I dropped the mug in the sink and grabbed a handful of towels to dry off my toes and the floor. Feeling like running headfirst into a wall, I stood back up and took stock of the situation.
Dad was shaking his head at my swearing and Bradley was grinning at me like a freaking lunatic. Jagger had leaned into the table, his elbows surrounding a delicate lace place setting. His eyes were focused on me, too intense for my comfort.
I struggled to remember words and sentence structure as I turned my back on him and pretended to sort through a stack of mail. As I reread the same address label four times, I scolded myself to get it together. “Sorry about that. What were you saying?”
“I asked if you were through blowing me off.” Did anyone else notice that his voice was barely above a growl?
I steeled myself and turned back around to face him. “It wasn’t a blow-off, Mr. Crimson. Just a busy afternoon.”
He was the picture of ease as he leaned back and threw one arm over the back of his chair. “You can call me Jagger, Lacey. After all, I remember you running around in your underwear and a Superman cape. If that doesn’t put you on a first name basis with someone, what does?”
More heat infused my cheeks and I looked from Bradley to my dad. They didn’t seem to be especially warm. They also didn’t seem to be reacting to Jagger’s words at all. Maybe they weren’t as seductive as I was hearing them. I was tempted to rattle my head around and see if I could get out whatever was making me stupid.
“Okay. Jagger.” I put my hand on Dad’s shoulder. “I know Dad wanted you to talk to me, but I’m a little lost here. Dad wants the system. I don’t think we really need it.”
Dad sent me a look that said to be a little nicer. “We do need it. And I wanted him to talk to you because you can show him around the property. Point out all the spots you think work best for cameras and stuff.”
“That’s easy. None of them. We don’t need cameras, Dad. Unless you want to watch Bradley scratching his ass constantly.”
Bradley scoffed. “We both know I’m not the one out there scratching stuff.”
I groaned. I adjusted my bra once and the idiot couldn’t let it go. He’d slept with me for God’s sake. “You’re an idiot.”
“You’re the idiot.”
Dad held up his hands and sighed. “It doesn’t matter what you want right now, Lacey. I’m having the system installed. Get over it.”
I crossed my arms under my chest, forgetting the tension I’d felt over Jagger’s eyes and voice. “Should I sit, too?”
He glared at me and I just glared right back. We were almost the same person and I didn’t mind going head to head with him. “If you keep this up, I’m never retiring.”
I threw my hands up and tapped my foot. “What would you like me to do?”
“Go and get the blueprints for the property.”
I turned and swung out of the room. I just needed a second to cool off. That was it. After dealing with Franklin’s hands-on approach, I was feeling a little too edgy.
The office was at the back of the house, piled high with paperwork that Dad was supposed to be getting to. I’d started sneaking in at night to handle it, but I was still a long way from being finished. I reached beside the file cabinet to grab the blueprints and came up empty.
“Dad, did you move them?” I called out to him.
“Why would I have done that?”
I braced my hands on the desk and let my head hang down. He was in a mood and I was tempted to smack him. “Never mind.”
Feeling more and more like maybe I should be the one to take a vacation, I searched the office high and low. After a while, it was evident that the prints were gone. I cocked a hip against the desk and looked around, like something would appear. It didn’t make any sense that they’d been moved. It had to have been Dad.
I came back into the kitchen and shook my head. “They’re not there.”
Dad tossed up his hands and went off in the direction of the office. I let him go.
Bradley stood up and looked out at the storm. “What’d Franklin do?”
I crossed to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, dead set on ignoring Jagger. “Just his normal shit. I can handle him. Don’t stub your toe running in to try to save the day.”
He snorted. “You can handle him, eh?”
I smacked the back of his head, a very normal gesture between the two of us. “You stopped growing in the head at twelve, I swear.”
“This is cute.” Jagger wagged a finger between me and Bradley. “You two should take this show on the road.”
I still didn’t look straight at him, but I was sure he caught the scowl.
Dad came back in, his face grumpier than ever. “You must’ve moved them.”
I calmly sat my drink down and bit my lip. “How about I just draw it out?”
“And stop all of this?” Jagger caught my eye and his mouth lifted, revealing a dimple. Of course. “While I’m having so much fun?”
I clapped my hands together. “Okay! Everyone to the living room. I’ll draw out a map of everything and then we can get this started. The quicker we start, the quicker we finish.”
Famous last words.
*
It wasn’t until Mom poked her head in and quietly told us all that dinner was ready that I realized we’d been arguing for a couple of hours. Dad and I, mostly; sometimes me and Bradley.
First, I hadn’t drawn the map perfectly. Dad needed to take the pencil from my hand, erase everything, and then redraw it exactly the same. Then he wanted to draw a detailed map of the house, because he was thinking that maybe a few cameras inside would be nice.
Then, we’d argued over where he wanted the system set up outside. He wanted cameras all over the damn place. Four in the barn alone. Just inside. He’d wanted another four outside. He wanted motion detector lights, bigger fences, a gate with a security code, even a panic room.
I’d wanted none of it. I was calculating prices in my head to the best of my ability and the image in my head that’d previously been scandalous suddenly turned into a pretty piggy bank being smashed into a million pieces. My purse strings were a little tighter than Dad’s.
Bradley had argued against having a camera put anywhere near the small house he lived in at the back of the property. He wouldn’t say why but I knew it was because he’d been sneaking Anna Fulton over. When I’d called him out on it, he lit up red like Rudolph’s nose and glared at me. Apparently it was a secret.
Then my Dad and Bradley had argued about that, because Dad didn’t think Anna was a nice girl and, apparently, who his daughter’s ex-husband screwed mattered to him. Bradley had gone into a lecture about not judging a book by its cover and Dad had lectured him right back about trusting that a snake in the grass is a snake in the grass.
I’d sat that one out because there was no way I was weighing in on the moral goodness of Anna’s heart. The older woman scared the hell out of me. There were rumors that she practiced black magic and I wasn’t about to get hexed because I’d chosen to comment on Bradley’s sex life.
Jagger had sat there the whole time, grinning. It was obvious the man was enjoying himself.
I just worked to keep my eyes to myself. I hadn’t allowed myself to really check Jagger out and I promised myself that I wouldn’t until he was on his way out of the door. For good.
When we joined Mom in the kitchen, Dad was still talking about snakes and sorcery. Jagger stood in the doorway and leaned against the frame.
“I’ll head out. I’ve got to check into my hotel room for the night.”
Mom turned huge blue eyes on him and I swear her bottom lip wobbled. “You won’t stay for dinner? I set an extra place for you. By Lacey.”
No one could ignore my mother’s sincere pouty face, so Jagger took his place at the table. It was obvious, at once, that she’d put our chairs ridiculously close together.
When I sat fully on my seat, Jagger’s warmth was too close. I could feel heat radiating off him like a furnace and it was distracting. I ended up half on my chair, a frown on my face, and a constant mouthful of food so I didn’t have to talk anymore.
“Jagger, there’s no sense in you renting a hotel room. We have plenty of rooms here. How about you stay in one of them? That way you can have breakfast and lunch here, for free.”
I choked on a bite of steak and kicked Bradley under the table so he’d hopefully do something. He was supposed to be my best friend. He should’ve been able to read my mind and tell that I didn’t want Jagger staying with us.
Dad jumped and growled across the table at me. “Is there a reason you just kicked the hell out of me?!”
“Language, Dan.”
“Well, Helen, I wouldn’t curse if she didn’t abuse me.”
I just casually shook my head. “I didn’t kick you.” Life was not going well for me.
Jagger’s very large hand suddenly palmed the top of my thigh and dragged me onto my chair. “You must’ve slipped.”
I made the mistake of looking at him, really looking. A pulse of energy shot to my core and I squirmed in my seat.
He was too big, too tall, too physically all-consuming. His wide shoulders and thick chest didn’t belong to the boy I remembered vaguely. Nor did the too long hair and beard. Everything about him screamed man and my body responded to it in ways that shocked me. I suddenly wanted to study pheromones and try to understand biology.
Stormy blue eyes focused on me through dark eyelashes. A dare presented itself there and I chickened out. I jerked my eyes back to my plate and shoved another piece of steak into my mouth.
For no reason, my heart was racing and I’d grown damp at my core. It was humiliating to be sitting across from my parents and experiencing those things. The weight of his palm was still on my thigh and it slightly moved up my leg before he pulled it back to rest on his own. That little movement threatened to ruin me.
“Shit.”
Mom’s eyes widened and she raised her eyebrows at me. “Language.”
I scooted my chair back from the table and shoved a few more bites into my mouth. “I just realized I forgot to do something. I’ll be back.”
“This is too much for you, isn’t it, Lacey?” Dad sighed and folded his napkin. “We’ll just have to stay.”
“It was a personal matter, Dad. Not ranch related.”
“What personal matters? The last time you said that to me, you married this idiot.”
I scraped my leftovers into Potato’s bowl and then quickly rinsed my plate in the sink. “I can promise you, Dad, that I’m not getting married.”
Jagger chuckled in a low way. “I think I will stay here. Seems interesting.”
I hurried from the room, taking the stairs up to my bedroom two at a time. As I passed by a family portrait, the glass reflected my current appearance and I grunted. My hair was still wrapped up in a towel.
Great.