figured because of the will.”
“Yes, well I don’t know what that was about, but here I am. To be honest I don’t know what I am doing here. That man offered me enough to buy my own island and here I am, picking up broken glass from a hundred year old floor.”
“So why then?”
She shrugged, Kallie really wasn’t sure. “Because my father didn’t want to sell. I guess I am just as stubborn as he is.”
Chapter 6
Caspin was finding Kallie more delightful by the minute. Her soft natural looks made her seem easier to engage and her personality drew him in faster than the curves of her hips did. He tried to focus on fixing the window, but he would catch her bending over out of the corner of his eyes and the shorts would rise dangerously high. Caspin almost wanted to tell her to change, the view so distracting.
“Do you have a saw?”
She looked at him like he was crazy or growing horns. “Why would I have a saw? Can’t we just nail them up there? It’s only temporary.”
“Anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
“If you say so, but I don’t know if there are any tools here.”
“He kept some in the mud room I think.”
Once again a look of not knowing what he was talking about lit her face. Was she supposed to know what that meant? “The mud room is the room right off the front door.”
“Oh, okay. Do you want me to go look or do you know where they are?”
“I’ll go.”
Caspin pulled his jacket off as he walked into the dark room. Kallie tried to ignore the large muscles straining underneath his shirt. He was not made for the offices. “So how did you know my father?”
“He helped me out when I was younger. Pointed me in the right direction.”
“Were you going in the wrong one?”
“Unfortunately I was.”
“Well I am glad he could help you then.”
Caspin came back out with a tool box and she looked away quickly. It wasn’t before he caught her blue gaze falling over him. She was interested and it made his body respond in kind. He rolled up his sleeves as she avoided his gaze. Their bodies moved close together as she held the boards for him to cut. He was covered in saw dust when they were done, but the job was far better than she would have done by herself. Kallie was starting to think that it didn’t need glass, but looked better that way.
“Do you want something to drink?”
He nodded and she gave him the choice between tea and wine. Caspin chose wine and had a glass with her as they sat on the couch. “You might want to think about getting some security out here Kallie. You are too far out if something happens.”
“Do you really think I will have to worry about it?”
“I do. You don’t know the Wheelings. They tried many ways to get your dad to let this property go.”
“Well he will have to do worse than throw a brick through the window to get me to change my mind.”
Caspin could see that and it bothered him in a way because he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Of everything that had been going on, the last thing he wanted was for her to get mixed up with those types of people. The family had money like his, but it was the way they came to have theirs, that made the two of them so different. “Just be careful. You have a bunkhouse in the back if you want to hire a couple of guys to handle some animals and the gardens. This little house was a homestead not too long ago and could be again. Then you would have people around you instead of it being just you out here.”
She looked at him to see if he was being serious. “I am not really into the whole damsel in distress thing and I am not hiring men to feel safe. It will be fine. It’s just a brick Caspin, but thank you for your concern.”
It was a polite way to tell him to piss off and he knew what it was. Caspin had no problem reading between the lines. She was so adamant of her independence. He just wondered how far Craig was willing to go. It was far easier to intimidate a woman than it was a man and though she claimed she wasn’t one, Kallie made a very pretty damsel. She was the type of woman a man would do anything for, but it was because of the delicate nature of her. While she could try to be tough, Kallie had an innocence about her that he was sure Craig had picked up on.
Caspin wanted to stay, to give another excuse or reason to stay. His eyes looked around the old house and he could see many things that needed work.
“So have you talked to someone about fixing this place up or do you do that too?”
She blushed a little and the naïve look made blood flow to his groin. It was moments and looks like that, that drove him to want to stay. He wondered if a suggestion to sleep on
her couch would work. Looking at her and the determined look in her face, he knew it wouldn’t go over well.
“Not yet. I stayed in a hotel for the last few days, so this is the first night in the new house.”
“I can help you fix up a few things if you want. Anything I can’t do, I will know someone that can.”
“Thanks, but I feel like I am imposing. You have already helped me so much.”
“I really don’t mind. I wish you would let someone stay with you or go elsewhere tonight, but I have a feeling you would not like that suggestion.”
“Are you offering?”
He thought he was hearing things. What did she say, offering?
“Yes, if you would like someone to stay on your couch or wherever, I would be more than happy to.”
“One night, huh?”
“What?”
Kallie shook her head. “Never mind. Thanks for the offer, but I think I will be okay. No mosquitoes, so I couldn’t ask for more.”
Grabbing his coat off of the back of a chair where he had tossed it, he looked back once at her before he left. There was a need in her eyes that he was sure mirrored his own, but she had refused him. It didn’t happen to him often and the very fact that she said no, made him think about her more. The feel of a challenge always pushed him. What had she meant by one night?
Chapter 7
It was as painful for Kallie, as it was for Caspin. He had left hard and needy, while she had watched him go with sadness and wetness between her lips. There was so much that she wanted to do to him, say to him, but he was gone because she had sent him away. Still not knowing why she had done it, Kallie knew deep down that a night would not be enough for her and it would only leave her yearning for more.
She went to the feed store in the morning and took care of some deliveries. It was her third day on the job and she was already starting to like the routine of it. Kallie never thought that she would like learning about animals, but she was having a good time while she did it.
