Chapter Five

The sight of Angel in Caleb’s arms hadn’t left Laura, even after eight hours of good sleep. The night before, after relaxing on the screened-in porch with a cup of chamomile tea, Laura had passed the kitchen on her way to bed. The house had been silent when she’d gone out needing a few quiet minutes in the fresh air before hitting the hay. The last thing she’d expected to witness was a nighttime rendezvous between her boss and one of her competitors.

What bothered Laura most was that seeing them together bothered her at all. Yes, she was competitive, and the thought of someone using her body to get ahead was troubling; however, why she felt jealous over the situation she couldn’t say. She had no right to feel anything at all about Caleb and his personal business. As long as he was a fair judge in the end, that was all that mattered to Laura.

She climbed from underneath the thick, down blanket and sat at the edge of the bed. Ridiculous. He was just another guy. The man who would sign her checks. With her past, that was all he could be.

Why did he have to have an adorable son, a friendly mother, and a sexy cleft in his chin? She suddenly wished he was ugly and then changed her mind. If they had met under different circumstances, had met months ago…. If he had come to eat at Bella Vita or was one of her brother Vinny’s stockbroker pals, everything would be different.

He was weak, she told herself. A typical male, succumbing to Angel’s charms, her tight little butt and her big boobs. None of which Laura possessed. Well, maybe charm, but no one would call her boobs large or her ass tight. She didn’t like weak men.

She stood from the bed and dressed in her running gear. These running tights were her favorite, flattered her curvy figure with their dark-purple spandex and black trim. She slipped into her running shoes and headed downstairs.

She breezed through the front door, not even bothering to check if food was cooking in the kitchen or if the sexy boss was drinking his heavy black coffee. Screw ’em. She wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward Angel or Caleb.

She stretched and darted off. About halfway down the driveway, she passed Josh going to the house. She waved but kept jogging. A parade of pickups soon followed him up the drive. Five, by Laura’s count. She waved to each one as she passed, thinking that like boots and a hat, a pickup was part of the cowboy uniform. Didn’t they use horses anymore?

She hit her halfway point and turned back, wondering what the day would bring. Today was a free day. She and Angel had swapped meals. Laura decided it was time to email her family via their secret accounts to let them know she was safe and make sure they were safe and settled with their fake identities and created pasts firmly set in place.

She ran the whole way back, stopping only when she tagged the porch. Male laughter drew her attention to the side of the house, where Josh and Caleb were talking. She bent over at the waist to stretch out her back and then did her cool down, walking slowly a short way up the driveway. Her lungs were burning today, and she knew she’d pushed it harder than usual. But it felt good, and through the exertion, she’d eliminated the anger, resentment, and jealousy. Or whatever she wanted to call it.

She needed this job and knew if Angel had an advantage—sexual in nature, especially—there was no way Laura could win. She might have passable looks but wasn’t about to be anyone’s bed buddy, not in exchange for a job. Once things cooled down with Ernesto and the gang out to get her, she could maybe settle somewhere else and open another restaurant. Or, hell, maybe she’d write that cookbook she’d been planning. But for now, she had to cool her heels and make this job work.

“Hey, Laura!” Caleb called out.

She turned, retracing her steps to the house. She forced herself to picture anything but what she had seen in the kitchen the night before.

“Morning.” She smiled half-heartedly and waved. Put up a good front. “Hi, Josh!”

“Hi, yourself.” Josh smiled and winked and then climbed into the driver’s seat of the pickup, shutting the door.

“You seen Angel yet today?” Caleb was short, abrupt.

“No.” She shook her head.

“Didn’t she agree to do breakfast?” Caleb crossed his arms and leaned against the truck.

“Yeah. She said she’d cover it since I did hers yesterday.”

“That’s what I thought.” He sighed. “Well, she didn’t. No one did.” He handed her a sheet of paper. “When she gets up or when you see her, give her this number and tell her to call me.”

He opened the passenger side of the pickup and crawled inside. It struck her as odd that she was constantly being asked to cover for Angel—and to act as a secretary to her potential boss.

“Why not stick around and talk to her yourself?” Laura suddenly felt brave.

He stared down at her from the cab. Then he glanced at Josh.

“She’s right.” Josh agreed with a wide grin. “You’re the boss.”

Laura knew she’d like Josh.

“Feel like helping with cattle today?” Caleb slid from the cab, landing in front of her.

“Like how?” What in the hell did he have in mind?

“Just paperwork,” Josh said, still grinning.

Dare she trust that smile?

“I guess. Sure.”

She nodded and moved aside so Caleb could walk around her.

“Can I take a quick shower?” she asked.

Caleb laughed. “You’ll be in cattle barns, Laura. They smell a hell of a lot worse than you do.”

Gee, how great!

“Hop up,” Josh suggested.

She walked around Caleb and hid her surprise as he helped her into the cab of the elevated pickup.

“You’ll get to meet my wife, Holly,” Josh told her.

“See ya.” She waved to Caleb through the window.

Josh pulled out onto the driveway and headed south, back the way she’d run.

“My brother’s in a state of confusion, Laura.”

“How’s that?”

“You women seem to be rattling his nerves.”

 

* * *

 

Connor chirped away, happy to be spending the day with Caleb on the ranch. Caleb wondered how Laura was holding up with the animals. She’d had no idea what she was getting herself into. Inventory had more to it than just writing down numbers. Holly had gone down to help too, no doubt. At least she’d be comfortable chasing cows into pens. He wasn’t so sure about Laura.

“I like Laura, Dad. Can we keep her?”

Caleb chuckled at the way Connor phrased his question. Caleb looked in the rearview mirror and caught his son’s serious face. “I like her too, and yes, I think we’ll keep her here. Maybe Phyllis too. How does that sound?”

“Real fine.” The little boy nodded and looked out the window. “We’re here! I see Uncle Josh’s pickup too.”

Caleb pulled up to the red metal Quonset hut. Inside were corrals, as well as the operation’s main office. This was where he hung out most of the time. He helped Caleb out, and together they walked into the dimly lit building. Caleb paused just inside the door, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the change in light.

Laura sat on the ground, covered in dust, laughing with Holly, who was equally filthy. The cows were where they belonged in the gated area, and Caleb couldn’t understand why the girls were on the ground rolling in the dirt.

“What’s going on?” he demanded.

They both looked at him, stunned into silence but then burst out into greater peals of laughter. He shook his head and took Connor by the shoulder, leading him to join Josh in the office.

“What’s with them, Dad?”

Caleb just shook his head. Women….

“Caleb thinks we’ve lost it,” Holly said.

Laura had fallen on the ground after getting bowled over by a huge cow she’d tried to push through the gates. Holly had come to her rescue, managed to shove the cow away into its pen. Laura hadn’t even been scared, just caught off-guard. These cows were mellow, despite being herded around by a novice cowgirl.

Laura wiped the mud from her pants as best she could and stomped her borrowed, way-too-large boots to clear off the muck.

“Let’s go see what the guys need us to do next.”

Still giggling like teenagers, Holly and Laura made it into the office. Laura looked around the cramped room, amazed by all that was inside. Three computers, a huge copy machine, two telephone units, and a bank of small televisions monitoring various spots on the ranch squeezed into a space the size of her old walk-in closet. Did they have cameras everywhere?

“So, how did you two end up on the ground?” Caleb asked quietly, looking down at her from his perch on a countertop.

“Yeah, Laura.” Connor stood with his hands on his hips. “What were ya doing? Don’t you know you’re all dirty?”

Laura chuckled and bent down to look at Connor. “A cow bumped into me.”

“Really?” Connor’s eyes were big like saucers.

“Yep. But I’m not hurt at all, just dirty.” She patted his slight shoulder and straightened again. Caleb’s eyes were on her, but she looked away.

“Well.” Josh hung up the phone. “Boss man says we need to get the bottom done today. He’s got a truck coming tomorrow morning to pick it up.”

“I thought you were the boss, Caleb?” Laura looked for a safe place to sit with the dry, dusty dirt clinging to her clothes. She leaned against the doorjamb instead, crossing her arms against her chest.

“I am. But I’ve got some investors. To run an operation this large, we’ve had to rely upon outside capital.”

“Oh.” She nodded. Of course, she had no idea what a ranch operation this size would cost to own and operate. “And the bottom? Where is that?”

“It’s the southern border of the property. We’ve got it in corn, and we’ve been waiting ’til it was dry enough to combine it. I was planning on starting tomorrow, but like Josh said, Don, my main investor, is sending a truck to pick up the grain, so we got to get it ready or at least started today.”

“Where does the truck come from?”

“You’re full of questions.” Caleb chuckled.

“Just curious.” She shrugged and teased the hem of her jacket. Why the heck did she feel so nervous?

“Holly, let’s go check how many cows we’ve got to load yet. Connor, you want to come?”

Josh herded them out, sidestepping Laura.

“There are a couple messages I saved for you on the machine,” Josh told Caleb, hooking a thumb over his shoulder toward the phone.

Laura moved a bit further into the room. Caleb stayed on the counter, his hands resting next to his thighs.

“Did you get things straightened out with Angel?” she asked.

“Yes.” He nodded. “I think so, anyway.” He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms. “She’s doing dinner today.”

“Thanks for letting me come out here.” She laughed. “It was…different. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be chasing cows around an arena.”

“I wish I could have seen you do it.” He chuckled.

“I’m sure Josh can tell you what a sight it was.” She laughed and pulled her hair free of the ponytail holding it back. She ran her fingers through the knotted strands, removing most of the tangles.

Blood pounded in her ears. Being this close to Caleb did crazy things to her senses. His rugged sexiness and the way he stared at her made her want to squirm. She’d never been around a man like him. Stuffy, cigar-smoking stockbrokers, yes. Shady, corrupt men, yes. Cowboys, no.

“I guess I’ll go back out, up to the house.”

“You don’t have to.” He hopped off the counter. “There’s some more stuff to do out here…if you’re interested?”

He walked to the opposite wall and punched a button on what looked like an intercom system.

“Hey, Caleb, it’s Jenny.” A woman’s recorded voice sounded from the speaker. “I’ll be looking for you tonight. I should be there about eight. Bye, hon.”

Caleb glanced at Laura and turned back to the machine. He seemed guilty, embarrassed almost.

“This message is for Caleb. It’s Amanda. Mom said you called about sitting for Connor. I’ll be there about seven. Bye.”

The machine beeped twice, and then the room fell silent. Apparently, there were no more messages. So…Caleb was going on a date with Jenny and a girl named Amanda would be babysitting Connor tonight. So what? She couldn’t let herself care.

“We are going to town tonight,” Caleb said, explaining the obvious. “The boys usually go on Friday and Saturday. One of the bars in town tries to get a band on Fridays.”

“Sounds like fun.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“You’re welcome to come too.”

“Sounds more like Angel’s speed than mine,” she said. “I’ll tell them, though.”

She walked to the door and opened it. He grabbed her arm and turned her toward him. Sparks of heat shot through the fabric of her running suit, and she looked into his eyes. Did he feel the same—that instant physical attraction? She lifted a questioning brow.

“What will you do instead?” He whispered the question.

Could he sense her attraction? Were her cheeks as red as she thought they were? She felt warm all over.

“Read a book, probably. Maybe watch a movie. I like your satellite system.” She smiled at him, wishing her heart would quit pounding so hard. Could he hear it? “It’s been a long time since I had a Friday night to myself.”

“Big social life in Chicago?”

She could hear the sneer in his voice, even if his face remained expressionless.

“Hardly,” she scoffed. “I cooked on Friday nights. And Saturdays. I haven’t had a true social life since college.”

He let go of her arm. “If you change your mind, you’re welcome to come along.”

“Thanks.” She turned back after walking partway through the door. She didn’t want to leave him, but she also remembered the vision of him with Angel the night before. Angel had staked her claim. “When will you have the next schedule posted?”

“The guys will vote after dinner tonight.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his tight, hip-hugging jeans. “Top vote gets the weekend off.”

“I’ll be more patient,” she said. “See ya.”

She waggled her fingers at him and walked out the door, fighting the urge to look back, to stay for just a few more minutes.

On the short trek back to the main house, she decided two things. One, she would not let him get to her, and two, he was just another sexy cowboy.

If she truly believed either, pigs would be flying in the eastern sky by morning.